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Thread: Paul Beasley Johnson - Florida

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    Paul Beasley Johnson - Florida


    Deputy Theron A. Burnham




    Facts of the Crime:

    Paul Johnson and his wife visited their friends, Shayne and Ricky Carter, on the evening of January 8, 1981. While at their friends' house, they all smoked marijuana and took injections of crystal methedrine. At trial, Ricky stated that he heard Johnson say he was going to obtain more drugs and that he would possibly steal something or rob someone. Shayne also testified that Johnson stated he was going to obtain more drug money and that “if he had to shoot someone, he would have to shoot someone.” Taxicab driver William Evans picked up a fare in Polk County on the night of January 8, 1981. The cab dispatcher heard a stranger’s voice over the cab’s radio several times after midnight stating that Evans had been knocked out. That was the last communication that the dispatcher had with the cab, which was found five days later in a citrus grove located about a mile from where Evans’ body was found. Evans had been shot twice in the head and both his fare money and wallet were missing. The cab had been set on fire. At approx 3:00 a.m. on January 9, 1981, Amy Reid and Darrell Beasley left a restaurant in Lakeland. A man who said that his car would not start approached them in the parking lot. The man also requested a ride to a friend’s house.

    Reid and Beasley complied and drove off with the stranger. The stranger asked Beasley to stop the car in a remote area so he could relieve himself. When the stranger returned to the car, he asked Beasley to walk to the back of the car with him. When Reid looked through the rear-view window, she saw the stranger pointing a gun at Beasley. Reid locked the doors in the car and drove to a convenience store several miles away where she called the Polk County Sheriff’s Office. Deputy Allison and Deputy Darrington were the officers who answered Reid’s call. After the deputies picked Reid up, she directed them to the location where she left Beasley and the stranger. Concurrently, another deputy, Theron Burnham, reported to dispatch that he had spotted a suspect on the road that Reid last saw Beasley. When Deputies Allison and Darrington arrived at Burnham’s location, they parked their car so that it faced Burnham’s patrol car. Burnham’s car had been left running with the lights on, but they did not see Burnham. A white male came out from a drainage ditch on one side of the road and quickly passed in between the patrol cars. He fired two shots at Deputies Allison and Darrington and fled across an open field. The deputies discovered Burnham’s body, which had been shot three times, in the drainage ditch and his service revolver was missing.

    Beasley’s body was found later that day with one gunshot wound to the head. His wallet was missing. On the following afternoon, Johnson’s wife and the Carters saw a police sketch of the suspect in the newspaper and talked about whether it resembled Johnson. Johnson later telephoned his wife at the Carters’ home, and she was visibly upset when she hung up the phone. Ricky spoke to Johnson and asked him if he was responsible for the killing that the newspaper talked about and Johnson replied, “if that’s what it says.” Ricky and Johnson’s wife went to get Johnson. Johnson changed into a new shirt before throwing his old shirt, which had been described in the newspaper, out the window. Upon returning to the Carter residence, Johnson relayed that he struck the officer with his gun when the officer told him to put his hands on the patrol car. A struggle ensued and Johnson shot the deputy three times. Paul Johnson was arrested for the murders of Beasley and Burnham on January 10, 1981. Johnson was charged the following week with taxi cabdriver Evans’ murder. Reid, Allison, and Darrington identified Johnson. Additionally, Johnson’s fingerprints were discovered in the taxicab.

    Johnson was first sentenced to death on September 22, 1981.
    After his first sentence was overturned, he was re-sentenced to death on April 28, 1988.
    After his second sentence was overturned, he was re-sentenced to death on May 7, 2014.

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    FL Supreme Court Tosses Sentence for Paul Johnson FL DR in 1981 LEO Murder

    The Polk County Sheriff's Office is circulating a petition over the internet to convince the Governor to sign a death warrant in a 28-year-old murder case.

