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Sheets that were wrapped around the body of Tillie Brady, the Tarpon Springs woman King is accused of raping and murdering, have been packed away in the evidence room at the Pinellas County Sheriff's Office since the 1977 murder.
Scheck said the original rape kit test results from Brady's body cannot be found, and may have been destroyed by Wood. Now, King's attorneys hope the sheets will provide critical DNA evidence that could exonerate him.
"There may be some semen on the sheets, there may be semen on the pubic hairs that were taken from the victim for microscopic purposes," Scheck explained.
Scheck has agreed to pay for new DNA testing. He once represented O.J. Simpson and now heads The Innocence Project in New York, protecting the rights of death row inmates.
King's attorneys in Tampa contacted Scheck after watching a series of Action News investigations involving former Pinellas-Pasco medical examiner Joan Wood. The investigations found Wood botched at least two autopsies, wrongly accusing two fathers of shaking their babies to death.
Scheck then reviewed Wood's autopsy report of Tillie Brady and found major problems.
"Ordinarily, we would have the actual slides and swabs from the rape kit examination," Scheck explained. "Except in this case, those were thrown away, apparently by Joan Wood."
Scheck was not the only one who noticed
mistakes. A former medical examiner was hired to review Joan Wood's autopsy
report of Tillie Brady. He found a long list of discrepancies, but the evidence
used to write the report is now gone: the photographs, notes and microscopic
slides have either been lost or destroyed.
Former
medical examiner Joan Wood declined to comment for previous Action News reports.
However, just like the bloody sheets, Barry Scheck believes the evidence will turn up.
"Look again. Experience teaches that sometimes it's reported to be lost or destroyed, but unless there's an official letter or receipt of some kind of physical or documented proof indicating that yes, somebody actually destroyed it on this date, if you keep on looking, you'll find it," he continued.
Barry Scheck was given 30 days to do the DNA testing and prove King's innocence. The Pinellas sheriff's office is waiting for instructions from the governor on where to send the bloody sheets for testing.
Scheck believes those sheets may contain body fluids from someone other than Amos King, and he says that will prove King did not rape and murder Tillie Brady.
Long Live Amos King: A Buddhist Warrior on Death Row
by JACK McCARTHY CounterPunch - December 5, 2002
"Judge, I am beat, I have got to go home and get some sleep...I can't
think anymore."
So said Florida death row inmate Amos King's trial attorney, Thomas
Cole, during the crucial "penalty phase" of his trail for the murder of
Tarpon Springs seamstress Natalie Brady in March of 1977.
It was this disturbing behavior and similar utterances that in 1983 led
the U.S. 11th circuit court to vacate the decision of an all white
jury-- and a concurring white judge-- to sentence King to be electrocuted.
Since then the 48 year old Afro-American, who refuses to go quietly into
a night of state-sponsored death, has been through the proverbial meat
grinder known as the U.S. justice system. King is the Dean of Florida's
death row.
After years of small victories and big losses at the state and federal
level Amos King adamantly maintains he's 100 percent innocent.
(Indeed, see amosking.com <http://www.amosking.com/> for Kings
compelling and fascinating rendition explaining exactly how he's been
systematically railroaded by the Florida (in)justice express.)
On the chilly Monday evening of December 2nd --and only 15 minutes
before the state of Florida was to inject poison in Kings veins --and
following a full day of praying with his Buddhist priest Casey Walpole,
Amos King was informed that there would be a halt to the medieval
proceedings.
Death for Amos King would wait once more.
To the shock of some and dismay of the family of victim Tilly Brady, and
death penalty supporters alike, Governor Jeb Bush announced he was
granting King a 30 day stay.
Bush's stay was granted in order to allow for DNA testing of "recently
discovered", "untested" evidence made at the request of the man the
Orlando Sentinel haughtily referred to as that "celebrity attorney,"
Barry Scheck.
As in Barry Scheck of the OJ trial and of late the star performer in a
most compelling reality criminal justice show called "The Innocence
Project."
No doubt Bush's stay had as much to do with self image as principle.
Florida leads the country in inmates released following DNA testing: 24
and counting.
