During the jury selection, Clevenger said he thought he could set aside his beliefs if he were the lone holdout in imposing the death penalty. Simon and Staples both were charged in the murder of Police Sgt. Gonzalez, wearing his dead brother's pin from the Fraternal Order of Police, said afterward that he didn't buy the argument that Simon's guilty plea was coerced. In Indianapolis, prosecutors on Tuesday reversed course and decided not to seek the death penalty for a dying murder defendant. Instead, they will seek life in prison without parole for Tony J. Martin, who is suffering from brain cancer.
Martin faces murder, robbery and conspiracy charges.
Until late Tuesday afternoon, prosecutors had sought an execution for Martin, despite his medical condition. But Marion County Prosecutor Scott Newman said he had decided to dismiss the death penalty request for Martin's trial Oct. 13. An independent medical review a few weeks ago concluded that Martin's life expectancy was no more than 3 years, Newman said. Tony Martin will die before he could possibly be executed. That really left us no choice but to drop the death penalty request and seek life without parole.