    Sheriff Grady Judd's official office Twitter account sent out a message about Paul Beasley Johnson, who was convicted of murdering Polk County Sheriff's Deputy T.A. Burnham in 1981. Burnham was only 27 years old.

    The petition reads in part, "Two other people were also shot and killed that same night by Paul Beasley Johnson. Deputy Sheriff Burnham left behind his parents and his wife. Paul Beasley Johnson has been in the Florida Correctional System longer than the number of years that D/S Burnham was alive.

    Paul Beasley Johnson has been tried and convicted for these crimes twice, the second time on appeal. Paul Beasley Johnson has been found guilty by a jury of his peers both times. At the conclusion of both trials, Paul Beasley Johnson was sentenced to the death penalty. Paul Beasley Johnson has exhausted all appeals."

    http://www.abcactionnews.com/news/lo...g.cspx?rss=794

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    Crist sets Nov. 4 execution for cop killer Paul Johnson

    Gov. Charlie Crist signed a death warrant for Paul Beasley Johnson, a convicted murderer who went on a killing spree after a drug binge 28 years ago.

    Johnson, 60, was found guilty of the 1981 murders of a cab driver, a good Samaritan who gave Johnson a ride and a deputy in Lakeland.

    After getting high on crystal meth and running out of drugs, Johnson robbed and killed cab driver William Evans in Polk County. He then approached Amy Reid and Darrell Beasley in the parking lot of a restaurant and asked them for a ride to a friend’s house. Johnson asked the pair to pull over in a wooded area so that he could go to the bathroom and then shot and killed Beasley. Reid escaped and called the Polk County Sheriff’s office.

    Johnson then started a shoot-out with 2 deputies who responded to Reid’s call. They later found the body of a 3rd deputy, Theron Burnham, in a drainage ditch. Burnham had been shot 3 times.

    Johnson is scheduled to be put to death by lethal injection on Nov. 4.

    (Source: Postonpolitics)

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    Will Polk County sheriff's push for execution of death-row inmate spur trend?

    Polk County Sheriff Grady Judd wanted convicted killer Paul B. Johnson to be Florida's next death-row inmate executed.

    For 28 years, Johnson has sat on death row for killing people, one of them a Polk County deputy Judd knew from high school.

    So Judd took his desires to the people of Polk and to the only person in Florida who can sign a death warrant: Gov. Charlie Crist.

    The sheriff and his team lobbied Crist with written petitions, online petitions and a letter-writing campaign. He advertised their efforts on the Sheriff's Office Twitter and Facebook accounts.

    Judd even cornered Crist at a funeral for a Tampa police officer in August. He reminded the governor that another cop killer had been sitting on death row since 1981, and justice was waiting.

    The governor, Judd said, was true to his word.

    Earlier this month, Crist signed a death warrant for Johnson, 60. On Nov.4, he could become the third man executed by the state this year.

    "I truly think everyone deserves a fair trial. I think death-row inmates deserve appeals ... but once the appeals process is complete, let's get on with it," Judd said. "My suggestion is every police chief, sheriff and victims' family and friends ought to do the same thing."

    Florida's death row holds 386 prisoners convicted of some of the state's most brutal crimes. It's not unheard-of for families of victims to push for an execution.

    But this is the first time a local law-enforcement officer has taken such an active role in the lobbying process — a move some other sheriffs may consider.

    It also has death-row attorneys worried that it could start a new precedent.

    "There is no rhyme or reason," said veteran death-penalty lawyer and one of Johnson's attorneys, Martin McClain. "This was stunning and shocking and left me totally unprepared. I was more focused on the appeal pending in Florida Supreme Court and my other cases."

    The governor's decision is also the latest example of how subjective the process of death-order selection can be. There are inmates other than Johnson who have been on death row longer. And there are others who have no more appeals left.

    Johnson has an appeal pending in the Florida Supreme Court.

    Some sheriffs, such as Seminole County's Don Eslinger, want to leave the process to the courts and governor.

