Escambia Cases Show Examples

Escambia Cases Show Examples

Capital punishment

News article describing the death penalty, judicial override, and examples from past cases that had examples of these issues.

Graybiel, Ginny

News Journal

HIST 298, University of Mary Washington

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In a first-degree murder case, when a judge and a jury don’t see eye-to-eye on the sentence, as has occurred at least five times in the last seven years in Escambia County, the judge gets the last word.

In four local cases, judges overrode jury recommendations for life in prison and imposed the death penalty, deciding that aggravating circumstances outweighed mitigating circumstances. And in one case, a judge overrode a jury recommendation for the death penalty and imposed a life sentence.

It’s a system that Chief Escambia Circuit Judge M.C. Blanchard would like to see changed: He’s in favor of proposed legislation that would require judges to follow jury recommendations for life sentences but would allow them to override jury recommendations for death.

“It would help a great deal in keeping our death penalty constitutional.” He said, adding that the jury should have access to the same pre-sentence information – currently, some of it is confidential – that the judge has in determining the sentence.

Here’s a rundown of the five local cases:

In 1978, Judge George Lowrey ignored a jury’s advice and sentenced to death Thomas McCampbell, convicted in the murder of Winn-Dixie security guard Buddy Ray. The Florida Supreme Court later upheld the conviction but reversed the death sentence.

In 1979, Judge William Frye overruled a jury recommendation for a life sentence and imposed the death penalty on Marvin Edwin Johnson, Convicted in the killing of Warrington pharmacist Woodrow Moulton. The Florida Supreme Court upheld the conviction and sentence, and Johnson is on death row.

In 1980, in a rare reverse decision, Frye overrode a jury recommendation for death and sentenced Edward Clifton Cleveland to life in prison for murdering a 15-year-old runaway girl and then dismembering her body and placing some parts in sealed garbage bags.

In 1983, Judge Joseph Tarbuck overrode a jury recommendation for life and sentenced to death Anthony Brown, accused in the murder of Veteran’s Gas Co. delivery man James Dasinger. Three weeks ago, after a retrial won on a technicality, Brown was acquitted, the result of the star prosecution witness flip-flopping on his testimony.

Also in 1983, Judge William Rowlet overrode a jury’s recommendation and sentenced to death William Eutzy, convicted in the murder of West Hill Taxi Stand driver Herman Hughley. The Florida Supreme Court upheld that conviction, and Eutzy is on death row.

Exactly what goes through a jury’s mind during its secret proceedings is difficult to determine; by contrast, judges are required by law to provide a written explanation for imposition of the death penalty.

What follows is a look back at the Johnson and Brown cases.

In court testimony, Warrington Pharmacy employee Gary Summitt, an eyewitness, gave this account of Marvin Johnson’s armed robbery and murder of Woodrow MoultonL
Summitt went to the back of the store to as Moulton a question and found Johnson holding a gun on Moulton and ordering him to fill a bag with drugs and money.
After obtaining what he wanted, Johnson started toward the front of the store, and Moulton grabbed a gun from behind the prescription counter. There was an exchange of gunfire, with Moulton firing at Johnson until his gun was emptied.
No longer able to defend himself, Moulton stood up with his hands in the air. Johnson walked to within a foot and a half of him, said, “You think you’re a smart son-of-a-bitch, don’t you?”, shot him in the chest and fled.

The jury after finding Johnson guilty, recommended that Judge Frye impose a life sentence. Instead, Frye sentenced Johnson to death, a decision that was upheld in a split decision by the Florida Supreme Court.
Interviews last week with jurors indicate some were pleased with Frye’s decision and others were not. “I didn’t want to have a guilty conscience, even though I thought he deserved death,” said Rugby Watford. “I was glad the judge did what he did.”
“I just don’t believe you can (sentence him to death) on one witness,” said Doroth Grissom. “I said maybe he did it. We really didn’t feel he deserved that chair.”
“One of the questionsthey asked the jurors was whether we could impose the death sentence, and we all said yes then when it was time to decide, a lot of the jurors said their religious beliefs wouldn’t let them vote for the death penalty,” said Constance Fletcher. “To me, that’s an obstruction of justice. I was really upset. I was so happy when the judge overruled us.”
“(Johnson) went in with the intention of getting drugs, not with the intention of shooting (Moulton),” said Pearl Middlecoff. “If Moulton hadn’t shot at him, he would be alive today . . . I put myself in (Johnson’s) position. I probably would have done the same thing. I think the judge was very much out of place.”
Frye, who had found five aggravating factors and no mitigating factors, said he has no second thoughts about his decision.
“Moulton was out of ammunition and holding up hs hands. Point-blank, 2 or 3 feet away, he fired right through his heart. That was a cold-blooded murder,” he said.
In the Supreme Court appeal, four justices concurred with Frye that “death is the appropriate sentence to be imposed for this atrocious and cruel execution murder committed during the commission of an armed robbery by an escaped convict who previously had been convicted of felonies involving the use of threat or violence.”
Three justices dissented, saying

that “the fusillade of pistol shots initiated by the victim and the apparent conscious act of the appellant to spare the two other occupants of the premises from kidnapping or murder support a reasoned judgment by the jury in favor of a life sentence.”
Frye pointed out that in the Cleveland case, he overrode the jury in the opposite direction because the case law prevented him from considering that the body was cut into pieces after death.
“I knew it was a risky thing to do in a political sense,” he said, “but I could not sentence that man to death knowing it was against the law . . . The jury (got) all inflamed because it was so gruesome.”
The case against Anthony Brown, accused in the first-degree murder of Veteran’s Gas Co. deliveryman James Dasinger, rested largely on the testimony of co-defendant Wyndell Rogers, who pleaded guilty to a reduced charge of second-degree murder in exchange for his testimony.
During the first trial, Rogers said Brown set up Dasinger to make a delivery in a sparsely populated area of Cantoment and then killed him with a shotgun blast to the chest. The jury found Brown guilty and recommended a life sentence; but Judge Tarbuck, finding the four aggravating factors, sentenced him to death.
On a reversal unrelated to his sentence, the Florida Supreme Court granted Brown a new trial. And at that trial, after Rogers recanted his testimony and said Brown was not even present when Dasinger was killed, a jury found him innocent.
“That’s a lesson that a judge should never impose the death penalty on the basis of one person’s testimony,” said Micheal Mello, a Tallahassee attorney who has handled several death override appeals. “It sends shivers up my spine.”
Bob Dennis, Brown’s defense attorney at the first trial, agrees. “I don’t think a person should be sentenced to death unless the evidence is absolutely clear, unless there’s a smoking gun,” he said.

Newspaper

Williams, Megan