Judd launched petition for execution

October 8, 2009 on 3:53 pm | In State legal news | No Comments |

Crist Signs Death Warrant for Murderer

Paul Beasley Johnson was convicted of killing a sheriff’s deputy, 2 others in 1981. Appeal pending before Fla. Supreme Court.

By Suzie Schottelkotte & Jason Geary
THE LEDGER

Published: Wednesday, October 7, 2009 at 10:02 p.m.
Last Modified: Wednesday, October 7, 2009 at 10:56 p.m.

LAKELAND | A week after Polk Sheriff Grady Judd initiated an online petition seeking condemned cop killer Paul Beasley Johnson’s execution, Gov. Charlie Crist signed a death warrant Wednesday for Johnson, who murdered a sheriff’s deputy and two others in January 1981.

Paul Beasley Johnson was brought this morning from death row to be in court for a case management hearing in Bartow, Fla. on Friday March 21, 2003.

SCOTT WHEELER | THE LEDGER

 

To find out more about Paul Beasley Johnson and others from Polk on Florida’s Death Row, visit The Ledger’s interactive database, which includes photographs, court records and archive stories.

www.theledger.com/deathrow

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• POLK DEATH ROW INMATES: An Interactive Database

But Johnson’s lawyers said Wednesday it’s unlikely the Nov. 4 execution will take place.

Johnson has an appeal pending before the Florida Supreme Court now, said his lawyer, Terri L. Backhus, and other appeals remain available to him. Backhus said Wednesday she intends to seek a stay of the execution, which, if granted, would halt the process.

She expressed surprise about the death warrant.

“Usually, the governor won’t sign a warrant until they are completely through the federal process,” she said. “(Johnson) has never been to federal court yet. I know people get tired of waiting, but the process is supposed to be slow and deliberate for a reason.”

Sterling Ivey, spokesman for Crist, said the governor considers an inmate’s appeals when deciding whether to sign a death warrant.

“This is one case we’ve been watching for some time,” he said. “We’re aware of the appeals and the sheriff’s desire to see justice served in this case.”

Judd said he went to Lakeland High School with Theron A. Burnham, the deputy who was killed, and they sat next to each other at the police academy.

“We vowed to each other then that if one of us was killed, the other wouldn’t rest until justice was served,” Judd said. “I’m going to keep that vow.”

He said he discussed Johnson’s case with Crist recently, and the governor agreed to look into it.

“He did that, and I’m pleased that he signed the death warrant,” Judd said.

Johnson, now 60, was first convicted in September 1981 on three counts of first-degree murder.

Authorities said he robbed and killed Winter Haven taxi driver William D. Evans on the night of Jan. 8, 1981, and burned his cab. He drove to Lakeland in the early hours of Jan. 9 and feigned car trouble in a restaurant parking lot. He asked a couple, Amy Reid and Darrell Ray Beasley, for a ride. They drove to Drane Field Road, where Johnson said he had to relieve himself. While they were stopped, he shot Beasley behind the car.

Seeing the gun, Reid sped away to a convenience store and summoned deputies. Burnham responded and was shot just above his bulletproof vest.

Johnson was arrested a day later. He was convicted and sentenced to death nine months later, but that conviction and sentence was overturned because Circuit Judge Randall McDonald failed to sequester the jury. Another jury convicted him in April 1988 and Circuit Judge Wayne Carlisle sentenced him to death for the three murders.

Johnson came within 24 hours of his execution in February 1986 when the Florida Supreme Court granted a stay.

Since his second conviction in 1988, Johnson hasn’t prevailed in any of his appeals.

Jessica Beasley said Wednesday she never expected to see Johnson executed for killing her father.

“It’s been so long already,” she said upon learning of the death warrant. “This has affected my whole life, and maybe his execution will bring some closure.”

Beasley, who lives in Lakeland, said she wrote Johnson a letter about five years ago saying she’d forgiven him for what he did.

“I did it for me, really,” she said. “I had to let go, and it helped a little. He wrote me back, and he seemed remorseful. He told me how he’d found God, and he was married, and he thanked me for contacting him.”

Beasley said Wednesday she’s planning to attend the execution, if it gets that far.

“My only disappointment now is that I won’t be able to look him in the eye,” she said. “I want to look at him and have him look at me. And I’d like an apology.”

Reid, who escaped that harrowing January night, expressed frustration at the appeal process.

“How many appeals is he going to get,” she asked. “How much time is he going to buy. I really feel victimized all over again.”

Johnson’s pending appeal hinges on an informant’s testimony in the 1988 trial, when he testified that Johnson told him “he (Johnson) could play like he was crazy and they would send him to the crazy house for a few years, and that would be it.”

The informant, James Smith, who befriended Johnson in jail, has recanted that testimony. At the same time, Johnson’s defense lawyers have produced handwritten notes by Hardy Pickard, the assistant state attorney who prosecuted Johnson’s first trial, confirming that Smith was working with authorities to elicit information from Johnson.

Previously, prosecutors and investigators had denied Smith was acting at their direction.

In 1981 and 1988, defense lawyers sought to suppress Smith’s statements on grounds that he was working with the state, and that motion was rejected after prosecutors denied their involvement.

In both trials, Johnson’s lawyers argued an insanity defense based on his longtime use of crystal methamphetamine, according to court records.

During Johnson’s evidentiary hearing in 1997, Smith testified that he’d lied in both trials, hoping for a lighter sentence in his own criminal case. He said he was coming forward at that time because he didn’t want any part of someone’s execution and he wanted to clear his conscience.

Pickard retired from the State Attorney’s Office in January after 36 years.

Circuit Judge Neil Roddenbery rejected Johnson’s most recent appeal in April 2008, saying defense lawyers had Pickard’s notes in 1997 and should have raised those issues then. Backhus has appealed that ruling to the Florida Supreme Court.

“All along, we didn’t have that information,” she said. “When we finally got it, we had to raise it. A lot of people want to blame Mr. Johnson for it taking so long, but it’s really actually been more of a delay with the prosecution in not turning things over and committing errors.”

[ Suzie Schottelkotte can be reached at suzie.schottelkotte@theledger.com or 863-533-9070. ]