Orlando sentinel reports stay of execution

The Florida Supreme Court issued a stay of execution for David Johnston, a convicted killer who was scheduled to die by lethal injection on Tuesday.

The delay announced Thursday will allow a circuit judge in Orlando to hold a hearing on whether “newly discovered evidence” shows Johnston is mentally retarded.

Florida prohibits the execution of mentally retarded people.

To be considered legally retarded, a defendant must have an IQ of 70 or below and can’t perform “adaptive functions,” such as holding a job, cooking a meal and balancing a check book. Both conditions must have existed before the person was 18.

Johnston’s attorney, Todd Doss, told the high court Thursday in Tallahassee that a more recent, “more accurate” IQ test scored Johnston at 61 — lower than a previous test — and qualifies him to be spared the state’s death penalty.

Johnston, 49, was convicted in the 1983 murder of Mary Hammond. The 84-year-old woman was found stabbed to death in her Orlando home.

Johnston had been working at a demolition site near Hammond’s home and had spoken to Hammond before her death.

Read more online ….

http://www.orlandosentinel.com/news/local/breakingnews/os-death-penalty-florida-supreme-court-20100304,0,5367932.story

Important update!

The situation regarding the death penalty’s imposition in Florida is
even more dire than my message yesterday indicated. David Lee Johnston
is scheduled to be executed at 6 p.m. Tuesday, March 9, not in May as I
had written yesterday. He originally had been scheduled to be executed
last May, but the Florida Supreme Court had stayed that execution.

Johnston’s execution will be the second Florida execution within just a
few weeks as Feb. 16, Martin Grossman was executed. Read More

Dear TCADP Members:

Gov. Crist has signed a death warrant for David Eugene Johnston, whose execution has been scheduled for May 27th. This makes it even more imperative that we who oppose the death penalty become active in raising the visibility of our cause, including by letting public officials know that we want Florida to join the 15 states that have abolished the death penalty. During the legislative session, TCADP will schedule a morning to meet with legislators to discuss our concerns about the death penalty.

Consequently, please make it a priority to attend our workshop,  “Don’t Kill in My Name,” that will be  this Sat. from 12:45-4:30 p.m.  in Program Room B of the Leroy Collins Public Library. Please also invite others whom you know who oppose the death penalty.

The free workshop is designed to educate death penalty opponents about advocating to end the death penalty.

It will include expert presentations on legal, ethical, religious, racial and financial problems with the death penalty, presentations by a homicide survivor who opposes the death penalty and by a former journalist who witnessed an execution, instruction from an experienced legislative lobbyist, and it will conclude with a documentary about an innocent man who spent almost 18 years on Florida’s death row.

The first 15 attendees will be given TCADP T-shirts.

Attached is a flyer.

Thank you for reading this. I hope to see you Saturday.

Louise Ritchie, Chair
Tallahassee Citizens Against the Death Penalty

Subject: Important message about pending execution of Martin Grossman

Dear TCADP Members,

This updates the message that I sent last week about how Florida Alternatives to the Death Penalty is requesting our help in attempting to prevent the execution of Martin Grossman, which is scheduled for Feb. 16. The letter that is being organized by Rabbi Zvi Boyarski at the Aleph Institute. Individuals and organizations who can sign on should do so by e-mailing their

Name

Title

Organization

City

State

To   zvi@aleph-http://www.facebook.com/l/7bff7;institute.org as soon as possible. Read More

Fla. High Court Vacates Paul Johnson’s Death Sentences

New penalty phases to be held for murderer Paul Beasley Johnson.

The original report by Suzie Schottelkotte & Jason Geary appeared in the Lakeland Ledger.

Shelia Meehan provided this abstract:

Paul Beasley Johnson’s death sentence was vacated by the Florida Supreme Court and he will now get a new Penalty Phase hearing.  In murder cases there are two phases — 1) guilt or innocence, and 2) penalty.  Governor Crist signed Johnson’s death warrant just a couple of months ago following an on-line petition effort by the local sheriff.  Mr. Johnson will now get a new penalty phase hearing because the Florida Supreme Court found that there was serious misconduct by the prosecutors during his original trial almost 30 years ago.

Crist signs death warrant for park ranger killer

FLORIDA—-new execution date

Gov. Charlie Crist signed a death warrant for Martin Grossman, convicted
of murdering a Pinellas County wildlife officer in 1984. Grossman is scheduled to be put to death by lethal injection on Feb. 16 at 6 p.m. Read More

The Florida Supreme Court denies a death-sentence appeal Thursday

Bill Cotterell
Florida Capital Bureau

The Florida Supreme Court denied a death-sentence appeal Thursday in the case of a Fort Myers man who refused to let lawyers show mitigating facts that might have kept him off of Death Row.

After being found guilty of murder, the court said, Mark Twilegar waived a jury in the penalty phase of his trial. The ruling said he stated, “I would rather do the death penalty and just get it over with.” He filed an affidavit saying presentation of mitigating factors would violate his right to privacy, amount to an admission of guilt and violate his religious rights.

Twilegar was convicted of fatally shooting David Thomas in Fort Myers on Aug. 7, 2002.