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Thread: Norman Blake McKenzie - Florida Death Row

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    Norman Blake McKenzie - Florida Death Row




    Summary of Offense:

    Norman McKenzie was sentenced to death for the October 4, 2006 murders of 49-year-old Randy Peacock and 64-year-old Charles Johnston. According to court reports, McKenzie attacked both men with a hatchet. Autopsy findings showed Johnson had four "chop wounds" on the head and Peacock was hit four times on the head with what was presumed to be a hatchet. Peacock was also stabbed six times. McKenzie, who acted as his own lawyer during the double murder trial, admitted his guilt during his closing argument. "There is no doubt that a heinous crime has occurred," he said, in a calm, softspoken tone. "I'm the one that is responsible for it."

    McKenzie was sentenced to death in St. Johns County on August 31, 2007.

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    The Florida Supreme Court upheld McKenzie's death sentence on direct appeal in an opinion dated January 7, 2010.

    Opinion is here:

    http://www.floridasupremecourt.org/d.../sc07-2101.pdf

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    Convicted murderer to remain on death row

    Circuit Judge Wendy Berger has denied death row inmate Norman McKenzie's motion for post-conviction relief.

    Berger's 13-page order denying the defendant's motion to vacate judgment of conviction and sentence was filed in the St. Johns County Circuit Court on Thursday.

    McKenzie was convicted of first-degree murder and is on death row for killing two men, Randy Peacock and Charles Johnston, with a hatchet and a butcher knife. Prosecutors said the killings were motivated by robbery; McKenzie took the victims' wallets, cash, credit cards and fled in Peacock's car.

    On Aug. 7, 2007, McKenzie requested to represent himself and at a hearing three days later, and his request was granted. A jury trial was held on Aug. 20-21, 2007, in St. Johns County and McKenzie was found guilty as charged.

    Following the verdict, he requested appointed counsel for the penalty phase, and the public defender was appointed. However, McKenzie again requested to represent himself and a hearing was held and his request was granted. The penalty phase took place on Aug. 23, 2007, and the jury recommended the death penalty.

    The instant motion to vacate judgment of conviction and sentence was filed on Sept. 15. Berger denied McKenzie's request for an evidentiary hearing on an ineffective assistance of counsel claim, and McKenzie failed to demonstrate prejudice, such as, that a reasonable probability exists that, but for counsel's error, the result in the case would have been different.

    Berger also wrote in her order that the court finds the defendant's ground one that the state denied him a full and fair sentencing to have no merit. In Court on July 11, 2007, while still represented by counsel, McKenzie made it clear that he did not want a continuance and that he wanted to go to trial as soon as possible.

    Berger wrote, "Additionally, defendant voluntarily chose to represent himself and assumed the consequences of such representation; therefore, he cannot complain that he received ineffective assistance of counsel."

    McKenzie also claimed he was denied meaningful access to the court because he was not given access to a law library. Berger ruled that the defendant was appropriately informed of the limited access he would have to legal materials when the defendant chose to waive his right to assistance of competent counsel. Berger referenced to court transcripts documenting the defendant being informed of the limited access to legal materials while incarcerated.

    http://www.news4jax.com/news/Convict...h/-/index.html
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    NORMAN BLAKE MCKENZIE, vs. STATE OF FLORIDA


    NORMAN BLAKE MCKENZIE, vs. MICHAEL D. CREWS, etc.

    In today's opinions, the Florida Supreme Court AFFIRMED the circuit court's denial of Mckenzie's rule 3.851 motion and DENIED his petition for writ of habeas corpus.
    An uninformed opponent is a dangerous opponent.

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    Administrator Moh's Avatar
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    On January 21, 2015, McKenzie filed a habeas petition in Federal District Court.

    http://dockets.justia.com/docket/flo...cv00047/306286

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    Filed a federal appeal and argues what???? That he's retarded and admitted that he actually chopped 2 people to death???

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    Administrator Helen's Avatar
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    With new death penalty rules on the books, judge vacates sentences in 2 old cases

    By Jared Keever
    The St. Augustine Record

    Two men, long ago convicted of murder in separate cases in St. Johns County and sentenced to death, have had their sentences vacated and been given an opportunity to have the penalty portion of their trials heard again.

