The state attorney's office for Brevard and Seminole Counties filed a motion of intent to seek the death penalty against a mother and her boyfriend after investigators accused the pair with a 3-year-old boy's death.
Death Penalty Nebraska FILE - This July 7, 2010, file photo shows Nebraska's lethal injection chamber at the State Penitentiary in Lincoln, Neb. Matt Maly, a conservative activist who opposes capital punishment on moral and fiscal grounds, said many Nebraskans still support capital punishment, but they’re not especially passionate about the issue. Robert Dunham, the Death Penalty Information Center's executive director, said many states seem to show “inertia” with the death penalty. “There are some crimes that are so heinous, so evil, that they deserve the death penalty,” Wagner said. Kleine, the Douglas County attorney, said he’ll continue to pursue death sentences out of respect for the voters who chose to keep capital punishment.
wftv.comORLANDO, Fla. – Orange-Osceola State Attorney Aramis Ayala will not seek the death penalty against Anthony Todt, who stands accused of killing his wife and three children at a home in Celebration last year. Ayala, who has made headlines in the past due to her stance on the death penalty, filed a notice of intent to not seek the death penalty in the case of Todt and several other high-profile cases. News 6 has reached out to Ayala, who did not seek re-election, for comment but has not heard back. He made similar claims in the two phone calls to his sister in March and April, suggesting that Megan Todt had tried to kill the children before. Todt told his sister in a phone call from jail that he couldn’t have stopped his family from being slain — because he wasn’t around.
MELROSE, Fla. – Prosecutors have decided to seek the death penalty in the case of a 30-year-old Florida man accused of killing two teenage brothers in their home over the summer. Officials filed a request notifying the court that they plan to pursue the death penalty against Mark Wilson Jr. after a grand jury indicted him Oct. 20 on two counts of first-degree murder, the Gainesville Sun reported. Wilson is accused of using a hammer and knife to kill 14-year-old Tayten Baker and 12-year-old Robert Baker in their home in August. State Attorney R.J. Larizza said his office consulted with the boys’ family prior to making the decision to seek death for Wilson, the newspaper reported. Wilson was the boyfriend of the boy’s aunt, and the family had allowed them to live in a shed in their backyard, officials said.
ORLANDO, Fla. The state Supreme Court is expected to hear oral arguments Tuesday surrounding the case against convicted killer Bessman Okafor. The state of Florida is seeking to have the death penalty reinstated against Okafor, who was sentenced to death row in 2015 for the murder of Alex Zaldivar. Okafors case was sent back for re-sentencing after a change in the law required a unanimous jury decision. However, the state Supreme Court reversed its own ruling and said an unanimous decision was not necessary for someone to be sentenced to death. Prosecutors asked a lower court earlier this year to reinstate Okafors death sentence but was denied.