Just last year Scheck embarrassed Florida when the Innocence Project
exonerated Frank Smith in the murder of an 8-year-old girl named Shandra
Whitehead. Unfortunately for Smith, he'd recently died of cancer as he
awaited his fate on Death Row. Evidence also showed that the state hid
other exculpatory evidence for years.
As Paul Roney, the appeals court judge who vacated Kings first sentence
noted, "King was convicted on circumstantial evidence."
It would be another blow against the death penalty and possibly Jet's
political future if King died and was later shown to be innocent.
At the time of Ms. Brady's murder in July of 1977, King was in a Tarpon
Springs work release program, after being found guilty of stealing a gun.
According to prosecutors, a bed check by the facility counselor, one
James McDonough, the night of Brady's murder found King to be absent.
McDonough testified that he discovered King just outside the building
wearing pants with fresh blood on the crotch. A fight ensued with King
allegedly stabbing McDonough multiple times in the hand.
King maintains that the blood on his pants came as a result of the
scuffle with the counselor.
The smoking gun pants were cited but never presented at trial.
The state alleged King had somehow destroyed them.
Missing as well is a blood sample from vaginal washings taken from
Brady. The prosecution alleged the blood matched King's own.
The medical examiner in the case, which no doubt Jeb also took note of,
is the disgraced former Pinellas county medical examiner Dr. Joan Wood.
Wood was removed from office for gross negligence and providing faulty
and misleading testimony in numerous criminal trials, leading Pinellas
state attorney Paul McCabe to say he was willing to "review all
questionable cases" in which Wood was involved.
King's attorney rightly likened Wood to Oklahoma's notorious medical
examiner, Joyce Gilchrist.
Several years ago the FBI alleged in a report that Gilchrist provided at
best, misleading--and at worst false--testimony in numerous criminal
trials. They recommended that prosecutors review all cases in which
Gilchrist played a role. At least three inmates have been released as a
result of flaws in Gilchrist's "work."
According to King, one of the appeals judges in his case, Susan
Shaeffer, who also worked at the time of King's first trial with his now
discredited trial attorney, Tome Cole (and who King alleged conspired
with prosecutors), not only refused to recuse herself, but actually
yelled at him banshee-like: "Why aren't you dead yet."
Schaeffer might want to read King's web page to at least get an inkling
as to why Amos King still breathes.
She'd discover that after every letter explaining, in meticulous detail,
how the state of Florida has tried to kill him, Amos King, death row
Buddhist, signs out, "Amos King. In Battle."
Long Live Buddhist Warrior Amos King.
For more on this case check out:
FADP.com (Floridians for Alternatives to the Death Penalty
<http://www.FADP.org/>)
Email JebBush@Jeb.org <mailto:JebBush@Jeb.org>
Or write Amos King: Florida State Prison 7819 N.W. 228th st. Raiford
Florida 37026-1160 USA
Jack McCarthy lives in Tallahassee. He can be reached at:
jackm32301@yahoo.com
By KELLEY BENHAM,
Times Staff Writer
© St. Petersburg Times
published December 3, 2002
King was less than an hour from a lethal injection for the brutal murder of 68-year-old Natalie "Tillie" Brady of Tarpon Springs when word came of his latest reprieve.
Gov. Jeb Bush delayed the execution pending new DNA tests on evidence from the 1977 killing of Brady, who was raped, choked, beaten, stabbed and left lying in the back doorway of her burning home.
"It is wholly appropriate that we delay the execution until we can determine that all potential uses of DNA testing have been completed," Bush said in a statement.
The execution has been rescheduled for Jan. 8.
This is King's sixth stay, his fourth this year and second in the last week. It came after attorney Barry Scheck, a member of the O.J. Simpson defense who helped form the nonprofit Innocence Project, met for an hour Monday afternoon with the governor's assistant general counsel, Wendy Berger. The nonprofit group handles cases where post-conviction DNA testing might prove an inmate's innocence.
Berger spoke to scientists at Penn State University and then spoke to Bush, Scheck said. The governor, who signed King's most recent death warrant a year ago, stopped the execution.
"I don't think any governor wants to preside over an execution where DNA testing could be performed," Scheck said.
DNA tests performed in 2001 were not advanced enough for the small amount of genetic material available, Scheck said. Recent technology is significantly improved.
Scheck urged new tests be performed on hair samples and on scrapings from underneath Brady's fingernails. The results are due within 30 days.
