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Thread: Maddie Clifton's killer, Joshua Phillips, could go free, family fears

  1. #1
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    Maddie Clifton's killer, Joshua Phillips, could go free, family fears





    By Jeremy Grey
    AL.com

    Family members of an 8-year-old girl killed in Florida in 1998 say they fear a ruling by the U.S. Supreme Court could set her killer free.

    Joshua Phillips, now 31, was convicted in the murder of Maddie Clifton and was sentenced to life without parole, News 4 Jax reports. At the time of the murder, Phillips was 14.

    The Supreme Court in 2012, in a case that originated in Alabama, ruled minors could not be sentenced to life without parole.

    "Phillips may not get parole for killing Maddie but the Supreme Court's ruling means his sentencing can be reviewed by a judge," the station reported. Phillips' attorney has until Jan. 8 to file re-sentencing motions, the report stated.

    "Unfortunately with this law being passed, we are very anxious to see what happens with a possible re-sentencing hearing," Maddie's sister wrote in a statement to Action News Jax.

    "This is all in God's hands and Maddie lives in our hearts everyday."

    Maddie had been playing in front of a neighbor's house just before dinner time when she vanished on Nov. 3, 1998, The New York Times reported at the time.

    She was found dead under Phillips' water bed several days later.

    http://www.al.com/news/index.ssf/201...l#incart_river
    "I realize this may sound harsh, but as a father and former lawman, I really don't care if it's by lethal injection, by the electric chair, firing squad, hanging, the guillotine or being fed to the lions."
    - Oklahoma Rep. Mike Christian

    "There are some people who just do not deserve to live,"
    - Rev. Richard Hawke

    “There are lots of extremely smug and self-satisfied people in what would be deemed lower down in society, who also deserve to be pulled up. In a proper free society, you should be allowed to make jokes about absolutely anything.”
    - Rowan Atkinson

  2. #2
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    August 11, 2017

    After 4-day hearing, Josh Phillips returning to prison

    In prison since age 14, Phillips to be resentenced in Maddie Clifton murder

    News4JAX.com
    By Chris Parenteau

    JACKSONVILLE, Fla. - After a four-day hearing, 33-year-old Josh Phillips will return to prison not knowing if he will ever get out on his conviction at age 15 in the murder of his neighbor, Maddie Clifton.

    Hours earlier, the 8-year-old's mother pleaded with judge to keep him in prison.

    "The defendant now wants a second chance to live a second life. What does Maddie get to appeal her death sentence to?" Shelia DeLongis said. "Should he ever released from prison, I pray that I will no longer be on this earth."

    Phillips, who has been in prison for more than half his life for killing Maddie, was ordered resentenced after a U.S. Supreme Court ruling that life-without-parole sentences of juveniles are unconstitutional.

    The state wants Phillips sentenced to life in prison with a review in 25 years, while the defense is asking for a 40-year sentence with credit for the 19 years he has already served. That would allow Phillips to go free at age 55.

    The defense attorney asked the judge should rule on the man Phillips has become, not the 14-year-old who killed Maddie in 1998. But the prosecutor argued that the manner in which Maddie was killed, the hiding of her body, participating in the search and even having a missing persons flyer in his bedroom cannot be discounted.

    Circuit Judge Waddell Wallace said he would take the case under advisement and would not announce Phillips' sentence until after a Sept. 22 hearing. He ordered Phillips be returned to prison until that hearing.

    Earlier in the day, Maddie's father, motherand older sister made victim impact statements.

    "We were raising our girls in a Christian home where we prayed every day. What we didn't know was that the devil himself had moved in right across the street. The same devil that picked up his flashlight and proceeded to look for her, knowing good and well where she was the whole time," DeLongis said.

    "Joshua's incarceration isn't going to bring Maddie back or restore the lives of our family, but a punishment must be applied," Maddie's father, Steve Clifton said. "I believe Joshua Phillips should spend the rest of his life in prison for what he took from us all."

    "When I needed somebody to talk to, there was nobody. Nobody understood me," Maddie's sister, Jessie Clifton, told the judge. "There are days when I go to the cemetery and I sit down in the grass because I don't have anybody else to talk to, so I talked to her and the ground."

    Thursday morning, a former Jacksonville Sheriff's Office evidence technician who photographed Josh Phillips' bedroom, where Maddie Clifton was found dead in November 1998, testified Thursday that it was one of the worst murder scenes he worked in 16 years on the job.

