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Thread: Michael James Jackson - Florida Death Row

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    Michael James Jackson - Florida Death Row



    Reggie and Carol Sumner





    Summary of Offense:

    Alan Lyndell Wade and codefendants Tiffany Ann Cole, Michael James Jackson and Bruce Kent Nixon were convicted for the July 8, 2005, robbery, kidnapping and first-degree murders of Reggie and Carol Sumner, a retired couple living in Jacksonville, Florida.

    The group’s plan to rob the couple originated from codefendant Tiffany Ann Cole’s information, which was gained as a result of a prior relationship with the Sumners. The Sumners had been neighbors of Cole when they lived in South Carolina. Wade knew Jackson and his girlfriend, Cole, because he had visited and partied with them in South Carolina in the summer of 2005 and had known codefendant Jackson for at least a year. In June 2005, Cole and Jackson visited Wade, who lived in Jacksonville. During this visit, the Sumners let Cole and Jackson stay with them in Jacksonville.

    In June, Wade arrived at his longtime friend Nixon’s home in Jacksonville driving a Mazda RX-8 that Cole had rented in South Carolina. Wade told Nixon of a vague plan to rob someone but offered no specifics. Two evenings before the murders, Wade contacted Nixon and asked whether Nixon would like to join him, Jackson, and Cole in digging a hole. Nixon agreed and stole four shovels from his neighborhood before the others arrived at his home in the Mazda.

    The foursome searched for and decided on a good location for the hole—a remote, wooded area just across the state line in Georgia. They dug a large, deep hole and returned to the car. Wade asked Jackson if Nixon could join their robbery plan and Jackson agreed. In preparation, the defendants purchased disposable rubber gloves, duct tape, a large roll of plastic wrap and a toy gun that shot plastic pellets. At approximately 10:00 p.m. on July 8, 2005, Cole drove her three codefendants in the rented Mazda RX-8 to the Sumners’ home. She and Jackson remained in the car while Wade and Nixon approached the residence. When Carol Sumner opened the door, they asked to use her phone, and she invited them in. Upon entering, Wade pulled out the phone line while Nixon pointed the toy gun at the couple. Nixon took the couple into the spare bedroom and used duct tape to secure their hands and legs and cover the mouths and eyes. Jackson then entered the house after being signaled the victims were secured. Wade and Jackson began searching for financial information. A pile of mail and financial statements and Mr. Sumner’s coin collection were taken to the Mazda.

    At Jackson’s direction, Wade and Nixon walked the Sumners out to their own Lincoln Town Car and put the couple in its trunk. According to the plan, the two headed for the pre-dug grave where, upon arrival, Wade and Jackson buried the couple alive. Later, Wade and Jackson drove the Lincoln up to the road where Cole and Nixon waited. Jackson held a yellow legal pad and reported that it contained the previously unknown personal identification numbers (PINS) for the Sumners’ bank cards. Then, with Wade and Nixon in the Lincoln and Cole in the Mazda, the foursome drove to Sanderson, Florida, where they abandoned the Lincoln after wiping it clean of prints. They left the four shovels in the trunk.

    All four defendants then returned to Jacksonville in the Mazda. They withdrew money from one of the Sumners’ accounts at an ATM machine and went to their hotel. They also returned to the Sumners’ home and stole the computer. Nixon stayed with the defendants for another day and then went home. Wade stayed with Cole and Jackson and traveled with them to Charleston, South Carolina. There Cole rented two hotel rooms—one for her and Jackson and one for Wade.

    Carol Sumner reported her inability to contact her parents to the Jacksonville Sheriff’s Office on July 10. On July 12, the car was found. An investigation by law enforcement showed an unusual number of recent ATM withdrawals. Video from the ATMs showed Michael Jackson’s face and a silver Mazda in the background. Wade called Nixon to tell him that the Lincoln had been found.

