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FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE - JANUARY 18, 2002 - FLORIDA FLAWS
FLORIDA - THERE IS STILL TIME TO RECONSIDER
Amos King will be sacrificed
by the State of Florida and the Florida Supreme Court this coming
Thursday, January 24th,
at 6:00 p.m.
Florida has learned nothing
from the recent release of Juan Melendez, who after 18 years under
sentence of death, was exonerated
and set free when fatal errors in his case were uncovered and
brought to light.
For Amos King, time is running
out. His desperate and repeated efforts to convince the Court that he
has valid and unexplored
issues that would halt his execution are not being taken seriously. And,
although allowed to express
his issues to the Court, they have been heard only as a placating gesture,
with no genuine effort or
consideration given to exploring his valid requests for further investigations
into
his claims of innocence.
Why the rush to execution?
With so many uninvestigated issues in Mr. King's case, and the
knowledge that fatal flaws
are rampant in so many capital convictions, the Court should demand that
every credible claim of
inappropriate legal representation made by Mr. King be fully investigated.
The
Court has repeatedly denied
this.
Most of the samples placed
into evidence were destroyed by the State Medical Examiner or, more
probably, the County Sheriff's
Office years ago, leaving but a few remaining hairs and other items in
storage which still could
be tested for DNA. Although Mr. King has very emotionally begged that these
items be tested, the Court
has repeatedly refused, and on the issue of the destroyed samples, they
claim no responsibility
and cannot see that this missing evidence is a reason to spare Mr. King's
life.
Where is the harm in making
certain that still existing hairs and other samples are tested by the
newest DNA technology available?
When a man's life is at stake, why is the State so insistent upon
standing by results of old,
outdated DNA testing when new techniques and methods are readily at
hand that could produce
a definitive outcome?
At a December 10th hearing,
rather than inform the defense that some samples still existed where
testing could be done with
mitochondrial DNA testing, the State gave the impression that there was
nothing left to test.
This testable evidence was
moved to a FDLE lab by The State for testing without a court order and
without the defense being
informed or given due process to influence what testing methods were used,
or which lab would be best
equipped to do the most up-to-date DNA testing. It was only by accident
that a FDLE lab report was
uncovered which reveals this secret DNA testing done by the State.
The Innocence Project has
offered to help evaluate the remaining samples, and to scientifically explore
their relevance as to the
issues of guilt or innocence of Mr. King. However, the defendant's request
to
include DNA investigations
in his case were overheard not only by the Court, but also by the defense,
yet neither took any action.
A necessary stay of execution is needed in order to allow for a proper
investigation into these
DNA claims, but again, the Court denied Mr. King.
To the state of Florida,
the Court's eagerness to kill, even a possible innocent, is more important
than
a proper, thorough investigation
into any claims of wrongful conviction.
We demand that the Court
immediately make available all remaining DNA samples for mitochondrial
testing and evaluation by
the Innocence Project and a cooperating defense. Only then will the public's
growing fear of another
miscarriage of justice be relieved. Only then can we insure that another
victim,
like Juan Melendes, will
not be sacrificed to satisfy Florida's hunger for execution, and only then
can
we guarantee that Florida
will avoid the next inevitable scandal.
Claims of "lost" evidence
must be seriously investigated, and all speculations as to which branch
of
the State destroyed important
DNA evidence need to be explored. If the destroyer of the evidence
should turn out to be the
Sheriff's department instead of the Medical Examiner, this will bring the
case
into another more suspicious
light, demanding even further scrutiny.
Both the State's and the
defense team's claim for evaluating the loss of evidence is based on the
ruling
of Youngblood v. Arizona.
However, this law does not apply to Mr. King's situation. The defendant's
lack of influence on his
own defense team's competence and progress makes this even more
frightening.
Youngblood v. Arizona does
not set the proper standard where the state legislature has decided that
the evidence must be preserved
and subject to DNA testing in order to insure that innocent individuals
are not executed. The state
statute created a due process right which has been arbitrarily taken away
from Mr. King, making this
an entirely different circumstance than stated in Youngblood v. Arizona.
Youngblood does not control
under the Florida Constitution, and many states have interpreted their
State's Constitution as
giving more protection than the US Constitution, as demonstrated in the
example of Youngblood v.
Arizona.
Other pending rulings by
the US Supreme Court would also affect Mr. King's execution. In a few short
months, the US Supreme Court
is expected to rule whether Florida's capital sentencing is
constitutional. And, if
Florida's sentencing policy is indeed found to be unconstitutional by the
US
Supreme Court, Mr. King's
execution would have been in error and based on an unconstitutional
statute.
Upon close scrutiny, it's
obvious that the case of Amos King is still chaotic with many unanswered
questions. Any rush now
to execute Mr. King, without giving sufficient time to allow for broader
investigations into his
issues, would be a deliberate act of killing. After hearing his pleas begging
for
thorough investigations
into his claims of legal negligence, lost evidence, the remaining DNA samples
that remain untested, the
pending US Supreme Court's capital sentencing issues relating to Florida,
plus various other innocence
issues, should the State of Florida ignore these claims and follow through
with his planned execution,
Florida would be in serious violation of ethical and professional judicial
code, and this cannot and
will not be tolerated.
The end of Mr. King's life
will not put an end to the investigation into his claims of innocence.
And, if he
is eventually found to be
not only wrongfully convicted, but needlessly executed as well, the State
of
Florida will have a lot
of explaining to do.
We urge the Florida Supreme
Court to reconsider the case of Amos King and either issue an
immediate stay of execution
or remand the case for resentencing to LWOP. Only then can we be sure
that Florida has not executed
another innocent man.
We urge Governor Jeb Bush
to stay the case of Amos King and use his power of clemency to give
Amos King LWOP. The State
of Florida is responsible for the serious mistake of the "lost" evidences
and due to this fatal error,
the State now has the responsibility to commute his death sentence to
LWOP.
The Governor of Florida not
only has the life of Amos King in his hands, but the future of Florida
as
well.
FOR INFORMATION :
Florida Support Group
Dianne Abshire
9673 State Rt. 65
Ottawa, OH 45875
419 523-5816
afua@woh.rr.com
Sissel Egeland
denmark@online.no
47 51882004
Cheryl Woods
cherylw4@tampabay.rr.com
863-221-1466
Andrea Faust
E-postadresse(r):
sparkle_de@yahoo.de
Antonio Corba Colombo
ancorba@yahoo.com
Britta Slopianka
halfdome@web.de
Caroline Aikens
aikens154@netscapeonline.co.uk
Lee S. Saunders.
Safiyya@ihug.com.au
Pat Hoover
phoover@neb.rr.com
Turid Sandberg
turid@ultranoise.org
Bob Pauley
RobertAPauley@aol.com
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