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Thread: Ronald "Ronnie" Michael Cauthern - Tennessee

  1. #1
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    Ronald "Ronnie" Michael Cauthern - Tennessee




    Facts of the Crime:

    On the night of January 9, 1987, Brett Patterson and Ronnie Cauthern drove to the home of Patrick and Rosemary Smith, who were both captains in the United States Army assigned to Fort Campbell as nurses. The defendants wore masks and gloves, and each carried a loaded revolver. After severing the telephone line, the defendants broke a door pane, unlocked the door, and entered the Smiths’ house. They were after a large sum of money thought to be kept in the bedroom. Once inside, the defendants discovered that the Smiths were at home asleep. They awakened them and pulled them out of bed.

    Patrick Smith tried to fight them off, while Patterson made repeated attempts to subdue him by applying a “sleeper,” a wrestling hold designed to cause unconsciousness. Failing this, Patterson strangled Mr. Smith with a length of “880” military cord. Investigators later recovered similar cord from the defendant’s residence when they searched it. Mrs. Smith was strangled with a silk scarf into which a narrow vase was inserted to form a tourniquet. The medical examiner found that the cartilage in her throat had been fractured, an injury which would have resulted only from application of great force. Mrs. Smith had also been raped.

    Cauthern was sentenced to death on March 18, 1988.

    Patterson will be eligible for parole on June 4, 2047.

  2. #2
    Administrator Moh's Avatar
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    On December 10, 2004, Cauthern filed a habeas petition in Federal District Court.

    http://dockets.justia.com/docket/ten...4cv01100/16339

    On March 31, 2010, his habeas petition was DENIED in Federal District Court.

    http://docs.justia.com/cases/federal...1100/16339/167

    On June 29, 2010, Cauthern filed an appeal in the US Sixth Circuit Court of Appeals over the denial of his habeas petition in Federal District Court.

    http://dockets.justia.com/docket/cir...s/ca6/10-5759/

  3. #3
    Administrator Heidi's Avatar
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    Ronald Cauthern v. Roland Colson

    Tenn death row inmate wins new sentencing in slayings

    A federal appeals court has ordered a new sentencing for a Tennessee death row inmate convicted of raping and killing a nurse at Fort Campbell after forcing her to listen to her husband's slaying.

    The ruling Thursday from the U.S. 6th Circuit Court of Appeals gave the state 180 days to hold a resentencing hearing for 46-year-old Ronnie Cauthern or vacate his death sentence. A jury condemned Cauthern for the slaying of Rosemary Smith, a captain in the U.S. Army Nurse Corps at the military post on the Kentucky-Tennessee line. Her husband, Patrick Smith, also died in the attack in 1987 at couple's home in Clarksville, Tenn.

    Judge Eric Clay found prosecutorial misconduct based on a prosecutor's comments and ineffective assistance of counsel during sentencing.

    http://www.sfgate.com/news/crime/art...gs-4982726.php
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  4. #4
    Moderator Dave from Florida's Avatar
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    Not surprising considering the majority. Cole and Clay have been reversed several times by SCOTUS in death penalty cases.

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    Last edited by aljazres; 09-29-2018 at 03:49 AM.

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