Tests on pubic hairs and on sheets will try to isolate semen samples, Scheck said. Semen collected at the crime scene has since been lost, but the blood type from those samples matched King's.
King, 48, has all along claimed his innocence and fought his execution with every avenue.
Monday morning, as he met with his Buddhist spiritual adviser and tried to relax with breathing exercises, the Florida and U.S. Supreme Courts considered a number of appeals.
He ate a meal that included shrimp, scallops, fried fish and oysters, a chicken breast, an avocado salad with tomatoes, butter pecan ice cream and pecan pie.
Two appeals with the U.S. Supreme Court involved the validity of Florida's death sentencing law and King's contention that he is entitled to have an attorney appointed to represent him in petitioning for clemency.
Last week, King won a temporary reprieve from the 11th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals on the issue regarding the clemency attorney.
Sunday, a Clearwater circuit judge rejected three motions to throw out or postpone his death sentence and conduct a new DNA test. Monday afternoon, the Florida Supreme Court refused to stop the execution to allow the DNA testing.
But then Bush made his decision.
King, convicted when Jimmy Carter was president, is the longest-serving inmate on death row from Pinellas County. The average death row inmate serves a little more than 11 years.
When Brady was killed, King was a 22-year-old former mechanic serving four years for stealing a shotgun at a minimum-security work release center.
Brady, a widow who lived alone, told relatives she was afraid when the center was built just 200 yards from her home.
That night in March 1977, after King had returned from a shift washing dishes and Brady had returned from playing bingo, King escaped.
Brady was raped, choked and beaten. She was assaulted with a knitting needle, stabbed with her own paring knife.
She was found, in her nightgown, sprawled in the back doorway of her burning home.
King was caught, in blood-soaked pants, sneaking back into the correctional center the next morning.
He fought with correctional officer James D. "Dan" McDonough for 40 minutes, stabbing him 24 times and leaving him skewered to the wall with a paring knife through his hand.
McDonough lost four pints of blood and nearly died. He still has limited mobility in his right hand.
He has always needed to see King executed, he has said. He was waiting in a lobby at Florida State Prison with some of Brady's relatives when word came of the reprieve.
Outside, death penalty opponents cheered. The Rev. James Warren of Tarpon Springs said he knew Brady when he was a teenager and worked in her house. But he does not believe King killed her. "She was a nice, sweet lady," Warren said. "I believe in justice. But he's no murderer."
Brady was well-known in Tarpon Springs for her Southern cooking and her selfless ways. She ran a restaurant on Tarpon Avenue and is remembered as someone who fed even those who could not pay. She liked to knit and crochet and was a mother figure to her nine younger siblings and to her nieces.
For Brady's family, the close calls and the disappointments have been unbearable. Some of them have grown old, and they can not stand to talk about it anymore.
"I have nothing to say," said her sister, Eva Lysec. "I have nothing to say."
-- Information from
the Associated Press was used in this report.
DEC. 4, 1981: In Tampa, a U.S. district judge orders an indefinite stay four days before King's execution. King had argued that he didn't have competent defense at his murder trial.
NOV. 29, 1988: The Florida Supreme Court grants a stay after a Pinellas circuit judge refuses to read a lengthy motion filed by King's attorney to delay the execution.
JAN. 23, 2002: The U.S. Supreme Court issues a stay, a day before King's execution. The court said it needed time to decide whether his case was like an Arizona case accepted by the court that could lead to Florida's death penalty being declared unconstitutional. The case centers on whether states can let judges, not juries, impose death sentences.
JULY 8, 2002: The Florida Supreme Court stays King's execution, saying it needs time to decide whether a June U.S. Supreme Court decision applies to Florida's death row inmates. The high court had ruled that death penalty laws in five states are unconstitutional because they allow judges instead of juries to impose death sentences.
NOV. 26, 2002: The 11th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals grants a stay, saying it hasn't decided on King's request for a lawyer to represent him in a clemency hearing. The state had refused to give him a state-paid lawyer for a second clemency hearing.
DEC. 2, 2002: Gov. Jeb Bush grants King a 30-day stay so DNA tests that could possibly exonerate him can be run.
-- Compiled by Times news researcher Kitty Bennett from Times files and wires.
