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Thread: Delmer Smith III - Florida Death Row

  1. #31
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    Delmer Smith III sentenced to death for murder of Kathleen Briles

    Delmer Smith III on Tuesday was sentenced to death for the vicious slaying of Terra Ceia resident Kathleen Briles.

    Months after the jury that convicted Smith of first-degree murder unanimously recommended that Smith be executed, Judge Peter Dubensky concurred and ruled that Smith, a career criminal, spend his remaining days waiting to be executed by lethal injection as punishment for the Aug. 3, 2009, beating death of Briles, the wife of Palmetto physician Dr. James Briles.

    Briles' death was the most violent of several home invasions that terrorized Manatee and Sarasota counties in 2009. Although he has been tried -- and convicted -- in only two of the cases, authorities have said they consider him the suspect in the others.

    Smith, already serving a life sentence for a home invasion and kidnapping in Sarasota, will now take his spot on Florida's death row.

    Smith was on parole for a federal bank robbery conviction when he broke into Briles' home and used an antique sewing machine to beat the woman to death, according to testimony in the trial.

    A jury last August deliberated for about two hours before finding Smith guilty of first-degree murder and armed burglary. After hearing additional testimony, the same panel deliberated for about 30 minutes before unanimously recommending Smith be executed for the crime.

    Final sentencing by Dubensky had been delayed as defense attorneys attempted to show that Smith suffered from abnormalities in his brain that affected his decision-making and made him less responsible for his crimes. Smith, they argued, should be spared the death penalty and instead be sentenced to life in prison without parole.

    http://www.bradenton.com/2013/05/28/...tenced-to.html

  2. #32
    Administrator Heidi's Avatar
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    Smith files motion for a new trial in death of Kathleen Briles

    Delmer Smith III, charged and sentenced for the murder of Kathleen Briles, had his attorney file a motion June 3 for a new trial.

    Smith, 41, was sentenced to death by Manatee County Judge Peter Dubensky May 28 after months of delay following his Aug. 2 conviction for first-degree murder and armed burglary. Smith maintains he is innocent and a victim of the justice system.

    Smith previously had been convicted of a 2009 armed home invasion and armed kidnapping in Sarasota.

    At the start of the May 28

    hearing, Assistant State Attorney Brian Iten disclosed that during a deposition taken May 17, Sarasota County Deputy John Thomas, one of the first responders in the Sarasota case, admitted lying about being asked by his employer to submit a personal DNA sample to eliminate himself as a witness.

    "Now knowing that he lied about that, we should be able to retry, at the very least, the penalty portion of the trial," Smith's attorney Bjorn Brunvand said.

    Thomas is currently filing a civil suit against Sarasota Sheriff Tom Knight.

    At the May 28 hearing, Dubensky refused to delay sentencing, recognizing the new facts and an appeal in the Sarasota case but not giving it any weight in determining sentence. Instead Dubensky said he assigned "great weight to this circumstance" based on previous robbery and armed bank robbery convictions in 1991 for which Smith did prison time and had been on parole.

    Brunvand however feels that the jury did take the Sarasota case into account therefore giving cause for a new trial.

    "The jury came back with a 12 to 0 recommendation, and one of the things they considered was Sarasota," Brunvand said. "Had we had that, we may have used it to discredit the Sarasota case."

    The motion for a new trial also states that there was a mutual "misperception" of a piece of evidence during the trial. The defense now states that the medical encyclopedia that had been found in Smith's possession and had been entered into evidence as having belong to Briles's husband, in fact are not the same.

    "Initially when I looked at it, the color of the binder appeared to be different but I thought it could be the light," Brunvand said. "But then a couple weeks ago I looked at it again I noticed the logo was different."

    Brunvand stated that this was an oversight by both the defense and the prosecution.

    http://www.bradenton.com/2013/06/08/...#storylink=cpy
    An uninformed opponent is a dangerous opponent.

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

  3. #33
    Administrator Heidi's Avatar
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    Judge to hear convicted murderer's motion for new trial

    Delmer Smith, 41, was convicted last year of murdering Kathleen Briles, who was found dead in her Terra Ceia home in August 2009. He was sentenced to death last month.

    Convicted murderer Delmer Smith will be back in court Wednesday to seek a new trial.

    Smith, 41, was convicted last year of murdering Kathleen Briles, who was found dead in her Terra Ceia home in August 2009. He was sentenced to death last month.

    According to our partner paper, the Bradenton Herald, his attorney filed a motion for a new trial on June 3. If that doesn't happen, Smith wants a new penalty phase, and said there is new evidence to be considered.

    (Source: The Bradenton Herald)
    An uninformed opponent is a dangerous opponent.

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

  4. #34
    Senior Member CnCP Legend JimKay's Avatar
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    Judge to hear Delmer Smith's motion for a new trial Wednesday

    Delmer Smith will once again be in a Manatee County courtroom Wednesday as he attempts to get a new trial for his murder conviction in the slaying of Kathleen Briles.

    Briles was beaten to death in her Terra Ceia home in August, 2009.

    Smith, 41, was sentenced to death May 28 by Manatee County Judge Peter Dubensky after a jury convicted him and unanimously recommended the death penalty.

    Smith's attorney, Bjorn Brunvand, filed a motion June 3 for a new trial or, alternatively, a new penalty phase based on discovered evidence on his behalf.

    "The fact that the judge set a hearing I think means he felt that it was significant enough that it needed to be heard," Brunvand said.

    Smith's motion is based primarily on two factors. The first was a disclosure brought to Dubensky's attention at the start of the May 28 sentencing hearing by Assistant State Attorney Brian Iten.

