SACRAMENTO, Calif. (AP) -- A private investigator who worked to get condemned inmates off death row pleaded guilty Monday to forging documents to support their appeals, later declaring she did so because the death penalty is ''barbaric.''
Kathleen Culhane, 40, admitted that she forged documents to try to stop the executions of four condemned inmates since 2002.
In her plea agreement, she admitted to two counts of forgery and single counts of perjury and filing false documents. State prosecutors had charged Culhane in February with 45 felony counts of forgery, filing false documents and perjury.
The plea agreement asks Sacramento County Superior Court Judge Gary Ransom to sentence her to a five-year prison term. She could have faced nearly 19 years if convicted of all 45 counts.
Details here from the AP via the New York Times.