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Current Events => General Discussion => Topic started by: Rebel Yell on May 13, 2008, 10:46:38 AM
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No death penalty in Sean Taylor case
By Evan S. Benn / McClatchy Newspapers
Tuesday, May 13, 2008 - Added 5h ago
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MIAMI - The four suspects accused of murdering Washington Redskins star Sean Taylor in his Palmetto Bay home will not face the death penalty.
They would still go to prison for life if convicted of first-degree murder and armed robbery in the Nov. 26 shooting.
Eric Rivera, 18; Venjah Hunte, 20; Charles Wardlow, 18; and Jason Mitchell, 20, all of the Fort Myers, Fla., area, have pleaded not guilty and are scheduled to go to trial in August.
Miami-Dade Assistant State Attorney Reid Rubin sent a notice last week informing the defendants’ attorneys his office would not be seeking the death penalty in the case.
"It’s not shocking or surprising to me that they elected not to go forward with it," Hunte’s attorney, Michael Hornung, said.
According to investigators, the young men drove to Taylor’s house to burglarize it. Mitchell had been at Taylor’s house for a birthday party two months before the shooting and told police he saw wads of cash there.
‘I was just like, ‘That’s a lot of money,’ " Mitchell said to police on Nov. 30, referring to $20,000 Taylor gave to his brother and sister.
Although Rivera told detectives that five people drove to Taylor’s house in a rented SUV, police have only made four arrests and have not identified the fifth person.
Rivera also told investigators that "all five of us" burned their clothing after they returned to Fort Myers. When a detective asked him why, Rivera replied: "Nobody can find out who did it."
Taylor, 24, a Pro Bowl safety and former University of Miami standout, was home with his girlfriend and their baby. Armed with a small machete, Taylor confronted the intruders and was shot in the groin. He died the next day at Jackson Memorial Hospital.
A grand jury indictment implicated Rivera as the shooter. He was 17 at the time of the shooting, which would have made him ineligible for the death penalty under Florida law.
Hornung said he believed that factored into prosecutors’ decision not to seek the death penalty for the other defendants.
"It would have been a real interesting legal dilemma if the alleged shooter would be immune to the death penalty, but the other participants would not have been," he said.
http://www.bostonherald.com/sports/football/other_nfl/view.bg?articleid=1093702&srvc=sports&position=recent
The shooter was 17 years 7 months old!!!! :banghead: He's a big enough man to break into another mans house and take that other man's life. By God, he's man enough to take his punishment.
I wouldn't be suprised if the attorneys didn't get the minor to take the fall for the actual killing so all the defendants would be immune to the deth penalty.