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Thread: Robert Anthony Flor - Pennsylvania Death Row

  1. #11
    Administrator Heidi's Avatar
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    Professor: Convicted Newtown cop killer lacks 'adaptive functioning'

    Robert Flor’s death penalty appeal could hinge, in part, on whether or not he could read when he was a boy.

    His stepsister told a defense expert that at 11 years old he could not use a sentence with both nouns and verbs, and could not identify 20 objects by name.

    A team of attorneys from the Federal Defender’s Office are attempting to have Flor’s death sentence overturned on the premise that he is intellectually disabled. Flor was convicted and sentenced to death for the killing in 2005 of Newtown police Officer Brian Gregg inside St. Mary Medical Center in Middletown. The current appeal seeks to overturn Flor’s death sentence under the Post Conviction Relief Act — state law that empowers defendants to appeal wrongful convictions or illegal sentences.

    Dr. James Patton, an adjunct professor of special education at the University of Texas, testified that Flor’s stepsister, Stacy Gilbert, said that despite the presence of magazines in the home and regular reading sessions among the other siblings, she never saw Flor read.

    But school records from the 1970s show Flor got satisfactory grades in reading from first and second grade, an “S-plus” in third, a “C” in fourth, a “B” in fifth, and a “C” and a “B-minus” during sixth grade, according to Bucks County First Assistant District Attorney Michelle Henry.

    Henry asked Patton if the reason Gilbert never saw Flor read was because he couldn’t read or because he wasn’t interested in the two magazines that were regularly in the house, People and Country Living.

    “Is it possible that at 11 years old he just wasn’t interested in reading Country Living?” Henry asked Patton.

    Patton said that’s a possibility, but he believes it's more likely that Flor didn’t read because Flor found reading difficult.

    Patton, who has testified for federal defense attorneys six times, said that the young Flor couldn’t even tie his own shoes.

    Patton said he reviewed numerous records detailing Flor’s education and upbringing. He also collected an adaptive behavior assessment system, or ABAS questionnaire, from the stepsister. The questionnaire focused on what Flor was like as an 11-year-old.

    According to Patton, the assessment is given to a person who knows the subject — in this case Flor’s stepsister — well enough to answer the questions. The assessment isn’t given to the subject directly because of concerns that the answers would be skewed. Patton said intellectual disabilities like those experts believe Flor has are often seen in a negative light, and, as a result, people often try to hide or mask those disabilities.

    An impaired score on the ABAS would be 70 or below and Patton said the assessment for Flor scored him at 41.

    Patton said he based his opinion on interviews and reviews of school records, and said that Flor has had severe problems with reading and couldn’t perform math functions well enough to make a simple purchase at a store. Flor also lacked close friends, was bullied and classmates teased him for his “slowness,” Patton told the court.

    But when he suggested that laying carpet for a closet — because it involved measurements — was difficult even for the adult Flor, the defendant erupted.

    “Where the (expletive) are you getting this from, (his former colleague) Joe Whitehead? He’s a (expletive) arrowhead,” Flor shouted. He attempted to storm out of the court, motioning for sheriff’s deputies to take him away, but Bucks County Judge Alan Rubenstein advised him of his right to remain in the courtroom and the proceedings resumed.

    Flor had two other outbursts, both of which Patton attributed to Flor — like many impaired people, according to him — not wanting to be seen as impaired.

    During her cross-examination, Henry questioned Patton’s selection of Gilbert for the assessment. Henry read repeatedly from directions for the assessment which call for someone who has had frequent contact with the subject (Flor), someone who has prolonged contact with the subject and someone who has had recent contact with the subject.

    Patton admitted that the assessment is not designed for 36-year-old recollections. Henry also questioned his use of Gilbert instead of someone who spent more time with Flor, such as his mother, grandmother or two other siblings.

    When they were both 11 years old, Gilbert only saw Flor on the weekends, according to statements that Henry read into the record. And even then she wasn’t there at her father’s home — Flor’s stepfather — every weekend, instead staying with her mother because she wanted to avoid the fighting between her father and stepmother, Flor’s mother.

    Henry’s cross-examination of Patton was ongoing when Rubenstein recessed the hearing late Friday afternoon. Federal Defender Peter Williams and his team have several more expert witnesses who will testify. Henry told Rubenstein that she plans to have rebuttal witnesses.

    The attorneys agreed to present Rubenstein with a future date for the continued proceedings.

    http://www.buckscountycouriertimes.c...707cbf44f.html
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  2. #12
    Administrator Moh's Avatar
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    Corbett again signs death warrant for Newtown cop killer

    By Jo Ciavaglia
    The Intelligencer

    For a second time, Gov. Tom Corbett has signed an execution warrant for Robert Flor, the Falls man convicted in the 2005 murder of a Newtown police officer.

    Flor, 47, is one of five Bucks County residents on Pennsylvania's death row.

    The warrant Corbett signed Monday sets Flor’s execution for Dec. 4.

    In October 2006, before Bucks County Judge Alan M. Rubenstein, Flor pleaded guilty to first-degree murder in the shooting death of Officer Brian Gregg inside St. Mary Medical Center. He also pleaded nolo contendere — meaning he accepts conviction but doesn’t admit guilt — to attempted murder in the shootings of Newtown Borough Police Officer James Warunek and emergency room technician Joseph Epp, as well as to robbery and other charges.

