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Florida Supreme Court Rejects Santa Rosa County Death Row Appeal
March 30, 2018
The Florida Supreme Court on Thursday rejected appeals by two Death Row inmates who were convicted of murdering women in the 1990s in Santa Rosa and Hillsborough counties.
One of the appeals was filed by Norman Grim, who was sentenced to death in the 1998 murder of Cynthia Campbell, whose body was found by a fisherman floating off the Pensacola Bay Bridge, according to a brief by Attorney General Pam Bondi’s office.
victim, who was wrapped in a sheet, a shower curtain and masking tape, had been beaten in the face and suffered multiple stab wounds to the chest.
The other appeal was filed by Samuel Smithers, who was convicted in the 1996 murders of Cristy Cowan and Denise Roach. The bodies of the women were found in a Hillsborough County pond, with a 2002 Supreme Court summary of the case saying both women had been strangled and suffered other injuries, including “chop” wounds to Cowan’s head.
The appeals dealt with issues related to a 2016 U.S. Supreme Court ruling in an Escambia County case known as Hurst v. Florida and a subsequent Florida Supreme Court decision.
The 2016 U.S. Supreme Court ruling found Florida’s death-penalty sentencing system was unconstitutional because it gave too much authority to judges, instead of juries. The subsequent Florida Supreme Court ruling said juries must unanimously agree on critical findings before judges can impose death sentences and must unanimously recommend the death penalty.
Juries unanimously recommended death sentences for Grim and Smithers.
But the appeals decided Thursday involved questions about the other findings needed to sentence defendants to death.
Chief Justice Jorge Labarga and justices R. Fred Lewis, Alan Lawson, Charles Canady and Ricky Polston agreed to reject both appeals. Justice Barbara Pariente supported rejecting the appeal in the Smithers case but dissented in the Grim case. Justice Peggy Quince dissented in both cases.
by The News Service of Florida
Comments
5 Responses to “Florida Supreme Court Rejects Santa Rosa County Death Row Appeal”
Every convicted murderer should be executed in a manner that matches how they killed their victims and should be done within 5 years, maybe 10. They are NOT afraid of lethal injection.
In my opinion, Justice Quince should not be re-affirmed at election time.
sounds like Peggy and Babs need to find new jobs.
as far as Grim and Smithers, what, you guys think you are Timothy Hurst or something? you obviously didn’t get a “bad trial” like he did, you can’t too many of the public to fawn over you. too bad. what state is it, Alabama, where you get a choice of “riding the lightning” or going to sleep? one last intense life experience sounds like the way to go.
Juries voted unanimously for death…Let the jury do their job and forget appeals. These killers are just cowards afraid to die. I bet their victims wanted to live longer too….
These killers should have been executed years ago.
The scared murderers sense that the devil, him come a calling…