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State Won’t Seek Death Penalty In Gas Station Double Shooting
February 11, 2017
State Attorney Bill Eddins announced Friday that his office will not seek the death penalty aginst Terry Maurice Newkirk, Jr.
Newkirk is charged with two counts of first degree murder in the shooting deaths of Antonio Maurice Bullard and Antrone Marquis Moore at the Raceway gas station on Palafox and Mason Lane in November 2015. Bullard and Moore were both shot to death inside a SUV during a drug transaction at the gas pumps. Both were 26-years old.
“The decision not to seek the death penalty was made after completion of the discovery process and evaluation of the evidence available to prove the aggravating circumstances necessary to successfully obtain a death penalty verdict. Recent United States Supreme Court and Florida Supreme Court decisions have affected the death penalty evaluation process and were considered in making this decision,” Eddins said.
If convicted as charged, Newkirk will be facing a mandatory sentence of life in state prison without the possibility of parole.
Comments
12 Responses to “State Won’t Seek Death Penalty In Gas Station Double Shooting”
I respect the opinion of Law Enforcement Officers, however, I agree with Fred. Every convicted murderer should be executed in just a few years. Make no difference between 1st degree and 2nd. Make the method of execution match the crime and put video on the FDLE website. Make it painful and fewer years in jail. Less appeals and years means less cost too. Let the criminals out there see what will happen to them in a short time. There’s your deterrent, in my opinion.
Agree with Fred. Every convicted murderer should be executed in just a few years. No difference between 1st degree or 2nd. Make the method of execution match the crime and put video on the FDLE website. There’s your deterrent. Less appeals and years means less cost too.
I really don’t think Boyette even thought about any of this while on his killing spree. He probably knew how he would end it once he killed the first person.
Why should we pay for him to live a long life that is worse than death? Are not the prisons already crowded?
Want to make the death penalty effective? One: Get the bleeding hearts out of the equation. True the Constitution forbids cruel and unusual punishment but when it was drafted by our founders hanging was acceptable as punishment. Two: one or two appeals, no more than two years on death row. Three: Public execution of sentence.
Just my 2 cents
In order to be a deterrent, criminals would have to stop and think before they commit the murder, “man, I really want to kill this guy, but I don’t want to face the death penalty, so I won’t do it.” I don’t think that happens. States with death penalties don’t have any lower crime than those without, and it is so much more expensive to sentence somebody to death. I’m not opposed to the death penalty, I just don’t think it is effective the way we do it.
Bill Eddins needs to retire. Anyone see his interview during the boyette case where a reporter asked him if boyette had enough prior that he should’ve been in jail? His statement was he doesn’t want to waste court and jurors time trying a case that is not A very good chance he will win. Isn’t that what the courts are for? To try cases and decide if they are guilty or not? If that’s not the case and the state is only going to prosecute the proven guilty then why have a jury and court systems? Eddins has been in it too long and is only concerned about his “winning” record instead of the safety of the citizens of this state.
I doubt Boyette analyzed recent supreme court decisions before starting his killing spree.
Increasing severity of punishment has not been shown to reduce crime. Increasing certainty of punishment has.
How much worse does it really need to be? We need to get this death penalty issue resolved so that Florida, once again, had some sort of deterrent
The severity of punishment is not a factor when commiting a crime when they don’t believe they’ll be caught.
John, I agree with you, Florida needs to get their act together, just take him out back of the jail and save us all the BULLCRAP.,another worthless mouth to feed for life.
This is why We have the kinds of things that We did last week with Boyette, because We do not send a powerful message.