After a new trial is ordered decades after the first, prosecutors agree to a deal: life in prison.
By CHRIS TISCH, Times Staff Writer
Published January 19, 2006
LARGO - Twenty-two years ago, Angie Anderson begged a judge not to condemn her mother's killer to death row.
The judge sentenced James Floyd to die anyway.
Floyd sat on death row for 20 years before the Florida Supreme Court gave him a new trial last year.
Though Angie Anderson died several years ago, her niece decided to continue her fight. Elizabeth Blair called prosecutors and told them she did not want Floyd returned to death row.
On Tuesday, in a deal with prosecutors, Floyd was sentenced to life in prison.
"I did not want him to die, and I didn't want his family to suffer the murder of their father or their brother or their son," Blair said from her North Carolina home. "What good is anger and hatred."
Floyd will be eligible for parole around 2009, though it seems unlikely he will be freed, said Bruce Bartlett, Pinellas-Pasco chief assistant state attorney.
"It's been my experience that these violent felons are not released," said Bartlett, who estimates he has attended about 100 parole hearings.
Floyd was sentenced to death row in 1984 for the St. Petersburg murder of Blair's grandmother, 86-year-old Annie Bar Anderson.
Floyd was arrested after police caught him trying to cash Anderson's checks. He also was carrying a sock spattered with blood that was her type.
He was convicted and sent to death row. Two years later, the Florida Supreme Court gave Floyd a new trial because a judge gave the jury confusing instructions. He again was convicted and condemned.
Mrs. Anderson's daughter, Angie, a Christian missionary in Africa, pleaded after both trials that Floyd be spared. She even met with Floyd in prison.
"Mother believed and I believe that we must be instruments of the peace of God, which includes justice and mercy," Anderson said in court. "This young man must be punished, but give him life, a chance to become somebody, a chance to change."
Twenty years passed until March, when the state high court again ordered a new trial for Floyd. Defense attorneys discovered evidence had been withheld from Floyd's trial attorneys.
By this time, several key witnesses had died or could not be found. However, DNA tests of hair found on Anderson's sweater - technology not available 20 years ago - was matched to Floyd.
Still, the case was challenging enough that prosecutors agreed to a deal when the idea was broached by Floyd's attorney, Martin McClain.
"It's just much more difficult for a prosecutor to put together the bits and pieces of what happened 20 years ago," said prosecutor Mark McGarry.
Then there was Blair. She and most of her family wanted to see her aunt's wish carried out.
"It was great Christian witness, her forgiveness of Mr. Floyd," Blair said.
Floyd pleaded guilty to the murder in exchange for a life sentence. Though a life sentence today does not include the possibility of parole, the law in the 1980s allowed inmates to seek parole after 25 years.
McClain, who has been involved in several high-profile exonerations, said Floyd has an excellent record as a prison inmate and would not be a danger to society if he were paroled. "He's one of the most respectful, kind, nice, decent people I know," McClain said.
Blair didn't have an opinion about Floyd's parole.
"That's up to those more experienced with this than we are," she said.
