Robert Noel, the husband of Marjorie Knoller, the woman convicted of murder after the couple's dogs killed their lesbian neighbor in 2001, told the Bay Area Reporter this week that he stands by his wife, is "cautiously optimistic" of her chances of her appeal, and that Knoller continues to suffer symptoms of post-traumatic stress disorder as a result of the deadly mauling.
"I fully support her and am waiting outside the gate for her release, hopefully free of the conviction," Noel wrote in response to an email request for comment. Knoller was convicted of second-degree murder after a jury sided with prosecutors who argued that the couple was culpable because they knew their two Presa Canario dogs were dangerous but did little to mitigate the threat the dogs posed to the public.
On Monday, November 16 the 9th U.S. District Court of Appeals heard arguments from Knoller's attorney, Dennis Riordan, who argued that Knoller's conviction should be overturned because the couple's defense attorney, Nedra Ruiz, was effectively muzzled by the trial judge, now-retired San Francisco Superior Court Judge James Warren. During closing arguments, Warren exasperatedly threatened Ruiz with jail if she made another objection. Warren had grown weary of Ruiz's courtroom theatrics that included the colorful defense attorney getting down on her hands and knees to stage how she said that Knoller heroically tried to stop the mauling.
Arguing for the state, Deputy Attorney General Peggy Ruffra conceded that Warren was wrong but that the "error was harmless" and that it wouldn't have affected the jury's decision because the evidence against Knoller was "very strong." Ruffra noted that more than 30 witnesses testified that they had felt threatened or had been attacked by the dogs in the span of just a few months.
Knoller was convicted of second-degree murder and sentenced to 15-years-to-life. She was with the dogs during the attack on Diane Whipple in the hallway of her Pacific Heights apartment building. Noel was convicted of involuntary manslaughter and was released on parole in 2003. The case made LGBT rights history when Whipple's partner, Sharon Smith, was allowed standing in a civil wrongful death lawsuit against Noel, Knoller, and the owner of the building where the attack occurred.
In his rebuttal to the state's attorney Monday, Riordan said Noel and Knoller deserved to be convicted of involuntary manslaughter but that Knoller's murder conviction was not supported by the evidence or the law. Riordan said that she did not show the "implied malice" required for the conviction because when she took her dogs for a walk prior to the mauling she would have had to have thought, "I could kill somebody on this walk and I don't care."
Noel told the B.A.R. that he expected the appeals court would rule on the case by mid-January but that Knoller thought the ruling would come by the end of the year. Both Noel and Knoller were practicing attorneys before their convictions.
Noel said that Knoller still suffers from post-traumatic stress disorder and that a PTSD stress reaction kicked in recently rendering her unconscious and unresponsive when prison authorities tried to transfer her from a prison in Chowchilla, in the Central Valley, to a prison in Corona, about 80 minutes southeast of Los Angeles. Noel said she was told they were taking her to the infirmary but instead drove her six hours to the prison in Corona where she was hospitalized and had to undergo surgery to have her gallbladder removed.