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Thread: William Michael Kopsho - Florida

  1. #1
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    William Michael Kopsho - Florida




    Summary of Offense:

    Convicted of the murder of his estranged wife, Lynne, in October 2000. He shot the 21-year-old three times with a .40-caliber handgun alongside State Road 40, then held bystanders back as they approached to assist the victim.

    Kopsho was resentenced to death in Marion County on July 2, 2009.

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    July 7, 2009

    Kopsho gets death penalty

    In a progression of events not entirely unexpected, William Kopsho has been sent back to death row.

    For the man convicted of kidnapping and shooting his young wife, and for whom a jury by a 10-2 vote recommended the death penalty, the judgment was a final stamp on a nearly decade-old case that had been through this cycle before.

    "He was ready for it. It was not unexpected in light of what the jury returned," Chief Assistant Public Defender William Miller said of the sentence, which Circuit Judge David Eddy handed down on Thursday.

    In April 2005, the same judge sentenced Kopsho to death in a decision that was reversed by the Florida Supreme Court 2 years later due to a technical error that occurred during jury selection.

    Back then, Eddy identified 4 aggravating factors that led to his decision. Those factors were identified again this time around.

    He assigned great weight to the fact that Kopshso was previously convicted of raping and kidnapping an ex-girlfriend and that his killing of estranged wife Lynne Kopsho — just 21 when shot to death by the side of East State Road 40 — was conducted in a cold, calculated and premeditated manner.

    "The Defendant engaged in a 3-day prearranged and complex plan to kill his wife, derived from concise and deliberate manipulation and deceit," stated the judge's sentencing order.

    Out of the 14 mitigating factors presented by the defense, Eddy assigned only 1 factor moderate weight: that Kopsho suffered from mental and emotional disturbance at the time of the crime, brought on by his dismay over discovering his wife's dalliance with another man.

    Despite this fact, "the Court finds that the Defendant's emotional or mental disturbance does not rise to the level of legal justification...[and] did not inhibit his ability to act," Eddy's order read.

    Kopsho had sat in jail 3,171 days since the time of his arrest in October 2000. By Tuesday, Marion County jail officials said the 55-year-old had already been transported to the Florida State Prison in Starke, where male death row inmates are housed. The last person to be sentenced to death in Marion County was Renaldo McGirth in 2008.

    To Miller, his client was not "the worst of the worst" among death penalty defendants. "The instant case is simply not one of the most aggravated and least mitigated murders for which the death penalty is reserved. It doesn't look like one, it doesn't sound like one, and it doesn't feel like one," read his memorandum to the court in favor of a life sentence.

    "I think the judge made the appropriate decision. Given the facts and the law of Florida I think he was correct in making the decision that he made," said State Attorney Brad King, who tried the case with Assistant State Attorney Anthony Tatti.

    An automatic review by the Florida Supreme Court is expected to occur within the next 18-24 months, King said.

    In May, a 12-member Marion County jury found Kopsho guilty on both counts of armed kidnapping and first-degree murder. A week later, it returned an advisory sentence recommending the death penalty. Florida law does not require a unanimous vote in regards to capital punishment.

    At age 46, Kopsho shot Lynne by the side of the road after she jumped out of his vehicle and ran for her life. He admitted to authorities during a detailed videotaped confession hours after the shooting that he "planned on going out to the [Ocala National] Forest and killing her," upon finding out about her sexual tryst with another man. The couple had already been living apart for several weeks before the murder.

    According to Miller, Kopsho read a statement of remorse during Thursday's sentencing, then turned to address the victim's sister and that woman's husband.

    "He spun around in the chair and said he heard there was a lot of animosity [towards him] and that we needed to forgive and forget," said the victim's brother-in-law, Michael Preuss, by phone Tuesday. "That didn't sit well with my wife. She was really upset."

    The 4 of them — him and his wife, Emily, and Lynne and Bill Kopsho — were always close, according to Preuss. "They seemed to get along great, they were happy, they laughed and joked around," he said, adding he never suspected abuse in the relationship.

    But speaking on behalf of the victim's family, Preuss said the family won't ever be able to forgive and forget.

    "It wasn't an accident. This was a planned-out, premeditated killing, and that's hard to swallow," he said. "I don't think the family will ever get over this."

    (Source: The Ocala Star Banner)

  3. #3
    Senior Member CnCP Legend JLR's Avatar
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    Oral arguments were held on the 5th of May.

    http://www.floridasupremecourt.org/p.../oa05-11.shtml

    You can find the briefs here.

    http://www.floridasupremecourt.org/p...383/index.html

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    William Michael Kopsho v The State Of Florida

    In today's opinions, the Florida Supreme Court AFFIRMED Kopsho's conviction and sentence of death on direct appeal.

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    Administrator Moh's Avatar
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    On October 1, 2012, the US Supreme Court denied Kopsho's certiorari petition.

    http://www.supremecourt.gov/Search.a...s/11-10659.htm

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    Man on death row in Marion County case appealed Thursday to Florida Supreme Court

    By Nicki Gorny
    The Ocala Star Banner

    Attorneys for William Kopsho, one of eight current death row inmates sentenced by Marion County judges, argued his case in front of the Florida Supreme Court on Thursday. The oral arguments continued an appeal process that has stretched for more than a decade.