STARKE, Fla. (AP) - With the clock ticking toward his scheduled execution, convicted killer Amos King received a last-minute stay from Gov. Jeb Bush so DNA tests can be conducted on evidence from the 1977 murder.
The stay came about 90 minutes before King's scheduled 6 p.m. Monday execution by lethal injection.
King, 48, was convicted of raping and murdering Natalie Brady, 68, and setting the place ablaze after slipping away from a work-release prison. He was caught, in bloody clothing, trying to get back in.
King had received stays of execution in February and July from the U.S. and Florida supreme courts.
Earlier Monday afternoon, as King was being served his final meal, New York attorney Barry Scheck of the Innocence Project met with the governor's death penalty attorney to discuss the case.
In a statement, Bush said Scheck ``informed my legal office of the existence of previously untested evidence and further DNA testing that could possibly exonerate Amos King.
``It is wholly appropriate that we delay the execution until we can determine that all potentially useful DNA testing has been completed,'' Bush said.
In his filing with the Florida Supreme Court, Scheck asked for mitochondrial DNA and Y-chromosone testing on three pubic hairs and scrapings from under Brady's fingernails. The test were not available 25 years ago when King was convicted.
``I had confidence that Gov. Bush would do this,'' Scheck said, adding that the test results are ``just the kind of thing you don't want to leave any chance to.''
The DNA tests are expected to take less than 30 days. The execution was rescheduled Jan. 8.
Abe Bonowitz, director of Floridians for Alternatives for the Death Penalty, was thrilled with the development.
``I think the governor wanted to do the right thing,'' he said. ``There is a question to this man's guilt. People want a system that is fair and correct.'' - Guardian UK Dec 3
Execution is part of the problem, not the answer to eradicating violence.
December 2, 2002 - Editorial, Gainesville Sun; Shanti Vani
As this holiday season begins, there is one question I want to ask of
people: Did you ever have a friend or family member who was murdered?
One minute there is a person with a life, vital signs and warm body, and
the next thing you know, the person's heart has stopped and a life is over.
Someone took your friend or loved one's life and what was taken can't be
returned. That person is gone for good.
In the story books, fairy tales, fables and lessons our children are
taught, the bad guys do the hurting and the good guys do the helping.
It's all black and white. We are on the good side, and they are on the
bad side.
But in the 1st week of December we, the good people of Florida, have made
plans to be the bad guys.
If everything goes as we have planned - barring a stay of execution - we
will kill two men, two African-American men. The dates are set, the
inmates and friends are bracing themselves and preparing for the worst.
A stay of execution was recently granted in one case. Then it was quickly
lifted, and the killing is back on again. It is a game of cat and mouse,
and it's for real.
So, what I write here is assuming that these 2 executions scheduled in
Florida will go on as scheduled.
We are in the holiday season now. During Thanksgiving week, we all fill
our tummies on Thursday, shop (or buy nothing) on Friday, work around the
house or go to temple on Saturday, then rest up and maybe go to church on
Sunday.
Then when we wake up on Monday morning and go to work or whatever it is
we do, we might look at our calendar and remember that we have made a
date with death at 6 p.m. that day.
By 6 p.m. it will be pretty dark outside. The news will be on the
television. People will be driving home from work or eating supper. It
will be business as usual; and in the death chamber in Florida State
Prison in Starke, we will be killing a man.
His name is Amos King, and while he may be just a name to most folks, he
is a friend to many who have known him. Amos has been in prison for 25
years, since 1977 when he was convicted of a crime he says he did not commit.
He claims that racial bias and a serious lack of justice exist in his
case. Amos knows first hand about racism in the institution of "justice"
in which he has worked hard to try and stay alive. His side of the story
can be found at www.amosking.com.
Then on Friday at 6 p.m. we will kill again. Premeditated, calculated and
supported by the masses. This time it will be Linroy Bottoson, another
black man who has spent years on death row.
Statistics on the death penalty show 2 notable facts. Many more people
are executed in cases where the murder victim is white skinned. And poor
people are executed far more often than people who have money. These
inmates are both poor and dark skinned.
In the process of researching the topic for this letter, I found a Web
site, www.cure
national.org/~bells/, which promotes ringing church bells at the hour of
each execution in the country.