    The recent orders from Circuit Court Judge Howard Maltz came in response to motions filed on behalf of James Daniel Turner and Norman Blake McKenzie that sought to have the sentences thrown out after the U.S. Supreme Court struck down Florida’s old sentencing scheme for death penalty cases.

    Their convictions stand but each shall be granted a new penalty phase “if the State still desires to seek the death penalty,” the orders say.

    A jury convicted Turner of first-degree murder in 2007 for the 2005 stabbing death of Renee Boling Howard of Crescent Beach after he escaped from a South Carolina prison. Then-Circuit Court Judge Wendy Berger sentenced him to death in 2008 after a 10-2 jury recommendation for the sentence during the penalty phase of his trial.

    Berger, who now serves on the 5th District Court of Appeal, also handed down two death sentences for McKenzie after two 10-2 recommendations from a jury in 2007. Months earlier, jurors had convicted him of first-degree murder for killing Randy Wayne Peacock and Charles Frank Johnston with a hatchet. Peacock was also stabbed.

    It was those 10-2 juror recommendations that were at the heart of Maltz’s orders in response to what are now often referred to as “Hurst motions.”

    The name is a reference to the January 2016 U.S. Supreme Court decision in the case Hurst v. Florida that found Florida’s sentencing procedures were unconstitutional.

    The court found that the procedures violated the defendant’s right to a trial by jury by allowing the judge to make the final decision after considering the jury’s recommendation. It also took issue with those recommendations having to come from only a majority of jurors rather than a unanimous decision.

    Legislators responded that same year by passing a new law that required a 10-2 vote from jurors for a death sentence, but that was quickly shot down by the Florida Supreme Court, which found that the Hurst decision, and its predecessor — a 2002 decision in Ring v. Arizona in which the U.S. Supreme Court examined many of the same issues — meant that a unanimous decision from jurors was needed for a death sentence.

    Gov. Rick Scott signed a new law in March requiring just that.

    Assistant State Attorney Jason Lewis told The Record on Wednesday that the new law, in conjunction with the “guidance” from the Florida Supreme Court, means that any death sentence that was made final after the Ring decision can be challenged.

    Lewis said that in the 7th Judicial Circuit, which includes Volusia, Flagler, St. Johns and Putnam counties, there are around 30 death penalty cases and about half of them appear eligible for a challenge.

    “From what we’ve looked at so far, we have about 15,” he said, adding that, right now, judges seem to be vacating only those sentences in cases in which the jury recommendation was not unanimous.

    For instance, Lewis said, the Florida Supreme Court recently upheld the death sentence for Quentin Marcus Truehill that was based on a unanimous recommendation, saying that what constitutes a “Hurst error” is rendered “harmless” if all the jurors agreed when they sent their recommendation to the judge.

    A jury in 2014 convicted Truehill, a prison escapee from Louisiana, of murder for killing Vincent Binder, a 29-year-old Florida State University graduate student, and dumping his body in St. Johns County.

    Maltz applied similar reasoning as the Florida Supreme Court in March when he declined to vacate a death sentence for John Christopher Marquard, who, in 1993 was sentenced to death for first-degree murder.

    Because the sentence predated the Ring decision, Maltz wrote, Marquard was not “entitled to retroactive Hurst relief.”

    Even if he were to apply Hurst to the case, he added, Marquard still would not be entitled to the relief “because the jury’s unanimous recommendation of death rendered any error harmless.”

    For the sentences that do get overturned, Lewis said he and his colleagues deal with them on a case-by-case basis.

    Prosecutors consult with the victims’ families to see if there is still desire to seek a death penalty and then make a decision as to how they will proceed, he said.

    That is what has been set in motion now with Monday’s orders in the Turner and McKenzie cases.

    “Once those orders come out we have 45 days,” Lewis said.

    http://staugustine.com/news/local-ne...es-2-old-cases
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    Administrator Moh's Avatar
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    Prosecutors will seek death penalty again in two old cases

    By JARED KEEVER
    The St. Augustine Record

    After having two death sentences thrown out because of recent high court rulings, prosecutors have decided to again seek the death penalty for two men convicted of murder years ago in two separate cases.

