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Thread: John Gary Hardwick, Jr. - Florida

  1. #1
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    John Gary Hardwick, Jr. - Florida




    Facts of the Crime:

    On December 24, 1984, a fisherman found the body of Keith Pullam floating in the St. Johns River. The victim had been beaten around the head and died as the result of gunshot and stab wounds. Medical evidence indicated that the victim was stabbed three times in the chest and back , shot once in the back, and then struck about the head postmortem. Michael Hyzer, a mutual friend of Hardwick and the victim testified that Hardwick had admitted that he had killed the victim for stealing drugs from him and dumped the body in the river.

    Hardwick was sentenced to death in Duval County on April 24, 1986.

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    Factors Contributing to the Delay in Imposition of Sentence:

    The four-and-a-half years to decide a Petition for Writ of Habeas Corpus (02/16/90 – 09/08/94) and the three years to decide a 3.850 Motion Appeal (06/05/91 – 09/08/94). During this time frame, however, the FSC ordered an evidentiary hearing to be held at the Circuit Court level. The current delay arises from the Federal Petition for Writ of Habeas Corpus denied in the USDC, the subsequent appeal to the USCA, and remand to the USDC.

    Case Information:

    Hardwick filed a Direct Appeal with the Florida Supreme Court on 05/14/86, citing the following eight errors: improper exclusion of testimony; improper refusal to allow pro se representation; improper restriction of cross-examination; violations of witness sequestration rule; defense had a right to a jury instruction on intoxication; failure of the state to eliminate other reasonable hypotheses of innocence; improper conclusions on aggravating and mitigating circumstances; and error in finding two aggravating circumstances (heinous, atrocious, and cruel and cold, calculated, and premeditated) based on the same facts. The FSC affirmed the conviction and sentence on 02/04/88.

    Hardwick filed a Petition for Writ of Certiorari with the U.S. Supreme Court on 06/03/88 that was denied on 10/03/88.

    Hardwick filed a 3.850 Motion with the Circuit Court on 02/16/90. On 03/06/90, the Circuit Court denied the Motion, but on appeal, the FSC ordered the Circuit Court to conduct an evidentiary hearing. After conducting the evidentiary hearing, the Circuit Court again denied the motion on 03/21/91.

    Hardwick filed a Petition for Extraordinary Relief and Writ of Mandamus with the Florida Supreme Court on 03/30/90 that was withdrawn on 04/09/90.
    On 01/10/90, the Governor signed a death warrant for Hardwick.

    Hardwick filed a Petition for Writ of Habeas Corpus with the Florida Supreme Court on 02/16/90 and a 3.850 Motion appeal on 06/05/91. On 03/15/90, the FSC granted a stay of execution, pending a 3.850 Motion evidentiary hearing in the trial court. Following the Circuit Court’s denial of the 3.850 Motion, the FSC denied the Petition for Writ of Habeas Corpus and affirmed the Circuit Court’s denial of the 3.850 Motion.

    Hardwick filed a Petition for Writ of Habeas Corpus with the U.S. District Court on 03/20/95, citing twenty issues. The USDC denied the Petition on 02/24/97.

    Hardwick filed a Petition for Writ of Habeas Corpus Appeal with the U.S. Court of Appeals on 07/02/97. On 09/04/97, the USCA vacated the USDC judgment and remanded the case for re-consideration, ordering the USDC to review Hardwick’s Petition for Certificate of Appealability* that the USDC had granted in part and denied in part in its opinion on 02/24/97. In its opinion, the USCA noted that the USDC had erroneously applied the Certificate of Appealability provisions of the AEDPA to Hardwick’s case, which was pending at the time of the signing of the AEDPA.

    On 09/17/97, the USDC granted Hardwick’s Petition for Certificate of Appealability, and on 10/27/97, the case was sent back to the USCA for appeal.

    On 01/31/03, the USCA affirmed the USDC’s denial of the Habeas Petition as to Hardwick’s conviction, but vacated the USDC’s denial of the Habeas Petition as to Hardwick’s death sentence. The USCA ordered an evidentiary hearing to be held on claims that counsel was ineffective at the penalty phase of trial for failing to argue mitigating evidence.