    Others applaud Judd's imitative.

    "I think the Internet [petition] idea was a splendid idea," said St. Johns County Sheriff David B. Shoar.

    Judd's actions piqued the curiosity of Highlands County Sheriff Susan Benton, who liked his idea. She plans to inquire about death-row inmates who committed their deadly crimes in Highlands to check the status of their cases. She did not say whether she would lobby the governor.

    Crist's spokesman, Sterling Ivey, said several factors are considered by the governor when signing a death warrant. Before the petitions started, Johnson was already on a list of death-row cases being reviewed by the governor's general counsel.

    "A petition is not going to be a single factor that causes a death warrant," Ivey said. "It may be a part of a total review of the case."

    Johnson was convicted of killing three people in January 1981 after a night of doing drugs. He shot taxi driver Williams Evans twice in the head. He later shot Darrell Beasley — who had given Johnson a ride — once in the head. A girl with Beasley fled and called police.

    Deputy Theron Burnham, who spotted Johnson on the side of the road, became the killer's third victim.

    For years, Judd followed Johnson's case through the system. The sheriff went to high school with Burnham, and they experienced the police academy together.

    "We were buddies," he said.

    Judd had the Sheriff's Office attorneys call the Governor's Office or Attorney General's Office every month, asking about the case for the past two years.

    "The only people who have been tortured 28years are the victims' families and friends," Judd said.

    Judd grew more and more frustrated with the process. Johnson went through two trials and racked up more than 15 appeals in 28years, the sheriff said.

    Judd agreed the justice system is flawed.

    But his criticism is of some death-row attorneys who use the system to stack appeals, delaying justice for decades.

    "Governor Crist is doing what he's mandated to do: carry out the order of the court," Judd said. "We appreciate that at the bottom of our heart."

    http://www.orlandosentinel.com/news/...2.story?page=1

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    Fla. death row inmate seeks stay of execution

    A death row inmate has asked the Florida Supreme Court to stay his execution set for next week.

    Lawyers for Paul B. Johnson, convicted of killing a Polk County sheriff's deputy and 2 other people in 1981, cited 3 pending appeals in papers filed Tuesday.

    Gov. Charlie Crist scheduled Johnson's execution for Nov. 4, although he has unresolved appeals before the Supreme Court, a state Circuit Court in Polk County and a federal court in Tampa.

    The Supreme Court is set to hear oral argument Wednesday on Johnson's appeal there.

    Crist signed a death warrant Oct. 7 after Polk County Sheriff Grady Judd asked him to during a chance encounter in August.

    (Source: The Associated Press)

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    Florida Supreme Court Blocks Polk Murderer's Execution

    The Florida Supreme Court today blocked the execution of triple murderer Paul Beasley Johnson.

    Johnson's lawyer asked the court to halt his scheduled execution for next week because prosecutors hid evidence related to the role of a jailhouse informant in the 28-year-old case.

    Martin McClain, a lawyer for Johnson, who was convicted for a 1981 killing spree in Polk County, said the state did not reveal handwritten notes from a prosecutor at the time of Johnson's 2nd trial in 1988 or in a 1997 hearing that showed prosecutors and a sheriff's deputy had contact with an informant who later testified against Johnson.

    McClain said prosecutor Hardy Pickard had told James Smith, the informant, to "take notes and keep his ears open" when he talked to Johnson in the county jail.

    Smith later testified that Johnson told him he "could play crazy" to beat the charges.

    McClain said Smith's testimony undermined defense experts who testified that Johnson was mentally unstable at the time of the murders because of his drug use, calling into question his conviction as well as his death sentence.

    In the 1997 hearing, Smith testified that he had been told what to ask Johnson by the prosecutors, while Pickard testified that Smith had acted on his own. McClain said the notes corroborated Smith’s version of the event but were not made known to Johnson's defense lawyers.

