SD Mom Stays on Death Row for Killing Sons

Susan Eubanks' appeal was denied Monday

A San Diego County woman who fatally shot her four sons in 1997 will remain on death row after the California Supreme Court upheld her sentence.

Susan Eubanks is one of only 19 women on the state's death row.

She was sent there after a jury convicted her of murdering her sons because of depression made worse by alcohol and drugs.

She unsuccessfully tried to commit suicide after the killings but survived a gunshot wound to the stomach.

The court unanimously denied Eubanks' automatic appeal on Monday.

In the appeal, Eubanks' lawyers cited a number of problems in her 1999 trial. They claimed that the jurors were improperly required to be English-proficient, that police illegally searched her San Marcos home and that the prosecution's expert witness conclusions were wrongly presented as scientific facts.

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