    A jury in 2005 found Kopsho, 62, guilty of killing his wife, Lynne Kopsho, along State Road 40 in the Ocala National Forest in 2000. Prosecutors argued at the trial that Kopsho was upset with his wife, who was 21 years old and 25 years his junior, after he learned of a sexual tryst between her and another man.

    The jury recommended a death sentence for Kopsho in a 9-3 vote. Circuit Judge David Eddy later followed that recommendation and sentenced Kopsho to death in April 2005.

    The Florida Supreme Court sent Kopsho’s case back to Marion County in 2007 for a retrial, citing an issue during jury selection. A new jury was seated for the retrial in 2009. That jury came to the same conclusion as the first: guilty as charged, with a death row recommendation. That jury recommended the death sentence by a 10-2 vote.

    When the Florida Supreme Court upheld that sentence in 2012, Kopsho turned his attention to post-conviction relief. The motion essentially asked a trial court judge to reconsider his case on the grounds that his attorneys during the trials were ineffective, according to court records, Eddy denied Kopsho’s motion last year.

    Thursday’s arguments in front of the Supreme Court constituted the appeal of the most recent trial court decision. Specifically, Reuben Neff, who is now representing Kopsho, argued Thursday that Kopsho deserves a shot at a lesser sentence for two reasons:

    Kopsho’s lawyers at trial court failed to present at his sentencing an adequate mental health evaluation, which would have factored years of sexual abuse into a diagnosis of borderline personality disorder.

    The U.S. Supreme Court’s recent ruling in Hurst v. Florida, which found Florida’s death penalty unconstitutional, should be applied retroactively.

    Neff and Stacey Kircher, representing the U.S. Attorney’s Office, noted in briefs and in arguments before the Supreme Court justices that a clinical neuropsychologist, Dr. Elizabeth McMahon, evaluated Kopsho and testified about his mental health at his sentencing in 2009.

    Kophsho’s mental state is relevant because a judge can weigh mental health among mitigating factors when considering whether to impose a death penalty. Eddy, for example, considered Kopsho’s mental and emotional disturbance at the time of the murder in his sentencing decision.

    This was one of 14 mitigating factors offered by Kopsho’s attorneys, and the only one to which Eddy assigned moderate weight.

    McMahon testified that Kopsho “would be termed probably a dependent personality disorder with some borderline features,” according to a brief filed with the Florida Supreme Court. Much of Neff’s argument on Thursday focused on McMahon’s failure to factor years of sexual abuse into that evaluation, and Kopsho’s attorney’s failure to secure a more complete mental health evaluation.

    Kircher, representing the state, countered that McMahon did not reference sexual abuse in her testimony because there is no evidence to suggest such sexual abuse actually took place. When pressed by several justices, she said she did not know whether McMahon specifically asked Kopsho about sexual abuse, but emphasized that McMahon had conducted a lengthy and thorough investigation.

    Romantic relationships, particularly abandonment by a romantic partner, are said to trigger Kopsho’s rage, in this case and in previous instances, according to McMahon’s 2009 testimony.

    The Supreme Court justices spent less time questioning Neff and Kircher on Neff’s second argument, as to whether they should apply Hurst v. Florida retroactively.

    The U.S. Supreme Court ruling found that Florida judges, who are not required to follow jury recommendations on the death penalty, have too much power in imposing death penalties. Gov. Rick Scott just this week signed a bill into law mandating that judges cannot impose a death penalty without a 10-12 recommendation by juries.

    The justices heard arguments in Kopsho’s case for just under an hour. They are not expected to hand down a decision for some time.

    http://www.ocala.com/article/2016031...cles/160319979

  7. #7
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    WILLIAM M. KOPSHO v STATE OF FLORIDA and WILLIAM M. KOPSHO v JULIE L. JONES, etc.,

    In today's Florida Supreme Court opinions, the court VACATED Kopsho's death sentence and remanded for a new penalty phase consistent with Hurst v State.
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    Court overturns three death sentences, including cop killer's

    The Florida Supreme Court on Thursday overturned death sentences for three men, including a convicted cop killer.

    Lancelot Uriley Armstrong was convicted of killing John Greeney, a Broward County sheriff's deputy and Air Force veteran, during a 1990 armed robbery at a Church's Fried Chicken in Fort Lauderdale. The jury voted 9-3 to sentence him to death and gave another man involved in the armed robbery a life sentence.

    Now, Armstrong, as well as Donald Otis Williams, convicted of kidnapping and murdering an 81-year-old woman in 2010, and William M. Kopsho, sentenced for killing his wife in 2000 after learning she was having an affair, will have new sentencing hearings.

    It's possible they could still be sentenced to death, but they could also see their sentences commuted to life in prison.

    Courts will empanel new juries to decide how to sentence each of these men, though they will not determine whether they are guilty, as their first-degree murder convictions have not been overturned.