    On July 14, Jackson, Cole and Wade were located and arrested at their South Carolina hotel and their rooms were searched pursuant to warrants. Carol Sumner’s key ring, which contained the keys to the Lincoln, was found on the nightstand in Wade’s room. In Cole and Jackson’s room, officers found a suitcase full of the Sumners’ financial records, bags of recent purchases made on the Sumners’ accounts, receipts for those purchases and for purchases made earlier in Jacksonville and other items, including the Sumners’ driver licenses, credit and bank cards, and checks and check register. Notably, a check for $8,000 on the Sumners’ account had been made payable to Alan Wade. Officers also searched Cole’s car, a Chevy Lumina, and the Mazda, which had not been returned to the rental agency but had been recovered by law enforcement officers. In the Lumina, the officers found Reggie Sumner’s coin collection and, in the Mazda, they found Wade’s fingerprints on one of the victim’s magazines. They also found an unused roll of plastic wrap with Cole’s and Jackson’s fingerprints on it.

    Nixon was arrested, and he took officers to the Georgia gravesite. A roll of duct tape was found there. On the morning of July 15, law enforcement officers began the excavation of the gravesite. Both victims were found fully clothed and sitting in crouched positions, with at least two feet of dirt over their heads. The medical examiner testified that both Reggie and Carol were alive in the hole before the dirt was shoveled in on them. Their mouths, nostrils, throats, esophagi, and tracheae contained fine sprays of dirt, indicating that the dirt was inhaled. Both victims died of a combination of mechanical asphyxiation, as the dirt compressed their chests and abdomens, and smothering, as the dirt piled up around their heads and obstructed their noses and mouths.

    Jackson was sentenced to death in Duval County on August 29, 2007.

    Co-defendant information:
    Tiffany Cole was sentenced to death. For more on Cole, see: http://www.cncpunishment.com/forums/...t=tiffany+cole
    Alan Wade was sentenced to death. For more on Wade, see: http://www.cncpunishment.com/forums/...rida-Death-Row
    Bruce Kent Nixon received two concurrent sentences of 45 years (pleaded guilty to second-degree murder).

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    September 24, 2009

    TALLAHASSEE, FL -- The state Supreme Court has denied the appeal of the man convicted and sentenced to death for the 2005 murders of a couple from Jacksonville.

    Michael James Jackson maintained his innocence in the deaths of Carol and James Sumner in July 2005.

    He was tried and convicted, as were three others, for the murder, robbery and kidnapping of the Sumners.

    In Jackson's case, the jury voted 8-4 in favor of the death penalty.

    Jackson appealed both the conviction and the sentence.

    In the high court's opinion, they point out that Jackson apologized to the victims for their loss, but said he couldn't feel remorse for something he didn't do.

    On the other hand, the court also points out that Jackson had many chances to help the investigation, but declined to do so every time.

    Jackson said the plan was to rob the couple, not kill them.

    After the Sumners disappeared, but before they were found, the court notes that Jackson removed about $5,000 from their bank account.

    When he tried to withdraw more than the limit for the account, he called the bank, pretending to be Sumner. He also called JSO for help getting the money, again impersonating Sumner. Another suspect pretended to be Carol Sumner when police asked to speak with her.

    Jackson and the other suspects were arrested a couple of weeks after the murders.

    Upon reviewing the case, the Supreme Court denied the appeal.

    Jackson remains on death row

    http://www.firstcoastnews.com/news/l...5&provider=rss

    Opinion is here:

    http://www.floridasupremecourt.org/d.../sc07-2008.pdf


    __________________________________________________ __________________________________________________ ______


    On January 19, 2010, the US Supreme Court denied Jackson's certiorari petition.

    http://www.supremecourt.gov/Search.a...es/09-7442.htm

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    Cape Coral woman's documentary shows effect of bad choices

    Everyone knows the dangers of straying outside the law.

    But one Cape Coral woman is betting that message will resonate a bit louder coming from the mouth of a convicted killer sitting on death row.

    Debra Flinn, owner of Doggy Day Spa on Pondella Road and aspiring film producer, has spent hours interviewing young adults in prison for a documentary — and potential series — on the lasting consequences of bad decisions.

    Dubbed “Fatal Choices,” Flinn’s effort is scheduled to be released this fall and will focus on the series of choices that led to the 2005 murder of Carol and Reggie Sumner in Jacksonville.

    After learning the couple had recently sold their condo for $95,000, the four killers — Bruce Nixon, Tiffany Cole, Alan Wade and Michael Jackson — kidnapped the couple and gained access to their bank account before dumping the Sumners, who were still alive, into a hole they dug beforehand in Georgia.

    Cole, Wade and Jackson were all sent to death row, while Nixon was sentenced to 45 years.