I was dismayed to find that in our country, there are 25 executions
scheduled between Dec. 2 and April 23. 12 of these are set for the month
of December. Here are the numbers: Texas 13, Oklahoma 5, Florida 2, North
Carolina 2, Alabama 1, Mississippi 1 and U.S. Federal 1.
We the good people of the United States of America must face the fact
that we have a problem and we are creating this problem. We are teaching
our young to be violent and that killing is what helpful people do.
This causes much confusion in young minds. We're telling them, "Killing
is against the law, but it's OK when the law says it is." Or, "It is
wrong to kill, but we do it anyway."
In short: "Killing is wrong and in order to make our point, we simply kill."
We shrug our shoulders and claim that there is no other way to curb crime
than to participate in it. Have we tried everything? No.
We just turn away, close our eyes, do the job and get it over with. Maybe
if we kill enough, it will go away.
Sometimes people kill innocent people at random because they are angry
with the society and the government.
If we, the good people, would invest more in compassion and less in
violent acts of revenge, we might begin to break the cycle of violence.
Sometimes it seems the whole world has gone mad.
Being inspired with love and hopefulness while visiting with a close
friend on Florida's death row in the past 6 years has been the most
eye-opening experience of my life.
Before visiting death row in 1996, I pictured a hell hole, a place full
of fire breathing beasts and horrible monsters.
I found people there with pain and love, regret and hope. I found people
who need us to invest in solutions. One thing I know for sure. Execution
is not the solution.
(source: Editorial, Gainesville Sun; Shanti Vani is a licensed Family
Child Care Home operator in Alachua County and organizes cultural
festivals and events in Gainesville)
State set to execute convicted murderers--Pair scheduled for 3rd time
A circuit court judge in Clearwater Sunday rejected 3 reuqests to
postpone tonight's planned execution of Amos Lee King, who has been on
death row for more than 20 years.
Another condemned killer, Linroy Bottoson, is set to die Friday evening.
Circuit Judge Susan Schaeffer turned down motions filed by King's
attorneys to delay or throw out their client's death sentence.
A key motion requested new DNA tests on hair, with defense attorney Peter
Cannon arguing original testing by the Florida Department of Law
Enforcement was improperly done.
"There was no reason you couldn't file that before Thursday. It is an
abuse of discretion to wait this long to file it," Schaeffer said.
Schaeffer also rejected motions seeking a stay of execution and to vacate
King's death sentence.
"We're not surprised, but determined still," Cannon said after Sunday's
hearing. "We haven't finished yet."
An appeal to the Florida Supreme Court would be filed Sunday night or
Monday morning, he said, without detailing grounds of the appeal. King,
48, is scheduled to die by injection at 6 tonight at Florida State Prison
near Starke.
Bottoson, 63, faces a Friday evening execution. King was condemned for
murdering Natalie Brady, 68, in her Tarpon Springs home in 1977 and
setting the place ablaze after slipping away from a work-release prison.
He was caught, in bloody clothing, trying to slip back in Bottoson, 63,
was convicted of killing Catherine Alexander, the Eatonville
postmistress, in 1979. He robbed the 74-year-old woman, held her captive
for 83 hours, stabbed her 16 times and finally killed her by running over
her several times with a car.
King and Bottoson were scheduled to die in February when they received a
stay from the U.S. Supreme Court, which was considering the case of an
Arizona inmate.
He was challenging the procedure in that state that allowed judges and
not juries to impose the death sentence. Florida's law allows juries to
recommend the death sentence, but the trial judge makes the ultimate
decision.
The Arizona law was ruled unconstitutional in June, but the high court
lifted its stays of execution for King and Bottoson and new dates were
set in July.
The Florida Supreme Court, however, stayed their executions on July 8,
just 6 hours before Bottoson was scheduled to die. The court was
wrestling over the issue of whether the ruling in the Arizona case would
apply to Florida's 367 death row inmates.
It ruled against King and Bottoson this fall and new execution dates were
set.
(source: Miami Herald)
A---impending execution(s)
Killer's attorneys asking for DNA tests---Amos King set to be executed
Monday for 1977 rape, murder
Attorneys for condemned killer Amos King, who is facing execution Monday
evening, have asked a Pinellas County circuit judge to order DNA tests
they say may show King was not responsible for a 1977 rape and murder.
