Opinion ID: 76034
Heading Depth: 4
Heading Rank: 2

Heading: Facts: Representation During the Penalty Phase of Trial

Text: 79 The penalty phase of Crawford's trial commenced the following morning. At this phase, the only additional evidence presented by the State was proof of two felonies of which Crawford had previously been convicted. 80 In support of Crawford, Siemon called several of Crawford's family members to the stand. First, he called Crawford's brother, Allen Crawford, who testified about his relation to Crawford and his own family and employment, and then he asked the jury to consider the effect on his parents of a death sentence. 81 Siemon then called Crawford's brother-in-law, Fred Clark, who basically only testified concerning his relation to Crawford and his own background, and, when asked if he had anything to tell the jury, responded: Just that we love him, and we'd like to continue to see him. Crawford's sister, Linda Varnum, testified next, and the totality of her testimony was that she was Crawford's sister, that she grew up in the area, and that she was a school teacher. Gleaton Love, Crawford's stepfather, testified that he and Crawford's mother regularly visited Crawford in prison. Crawford's son, Eddie Crawford, Jr., testified that he hoped that his father would come out of this ... [a]live. Finally, Crawford's mother, Margie Love, testified. Her testimony was limited to stating that she was Crawford's mother and that she had visited him on all but three weekends during the four years he had been incarcerated. With that, Siemon rested Crawford's case in mitigation. The entirety of the case in mitigation consisted of 15 pages of transcript. 82 In his closing argument, the prosecutor reviewed the evidence from the guilt-innocence phase of the trial and urged the jury to find three aggravating factors: 1) that the murder occurred during a kidnapping with bodily injury, 2) that the murder occurred in the course of a rape, and/or 3) that the murder was wantonly vile, horrible or inhumane, in that it involved torture, depravity of mind or an aggravated battery to the victim. The prosecutor also characterized Crawford as a three-time loser in light of his previous two felony convictions. 83 Siemon's closing argument focused largely of the effect on Crawford's family if he were to be executed. Siemon began: 84 Ladies and gentleman, [the prosecutor] was half right. He told you that I was going to come up here and ask you to have mercy on Eddie Crawford. He told you that I was going to ask you to give him a life sentence, not give him the death penalty in this case. Well, he's half right. I'm going to ask you not to give him the death penalty in this case, to have some mercy on him, but not so much to have mercy on him but to have mercy on his family. I didn't bring these people in here to say nice things about Eddie Crawford. I wanted y'all to meet the people who are going to be impacted the most by the decision y'all are about to make. Eddie Crawford's really not in a position to ask anybody to have mercy on him except in a religious sense, in a moral sense. 85 After asking for mercy on Crawford's family, Siemon also pointed again to some of the inconsistencies in the witnesses' testimony and to the alleged lack of diligence by the police in investigating other suspects, and asked the jury to consider any residual doubts they might have. Siemon concluded by again asking the jury to show mercy for Crawford's family. 86 After the jury began its deliberations, it came back to the court with the following question: The jury would like to know, could we fix a sentence of life imprisonment without parole. After discussing the issue with the attorneys, the court charged the jury that you are to presume that if you sentence the Defendant to life imprisonment, that the Defendant will spend the rest of his life in prison, and you are to presume that if you sentence the Defendant to death, that he will be electrocuted until dead. After further deliberations, the jury sentenced Crawford to death. The jury found that all three aggravating factors were present.