    “My heart is grieved by what’s happened to them,” Flinn said. “The biggest lesson was: some choices have irreversible consequences.”

    Jackson, who was 23 at the time of the killings, has undergone the biggest transformation in prison, finding religion and finally confessing to his role in the crime while Flinn’s camera was rolling, she said.

    “You really see that change in him,” she said. “He wants to help others.”

    Flinn said Jackson’s biggest piece of advice to young adults who don’t want to end up in his shoes was, “You need to listen to mom.”

    She said she hopes to screen the documentary at schools around the country to make kids aware where their actions can lead them.

    Jenn Seipel, an intern at Teen Challenge International’s Southwest Florida Women’s Home, said she could have benefited from a similar warning.

    “I wish that somebody had come around to my college or my school and told me about the risks, the situations, that I was going to have to face,” Seipel said.

    After finishing nursing school, she said her easy access to prescription pain medications proved too much of a temptation and she began stealing pills from the doctor’s office and writing herself prescriptions.

    That eventually led to the suspension of her nursing license and a host of other repercussions.

    “I had my nursing license taken away, my career taken away, my marriage, I lost everything,” she said.

    She said she learned many nurses lose their way due to pills and wonders how things could have turned out if others had shared their stories with her.

    She said she now works with other women who struggle with addictions and other demons at the Teen Challenge home.

    For those heading down the same path, she said surrounding yourself with the right kinds of people is key, as well as realizing that the downward spiral is often a gradual process. “I think we begin to slip one bad choice at a time,” she said.

    Flinn said Jackson echoed that sentiment in his interview with her, explaining how he began by stealing and writing bad checks. Before long, he was plotting and executing a murder, which has all but sealed his fate.

    “You ain’t coming back from these kinds of choices,” she said.

    http://www.news-press.com/article/20...ct-bad-choices
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    MICHAEL JAMES JACKSON, vs STATE OF FLORIDA

    In today's opinions, the Florida Supreme Court DENIED Jackson's petition for a writ of habeas corpus.
    An uninformed opponent is a dangerous opponent.

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

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    On November 27, 2013, Jackson filed a habeas petition in Federal District Court.

    http://dockets.justia.com/docket/flo...cv01463/291702

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    The Florida Supreme Court has denied the state of Florida’s petition to reinstate Jackson’s death sentences, ruling that Jackson must have a resentencing.

    https://law.justia.com/cases/florida.../sc20-257.html
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    Jury selection begins for men sent to death row for kidnapping, robbing, murdering local couple

    Reggie and Carol Sumner were found in a shallow grave

    By Ashley Harding
    News4JAX

    JACKSONVILLE, Fla. – Jury selection begins Monday for two of the men sent to death row for kidnapping, robbing, and murdering a local couple.

    Reggie and Carol Sumner were reported missing from their home in 2005 and were found in a shallow grave in Charlton County, Georgia, where medical examiners said they were buried alive.

    Death sentences for Alan Wade and Michael Jackson were thrown out in 2017, their convictions haven’t changed— but their punishment may.

    17 years after the two were convicted and sentenced to death for murdering Carol and Reggie Sumner, prosecutors contend the men along with two other people kidnapped the couple from their St. Nicholas home, and forced them to make cash withdrawals from ATMs, then buried them alive in Charlton County, Georgia.

    Shovels and crime scene photos were shown at trial, other evidence were photos of the defendants posing with money and drinking champagne in the back of a limo.

    Tiffany Cole was also sentenced to death for her role in the crime making her one of a handful of women on death row in Florida. At her sentencing hearing in 2015 Cole begged for mercy. Her death sentence was also thrown out.

    Wade’s online court documents show the defense team filing motions as recently as last Friday. Including some asking for certain pieces of evidence to be thrown out.

    Jury selection is scheduled to start at 9 a.m. on Monday.

    https://www.news4jax.com/news/local/...-local-couple/

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    Related:

    Man convicted of murdering Jacksonville couple by burying them alive receives life sentence

    Ultimately, Jurors found the murders of Reggie and Carol Sumner "cold, calculated and premeditated" but not "heinous, atrocious and cruel."

    By Anne Schndler
    First Coast News

    JACKSONVILLE, Fla. — The man convicted of murdering a Jacksonville couple by burying them alive will spend the rest of his life in prison.

