Nissensohn sentenced to death

Joseph Nissensohn was sentenced to death June 5 for the murder of a South Lake Tahoe teenager and two others.

El Dorado County Superior Court Judge Suzanne Kingsbury upheld the December recommendation of the jury.

Nissensohn, 62, was convicted in October in the first-degree murders of Kathy Graves, 15, of South Lake Tahoe in 1989, and Seaside residents Tammy Jarschke, 13, and Tanya Jones, 14. Graves was killed in 1989 and the others in 1981.

It is more likely Nissensohn will spend the rest of his life in San Quentin. California has more than 700 inmates on Death Row. Clarence Ray Allen on Jan. 17, 2007, was the last person executed. The controversy of using lethal injection is creating the logjam.

— Lake Tahoe News staff report