    Candance Sabella, the chief assistant attorney general who is representing the state in the case, said Smith's testimony was only part of the state's case against Johnson, noting there was other evidence clearly linking him to the murders of Deputy Theron A. Burnam, 27; William Evans, a 54-year-old Winter Haven cab driver; and Darrell Ray Beasley, a 21-year-old Lakeland man who had given Johnson a ride.

    Johnson's death warrant, which was signed by Gov. Charlie Crist earlier this month, is somewhat unusual since the death row inmate was still appealing several of his issues in state court, including his allegations about the state’s involvement with the jailhouse informant.

    Chief Justice Barbara Pariente noted at the beginning of the 40-minute hearing that the fact the justices would have to review "over several hundred" pages of briefs related to the evidentiary hearing "puts this court in a difficult position” with Johnson's execution scheduled for next Wednesday.

    Pariente also questioned the often controversial role informants play in criminal cases.

    After hearing arguments that Smith's role was not critical in Johnson's conviction, Pariente said it was an argument the court has heard before.

    "Why does the state go and use these kind of people?" she said. "It always ends up having the potential for infecting the trial….That's a frustrating thing for the court."

    The court didn't make an immediate ruling.

    Johnson's original conviction was overturned on appeal. He was retried, convicted and sentenced to death in 1988.

    Gov. Crist signed Johnson's death warrant following Polk County Sheriff Grady Judd’s move to create an online petition urging the governor to carry out the execution.

    (Source: The Ledger)

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    http://www.floridasupremecourt.org/p...Order_Stay.pdf

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    Court Vacates Johnson's Death Sentence

    TALLAHASSEE - The Florida Supreme Court today vacated the death sentence of triple murderer Paul Beasley Johnson and sent the matter back to Polk County for a new sentencing phase.

    However, the ruling does not mean that Johnson, sitting on death row for the 1981 murders of a Polk County Sheriff's deputy and two others, could not again be sentenced to death.

    The court ruled on Johnson's attorneys' contention that errors by the prosecutors may have lead the jury into recommending death following his convictions, noting that , “the record here is so rife with evidence of previously undisclosed prosecutorial misconduct that we have no choice but to grant relief.”

    The ruling said that Johnson “was induced” to make incriminating statements to a jailhouse informant in violation of Johnson‘s right to counsel. The court further criticized the prosecutor at Johnson‘s first trial “knowingly used false testimony and misleading argument to convince the court to admit the testimony.”

    “It must be emphasized that in our American legal system there is no room for such misconduct, no matter how disturbing a crime may be or how unsympathetic a defendant is.”

    The case now goes back to the 12th Judicial Circuit for a new sentencing phase before a new jury.

    http://www.theledger.com/article/201...Death-Sentence

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    High Court Upholds Decision

    Florida Supreme Court to let murderer pick death or life term

    BARTOW - The Florida Supreme Court denied a request Thursday to reconsider its decision to lift the death sentences against murderer Paul Beasley Johnson, who in 1981 killed a Polk County Sheriff's deputy and two others.

    The court has ordered a new penalty phase for Johnson to decide whether he should remain on death row or be sentenced to life in prison without parole.

    The court let the three murder convictions against him stand.

    In January, the state's highest court released an opinion saying misconduct by the original prosecutor in Johnson's case means a new penalty phase must be held to decide whether Johnson should be executed or given life in prison.

    The state Attorney General's Office filed a motion seeking a rehearing on the opinion.

    The Florida Supreme Court's order Thursday denied that request.

    Johnson, 61, of Eagle Lake has been on Florida's death row for more than 20 years.

    He has twice been found guilty of a drug-fueled rampage that began on the evening of Jan. 8, 1981, and left three people fatally shot, including Deputy Theron A. Burnham, 27.

    Johnson was convicted in 1981 of killing Burnham; William Evans, a Winter Haven cab driver; and Darrell Ray Beasley, a Lakeland man who agreed to give Johnson a ride.

