Amos asked the Judge if he could say something, and the Judge said yes. Amos threw his hands up in the air, started crying and said "why won't anybody believe me, Just give me DNA." The Judge asked the Attorney to approach and the subject was changed. NO ONE HELPED HIM TO GET DNA!
Sissel
June 10, 1977
May 10, 1991 articles
May 15 1991 article
Trooper, New York State Police, January 1963 By the way, as a
courtesy, the state give former Trooper/Counselor/Guard/Polygraph
Operator/Road Patroler "Deputy Dan"
McDonough an invitation to
Amos King's execution. |
SURE MAKES YOU WANT TO KNOW MORE ABOUT JAMES MCDONOUGH,
WHERE HE IS, WHAT HE IS, WHAT HE'S INTO... DOESN'T IT?
kl
Death Row Inmate Loses Bid to Fire His
Attorneys
By
Pat Leisner Associated Press Writer
Published: Jan 11, 2002
CLEARWATER, Fla. (AP) - A Circuit Court judge rejected a condemned inmate's request for new lawyers Friday, removing one more roadblock to his Jan. 24 execution for the 1977 murder of a Tarpon Springs widow. Judge Susan Schaeffer said Amos King has no valid reason to switch attorneys. King is scheduled to be executed for the stabbing death of 68-year-old Natalie Brady.
He had filed a handwritten petition accusing his publicly financed lawyers, April Haughey and Richard Kiley, of being pro-state and failing to use new evidence he gave them. The state Supreme Court ordered the hearing.
King accused Kiley and Haughey of being "corrupt and incompetent" during a hearing that lasted nearly three hours and at times was disjointed and rambling.
Schaeffer said Haughey and Kiley worked on King's case on both Christmas Eve and New Years Eve, and found a skillful way to get their points before the court through attachments when they were told to hold their motion to a 25-page limit.
And you have the audacity to file papers calling them corrupt?" the judge told King. "Don't you think that's a little unfair?"
One by one, Schaeffer went over the claims King, 47, raised in his nine-page motion. She listened while the longtime Death Row inmate explained his position.
King maintained a second paring knife was found and discarded, that police lied, his trial attorney was ineffective, he had trouble contacting his lawyers and he was not given a chance to testify.
Assistant State Attorney Marie King said the issues King raised had no legal merit.
Several times during the hearing, Schaeffer reprimanded him for interrupting or speaking out while she was talking.
As the hearing wore down, King told her she lacked patience.
You have been extremely hostile since you've been asking me questions," he said. "You interrupted my chain of thought."
Schaeffer replied: "Let the record reflect I only raised my voice a couple times, and I think that is remarkable. I have been very patient. Trust me. Look at these bailiffs grinning, they can't believe how patient I've been."
After a brief recess, King apologized.
Later, Haughey said she was preparing for oral arguments Tuesday before the state Supreme Court.
For 24 years, King has maintained his innocence.
The case against him was circumstantial, Haughey said. The only piece of evidence that could exonerate him through DNA testing - a sample from a vaginal washing - has been lost.
Before the hearing, 20 death penalty protesters held a brief news conference outside the courthouse. "Execute justice, not people," read buttons worn by Floridians for Alternatives to the Death Penalty.
The system is undermined when you have political appointees who answer to a governor who refuses to recognize there are serious flaws in the death penalty system in this state," said Abe Bonowitz, the group's director.
AP-ES-01-11-02 1907EST
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Apprendi does not apply in Florida - was the ruling FSC gave on Todds motion in Gregory Mills. So it is an open question if it may apply now.
The CCRC Middle raised Apprendi now in Amos case, but it is not helpful to raise such new issues in a warrant case, because Florida Supreme Court is a hostile court in warrant cases.
Amos case is also a very old case - resentencing back in 1980s and the US Supreme tends to apply new rulings only to new cases - example Lambrix versus Singletary
So it is much too early to say how Apprendi now will apply in Florida and I would not hope it is the Middle lawyers who now argue this and destroy the issue for coming cases.
This is about strategy. It is not about justice.
Sissel
Condemned man fails to fire lawyers
The 47-year-old man said his attorneys were pro-state and failed to use evidence he provided them. A Pinellas-Pasco circuit judge disagrees.
By WILLIAM R. LEVESQUE, Times Staff Writer
© St. Petersburg Times
published January 12, 2002
-------------------------------------------------------------------
LARGO -- A man awaiting a Jan. 24 execution for the 1977 killing of a Tarpon Springs woman failed on Friday in his bid to fire his attorneys because he says they are "corrupt and incompetent."
Amos Lee King, 47, asked a Pinellas-Pasco judge for permission to fire his attorneys after complaining about a litany of problems, including his perception that they are pro-state and that they failed to use new evidence he has provided them.
But Circuit Judge Susan Schaeffer denied his request, telling King that attorneys for Capital Collateral Regional Counsel are providing him excellent representation and doing all they can to save his life.
King, who has a history of firing his attorneys, sought the appointment of different attorneys from another Capital Collateral office and threatened to drop all his appeals if the judge didn't grant his wish.
"You don't do yourself or them any favors by constantly haranguing them," Schaeffer told King after a three-hour hearing. "They've got work to do. . . . This isn't really the time."
King backed down from his threat to drop his appeals after Schaeffer warned him that doing so guaranteed his execution.
"You're not going to be here on the 24th if you throw out your appeal this time," the judge told him.
King, during an often rambling and disjointed discourse, accused Schaeffer of "being extremely hostile" in questioning him about his complaints. "You interrupt my chain of thoughts," he said.
"Let the record reflect," Schaeffer responded, "I only raised my voice a couple of times and I think that is remarkable. Look at these bailiffs grinning. They can't believe how patient I've been."