    He was one of two former Jacksonville police officers who worked the murder case that led to the arrest of the 14-year-old neighbor of the Clifton family.

    A former JSO homicide sergeant also testified, showing the bat used to kill the 8-year-old and recounted the interview in which Phillips admitted hitting the girl, and when she hadn't died, stabbing her.

    https://www.news4jax.com/news/final-...clifton-murder
    "I realize this may sound harsh, but as a father and former lawman, I really don't care if it's by lethal injection, by the electric chair, firing squad, hanging, the guillotine or being fed to the lions."
    - Oklahoma Rep. Mike Christian

    "There are some people who just do not deserve to live,"
    - Rev. Richard Hawke

    “There are lots of extremely smug and self-satisfied people in what would be deemed lower down in society, who also deserve to be pulled up. In a proper free society, you should be allowed to make jokes about absolutely anything.”
    - Rowan Atkinson

  3. #3
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    Resentencing date set for Maddie Clifton's killer

    In prison since age 14, Josh Phillips to be resentenced in 1998 murder

    By News4Jax.com News Staff

    JACKSONVILLE, Fla. - Joshua Phillips will be resentenced in the 1998 murder of 8-year-old Maddie Clifton.

    The hearing has been set for Nov. 17.

    Phillips, now 33, was 14 years old when he hit his neighbor, Maddie, repeatedly with a baseball bat, slit her throat and hid her body in his bed as police, family and strangers searched for the little girl for a week.

    Phillips was sentenced to life without parole at age 15 -- a sentence that the U.S. Supreme Court declared unconstitutional in 2012.

    That ruling allowed Phillips a resentencing hearing, which was held in August. During the four-day hearing, Phillips apologized to the Clifton family.

    The state wants Phillips sentenced to life in prison with a review in 25 years, while the defense is asking for a 40-year sentence with credit for the 19 years he has already served. That would allow Phillips to go free at age 55.

    https://www.news4jax.com/news/resent...-josh-phillips
    "I realize this may sound harsh, but as a father and former lawman, I really don't care if it's by lethal injection, by the electric chair, firing squad, hanging, the guillotine or being fed to the lions."
    - Oklahoma Rep. Mike Christian

    "There are some people who just do not deserve to live,"
    - Rev. Richard Hawke

    “There are lots of extremely smug and self-satisfied people in what would be deemed lower down in society, who also deserve to be pulled up. In a proper free society, you should be allowed to make jokes about absolutely anything.”
    - Rowan Atkinson

  4. #4
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    Josh Phillips Sentenced to Life in Prison

    Wallace: Phillips had a cold detachment after killing Maddie Clifton.

    Wallace: Phillips has done well in prison and I commend him for that.

    Wallace: there is no explanation for the detachment, coldness, or callous nature of this crime.

    Wallace: says the community would suffer if Phillips was let free.

    BREAKING: Judge Wallace resentences Josh Phillips to life in prison for the murder of Maddie Clifton.

    Judge tells Phillips that even in prison, there is a chance for him to have a meaningful life.

    https://twitter.com/WJXTChris
    "I realize this may sound harsh, but as a father and former lawman, I really don't care if it's by lethal injection, by the electric chair, firing squad, hanging, the guillotine or being fed to the lions."
    - Oklahoma Rep. Mike Christian

    "There are some people who just do not deserve to live,"
    - Rev. Richard Hawke

    “There are lots of extremely smug and self-satisfied people in what would be deemed lower down in society, who also deserve to be pulled up. In a proper free society, you should be allowed to make jokes about absolutely anything.”
    - Rowan Atkinson

  5. #5
    Administrator Helen's Avatar
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    Life sentence upheld for Maddie Clifton’s killer

    1st District Court of Appeal rejects Joshua Phillips’ claim that sentence was out of proportion to crime

    By News4JAX.com

    TALLAHASSEE, Fla. – In one of the highest-profile cases in Jacksonville in recent decades, a state appeals court Tuesday upheld the life sentence of a neighbor convicted in the 1998 murder of 8-year-old Maddie Clifton.

    Joshua Phillips, who was 14 at the time he committed the murder, contended that the life sentence was unconstitutional.

    Phillips, now 35, was initially sentenced to life in prison after his conviction on a first-degree murder charge in 1999.

    But in a case known as Miller v. Alabama, the U.S. Supreme Court in 2012 barred mandatory sentences of life without parole for juveniles convicted of murder.