    In 1986, the Florida Supreme Court ordered a new trial because jury members had not been properly sequestered during their deliberations.

    After a mistrial because of juror misconduct, Johnson was retried, and again convicted and sentenced to death in 1988.

    Last year, Polk County Sheriff Grady Judd organized an online petition, urging the governor to sign Johnson's death warrant.

    But the Supreme Court granted Johnson's stay of execution to consider his pending appeal.

    The court released an opinion on Jan. 14 calling for lawyers to once again prepare the case for new jurors to hear evidence and arguments about the punishment Johnson receive.

    The opinion was critical of the case's original prosecutor and concluded a jailhouse informant should not have been allowed to testify that Johnson intended to "play like he was crazy."

    The informant said years later that he lied at trial and testified that he was working under the instruction of authorities to gather information to prosecute Johnson, according to court records.

    http://www.theledger.com/article/201...p=all&tc=pgall

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    Killer to get death penalty hearing

    A jury won't decide until next year whether triple murderer Paul Beasley Johnson should be sent to Florida's death row again for a 1981 drug-fueled killing rampage.

    The 63-year-old Eagle Lake man remains convicted of the fatal shootings of three people, including Polk County sheriff's Deputy Theron A. Burnham.

    In 2010, the Florida Supreme Court lifted the death sentences against Johnson.

    A new jury must be chosen to recommend whether Johnson should be executed or receive life imprisonment.

    Lawyers are scheduled to begin picking jurors on Feb. 11, according to court records.

    During a hearing Tuesday, Assistant Public Defender Peter Mills indicated he might seek to postpone jury selection until April to further prepare the case.

    Lawyers discussed various legal matters and agreed on deadlines to exchange information.

    Mills described media coverage of Johnson's case lately as "pretty tame."

    "But I think that things are going to ramp up," Mills said. "I don't want that. I don't look forward to that. We are not going to do anything to encourage that … But it's still a concern that we have."

    He requested that after the jurors are chosen they be sequestered — isolated from outside contact — throughout the entire proceeding, which is expected to last about three weeks.

    Mills said he wanted to protect jurors from the "pervasive bombardment of media and Internet information and attention" about the case.

    Circuit Judge Donald Jacobsen denied the defense's motion. Instead, the judge ruled the jury could be sequestered during their deliberations.

    Jacobsen said he is aware that the 31-year-old murder case "has always had some notoriety," and he would repeatedly warn jurors to stay away from media coverage and other outside influences.

    The history of Johnson's case stretches back to the evening of Jan. 8, 1981, when his killings began.

    Prosecutors argued that Johnson robbed and fatally shot Winter Haven taxi driver William Evans and set the cab on fire.

    Johnson later shot Darrell Ray Beasley, a Lakeland man who gave Johnson a ride. Beasley's friend, Amy Reid, was able to drive away and to call for help.

    Burnham responded and was fatally shot. Johnson also fired at two other deputies but didn't hit them.

    Johnson's lawyers argued an insanity defense based on his longtime use of crystal methamphetamine.

    His first trial was in 1981, held in Lake County because of intense pretrial publicity. He was sentenced to death, but the Florida Supreme Court later ordered a new trial because jurors hadn't been properly sequestered during deliberations.

    In 1987, Johnson's second trial was held in Bartow, but it ended in a mistrial because two jurors spoke about the case with a cocktail waitress.

    A third jury in Alachua County in 1988 found Johnson guilty as charged, and he was sent back to death row.

    The Florida Supreme Court ruled Jan. 14, 2010, that another jury was needed to recommend a punishment for Johnson.

    The court's opinion noted that a jailhouse informant testified that he was instructed by authorities to gather information about Johnson. Years later, the informant said he had lied when he told jurors that Johnson intended to "play like he was crazy" to avoid punishment.

    The state's highest court ruled the guilty verdicts should remain but threw out Johnson's death sentences.

    http://www.newschief.com/article/201...NEWS?p=2&tc=pg
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    Jurors Hear Testimony for Sentencing of Paul Beasley Johnson, Convicted in 1981

    Jessica Beasley fought tears Thursday as she told jurors about the father she never knew.