    The unanimous decision was delivered by a jury Thursday afternoon after three and a half hours of deliberations.

    Alan Wade was being resentenced for the 2005 murders of Carol and Reggie Sumner, both 61 years old.

    The jury weighed seven aggravating factors against 54 mitigating factors. The verdict had to be unanimous for Wade to receive the death penalty. Ultimately, Jurors found the murders of Reggie and Carol Sumner "cold, calculated and premeditated" but not "heinous, atrocious and cruel."

    Wade's original death penalty was thrown out because the verdict was not unanimous. Because his original conviction stands, the jury was only tasked with deciding what his punishment should be.

    Jurors heard closing arguments Thursday morning.

    Prosecutor Alan Mizrahi told them, “death is the appropriate sentence.”

    “Time has not dulled anything to do with the evil of these acts,” he said. “The shovels still have the dirt. Time does not heal all wounds

    Although there was considerable testimony about Wade and his codefendants digging “a grave” to bury the couple, Mizrahi said that was an inappropriate term. “Carol and Reggie Sumner are now in a grave, but in July 2005 they were not put in a grave. They were put in a death chamber. A hole. A pit in Southern Georgia, which was this defendant's murder weapon.”

    He reminded jurors how the crime terrorized the two 61-year-olds, who married late in life. When placed, bound with duct tape, in the trunk of a car, and driven to a remote site, they loosed their restraints and hugged each other.

    “These two lovers, who finally found each other, were aware that the exact same thing that was happening to them, was happening to the person they loved most in the world.”

    And he belittled the mitigation presented by the defense, including evidence of childhood sexual abuse and trauma, as “biased and paid for.”

    “While defense paid for experts saying he is afraid of the dark…He is putting shovel after shovel of dirt over two human beings. Under cover of darkness he buried two disabled people in the dark forever.”

    Wade's attorney said he would not attempt to excuse or minimize the crime.

    “No matter what your decision is after your decision Alan Wade will die in prison and will leave in a coffin," Blake Johnson said. He noted that when Wade committed the crime in 2005, he was “just 47 days past his 18th birthday".

    “Forty-seven days prior, Alan Wade wouldn’t be eligible for the death penalty. Why? … The adolescent brain is different.”

    Johnson told jurors that no matter how awful the crime, “The state is not asking you to execute the person he was 17 years ago. The person you will render a verdict on is … the person who sits with us in the court room with us and breathes our air.”

    He continued, “A life sentence is a perfectly acceptable punishment for a crime of this magnitude, and none of you are ever required to put someone to death. You are not required… to kill Alan Wade."

    He continued, “Alan Wade is not a monster. He is a human being. He cries. He cares. He deeply regrets what happened, and if he could take it back, he would. You are being asked to make a godlike decision of whether someone lives or dies, but without godlike wisdom. You are being asked to execute another human being. …If you have the slightest thought that in 10 years you may regret killing Alan Wade, then that is reason for sentencing him to life. You don’t have to kill Alan Wade...He’s a human being. He’s salvageable.”

    https://www.firstcoastnews.com/artic...e-9e56263f4dd4
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    Senior Member CnCP Legend Mike's Avatar
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    Michael James Jackson, one of 3 sent to death row in buried alive case, re-sentenced this week

    Michael James Jackson, the ringleader of a group of four who buried a Jacksonville couple alive in 2007, will be resentenced this week.

    It was a heinous crime that has been mentioned in several TV documentaries. The couple, both 61, were bound and buried alive in a shallow grave. When they were discovered by police, the couple had broken out of their binds but was only able to embrace before dying.

    It was Jackson who prosecutors said had the idea for the crime. He was initially sentenced to death, along with co-defendants Alan Wade and Tiffany Cole. But a Florida law change that altered the requirement for a plaintiff to be sentenced to death allowed Jackson to appeal his original sentence.

    This is the second time Jackson has appealed -- he asked for his case to be re-considered in 2009, but his conviction and sentence were upheld.

    Jackson was supposed to be re-sentenced along with co-defendant Wade in June 2022. But a judge separated the two cases after an emotional outburst from Wade.

    Wade began crying during jury selection, prompting Jackson's attorneys to ask that he be tried separately.