    To address the Miller ruling, the Florida Legislature passed a law that set a sentencing range of 40 years to life for juveniles convicted of murder, with a sentence-review hearing required after 25 years, according to Tuesday’s ruling by a panel of the 1st District Court of Appeal.

    Phillips received a new sentencing hearing after the law took effect and was again sentenced to life in prison in 2017, subject to a review after 25 years.

    Phillips appealed, arguing in part that his life sentence violated the constitutional ban on cruel and unusual punishment because “he has proven himself to be neither incorrigible, irredeemable, nor irreparably corrupt” and that he had matured during nearly two decades in prison, the appeals court said.

    But the panel rejected his arguments.

    “We disagree that Phillips is entitled to relief,” said the ruling, written by Chief Judge Stephanie Ray and joined by judges Ross Bilbrey and Harvey Jay. “To begin with, Phillips did not receive an inescapable, irrevocable life sentence. … Phillips is entitled to judicial review of his sentence (after 25 years) to determine whether his sentence should be modified based on demonstrated maturity and rehabilitation.”

    The Clifton girl disappeared Nov. 3, 1998, leading to a major search in the community. Her body was found a week later under Phillips’ waterbed, and she had been beaten and stabbed repeatedly.

    https://www.news4jax.com/news/local/...iftons-killer/
    "I realize this may sound harsh, but as a father and former lawman, I really don't care if it's by lethal injection, by the electric chair, firing squad, hanging, the guillotine or being fed to the lions."
    - Oklahoma Rep. Mike Christian

    "There are some people who just do not deserve to live,"
    - Rev. Richard Hawke

    “There are lots of extremely smug and self-satisfied people in what would be deemed lower down in society, who also deserve to be pulled up. In a proper free society, you should be allowed to make jokes about absolutely anything.”
    - Rowan Atkinson

  6. #6
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    Justices turn down appeal in murder of Maddie Clifton

    By News4JAX.com

    TALLAHASSEE, Fla. – More than two decades after an 8-year-old girl was murdered in Jacksonville, the Florida Supreme Court on Monday turned down an appeal by a man convicted in the high-profile case.

    Justices declined to hear arguments in the appeal filed by Joshua Phillips, who was 14 at the time he murdered 8-year-old Maddie Clifton in 1998.

    As is common, the Supreme Court did not explain its reasons for declining to take up the case.

    Phillips, now 36, went to the Supreme Court in January after the 1st District Court of Appeal ruled against him in an appeal that focused on his sentence.

    Phillips was initially sentenced to life in prison after his conviction on a first-degree murder charge in 1999. But in a case known as Miller v. Alabama, the U.S. Supreme Court in 2012 barred mandatory sentences of life without parole for juveniles convicted of murder.

    To address the Miller ruling, the Florida Legislature passed a law that set a sentencing range of 40 years to life for juveniles convicted of murder, with a sentence-review hearing required after 25 years, according to the appeals-court ruling.

    Phillips received a new sentencing hearing after the law took effect and was again sentenced to life in prison in 2017, subject to a review after 25 years.

    Phillips appealed, arguing in part that his life sentence violated the constitutional ban on cruel and unusual punishment because “he has proven himself to be neither incorrigible, irredeemable, nor irreparably corrupt” and that he had matured during nearly two decades in prison, the appeals court said. But the appeals court disagreed with his arguments.

    “To begin with, Phillips did not receive an inescapable, irrevocable life sentence. … Phillips is entitled to judicial review of his sentence (after 25 years) to determine whether his sentence should be modified based on demonstrated maturity and rehabilitation,” the ruling said.

    Maddie Clifton disappeared Nov. 3, 1998, leading to a major search in Jacksonville. Her body was found a week later under Phillips’ waterbed, and she had been beaten and stabbed repeatedly.

    https://www.news4jax.com/news/2020/0...iftons-killer/
    "I realize this may sound harsh, but as a father and former lawman, I really don't care if it's by lethal injection, by the electric chair, firing squad, hanging, the guillotine or being fed to the lions."
    - Oklahoma Rep. Mike Christian

    "There are some people who just do not deserve to live,"
    - Rev. Richard Hawke

    “There are lots of extremely smug and self-satisfied people in what would be deemed lower down in society, who also deserve to be pulled up. In a proper free society, you should be allowed to make jokes about absolutely anything.”
    - Rowan Atkinson

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