Local News: Bay death sentences likely won't be changed
Wednesday, June 26, 2002

SUPREME COURT RULING: Local cases followed recommendations by juries.

DAVID ANGIER

The News Herald

It’s unlikely, say local attorneys, that any of Bay County’s six death row inmates will benefit from the U.S. Supreme Court’s decision Monday to make juries, not judges, responsible for handing down death sentences.

Juries recommended death for Kayle Bates, Darryl Barwick, Charles Foster, James A. Card, Mark Geralds and Roderick Orme. The judges in those cases followed the jury recommendations.

All of those sentences have withstood appeals up to this point. It remains to be seen if those defendants will appeal their sentences based on the high court’s recent decision.

The Supreme Court decided in the case of Ring v. Arizona that juries must decide whether defendants should be sentenced to death. In Florida, juries recommend sentences of life or death in capital cases and a judge makes a final ruling.

Prosecutors in the state were saying this week that the high court’s decision would affect nine cases statewide in which a judge sentenced a defendant to die despite a jury’s recommendation for life in prison. There are 370 inmates awaiting execution in Florida.

Nationwide, about 3,700 people await execution for crimes committed in the 38 states that allow the death penalty.

14th Judicial Circuit Assistant Public Defender Walter Smith, who specializes in capital murder cases for the circuit that includes Bay County, said current cases won’t be affected as much as future death cases.

Smith said he expects the state to adopt a unanimous, or high majority, jury recommendation for death, which is the way the federal system is structured. Right now, a simple majority of jurors has to recommend death.

"I’m in favor of it," Smith said of the unanimous recommendation. "The only two death sentences I’ve gotten have been on 7-5 votes. I think I have a pretty good shot of convincing one or two jurors that death is inappropriate. That’s where I hope we end up."

He said he knows of a few cases in the state where jurors have all agreed on a death sentence, and it was for the worst cases.

In Bay County, Barwick was sentenced to death on a unanimous recommendation. He was convicted of stabbing to death Rebecca Ray Wendt in 1986.

"When you get those really horrendous cases, juries will come back 12-0 in favor of death," Smith said.

He said he wouldn’t be surprised to see the Legislature and courts do away with the state’s recommendation system and put the sentence in the jury’s hands. He said he thinks it will make an impact on their decision if jurors know that they are sending a man to his death, rather than simply recommending a judge do it.

Something else that might affect future capital cases is a recent revision of the Rules of Criminal Procedure that requires defense attorneys handling death cases to meet certain requirements.

Smith is one of only a handful of attorneys in Bay County that are now "death qualified."

Starting with the trial of Paul Glen Everett later this year, Smith will begin the process of qualifying other members of the Public Defenders Office. Attorney Stan Peacock will assist - or second chair - at Everett’s trial.

Everett, 23, faces the death penalty if convicted of the beating death of Kelli Bailey in her Panama City Beach home.

Assisting in a capital trial is one of several requirements that lawyers will have to complete before being qualified to defend people faced with the death penalty.

"I’m not real enthusiastic about it," Smith said of having co-counsel. "I don’t really want somebody helping me. But if I get hit by a Greyhound bus then (the Public Defender’s Office) is going to have to conflict out all of the capital cases, and there’s only a few attorneys in the area that can do them."

Attorney Mike Hunter might find himself second-chairing a case that he’s currently handling by himself. Hunter represents Tommy Crutchfield, who is charged with second-degree murder.

Crutchfield, 20, is accused of participating in the murder and robbery of Michael Knockel on March 13.

The state charged Crutchfield with second-degree murder, but has threatened to take the case before a grand jury to see if it qualifies as a death-penalty case. If a grand jury indicts Crutchfield of first-degree murder, Hunter, who is not death qualified, would have to find another attorney who is qualified to take the lead in the case while he stayed on as second chair.

Hunter said he didn’t think it would to come to that, however.

Tim Warner, a Panama City attorney who is qualified to defend in capital cases, said being unqualified would probably prevent an attorney from being appointed to these kinds of cases. In addition, if a defendant hires a lawyer that isn’t death qualified it could cause problems after trial.

The Florida Supreme Court intended to make sure all potential death defendants received competent representation when it implemented the qualifications.

"It’s definitely a specialized area of practice," Warner said.

The writer can be contacted at dangier@pcnh.com