    If the Florida Legislature updates the state's death penalty laws to require a unanimous vote for a death sentence -- as state Sen. Randolph Bracy, D-Orlando, has proposed (SB 280) -- then a vote of all 12 jurors could put them to death. Anything less would lead to a life sentence. (The state Supreme Court threw out Florida's death penalty laws as unconstitutional last year because they did not require unanimous jury votes.)

    By demanding new sentencing hearings in these cases, the court is putting into practice a Dec. 22 ruling that could lead to life sentences for some of the 200-plus death-row prisoners whose cases were finalized after a key U.S. Supreme Court ruling in 2002.

    It's likely similar decisions will continue to trickle out of the court in the coming months.

    In the December rulings, the justices decided that death sentences finalized after June 2002 were unconstitutional because they did not require a unanimous jury vote and because the judge could impose a death sentence without the jury's approval. It's a standard critics, including Senior Justice James Perry, have criticized as "arbitrary."

    Older sentences still stand. The court affirmed two of them Thursday, as well, including the case of Stanley McCloud, convicted of killing his wife with a .357 magnum in front of their two young children.

    http://www.tampabay.com/blogs/the-bu...illers/2310158
    An uninformed opponent is a dangerous opponent.

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  9. #9
    Senior Member CnCP Legend Mike's Avatar
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    Resentencing for convicted murderer William Kopsho set for summer 2019

    By Katie Pohlman
    The Ocala Star-Banner

    He’s on death row, but change in law allows for a new sentencing hearing

    A man convicted of murdering his wife in 2000 could go to trial to determine whether he should be resentenced to death as soon as late summer 2019.

    William Michael Kopsho, 64, shot and killed his wife, Lynne, 21, as they made their way along East State Road 40 toward the Ocala National Forest. He was sentenced to death for the crime in 2009 but, under new state law, was granted a resentencing.

    Defense and state attorneys in the case told 5th Circuit Judge Willard Pope on Wednesday that they believed they would be ready in August or September 2019. Kopsho is represented by Michael Nielsen, a private Winter Springs-based attorney. Assistant State Attorney Bill Gladson represented the state at the status conference.

    Kopsho is one of three Marion County death row inmates who have been granted resentencings after Florida’s death penalty scheme was overhauled.

    The Florida Supreme Court in October 2016 ruled that the state’s new death penalty rule — requiring at least 10 of 12 jurors to vote for execution —was unconstitutional. It said jury votes for the death penalty must be unanimous. All cases made final after June 24, 2000, are allowed resentencings.

    Kopsho’s conviction still stands.

    On the morning of Oct. 27, 2000, Kopsho and his wife were going to a credit union to get some cash when a heated argument broke out and Kopsho said he was “disrespected” and “mad.” He said he overshot the credit union. He brandished a gun “only to threaten her and bring her to her senses,” but Lynne Kopsho tried to jump from the truck they were in.

    He pulled off in the 11800 block of East SR 40, where his wife got out of the truck and ran.

    Kopsho claimed he wanted to take a “John Wayne”-type warning shot at his wife’s heels to stop her, but instead hit her in the back. He said he ran to her in a daze like he was seeing “the scene through binoculars.”

    He said his wife told him to go ahead and kill her and leave her alone. He then shot her two more times.

    Kopsho said he held the gun to his own throat but a cartridge jammed and the weapon would not fire. He later called 911.

    The convicted murderer was tried twice for his crime. He was convicted in 2005 on counts of first-degree murder and kidnapping, but that conviction was overturned two years later by the Florida Supreme Court due to a technical error during jury selection. A second trial was held in May 2009, which produced the same verdict.

    Kopsho is in custody at Union Correctional Institute in Raiford, one of two prisons that house male death row inmates. He has waived his appearance at status conferences, Nielsen said.

    The next status conference in Kopsho’s case will be held in April.

    https://www.ocala.com/news/20181024/...or-summer-2019

  10. #10
    Senior Member CnCP Legend Mastro Titta's Avatar
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    Off death row: Parties agree to life in prison instead of retrial in Ocala murder case

    By Austin L. Miller
    The Ocala Star-Banner

    In April, a Marion County man was taken off the state's death row after more than 40 years because of his intellectual disability.

    Four months later, another Marion County man on death row has had his sentenced changed to life behind bars.

    William Kopsho has stood trial twice and been found guilty both times, but the state has been unable to get a unanimous death penalty recommendation from the juries.

    Now the state and defense attorney Michael W. Nielsen of the Nielsen Law Firm in Winter Springs have agreed that Kopsho's death sentence will be vacated and a life sentence without parole will be imposed. There will be no third trial.

    Circuit Judge Steven Rogers has signed the paperwork.

    "At the time of a retrial in this case, this conviction will be thirty (30) years old," the joint stipulation says. "The family of the victim in this case has dealt with not only the loss of their loved one, but continued litigation in this case for over twenty years. The family wants closure and are in agreement with a life sentence without the possibility of parole."

    https://eu.ocala.com/story/news/cour...er/5610871001/

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