Carlie Brucia rapist/murderer gets death penalty

[alicia-w]

http://www.storm2k.org/phpbb2/viewtopic.php?t=78628

JUDGE ORDERS DEATH FOR SMITH

STAFF REPORT



SARASOTA – Joseph P. Smith was formally sentenced to death this afternoon for killing 11-year-old Carlie Brucia. He was sentenced to life in prison without parole for kidnap and rape.

Circuit Judge Andrew Owens’ decision to sentence Smith to death was not a surprise. The jury that found Smith guilty in November recommended 10-2 that he die for the crimes. Owens was required to give that recommendation “great weight.”

Smith, 39, an unemployed auto mechanic and convicted drug abuser, tearfully apologized for the crime last month. He asked Owens to spare his life and presented more evidence of his persistant drug and mental health problems.

Yet Owens found the aggravating factors of the crime - Smith’s previous felony convictions, Carlie’s age and the capital felony being especially heinous, atrocious or cruel - outweighed any mitigating factors.

Smith was high on cocaine when a surveillance camera captured him in the act of abducting Carlie behind a car wash on Bee Ridge Road on Feb. 1, 2004.

That snippet of videotape, and the discovery of Carlie’s body several days later, captivated the nation and outraged the community.

An appeal of the sentence to the state Supreme Court is automatic under state law. Today was likely Smith’s final appearance in Sarasota County before moving to death row.

A death row cell is 6 feet wide, 9 feet deep and 9.5 feet high. The average death row inmate spends about 12 years there before they are executed, according to the state Department of Corrections.

Death cases move slowly in Florida and cost taxpayers millions. Each case goes through as many as nine appeals steps before an inmate runs out of options.

One professor estimated that the typical cost for a death penalty case is about $1.3 million, while prison costs about $48 a day, according to Seminole Circuit Judge O.H. Eaton Jr.

Death Row inmates are counted at least once an hour. They are escorted in handcuffs and wear them everywhere except in their cells, the exercise yard and the shower.

And except for medical treatment, exercise, social or legal visits or media interviews, they are in their cells at all times.

[vbhoutex]

Locked since ther is another thread about this.