Opinion ID: 2156968
Heading Depth: 1
Heading Rank: 8

Heading: business-robbery murders: f-2 (selected cases)

Text: (1) JOHN DOWNIE At 3:35 a.m. on Christmas morning, Downie robbed a gas station. He fired two shots at the gas-station attendant. The first shot missed, but the second shot hit the attendant in the chest and killed him. As Downie ran from the gas station, a police officer observed him. Downie shot at the officer four times, but none landed. Possessing cash he stole from the gas station, Downie hid in the woods. The AOC narrative describes Downie as an avidly religious, emotionally disturbed male whose family is dysfunctional and chaotic. Downie's mother suffered from depression. His father fathered a child in an extramarital affair and was rarely home. A psychologist described Downie's family as schizophrenic. When a schoolchild, Downie's peers ridiculed him and called him Fatty. Because he was disruptive in school, school authorities referred him to a Child Study team. When Downie was seventeen or eighteen years old, his parents moved to Florida, and they refused to let him move with them despite his desire to do so. As a result, Downie lived in a household where he was beaten and abused, and where drugs and alcohol were consumed at parties. Downie had suffered a head trauma that may have caused organic personality syndrome. He was twenty-four years old when he committed the robbery-murder, but he was much less mature than most people his age. He was unmarried and never had a steady girlfriend. He was a high-school graduate who worked odd jobs. He has no prior criminal record. On the night of the crime, he had intended to commit suicide to get even with his family. He changed his mind though and decided to commit a robbery instead. Downie confessed his crime to a probation officer in between the trial and noncapital sentencing. Although his attorney claimed that Downie's brother, who died from a drug overdose three months after the murder, committed the crimes, a jury convicted Downie of capital murder, felony murder, attempted murder, robbery, and possession of a weapon for an unlawful purpose. At the ensuing penalty phase, a jury found the c(4)(g) (felony murder) but rejected the c(4)(f) (escape detection) aggravating factor. The jury found the c(5)(a) (extreme emotional disturbance), c(5)(c)(age), c(5)(d) (diminished capacity), c(5)(f) (no prior record), and c(5)(h) (catch-all) mitigating factors. The jury determined that Downie should not be sentenced to death. The court imposed an aggregate sentence of life imprisonment plus eighteen years with a thirty-six-year parole disqualifier. (2) KHALIF JAMES James and co-defendants Lawrence McGriff and Jason Means were intoxicated and driving around when James and McGriff decided to rob a gas station. After getting out of the car, James asked McGriff if he wanted to go through with the robbery. McGriff answered affirmatively and they walked to the station. James pistol whipped the gas-station attendant. A guard dog bit McGriff, and James drew his gun purportedly to shoot the dog. Then, the attendant attacked McGriff, and James and McGriff shot the attendant, who died from four gunshot wounds, including one to his head. James was a nineteen-year-old high-school graduate who had worked at a fast-food restaurant. He occasionally used alcohol or marijuana. He had no prior adult convictions. James confessed to shooting the gas-station attendant; however, he claimed that he had tried to shoot the attendant in the leg and had thought he shot him in the back. The State did not prosecute James capitally. A jury convicted him of purposeful-or-knowing murder, felony murder, robbery, and weapons offenses. The court sentenced him to an aggregate term of life imprisonment with thirty years of parole ineligibility. The AOC coded as present the c(4)(g) (felony murder), c(5)(c)(age), c(5)(d) (diminished capacity), c(5)(f) (no prior record), and c(5)(h) (catch-all) factors. (3) HAROLD RODRIGUEZ Rodriguez and co-defendant Marceliano Guetierrez attempted to rob a gas station. Rodriguez shot and killed a customer. He also shot the gas-station owner six times. The owner survived but was hospitalized for two and one-half weeks. Rodriguez and Guetierrez's involvement in another robbery, in which they shot a woman in the leg, led to their apprehension for the murder. Rodriguez was a thirty-seven-year-old father of three children. He was an illegitimate child who had been raised by his father. When Rodriguez was fourteen years old, he ran away from home. He was unemployed when he committed the murder, but he had previously worked as a machine operator. He used heroin and cocaine daily for twenty years and had a prior conviction for marijuana possession. There is no indication that he had emotional problems in addition to substance abuse. However, he had AIDS. Rodriguez pleaded guilty to conspiracy to commit murder, murder, attempted murder, robbery (two counts), and weapons offenses. The court sentenced him to an aggregate term of life imprisonment with a thirty-year parole disqualifier. The AOC coded as present the c(4)(b) (grave risk of death to others), c(4)(g) (felony murder), c(5)(d) (diminished capacity), and c(5)(h) (catch-all) factors. LONG, J., dissenting. Robert Morton, a 25 year old man with no prior criminal record, emotional problems and an extremely limited intellectual capacity, was befriended by a sophisticated career criminal named Alonzo Bryant. In Bryant's thrall, Morton agreed to participate in a gas station robbery in which Michael Eck was stabbed to death. The jury, nearly unanimously, concluded that but for Bryant, Morton would never have been involved in the crime. Despite that, Morton was sentenced to death and Bryant to life. Because of my abiding belief that the sentence imposed on Morton was not only disproportionate to that of Bryant, the mastermind of the crime, but also to the sentences imposed on other defendants with similar characteristics who committed factually similar murders, I dissent.