    Attorneys for James Daniel Turner and Norman Blake McKenzie were both in Circuit Judge Howard Maltz’s St. Johns County courtroom on Tuesday afternoon for status conferences regarding their clients’ cases.

    Maltz, earlier this year, vacated both men’s death sentences after the U.S. Supreme Court, in 2016, struck down Florida’s old sentencing scheme for death penalty cases in a case called Hurst v. Florida.

    The court found that the procedures violated the defendant’s right to a trial by jury by allowing the judge to make the final decision after considering the jury’s recommendation. It also took issue with those recommendations having to come from only a majority of jurors rather than a unanimous decision.

    Legislators responded that same year by passing a new law that required a 10-2 vote from jurors for a death sentence, but that was quickly shot down by the Florida Supreme Court, which found that the Hurst decision, and its predecessor — a 2002 decision in Ring v. Arizona in which the U.S. Supreme Court examined many of the same issues — meant that a unanimous decision from jurors was needed for a death sentence.

    Gov. Rick Scott signed a new law in March requiring just that.

    While Turner’s and McKenzie’s convictions still stand, they do have to be resentenced after Maltz found that, because jurors in their trials did not vote unanimously for the death sentence, they are eligible for new penalty phases because of what courts have come to call a “Hurst error.”

    Turner, who appeared in court with his attorney Tuesday, was convicted of first-degree murder in 2007 for the 2005 stabbing death of Renee Boling Howard of Crescent Beach after he escaped from a South Carolina prison. Then-Circuit Court Judge Wendy Berger sentenced him to death in 2008 after a 10-2 jury recommendation for the sentence during the penalty phase of his trial.

    Berger, who now serves on the 5th District Court of Appeal, also handed down two death sentences for McKenzie after two 10-2 recommendations from a jury in 2007. Months earlier, jurors had convicted him of first-degree murder for killing Randy Wayne Peacock and Charles Frank Johnston with a hatchet. Peacock was also stabbed.

    McKenzie, who was not in court Tuesday, will be returning to the St. Johns County jail to await sentencing. Turner will be returning to state prison where he is also serving time on other charges related to the 2005 murder.

    Both cases are scheduled for another status conference in November. The new penalty phases are expected to take place some time next year.

    http://staugustine.com/news/local-ne...-two-old-cases

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    Administrator Helen's Avatar
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    St. Johns County murderer sentenced to death again

    The St. Augustine Record

    Norman Blake McKenzie, convicted guilt of two counts of first-degree murder in 2007, was sentenced to death for the second time Friday afternoon at the St. Johns County courthouse.

    In 2007, a jury voted 10-2 on both counts to sentence McKenzie, 55, to death and then-Circuit Judge Wendy Berger sentenced him to death months later.

    McKenzie’s death sentence was thrown out in 2017 because of a Florida Supreme Court ruling that required a unanimous jury vote to establish a death sentence.

    McKenzie killed two men in 2006, Randy Wayne Peacock and Charles Frank Johnston, with a hatchet in St. Johns County, prosecutors said. Prior to his arrest, McKenzie was accused of crimes in multiple counties.

    In August, a jury unanimously said McKenzie met the criteria of the death penalty.

    McKenzie appeared nonplussed when Circuit Judge Howard Maltz read out the death sentence for both counts of first-degree murder.

    “There is no more serious or solemn responsibility for this court then to determine if someone should live or die for their crimes,” Maltz said. “In making this most difficult decision, I’m guided in part by what our Supreme Court has said on many occasions, which is death sentences must be reserved for the most aggravated or least mitigated murders. This is such a case.”

    https://www.staugustine.com/news/202...to-death-again
    "I realize this may sound harsh, but as a father and former lawman, I really don't care if it's by lethal injection, by the electric chair, firing squad, hanging, the guillotine or being fed to the lions."
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    "There are some people who just do not deserve to live,"
    - Rev. Richard Hawke

    “There are lots of extremely smug and self-satisfied people in what would be deemed lower down in society, who also deserve to be pulled up. In a proper free society, you should be allowed to make jokes about absolutely anything.”
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  10. #10
    Moderator Bobsicles's Avatar
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    Conviction and death sentence affirmed on direct appeal.

    https://law.justia.com/cases/florida.../sc20-243.html
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