    On 03/02/03, the USDC stayed proceedings in the case pending a resolution of a rehearing motion in the USCA. On 06/16/03, the case was reopened and an evidentiary hearing is to be set.

    On 06/20/03, Hardwick filed a Petition for Writ of Habeas Corpus with the Florida Supreme Court that was denied on 11/21/03.

    * - The Antiterrorism and Effective Death Penalty Act (AEDPA) was signed into law on 04/24/96. The AEDPA governs the appeal process of federal Petitions for Writ of Habeas Corpus that are denied at the USDC level. According to the AEDPA, the USDC must issue a Certificate of Appealability in order for the Habeas Petition to be appealed to a higher federal court

  3. #3
    Administrator Moh's Avatar
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    On May 27, 2015, oral argument will be heard in Hardwick's appeal before the US Court of Appeals for the Eleventh Circuit.

    http://www.ca11.uscourts.gov/sites/d...K%20PUBLIC.pdf

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    Death Sentence Rejected in 1984 Murder

    TALLAHASSEE (CBSMiami/NSF) – More than 30 years after a teen’s body was found floating in the St. Johns River, a federal appeals court has tossed out the death sentence of a man convicted in the drug-related murder.

    The 11th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals has upheld a lower-court decision that John Gary Hardwick Jr., now 56, did not receive adequate legal representation before being sent to Death Row in the Jacksonville murder.

    The appeals court ordered the state to hold a new sentencing hearing or to re-sentence Hardwick to life in prison.

    Hardwick was convicted in the December 1984 murder of 17-year-old Keith Pullum, whose body was found in the river, according to court documents. Hardwick was upset about the disappearance of a stash of quaaludes.

    A three-judge panel of the appeals court agreed with Hardwick’s argument that he received “ineffective assistance of counsel” during the sentencing phase of the case. The court said Hardwick’s attorney did not bring up a series of issues to jurors, who recommended by a 7-5 vote that Hardwick receive the death penalty.

    Those issues, including Hardwick being neglected and abused as a child and a long history of substance abuse, could have been considered as “mitigating” evidence to argue against the death penalty.

    “Because of counsel’s deficient performance, the jury saw only a drug dealer who brutally killed someone for stealing his quaaludes,” said a 45-page ruling, written by appeals court Judge Gerald Tjoflat. “They did not hear a word about Hardwick’s traumatic childhood background that was consistently marked by neglect, deprivation, abandonment, violence, and physical and sexual abuse. They never had a chance to examine the trove of documents evidencing his decade-and-a-half long history of drug and alcohol addiction starting at the young age of 11 or 12. They heard none of the affirmative evidence of his heavy intoxication at the time of the crime. Nor did they hear expert testimony about how these factors combined to render Hardwick substantially unable to conform his conduct to the requirements of the law, as the post-conviction mental health experts unanimously concluded.”

    http://miami.cbslocal.com/2015/09/21...n-1984-murder/

  5. #5
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    Prosecutors will seek to put Jacksonville man back on Death Row for 1984 Christmas Eve murder

    The office of State Attorney Angela Corey will seek a new death-penalty sentencing hearing for a Jacksonville man who got off Death Row last month over 30 years after the crime occurred.

    John Gary Hardwick, 56, was convicted and sentenced to death for the murder of 17-year-old Keith Pullum on Christmas Eve 1984. The conviction and death sentence were upheld multiple times by the Florida Supreme Court, but U.S. District Judge Henry Lee Adams ordered the death sentence thrown out because Hardwick did not receive adequate legal representation before being sent to Death Row.

    In deciding to seek the death penalty again, prosecutors will have to reassemble a case that originally went to trial in 1986.

    “The passage of time does create challenges. However, the granting of a new penalty phase years after a first trial is not uncommon,” said state attorney spokeswoman Jackelyn Barnard. “ The State Attorney’s Office is committed to seeking justice for our victims in this case.”