King, 48, has been on Death Row for 25 years and is scheduled to die at 6
p.m. Monday at the Florida State Prison near Starke. He was condemned to
death for the murder of Natalie Brady, 68, in her Tarpon Springs home in
1977. After killing her, prosecutors said, he set the place on fire. He
was caught, in bloody clothing.
But the Innocence Project, a national legal clinic that has used DNA
testing to get people off Death Row, has filed a motion asking for
testing of a hair sample from a Caucasian and fingernail scrapings that
could pin the murder on someone other than King, who is black, said
attorney Peter Cannon. King has consistently said he is innocent.
Barry Scheck, co-director of the Innocence Project, said Saturday that a
new method called "Y-DNA testing," which was used to help identify
victims of the Sept. 11 World Trade Center attack, might yield results
that would clear King.
The fingernail scrapings likely came from an attacker Natalie Brady was
trying to fight off when she was stabbed to death. "If DNA from under the
victim's fingernails show she was fighting a male other than Amos,"
Scheck said, "that is strong evidence of innocence."
Likewise, 2 hairs found on Brady would now be tested by a method
different from one the Florida Department of Law Enforcement used a year
ago when the test results turned out to be inconclusive. During the
investigation, a microscopic exam was used to identify the hairs. But,
according to Scheck, the FBI has recently reported that method was wrong
11 % of the time when compared to DNA samples.
The defense request is much like one a St. Petersburg circuit court judge
rejected in January, said Carol Dittmar, assistant attorney general.
Because the attacker set the house on fire and Brady was dragged a
considerable distance by rescue workers, the crime scene was badly
contaminated, Dittmar said. "It has been 25 years since this murder
occurred," Dittmar said.
"The test is nothing more than an attempt to delay his execution."
The nonprofit Innocence Project specializes in cases in which post-
conviction DNA testing of evidence can yield conclusive proof of
innocence, Scheck said. So far, 116 people have been exonerated by DNA
testing, many after serving years in prison, Scheck said.
If King is executed, it will mean the end of a 10-month hiatus on
nonvoluntary executions in Florida and finish one of the toughest legal
assaults on the state's death penalty law since the U.S. Supreme Court
allowed states to resume executions in 1976. "It will be such a relief
when it is over," said Monica Watson, the victim's niece. "She was like
Aunt Bea on Mayberry. All of us who knew her loved her."
Abe Bonowitz, leader of Floridians for Alternatives to the Death Penalty,
criticized Gov. Jeb Bush for scheduling the execution. "It's unfortunate
that our education governor rescheduled the execution so quickly and
during the holiday season at that," Bonowitz said. "There are questions
in the King case that need to be looked at. I think Floridians want to be
assured that we have an accurate and fair system and right now this case
is raising a lot of questions."
King's execution was set for last February, but his attorneys
successfully argued that Florida's death penalty law was unconstitutional
because it was sufficiently similar to Arizona's, which was under review
by the U.S. Supreme Court at the time. The Arizona law was overturned
because it allowed a judge, not a jury, to decide facts used to warrant a
death sentence.
The U.S. Supreme Court gave King and fellow death row inmate Linroy
Bottoson stays of execution while it mulled Arizona's capital punishment
law and its relation to Florida's. Eventually the Florida high court
determined that the state's law is not contrary to the new Arizona
decision, and Bush reset the executions.
Bottoson is scheduled to be executed Friday for the murder of an Orlando
postmistress 23 years ago.
(source: Miami Herald)
Flurry of motions filed in case of Death Row killer
3 motions have been filed by attorneys for Amos King seeking to delay or
throw out the death sentence he received for killing an elderly Central
Florida woman.
King, 48, has been on death row for 25 years and is scheduled to die at 6
p.m. Monday at the Florida State Prison near Starke.
One motion filed late Friday requests DNA tests that could prove King's
innocence, defense attorney Peter Cannon said Saturday.
That motion asks for testing of a hair sample from a Caucasian and some
fingernail scrapings which could pin the murder on someone other than
King, Cannon said.
The other motions ask for a stay of execution and to vacate King's death
sentence, Cannon said. The motions were filed late Friday in Pinellas-
Pasco Circuit Court.
A hearing on the motions has not been scheduled but could take place this
weekend, Cannon said. A message left at the court Saturday was not
immediately returned.