    “I don’t see any alternative than simply reset Mr. Jackson’s [case] at some point,” Senior Judge Michael Weatherby said. He said he was skeptical anyway about the possibility of seating two juries from the remaining pool after two days of jury selection.

    “I am concerned enough about the logistics of this that we are not going to get [two] jur[ies],” he said. “The emotional outburst is not the only reason I’m concerned.”

    Wade was tried under an old law requiring a unanimous jury for death (and escaped a death sentence), but Jackson is being tried under a new law — which only requires a verdict of 8 to 4 for death.

    If his case had been tried at the same time as Wade, it would have been harder for Jackson to be sentenced to the death penalty again.

    Now, he stands a much greater chance of being sentenced to death than his codefendant.

    https://www.firstcoastnews.com/artic...b-3f3e3f478cec
    "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

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    Duval County jury votes for death sentence in 'buried alive' case

    Michael Jackson was convicted of two counts of first degree murder, two counts of robbery, and two counts of kidnapping to commit a felony in 2007.

    By Sarah Glenn and Tobie Nell Perkins
    First Coast News

    JACKSONVILLE, Fla. — A Duval County jury has recommended death for Michael Jackson, one of the defendants found guilty in the 2005 murder of Reggie and Carol Sumner, according to the State Attorney's Office.

    The jury verdict was 8 to 4. Florida law was recently changed to say that the jury does not need to be unanimous for a death sentence. Instead, the majority of jurors must vote in favor of the death penalty. Under the previous law, Jackson would not have received a death sentence.

    Jackson was convicted for two counts of first degree murder, two counts of robbery, and two counts of kidnapping to commit a felony in 2007.

    Judge Michael Weatherby will formally sentence Jackson at a later date, said a release from the SAO. His sentencing is currently scheduled for August 11.

    Jackson was the ringleader of a group of four who buried a Jacksonville couple alive in 2007.

    It was a heinous crime that has been mentioned in several TV documentaries. The couple, both 61, were bound and buried alive in a shallow grave. When they were discovered by police, the couple had broken out of their binds but was only able to embrace before dying.

    It was Jackson who prosecutors said had the idea for the crime. He was initially sentenced to death, along with co-defendants Alan Wade and Tiffany Cole. But a Florida law change that altered the requirement for a defendant to be sentenced to death allowed Jackson to appeal his original sentence.

    The Sumners were Cole's neighbors in South Carolina before they moved to Jacksonville. Jackson, the mastermind of the crime and Cole's boyfriend, targeted the couple because of their money.

    Despite the couple handing over passcodes for multiple bank accounts, Jackson murdered them to "eliminate them as witnesses" according to the SAO release. When police began searching for the couple, Jackson tried to conceal their death.

    This is the second time Jackson has appealed -- he asked for his case to be re-considered in 2009, but his conviction and sentence were upheld.

    “This remains one of the most shocking and evil crimes our community has ever suffered — cold, calculated, premeditated, heinous, atrocious, cruel," said State Attorney Melissa Nelson. "Despite the passage of time, law enforcement and the prosecution, led by Alan Mizrahi, have remained steadfast in their commitment to this case and to the friends and family of Reggie and Carol Sumner."

    Jackson was supposed to be re-sentenced along with co-defendant Wade in June 2022. But a judge separated the two cases after an emotional outburst from Wade.

    Wade began crying during jury selection, prompting Jackson's attorneys to ask that he be tried separately.

    “I don’t see any alternative than simply reset Mr. Jackson’s [case] at some point,” Senior Judge Michael Weatherby said. He said he was skeptical anyway about the possibility of seating two juries from the remaining pool after two days of jury selection.

    “I am concerned enough about the logistics of this that we are not going to get [two] jur[ies],” he said. “The emotional outburst is not the only reason I’m concerned.”

    Wade was tried under an old law requiring a unanimous jury for death (and escaped a death sentence).

    https://www.firstcoastnews.com/amp/a...6-4bba516b4665
    Thank you for the adventure - Axol

    Tried so hard and got so far, but in the end it doesn’t even matter - Linkin Park

    Hear me, my chiefs! I am tired. My heart is sick and sad. From where the sun now stands, I will fight no more forever. - Hin-mah-too-yah-lat-kekt

    I’m going to the ghost McDonalds - Garcello

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