    "I was robbed of the opportunity to have a man in my life who would protect me and love me like no other," she said. "What I was given was many years of questioning, confusion, anger, heartache, abandonment issues and lots of counseling."

    Her comments came during a sentencing hearing for Paul Beasley Johnson, 63, who stands convicted of first-degree murder for killing her father, Darrell Ray Beasley, 21, and two others, including a deputy, during an all-night murder rampage in 1981.

    Prosecutors are arguing Johnson should receive the death penalty, but defense lawyers say brain damage, coupled with drug abuse, should mandate a life sentence.

    Deputy Theron A. Burnham, 27, had been with the Polk County Sheriff's Office for nearly six years when he stopped Johnson, who was walking along Drane Field Road before dawn Jan. 9, 1981. Within minutes, Burnham was shot in the chest with his service pistol and left for dead on the side of the road.

    On Thursday, his widow, who has remarried and is now Cindy Lee, became too emotional to finish reading her comments to the jury. William Cervone, state attorney for the Gainesville-based Eighth Judicial Circuit and lead prosecutor in this case, read her statement, which recalled the challenging tasks Burnham's brothers undertook that day.

    "I can only imagine how difficult it was for Adrian to deliver the news to his parents that January morning in 1981 that Theron would no longer be stopping by," he read, "for Jarrett, as he rang my doorbell that morning at around 5 a.m. when he came to give me the news and take me to the hospital."

    Cervone also read a statement for Linda Evans Collins, whose father, Winter Haven cab driver William Evans, 55, was killed that night. She said she still battles nightmares when the anniversary of his death comes around.

    The 12-member jury will consider these statements and other testimony when deciding what sentence to recommend.

    Appellate courts have upheld Johnson's three murder convictions, the first in 1981, later in 1988, but the Florida Supreme Court overturned his death sentence after determining that a jailhouse informant had lied when testifying during Johnson's trial.

    That ruling brought the case back to this jury. Circuit Judge Donald Jacobsen must give its recommendation great weight, but he has the final say on Johnson's sentence.

    In other testimony Thursday, Amy Reid recalled meeting Johnson when he approached her and Beasley in the parking lot of a Lakeland restaurant, asking for a ride to a friend's house.

    He didn't appear to be on drugs, she said.

    "He seemed normal," she testified. "He didn't seem impaired. If I had felt odd about it, I wouldn't have consented to giving him a ride."

    They drove to Airport Road in South Lakeland, where Johnson lured Beasley from the car and Reid, seeing her friend being held at gunpoint, jumped in the driver's seat and sped away.

    Later that night, Beasley was found shot in the head.

    Dispatchers told Burnham about the crime, and he radioed he was stopping a suspect who might have been involved. That was the last dispatchers heard from him.

    Sam Allison, a retired Polk County Sheriff's deputy, told jurors Thursday he, too, confronted Johnson near Drane Field Road when responding to Reid's call for help.

    Allison testified Johnson told him a man or an officer had been shot and was lying in the ditch next to the road.

    "He was coming up to my car door, and he said ‘You son of a bitch, I'll shoot you, too,'" he said.

    Allison said he swung his car door out to hit Johnson, and he and his partner fired on Johnson as he ran away, but he escaped into the woods.

    The deputies found Burnham nearby.

    Testimony in the sentencing hearing is expected to continue into next week.

    The Eighth Circuit State Attorney's Office was brought in to prosecute this case because Jerry Hill, state attorney for the Bartow-based 10th Judicial Circuit, was the circuit's elected public defender in 1981, and that office represented Johnson during his first trial. As a result, Hill declared a conflict of interest in this hearing.

    http://www.theledger.com/article/201...1134?p=3&tc=pg
    An uninformed opponent is a dangerous opponent.

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