Stay taken away
On Wednesday, the U.S. Supreme Court, on a 5-4 vote, granted Florida's
request to erase the stay granted a day before to King by the 11th U.S.
Circuit Court of Appeals in Atlanta.
King's reprieve involved his claim that a lawyer must be appointed to
represent him in a clemency petition to the state.
Separately, King has asked the Supreme Court whether Florida's death
sentencing law is invalid because it is similar to an Arizona law the
court found unconstitutional earlier this year. The law was struck down
because it allowed a judge, not a jury, to decide facts used to warrant a
death sentence.
The stay granted Tuesday by the Atlanta court was the 3rd reprieve King
has received this year - and Wednesday's order by the nation's highest
court was the 3rd time a reprieve has been overturned.
2nd execution scheduled
The state also plans to execute a 2nd man this week. Linroy Bottoson is
scheduled to be executed Friday for the murder of another elderly woman
in Central Florida 23 years ago.
The state planned to execute King and Bottoson 11 months ago, but the men
had been issued reprieves as the courts considered challenges to
Arizona's capital punishment law and its relation to Florida law.
King was condemned for murdering Natalie Brady, 68, in her Tarpon Springs
home in 1977 and setting the place ablaze after slipping away from a
work-release prison.
Bottoson, 63, was convicted of killing Catherine Alexander, the
Eatonville postmistress, in 1979. He robbed the 74-year-old woman, held
her captive for 83 hours, stabbed her 16 times and finally killed her by
running over her several times with a car.
(sources: St. Petersburg Times & Associated Press)
********************************************************************************
NCADP alert :
Amos King (FL)
Dec. 2, 2002
7:00 AM EST
The state of Florida is scheduled to execute Amos King for the 1976 murder
of Natalie Brady. In the 26 years since the murder, King's death sentence
has been argued before the U.S. Supreme Court, vacated, retried, and
reinstated. This year alone, King has received two stays - one from the U.S.
Supreme Court in February and another from the Florida Supreme Court in
July. King's pending execution represents the worst nightmare of the death
penalty process: this is a possible innocence case, tried against a
defendant with ineffective counsel.
On November 18, the U.S. Supreme Court announced its decision to reconsider
the guidelines for ineffective counsel claims in the case of Kevin Wiggins,
a Maryland death row inmate. The threshold for such claims is currently
based on Strickland v. Washington - the landmark 1984 decision that
determined what constitutes ineffective assistance of counsel.
King, a man forced to wage his life on state-appointed lawyers, has been
challenging the effectiveness of his trial counsel for over two decades. In
1983, the U.S. 11th Circuit Court of Appeals vacated his death sentence,
claiming he received ineffective assistance during the penalty phase of his
trial. The court found that his lead attorney, Thomas Cole, entered the
trial fatigued and unprepared. Cole, although an experienced criminal
defense lawyer, had been concentrating primarily on another case at the
time, and met with his client only twice before the trial. His support
attorney, Anthony Rondolino, joined the defense less than a week before the
trial began.
In vacating the initial death sentence, Judge Paul H. Roney of the 11th
Circuit Court of Appeals wrote: "King was convicted on circumstantial
evidence which however strong leaves room for doubt that a skilled attorney
might raise to a sufficient level that, though not enough to defeat
conviction, might convince a jury that the ultimate penalty should not be
exacted."
During the trial, Cole stated on the record: "Judge, I am beat, I have got
to go home and get some sleep." On another occasion he said: "I can't think
anymore." Of course, Cole represented King during the guilt phase of the
trial as well, and little evidence indicates that he provided effective
counsel at any point in the trial.
According to the state, King murdered Natalie Brady in the early hours of
March 18, 1977. An inmate at Tarpon Springs Community Correctional Center, a
minimum-security work release facility, King allegedly escaped in the middle
of the night, ran over to Brady's house, and proceeded to rob, sexually
assault, and stab her before lighting the house on fire.
Cole made several obvious errors while defending King, which several
appellate judges noted in their opinions. He offered minimal challenges to
critical pieces of evidence, including a kitchen knife a witness identified
despite not having seen it in over a decade. He also failed to present a
piece of potentially exculpatory evidence concerning hair samples found on
the victim's nightgown and sheets.
