Galvan

Facts

We take the facts from the Alaska Court of Appeals memo- randum opinion and judgment affirming on direct appeal.

In 1989, Galvan and her boyfriend, Anthony Garcia, killed a man in Colorado and fled to Alaska. A week after arriving in Juneau, they robbed and murdered another man. This case arises out of that Juneau murder.

Galvan’s sentence was harsher than the Alaska “bench- mark” for second degree murder because the judge considered her unusually dangerous and because her crime “approached the blameworthiness” of first degree murder. The dangerous- ness had to do with Galvan’s history as well as the crime for which she was being sentenced. According to charges pend- ing in Colorado, Galvan had brought another woman, helpless from intoxication, home from a bar, where she beat her with brass knuckles, pounded her head on the floor, and stole her money. Then, with the aid of a juvenile, Galvan took off the victim’s clothes, cut off her hair, poured salt into her wounds, and threw her naked into the February night.

A few months later, still in Colorado, Galvan and her boy- friend reacted to what they felt to be disrespect by murdering a man. Galvan lured the man into a…