    Sarasota County Deputy John Thomas, one of the first responders in a kidnapping case of which Smith was convicted, admitted in a May 17 deposition that he lied about being asked by his employer to submit a personal DNA sample to eliminate himself as a witness.

    At sentencing, however, Dubensky refused to delay sentencing despite the disclosure, stating he was aware of it but did not take it into account when making his decision.

    The second claim for the motion for new trial is that there was a mutual "misperception" by the defense and the prosecution of a piece of evidence during the trial.

    The claim is that a medical encyclopedia that had been in Smith's possession was not the same one belonging to Briles' husband, as claimed in the trial.

    Brunvand says he examined the photos again recently and noticed a difference in the logo on the spine of the book, which he previously had disregarded as a difference in lighting.

    "To me, the logo looks different," Brunvand said. "That is what the judge will have to look at and make his own conclusion."

    The State Attorney's Office refutes both of the defense claims.

    In their response filed June 13, Iten stated the judge presiding over the Sarasota case found Thomas' disclosure to be "irrelevant."

    Iten also writes that the disclosure was not a factor in Dubensky's sentencing as he stated in his order.

    The state's response to the motion attributes the differences in the images of the medical encyclopedia to lighting.

    "The variation can be easily attributed to the lighting in the area when the camera's shutter snapped, perhaps with more camera 'flash' in one than the other," Iten wrote.

    Iten further refutes the fact it is new evidence or that it was the key piece of evidence tying Smith to the crime.

    http://www.bradenton.com/2013/06/22/...hs-motion.html

  5. #35
    Administrator Heidi's Avatar
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    UPDATE

    Smith was denied a new trial on July 19, 2013

    http://www.bradenton.com/2013/07/19/...hs-motion.html

    and..

    Filed an appeal to the Florida Supreme Court in April 2014.
    An uninformed opponent is a dangerous opponent.

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

  6. #36
    Administrator Heidi's Avatar
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    DELMAR SMITH vs. STATE OF FLORIDA

    In today's opinions, the Florida Supreme Court AFFIRMED Smith's conviction for first-degree murder and his sentence of death on direct appeal.
    An uninformed opponent is a dangerous opponent.

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

  7. #37
    Administrator Moh's Avatar
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    In today's orders, the United States Supreme Court DENIED Smith's certiorari petition.

    http://www.supremecourt.gov/orders/c...16zor_p8k0.pdf

  8. #38
    Justice4Georgann
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    Angry Still no Justice for Georgann Lee Smith

    7 years after Georgann Lee Smith was found murdered and after the case closed for Kathleen Briles, it is now a cold case and still no closure for our family. The detectives found the DNA of Delmer Smith on my sisters clothing and states that it could have been a brush by.

    Do they think we are really that stupid? She never associated herself with this monster nor did she frequent the places he visited. Georgann never knew Delmer Smith. Brian Itens will not bring another case to trial because they have their man on "Death Row"

    Sarasota County still have her belongings in Forensics that belong to our family, why keep them if they tested them?

    Sorry, but I'm still angry over this whole ordeal. She is a person of importance too, she was our sister and loved by all!

  9. #39
    Junior Member Stranger
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    Sorry for your loss and hope your family receives justice

  10. #40
    Administrator Heidi's Avatar
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    Manatee death row inmates unaffected by Florida Supreme Court decision

    None of the three death row inmates from Manatee County cases will be affected by a Florida Supreme Court decision Thursday.

    Delmer Smith, Daniel Burns Jr. and Melvin Trotter are expected to remain on death row.

    On Thursday, the Florida Supreme Court ruled 6-1 in the death sentence appeal by Mark James Asay, denying his request to be resentenced under the state’s death penalty scheme. Asay was sentenced to death Nov. 18, 1988, for the first-degree murders of Robert Lee Booker and Robert McDowell in Jacksonville.

    Thursday’s decision ruled that only death row inmates whose cases were finalized after the 2002 U.S. Supreme Court ruling in Ring vs. Arizona qualify for a re-sentencing hearing. Ring vs. Arizona required a jury to find aggravating factors in order for the death penalty to be imposed.

    Florida’s death penalty scheme has been in limbo since the U.S. Supreme Court ruled in January in Hurst vs. Florida that it was unconstitutional that Florida judges, not juries, have the ultimate say in the death penalty.

    The state Legislature worked quickly to address the issue. On March 7, Gov. Rick Scott signed the new law, thought to have addressed the problem. But in October, the Florida Supreme Court ruled that the Hurst ruling also required a unanimous vote by the jury to sentence someone to death unlike the majority or super-majority required by the old and new laws.

    The question then became which, if any, death row inmates would have the right to a re-sentencing hearing.

    Smith was convicted Aug. 2, 2012, of first-degree murder for beating Kathleen Briles to death with her cast-iron antique sewing machine in her Terra Ceia home on Aug. 9, 2009.

    He was sentenced to death on May 28, 2013, by Circuit Judge Peter Dubensky following a unanimous recommendation from the jury. Aggravating factors were identified in Dubensky’s order.

    The cases of Burns and Trotter will be unaffected since both have been on death row for decades, long before the 2002 Ring vs. Arizona ruling.

    Trotter was sentenced to death May 18, 1987, for stabbing to death Palmetto grocery store owner Virgie Langford. Burns was sentenced to death June 2, 1988, for the shooting death of Florida Highway Patrol Trooper Jeffery Dale Young.

    http://www.bradenton.com/news/local/...#storylink=cpy
    An uninformed opponent is a dangerous opponent.

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

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