The V.I. Justice Department has asked for a stay in Richardson Dangleben Jr.’s murder case, citing a Feb. 5 memorandum from U.S. Attorney General Pam Bondi reviving the death penalty and lifting the moratorium on federal executions.
Dangleben faces first-degree murder, assault and gun charges in the July 4, 2023 shooting death of V.I. Police Detective Delberth Phipps Jr. in Hospital Ground on St. Thomas. He has pleaded not guilty, and federal prosecutors signaled last February that they would not seek the death penalty.
However, following a Jan. 20 executive order by President Donald Trump entitled “Restoring the Death Penalty and Protecting Public Safety,” Bondi notified all Justice Department employees that a “Capital Review Committee” would be evaluating all decisions to not seek such punishment in eligible cases charged between Jan. 20, 2021 and Jan. 19, 2025, that have not yet resulted in a conviction.
Bondi’s memorandum states that “absent significant mitigating circumstances, federal prosecutors are expected to seek the death penalty in cases involving the murder of a law-enforcement officer and capital crimes committed by aliens who are illegally present in the United States,” according to a motion to stay proceedings that Delia Smith, U.S. Attorney for the Virgin Islands, filed in V.I. District Court on Wednesday.
Bondi’s review committee will pay particular attention “to cases involving defendants associated with cartels or transnational criminal organizations, capital crimes committed by defendants present in the United States illegally, and capital crimes committed in Indian Country or within the federal special maritime and territorial jurisdictions,” according to the memorandum. Reviews will be completed within 120 days, it says.
The executive order and memorandum appear to be in direct response to 37 death penalty commutations by former President Joe Biden before he left office, with Bondi writing that “these actions severely undermined the rule of law and grievously damaged the public’s trust in the justice system. … This shameful era ends today.”
The memo also references former U.S. Attorney General Merrick Garland’s moratorium on federal executions, pending a review of policies and procedures, that went into effect on July 1, 2021, which Trump’s executive order lifted, effective immediately.
An omnibus hearing on several pending motions in the Dangleben case was scheduled to take place on March 11 and 12, but the stay will require that it be rescheduled, Smith noted in her motion.
Public Defender Matthew Campbell, who is representing Dangleben and recently succeeded in having the trial moved to the St. Croix district due to intense publicity surrounding the case, “concurs that the omnibus hearing … should be stricken” from the court calendar, Smith wrote in her motion.
Both sides will meet and confer regarding the appropriate length of a stay of proceedings necessitated by Trump’s executive order and Bondi’s memorandum, said Smith, who asked for a pause of at least 120 days.
“After meeting and conferring, the parties shall file a notice with the court outlining the parties’ positions regarding the stay and further proceedings,” the motion states.
