The execution of David Eugene Johnston that was scheduled for today in was stayed last week by the Florida Supreme Court:

“Having reviewed the record in this case, including prior proceedings, we reverse the summary denial of Johnston’s newly discovered evidence claim relating to mental retardation and temporarily relinquish jurisdiction to the circuit court for thirty days for an evidentiary hearing to be held on the issue of whether newly discovered evidence indicates that Johnston is mentally retarded pursuant to Atkins v. Virginia, 536 U.S. 304 (2002), section 921.137, Florida Statutes (2009), and Cherry v. State, 959 So. 2d 702 (Fla. 2007). The Court reserves ruling on the issues raised in this appeal until jurisdiction returns to this Court after the relinquishment. ”
http://www.floridasupremecourt.org/pub_info/summaries/briefs/10/10-356/Filed_03-04-2010_Stay_Order.pdf

And in news from Texas:

“A Houston judge on Thursday granted a pretrial motion declaring the death penalty unconstitutional, saying he believes innocent people have been executed.
“Based on the moratorium (on the death penalty) in Illinois, the Innocence Project and more than 200 people being exonerated nationwide, it can only be concluded that innocent people have been executed,” state District Judge Kevin Fine said. “It’s safe to assume we execute innocent people.”

“Fine said trial level judges are gatekeepers of society’s standard for decency and fairness.

“Are you willing to have your brother, your father, your mother be the sacrificial lamb, to be the innocent person executed so that we can have a death penalty so that we can execute those who are deserving of the death penalty?” he said. “I don’t think society’s mindset is that way now.”

The motion was one of many submitted by defense attorneys Bob Loper and Casey Keirnan arguing Texas’ death penalty was unconstitutional for their client, John Edward Green Jr.

Loper said he and Keirnan were pleased by Fine’s ruling, which will be appealed and almost certainly reversed…..”
http://www.chron.com/disp/story.mpl/metropolitan/6897252.html

Louise Ritchie,

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

A death row inmate set for execution March 9 has filed a new appeal with
the Florida Supreme Court.

David Johnston on Friday asked the justices to review a lower court’s
denial of his sixth post-conviction appeal.

Appeal

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

Please allow this information to inspire you to attend the free workshop
that Tallahassee Citizens Against the Death Penalty is holding tomorrow,
Sat., Feb. 27 –12:45-4:30 at the Leroy Collins Public Library, Program
Room B, which is on the first floor.  Please also urge your friends to
attend.

We’ll be learning about how to advocate successfully to end the death
penalty in Florida, including by  supporting incremental steps such as
requiring unanimous juries for the death penalty to be imposed. The 15
states that have abolished the death penalty typically did so after such
incremental steps were imposed.

Florida leads the nation in the number of people who have been
exonerated (released due to innocence) from death row. Yet, unanimous
juries are not required for the death penalty to be imposed in Florida.

Previous advocacy in Florida has caused the death penalty to no longer
be imposed on juveniles and on people who are mentally retarded. It also
has lead to persons convicted of capital crimes being able to get one of
only two sentences: the death penalty or life imprisonment with no
chance of parole. Research has indicated that the majority of the public
would choose life imprisonment without parole over execution if they
were given that choice. This is more reason for us to take actions that
raise the visibility of our cause.

Free TCADP T-shirts will be given to the first 15 attendees, and free
TCADP buttons will be given to all attendees at the workshop. You also
will be able to buy T-shirts for $10 apiece.

Thank you for taking the time to read this. I hope to see you tomorrow
at the workshop.

Louise RItchie, Chair, Tallahassee Citizens Against the Death Penalty

2.  Despite 10,000 people signing petitions requesting that Martin Grossman not be executed, Gov. Crist says he still plans to execute Grossman Tues. Feb. 16. If it goes as scheduled, at 6 p.m. Tues. please come stand outside the governor’s mansion at 6 p.m. Tues. Feb. 16 as we hold a vigil to reflect our opposition to the death penalty, and come to the memorial service we’ll hold Weds. at noon in the courtyard between the old and new capitols.

3.  Sat. Feb. 27 free public workshop to train death penalty opponents about advocating for ending the death penalty. This is the beginning of our campaign to add Florida to the 15 states and D.C. that don’t impose the death penalty. It will be 12:45-4:30 in Program Room B of the Leroy Collins Public Library.

Please come to the workshop and also invite others. We’re particularly interested in involving students in this movement, so please share this information with professors and college and high school students and their organizations.

The workshop will include: experts’ presentations on legal, ethical, religious, racial, and financial problems with the death penalty; presentations by a homicide survivor 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.

We will give free TCADP T-shirts to the first 15 attendees.

Thank you for reading this.

Louise Ritchie
Chair, TCADP

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.