Several judges have argued in favor of reversing King's death sentence
again, citing "lingering doubt" about his guilt and the effectiveness of his
defense attorneys. Considering the circumstances - from the possibility of
innocence to the U.S. Supreme Court's decision to review ineffective counsel
standards - this case is a no-brainer: stay the execution until the high
court rules on Wiggins, then re-evaluate the sentence. Please write the
state of Florida and encourage a stay for Amos King.
Linroy Bottoson (FL)
King, 48, has been on Death Row for 25 years and is scheduled to die at 6 p.m. Monday at the Florida State Prison near Starke.
One motion filed late Friday requests DNA tests that could prove King's innocence, defense attorney Peter Cannon said Saturday.
That motion asks for testing of hair samples and fingernail scrapings from the victim, which could pin the murder on someone other than King, Cannon. said
The other motions ask for a stay of execution and to vacate King's death sentence, Cannon said. The motions were filed late Friday in Pinellas-Pasco Circuit Court.
A hearing on the motions has not been scheduled, but the court could act on these motions before Monday's scheduled
execution, Cannon said. A message left at the court Saturday was not immediately returned.
On Wednesday, the U.S. Supreme Court, on a 5-4 vote, granted Florida's request to erase the stay granted a day before to King by the 11th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals in Atlanta. In that case, King's reprieve involved his claim that a lawyer must be appointed to represent him in a clemency petition to the state.
The stay granted Tuesday by the Atlanta court was the third reprieve King has received this year -- and Wednesday's order by the nation's highest court was the third time a reprieve has been overturned.
King was condemned for murdering Natalie Brady, 68, in her Tarpon Springs home in 1977 and setting the place ablaze after slipping away from a work-release prison. The state also plans to execute Linroy Bottoson, 63, on Friday for
the murder of another woman 23 years ago.
Nov. 27
FLORIDA---stay of impending execution
Court issues stay of execution; clemency undecided
Amos King, set to die Monday evening for the murder of a Tarpon Springs
woman 25 years ago, got a stay of execution Tuesday from the 11th U.S.
Circuit Court of Appeals in Atlanta.
An Ohio attorney who represents King said the appeals court issued the
stay because it has yet to decide on a request that King be given an
attorney so he can file for a clemency hearing before Gov. Jeb Bush and
the Cabinet.
The issue before the Atlanta court stems from the state's refusal to
grant King a state-paid attorney for a 2nd clemency hearing, said Michael
Benza, of Cleveland, who represents King just on this issue.
King had a clemency hearing in the mid-1980s following his initial
conviction, Benza said. Later, when his death sentence was overturned by
an appeals court and he was resentenced by another jury, he became
eligible for another clemency review and an attorney to handle it.
A federal district judge in Tampa ruled that King, 48, is not entitled to
the attorney. Benza appealed to the 11th Circuit Court of Appeals. In a
1-sentence ruling Tuesday, Chief Judge J.L. Edmondson barred the
execution until further notice. Within hours, Florida attorneys asked the
U.S. Supreme Court to lift the stay. The 2 state lawyers most familiar
with the case were unavailable for comment Tuesday.
King and fellow death row inmate Linroy Bottoson have also appealed to
the U.S. Supreme Court on an issue unrelated to Tuesday's ruling. They
say that Florida's death penalty law is not in compliance with a recent
U.S. Supreme Court decision on the Arizona death penalty.
Their executions were postponed in February while the Supreme Court
examined a challenge to an Arizona death penalty law similar to
Florida's. In Arizona, judges, not jurors, decided who gets the death
penalty.
In Florida, jurors make a recommendation, but judges have the last word.
Just after the Arizona decision, the U.S. Supreme Court lifted the stays
of execution for King and Bottoson, but executions remained on hold
through the summer while the Florida Supreme Court studied the Florida
implications of the Arizona case. The Florida Supreme Court found no
conflict between Florida law and the new U.S. Supreme Court ruling and
lifted the stays last month. King was condemned for murdering Natalie
Brady, 68, in 1977, and setting her home on fire. He denies committing
the crime.
Bottoson, 63, condemned for the 1969 slaying of a postmaster from
Eatonville, east of Orlando, is set to die Dec. 6.
(sources: Miami Herald & Associated Press)
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