At one point, King complained that his attorneys hadn't done enough to explain why the clothing he wore the day of the killing disappeared. He appeared to suggest that his attorneys ignored his requests to help him find the clothing.
He said the clothes aren't bloody, as they would be if he were the killer. The production of that unblemished clothing, he said, would exonerate him.
But Schaeffer had little patience for the complaint, noting that King is the reason the clothing disappeared. He admits getting rid of it before his arrest.
"I turned them over to someone," King said.
"Not the police," the judge said. "You got rid of them, didn't you?"
"I didn't throw those clothes away," King said, saying he gave them to a friend. "If that person (were) still living, I'd be out of prison today."
The Florida Supreme Court ordered Schaeffer to hold Friday's hearing to see if there was merit to his claims about the attorney's incompetence. The hearing was attended by death penalty opponents.
On July 8, 1977, a jury convicted King of murdering 68-year-old Natalie Brady after escaping from the Tarpon Springs Work Release Center, where he was serving time for a parole violation.
He raped, choked and stabbed her and then set fire to her house. He was then spotted by corrections officer James "Dan" McDonough trying to get back into the correctional facility. The two struggled and McDonough was stabbed 24 times.
King fled, but he surrendered to authorities the following day.
The next step for King's attorneys is oral arguments before the Florida Supreme Court on Tuesday. The lawyers say that key evidence that could be used for DNA testing to exonerate King was long ago lost by the Pinellas Medical Examiner's Office.
April Haughey, one of King's lawyers, said that evidence -- a sample of the attacker's semen -- could have been tested using DNA technology not available in 1977 and might have helped clear King.
It is the same Medical Examiner [re Valdes' murder] they now put the blame on for destroying Amos' evidences that could have saved him, but I am starting to see she is used as a scapegoat for the crime-lab/Sherriff's Office own destruction of that evidences.
They know she is ill and cannot testify and this way she is easy to use. That makes them escape from any complaints themselves and make also as if the destruction has happened much earlier than reality to escape the new rules in the later years to be able to kill Amos.
What I am looking into now is so corrupt you can not believe it.
My view is now that Amos evidences were destroyed by the law enforcement themselves and this is the way they do it. The transcript we got from one of his hearings show me how they are manipulating with the facts.
Joan Wood was fired by the same man - Bernt McCabe who "happens" to be Amos' prosecutor who sent his rest DNA to FDLE so they could say there is nothing left and who knew he could use Wood to put the blame on.
We do not reach to get his out and proved before Amos die, but this is what has happened.
I intend to get ALL transcripts even if that should make me forced to start to work again.
Sissel
It looks like this killing will go forward.
Feel free to call 800-973-6548 to check on last minute stays,
or simply follow the news....
paz!
--abe****
P R E S S R E L E A S E
from
F L O R I D I A N S FOR A L T E R N A T I V E S
TO THE DEATH PENALTY (FADP)
26 February 2003
FADP CONTACT: Abe Bonowitz: 800-973-6548
INNOCENCE PROJECT CONTACT: David Menschel: 212-790-0479
JOURNEY OF HOPE ... CONTACT: Bill Pelke: 305-775-5823
SueZann Bosler: 305-607-8788
THE HEIGHT OF ARROGANCE: THE KILLING OF AMOS KING
There is reason for doubt: How can Jeb Bush be so sure?
As Florida prepares to execute Amos King despite significant questions left
unresolved regarding his actual guilt, Floridians for Alternatives to the
Death Penalty condemns Governor Bush for his ignorance and
arrogance. Amos King is scheduled to be exterminated by the people of the
state of Florida on February 26, 2003, at 6pm, in revenge for his alleged
murder of Natalie Brady.
"We remember the victim, Natalie Brady," said Abe Bonowitz, director of
FADP, "But not with more killing. It is particularly galling that Governor
Bush suggests that he is killing King "for the victims." That is a
disingenuous statement given the fact that the evidence against King is
entirely circumstantial. The nutshell here is that there is no conclusive
evidence to point to Amos King. I don't believe that Governor Bush wants
to leave himself open to the accusation that he killed a prisoner where
there was doubt about the man's guilt, but that is exactly what he is doing."
Floridians will stage simultaneous "Murder in Progress" demonstrations this
evening in the hour leading up to the killing in at least six Florida
cities. For details, please see http://www.fadp.org/localprotests.html
Among the protesters outside Florida State Prison will be Abe Bonowitz,
director of FADP, as well as SueZann Bosler and Bill Pelke, both murder
victim family members and co-founders of the group Journey of Hope ...From
Violence to Healing. ( http://www.journeyofhope.org ). Contact
information for these individuals is listed above. Additionally, Amos
King's spiritual advisor, The Rev. Kobutsu Malone, will be available for
comment after the killing and may be reached via Abe Bonowitz at 561-371-5204.
Floridians for Alternatives to the Death Penalty (FADP) has established a
web page highlighting the major questions still unresolved in the case of
Amos King. The new section of FADP's web page features an outline format
raising major questions at http://www.fadp.org/amoskinginnocent.html , as
well as a longer text summary prepared by David Menschel of the Innocence
Project at http://www.fadp.org/amoskingsummary.html .
Floridians for Alternatives to the Death Penalty calls on Governor Bush to
commute Amos King's death sentence to life without the possibility of
parole, and to enact an immediate "Time-Out" on executions in Florida.
Abraham J. Bonowitz, Director
Floridians for Alternatives to the Death Penalty (FADP)
800-973-6548 http://www.fadp.org fadp@fadp.org
PMB 297, 177 U.S. Highway #1, Tequesta, FL 33469
AMOS KING UPDATE
by Abe Bonovich
