Today's New Orleans Times-Picayune reports, "New Orleans judge voids death sentence for inmate convicted of 1995 triple murder." It's by John Simerman.
Louisiana's death row got one body lighter on Monday, when an Orleans Parish judge vacated the death sentence of a man convicted in a 1995 triple murder that claimed the ex-wife of a former Saints player. Criminal District Judge Frank Marullo upheld the conviction of Juan Smith, 37, in the execution-style murders of Tangie Thompson; her boyfriend, Andre White; and Devyn Thompson, her 3-year-old child, on Morrison Road. Tangie Thompson was the ex-wife of former Saint Bennie Thompson.
But Marullo nixed the death penalty, saying the jury was tainted by Smith's conviction months earlier in a separate murder case that the U.S. Supreme Court overturned in January.
In that case, a murder rampage on North Roman Street left five people dead, Smith was sentenced to five life prison terms.
That conviction was overturned by the high court, which ruled 8-1 that prosecutors violated Brady v. Maryland, the 1963 Supreme Court decision that said hiding evidence favorable to a defendant violates the constitutional right to due process.
Prosecutors tried Smith first in the Roman Street murders, then used his conviction in that case to help secure the death penalty in the 1996 trial in the Morrison Road killings. Smith declined to take the witness stand in the second case.
"I am reversing the death penalty in this case, and I am basing it upon the justices of the Supreme Court," Marullo said. "All but one, eight of them agreed. So, that should not have been a factor in the penalty phase."
Smith's attorneys argued that 85 percent of the evidence presented to the jury during the penalty phase of the Morrison Road killings related to his earlier conviction in the Roman Street murders.
"Louisiana: Execution Vacated in Linked Cases," is a brief item in the New York Times by Campbell Robertson.
A judge in New Orleans on Monday vacated the death sentence of a Louisiana man, five months after the United States Supreme Court tossed out his conviction in a different case because prosecutors did not turn over key evidence. The conviction of the man, Juan Smith, that was vacated by the Supreme Court was for his role in a 1995 mass murder.
Earlier coverage of the New Orleans Parish and prosecutorial misconduct issues begins at the link; also available, more on the Smith case in particular.
Comments