By Rafael Olmeda and Marc Freeman
Sun Sentinel
FORT LAUDERDALE, Fla. — South Florida juries appear to be less likely, so far, to send convicted killers to death row under the state’s newest death penalty law.
Two juries in Broward County decided to spare the lives of convicted killers in the past week in cases where capital punishment would have seemed likely just a few years ago.
On July 16, convicted cop killers Bernard Forbes, Eloyn Ingraham and Andre Delancy learned they would not face execution for the 2006 ambush murder of Broward Sheriff’s Deputy Brian Tephford.
And on July 19, Eric Montgomery’s life was spared by the same jury that convicted him of fatally shooting his stepdaughter in the face, chasing down her terrified mother and shooting her to death while his own grandmother physically tried to stop him, taking a bullet in the process.
In three first-degree murder trials in Palm Beach County since September, juries have recommended life sentences for the men they convicted.
The challenge appears to be the stringent requirement of the death penalty law passed in the spring of 2017. The state now requires juries to unanimously find at least one aggravating factor justifying the imposition of the death penalty, and a second unanimous vote recommending it.
“The requirement for unanimity was probably the biggest factor in why the jury spared their lives,” said Ingraham’s penalty-phase lawyer, Ed Salantrie, who added that the jury might have been troubled by one piece of missing information — no one knows exactly which defendant fired the bullets that killed Tephford.
Simple majorities were required before 2016, but a combination of federal and state supreme court decisions found that without a unanimous verdict, Florida’s death penalty process was unconstitutional.
“It would appear based solely on the fact that a unanimous verdict is now required rather than a majority verdict, it will be more difficult to secure a death penalty verdict under the current law,” Broward State Attorney Mike Satz said.
Since the newest law was enacted, Broward juries have rejected the death penalty in three of four cases. In each of those cases, the defense put up a fight, calling witnesses and urging jurors to show mercy. The unanimous death decision came against Peter Avsenew, convicted of killing a Wilton Manors couple near Christmas 2010, using their credit cards, stealing their car and trying to hide out at his mother’s house in Polk County.
After his conviction, Avsenew fired his defense lawyers and represented himself in front of the jury, making no effort to plead for his life or show a hint of remorse. “I have no regrets in my life and I am proud of the decisions I’ve made,” he said.
Defense lawyers and prosecutors agree that it’s too soon to determine whether the new law will result in a long term reduction in the number of capital sentences.
According to the state corrections department, Florida sent 12 inmates to death row in 2014 and 2015.
From 2017 to 2018 so far, four have been condemned: one each from Collier, Polk, Duval and St. John’s County.
But in Palm Beach, prosecutors have not gotten a death penalty since 1998, even under the old law.
©2018 the Sun Sentinel (Fort Lauderdale, Fla.)