    Gregg and Warunek took Flor to the hospital for blood testing as part of a DUI arrest. After his handcuffs were removed, Flor grabbed Warunek’s gun and fired multiple shots, killing Gregg and wounding the others.

    http://www.theintell.com/news/commun...58ef30c3e.html

  3. #13
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    Robert has been granted a stay of execution by the Bucks County Court of Common Pleas.

  4. #14
    Administrator Helen's Avatar
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    ProDP you have to post a source for the alleged stay of execution.
    "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. #15
    ProDP
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    Sorry! It was from The Forgiveness Foundation, and on the warrants signed by governor pdf for PA.

  6. #16
    Administrator Helen's Avatar
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    ProDP this is the source. You need to post the link for the info. you post..thanks

    http://www.theforgivenessfoundation....d-executions55
    "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

  7. #17
    Administrator Moh's Avatar
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    Convicted cop killer gets another stay

    By George Mattar
    The Bucks County Courier-Times

    Convicted cop killer Robert Flor, 47, got a stay of execution Thursday, Bucks County District Attorney David Heckler confirmed.

    The postponement came on the same day Flor was scheduled to be executed for the shooting death of Newtown police Officer Brian Gregg.

    Gregg was shot to death at St. Mary Medical Center in Middletown in 2005, when he and fellow Officer James Warunek took Flor there for blood testing following a DUI arrest, records show. Warunek and emergency room technician Joseph Epp also were shot, but survived.

    Flor pleaded guilty to first-degree murder and asked that a jury be empaneled to decide his sentence. The panel returned in 90 minutes with a death verdict, records show.

    Heckler said he never “for one minute” thought the execution would take place Thursday.

    “I don’t know why the governor signed the order when he did,” Heckler said.

    But he added that state officials normally deal with death orders by checking federal court dockets for pending appeals, of which there are none pertaining to Flor, yet. But under state law, Flor is entitled to two additional hearings in Bucks County Court.

    The new hearings are being held due to the State Post Conviction Relief Act, a state law that allows defendants to appeal wrongful convictions or illegal sentences.

    “They didn’t bother to check our docket and until these hearings are complete, nothing can be done,” Heckler said.

    Heckler said two court hearings are scheduled for next month in the county courthouse in Doylestown before Judge Alan M. Rubenstein.

    The district attorney said Flor’s defenders are alleging “he is mentally retarded or has the intellect of someone who cannot be put through cruel and unusual punishment.”

    “I believe the defense has no merit and that we will prevail,” Heckler said.

    In Aug. 2011, Gov. Tom Corbett signed Flor’s death warrant, setting his execution date for Sept. 29, 2011, the sixth anniversary of Gregg’s murder. The order was stayed because Flor had not exhausted all his appeals.

    Meanwhile, Heckler said Gregg’s family suffers every time the case comes up.

    “There is no doubt Flor is one of the poster children for someone getting executed. He is at the top of the list, but until the hearings are held and we await the decisions from those hearings, we will have to wait,” Heckler said.

    http://www.buckscountycouriertimes.c...e2e627240.html

  8. #18
    Senior Member CnCP Legend Mike's Avatar
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    I live in Newtown and I remember Gregg being killed. We only have 1 murder in the township every other year, and a very low crime rate and almost non existent violent crime rate. People were scared and very sad and as a response to Gregg's murder. The Police raided a bunch of the drug areas and other scummy areas in the township in 2006 and 07.
    "There is a point in the history of a society when it becomes so pathologically soft and tender that among other things it sides even with those who harm it, criminals, and does this quite seriously and honestly. Punishing somehow seems unfair to it, and it is certain that imagining ‘punishment’ and ‘being supposed to punish’ hurts it, arouses fear in it." Friedrich Nietzsche

  9. #19
    Administrator Heidi's Avatar
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    Pennsylvania v. Flor

    Opinion Date: April 25, 2016

    Court: Pennsylvania Supreme Court

    Robert Anthony Flor petitioned for post-conviction relief, alleging ineffective assistance of counsel at his trial for homicide. After two years of proceedings in the PCRA court, the Commonwealth moved for the production of documents, requesting “access to the complete records” of trial counsel. This file included some 30,000 pages of documents pertaining to Flor’s conviction, sentence, and direct appeal, and filled twelve banker’s boxes. At a hearing on the Commonwealth’s motion, Flor’s PCRA counsel requested several weeks to review the file to allow removal of material protected by attorney-client privilege or constituting attorney work product. The PCRA court granted the Commonwealth’s motion and denied PCRA counsel’s request for time to conduct a privilege review. Flor appealed the discovery order. After review, the Supreme Court concluded that the PCRA court’s discovery order was immediately appealable, and that the PCRA court abused its discretion in affording wholesale discovery without conducting an issue-specific waiver analysis, as required by "Commonwealth v. Harris," (32 A.3d 243 (Pa. 2011)). Accordingly, the Court vacated the discovery order, and remanded for immediate inspection of the file.
    An uninformed opponent is a dangerous opponent.

    "Y'all be makin shit up" ~ Markeith Loyd

  10. #20
    Moderator MRBAM's Avatar
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    Can someone decode what that all means??

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