    Adams upheld Hardwick’s conviction but said prosecutors had to either seek a new death-penalty sentencing hearing or allow Hardwick to be resentenced to life in prison.

    That ruling became official last month when the the 11th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals in Atlanta upheld Adams ruling.

    Adams and the three-judge panel of the appeals court agreed with Hardwick’s argument that he received “ineffective assistance of counsel” during his sentencing phase. The court said Hardwick’s attorney did not bring up a series of issues to jurors, who recommended by a 7-5 vote that Hardwick receive the death penalty.

    Those issues, including Hardwick being neglected and abused as a child and a long history of substance abuse, could have been considered as “mitigating” evidence to argue against the death penalty, the appellate court ruling said.

    A date for a new sentencing hearing has not yet been set. A jury will have to hear the case again and then make a recommendation of either life or death. The final decision between life or death will rest with the judge, but most judges follow the recommendation of a jury in death-penalty cases.

    Attorneys for Hardwick, past and present, declined to comment.

    Pullum, who was found floating in the St. Johns River on Christmas Eve, had been stabbed in the neck, chest and head and shot in the back. His skull was crushed, and authorities said he’d been tortured before he was killed.

    Hardwick had accused Pullum of stealing a bag of Quaaludes from him and warned Pullum and another boy that if he didn’t get his drugs back, he would kill him.

    According to 1986 Times-Union stories on the case, witnesses testified during the trial that Hardwick bragged that he had “taken care” of the person who stole his drugs and also said he threw Pullum into the river for the sharks.

    Hardwick’s trial attorney, Frank Tassone, argued that the case consisted only of circumstantial evidence and while his client may have known about the murder, he did not commit the crime.

    Former State Attorney George Bateh, who prosecuted Hardwick at the original trial, agreed the case was circumstantial but said the circumstantial evidence made a strong case.

    “I was absolutely convinced Hardwick was guilty,” Bateh said in an April 25, 1986, Times-Union story that reported he had been sentenced to death. “It’s not often that you come across a murderer that shows this much brutality.”

    Corey’s office may soon have a backlog of death-penalty cases where the conviction or sentence will have to be pursued again years, and sometimes decades, after the defendant was originally convicted and sentenced to death.

    All of these cases had convictions or sentences overturned because of questionable defense work during the original trials.

    Jacob John Dougan, 68, had his conviction and death sentence thrown out for the 1974 murder of 18-year-old Stephen Orlando.

    In throwing out the conviction in 2013, the late Circuit Judge Jean Johnson found that Dougan’s original trial attorney, Ernest Jackson, had a conflict of interest because he was cheating on his wife with Dougan’s sister, Thelma Turner, at the time of the 1975 trial. Jackson later left his wife and married Turner.

    Raymond Morrison Jr.’s conviction was thrown out this year after Circuit Judge Henry Davis ruled that his original trial lawyer, Refik Eler, did an ineffective job representing him in 1998 because he didn’t investigate the mental-health issues of Morrison enough.

    Morrison, 46, was convicted of slashing the throat of 81-year-old Albert Dwelle in 1997.

    Raymond Curtis Bright, 61, had his conviction upheld but his death penalty overturned by Senior Circuit Judge Charles Arnold in 2014 for bludgeoning Randall Brown, 16, and Derrick King III, 20, to death with a hammer in 2008. Arnold found that trial attorneys Richard Kuritz and James Nolan did an acceptable job defending Bright during the trial but didn’t do enough to defend him during the penalty phase.

    Prosecutors are appealing all three of these cases to the Florida Supreme Court asking that the death sentences be reinstated. If the Supreme Court upholds the lower court rulings, all will likely be tried again.

    http://jacksonville.com/news/crime/2...1984-christmas

  6. #6
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    In today's orders, the United States Supreme Court declined to review Hardwick's petition for certiorari.

    Lower Ct: United States Court of Appeals for the Eleventh Circuit
    Case Nos.: (97-2319)
    Decision Date: September 18, 2015
    Rehearing Denied: November 5, 2015
    An uninformed opponent is a dangerous opponent.

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

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    Senior Member CnCP Legend JLR's Avatar
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