Jury grants death wish

Press, 15 December 1983, Page 6

Jury grants death wish

NZPA-AP Los Angeles A man, aged 19, who challenged a jury to sentence him to death for killing his parents and stepsister, aged eight, was granted his wish yesterday by a jury that recommended he be sent to the gas chamber. The man grinned while he showed the jury photos of his victims. The jury deliberated for more than three hours before recommending that Robert Bloom, Jun., be put to death. “I don’t want to live in your society,” Bloom had told the stunned Van Nuys Superior Court jury during closing arguments in his trial. “It ain’t nothing but a free ride and paper moon. Kill me, if you got the heart. Don’t slap my hand. I deserve to die; I want to die. “This is a case where justice cries out for the death penalty,” Bloom said, acting as his own counsel. Bloom was convicted by the same jury last week of the murders in April, 1982, of his father, Robert Bloom Sen., aged 51, and stepmother, Lucille, aged 27, who were shot point-blank. Mrs Bloom’s daughter, Sandra, was stabbed 23 times and shot. She survived for four days. “These murders occur because of people like you,” Bloom told the jury. “A life sentence is no deterrent. Give me life without parole and that’s a joke. You people have no recourse but to give the death penalty. If you give life, I’ll laugh all day long.”