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 When a man's life is at stake, why is the State so insistent upon standing by results of old, outdated DNA testing when new techniques and methods are readily at hand that could produce a definitive outcome?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