Please also share this info with others who may wish to sign the letter.

Thank you for your help.

Louise Ritchie

Chair, Tallahassee Citizens Against the Death Penalty

Petition:

Jan. 29, 2010 Petition to Support a Grant of Time to Present a Petition for Commutation in the Case of Martin Grossman To: The Honorable Charles Crist, Governor, State of Florida

We write to request a 60-day stay of execution to enable a concerned community to pre¬pare a clemency petition to the Executive Clemency Board of the State of Florida asking for commutation of sentence, from death to life without parole, in the case of Martin Grossman.  

We feel conscience-driven to do this because the Grossman case is so differ¬ent from other death sentence cases that we feel you may agree with us that Martin Grossman does not deserve to die for his crime.

Martin was a troubled youth suffering from incipient paranoia, adjustment problems, lack of judgment, drug addiction, and panic attacks when, as a 19-year-old, he was startled and stopped by a park security officer, Margaret Parks, whom he killed in a hand-to-hand struggle.

Although he was mentally disturbed and out of control at the time, his trial went awry because the crime fit the technical definition of “premeditated murder” for the simple reason that Martin was on probation from a youth facility (for burglary) at that time.  

His probation violation being a “crime,” he was considered to have killed the officer while committing another crime, and thus, premeditation.  This technical definition made Martin eligible for the death penalty.

Martin’s father was a military man who had been disabled and then died.  The family was without funds for a vigorous defense.

In addition, this death sentence case is different from others because:

1.         Martin shot while in a state of “frenzy and panic,” and he did not plan to kill her (or anyone else) at the time.

2.         Martin’s sentence was extremely disproportionate to other criminals who receive the death sentence, and was not worse than many, many other criminals who receive considerably less punishment.  His co-defendant got only three years.

3.         Martin has an IQ of 77, and at the time of the crime was uneducated, unsocialized, and suffered from a seizure disorder and possible organic brain dysfunction since earliest childhood.  He probably misunderstood the nature of his crime and surely was not able to cooperate in his own defense to the degree needed.

4.         Martin’s tragic childhood and adolescence was never adequately presented to jury, judge or appeals courts.  In the sentencing phase, 30 out of 33 of the witnesses he wanted were not called, and the terrible result was the ultimate penalty.

5.         Martin has an intact and humane conscience, and has suffered constantly from remorse and contrition for his crime.  He is not a manipulative or cagey person with the ability to “fake good” – his intellectual limitations make it clear that his emotional presentation is honest and uncontrived.

 6.         There were many irregularities both with Martin’s trial and with the appeals and post-conviction actions.  Many of the errors were admitted by one court or another but characterized as “harmless errors.”

The cumulative effect of these errors, however, was to make it much harder for the unfortunate genuine fact situation to be clearly seen.  That fact situation would not lead a jury, in this time and place, to conclude that Martin Grossman should be put to death.

In the event that Governor Crist will not grant that commutation outright, we the undersigned beseech the Governor to mercifully grant a 60 day stay  which will  allow for  a comprehensive clemency petition to be assembled, presented and considered. We strongly allowing for a consideration of the issues presented are in the interest of the State of Florida in tempering justice with mercy.   

Name                        Address                                                                               

Signature

——————–

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.

Gov. Crist signed the warrant Jan. 12 for 44-year-old Martin Grossman. Florida State Prison warden Steven Singer then set the execution by lethal injection for Feb. 16 at 6 p.m.

This makes it even more urgent that you take the time to attend today our planning meeting for the training session we’ll conduct Sat. Feb. 27 to educate advocates for ending the death penalty.

We’re meeting today from noon-1:30 on the first floor of the annex of First Presbyterian Church, 110 N. Adams St. This is the two story building across from the courthouse.

Even if you can’t stay the whole time, please come and share your ideas about the content of the workshop and what we can do to attract many supporters to the training.

Thank you for your interest in this important human rights issue.

Louise Ritchie

Chair, TCADP

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.

Grossman was 19 years old when he and a friend went to a wooded area in
Pinellas County on Dec. 13, 1984 to shoot a stolen handgun.

Florida Wildlife Officer Margaret Park interrupted them and Grossman
pleaded with her not to report him for having the gun and being outside
Pasco County, both of which were violations of his probation for burglery.

Grossman struck Park on the back of the head when she tried to radio for
help and his accomplice beat her.

Grossman, who was a foot taller and 100 pounds heavier than Park, wrestled
her gun away from her and shot her in the back of the head.

The Florida Supreme Court issued stays of execution for 2 other death row
inmates Crist had ordered to be put to death. Including Grossman, Crist
has ordered 7 death row inmate executions since taking office in 2007.

Those cases are still pending.

(source: Palm Beach Post)

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.