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El Cerrito victims' son:

 November 5, 2009

Don't execute killer

Editor: the following story appeared on SF Gate November 3.

Eric Rogers was 17 when he saw his parents stabbed and bludgeoned to death by his uncle at their El Cerrito home just before dawn in January 2006.

The convicted murderer, a trucker named Edward Wycoff from the Sacramento suburb of Citrus Heights, is as unsympathetic as they come. He insists he deserves to be rewarded for ridding the world of two evil people, that he knew how to raise his sister's three children better than she and her husband did, and that, besides, they had the gall not to invite him over for Christmas.

Arguing to a jury that he should not be sentenced to die, he makes bad jokes that no one laughs at.

So it was an unlikely witness who argued for Wycoff's life Monday in the penalty phase of his murder trial in Martinez - Rogers.

Rogers, now 21, who along with his sister cradled their mortally wounded father in their home on Rifle Range Road on Jan. 31, 2006, said his uncle should be sentenced to life in prison without the possibility of parole.

Later, he told reporters what a judge ruled he could not tell the jury - that his parents, Paul Rogers and Julie Wycoff Rogers, would have wanted Wycoff to be spared lethal injection.
'It would be wrong'

"I think it would be wrong for you to get the death penalty," Rogers told Wycoff, who has been acting as his own attorney in Contra Costa County Superior Court. "You, specifically, because you are mentally childish and immature for your age."

Rogers told Wycoff, 40, that he had the makeup of a 9-year-old boy.

Outside court, Rogers said his parents were opposed to capital punishment, and so is he.

"Killing and hatred is something I associate with my uncle, not my parents," he said.

To read entire story, click here.

Copyright California Catholic Daily 2009. All Rights Reserved.

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