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Thread: Raymond Morrison, Jr. - Florida

  1. #1
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    Raymond Morrison, Jr. - Florida




    Facts of the Crime:

    Raymond Morrison was convicted in the murder of 82-year-old Albert Dwelle. On January 8, 1997, Morrison visited his girlfriend, Sandra Brown, at her apartment. The victim lived across from Brown’s apartment. At approximately 9:00 p.m., Morrison told Brown he was going to take out the trash. Morrison did not return to the apartment.

    Morrison was arrested on January 10, 1997 for an unrelated offense. When he was taken into custody, he asked Officer Richardson if the arrest was about an old man. The officer told Morrison it was an unrelated offense but homicide detectives wanted to question him. Morrison was then read his constitutional rights. In the car, Morrison learned Richardson was a pastor at a local church. They talked about religion and the steps Morrison needed to take to get his life in order. Morrison was then interviewed by the detectives about the murder of Dwelle.

    While being interviewed, Morrison stated that he wanted to talk to Officer Richardson again. The detectives paged Officer Richardson, who then went and spoke with Morrison. After speaking with Officer Richardson, Morrison gave a written statement of what took place on January 8, 1997. He stated that at 9:00 p.m., he started smoking crack with a man named “Big Man.” They ran out of crack and Morrison knocked on Dwelle’s door and asked him for a cigar. Dwelle told Morrison he could not come into his apartment.

    After taking the cigar from Dwelle, Morrison asked for a light. While Dwelle went into his bedroom to retrieve a light, Morrison entered the apartment and followed him into the bedroom. Morrison then noticed some money in a shirt pocket that Dwelle had hanging from a chair. He grabbed the money.

    When Dwelle saw Morrison take his money, he picked up a knife and started swinging it around. Morrison then claimed he grabbed Dwelle’s arm and swung him around so he was facing away from him. When Morrison did that, the man began lashing the knife over his shoulder. While doing so, Morrison claimed that Dwelle accidentally cut his throat and then started swinging the knife even harder.

    Morrison also claimed that he did not notice that Dwelle had cut himself. Then, Dwelle accidentally stabbed himself in the neck. Morrison then stated that he laid Dwelle down and took the knife to hide it. Morrison then went back to “Big Man” and asked him to drive him out of town. When they got to Marietta, they spent the money on drugs and prostitutes. Morrison was also seen selling coins that resembled coins that were missing from Dwelle’s apartment. They then went back to the apartment complex where Morrison stated that he saw his Uncle Cap. Morrison stayed with his uncle until the police picked him up on January 10, 1997. Morrison later led the police to where he hid the knife that was used to kill the victim.

    Morrison was sentenced to death in Duval County on December 18, 1998.

  2. #2
    Senior Member CnCP Legend JLR's Avatar
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    Factors Contributing to the Delay of the Imposition of the Sentence:

    Morrison’s Direct Appeal took approximately three years to decide by the Florida Supreme Court.

    Case Information:

    Morrison filed his Direct Appeal to the Florida Supreme Court on 01/11/99. Among his claims, he contended that the trial court erred during the jury selection and in allowing certain statements from the prosecutor during closing arguments. Morrison also claimed that the trial court erred in excluding testimony aimed to impeach the State’s witness and in denying his motion for acquittal of the charges against him. The Court found no merit in any of his claims and affirmed his convictions and sentences on 03/21/02.

    Subsequently, Morrison filed for a Writ of Certiorari to the United States Supreme Court on 08/15/02, which was denied on 10/15/02.

    On 09/18/03, Morrison filed a 3.850 Motion to the Circuit Court, which is currently pending.

  3. #3
    Administrator Moh's Avatar
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    Jacksonville man gets off Death Row after judge finds original lawyers were ineffective

    A Jacksonville man who has been on Death Row for 17 years just had his sentence thrown out by the same judge who originally sentenced him to die.

    Circuit Judge Henry Davis ruled that the lawyers who originally defended Raymond Morrison Jr. at trial in 1998 did an ineffective job representing him. Morrison, 46, was convicted of slashing the throat of 81-year-old Albert Dwelle, and a jury unanimously recommended death with Davis concurring.

    But in his ruling throwing out the conviction, Davis said the errors committed by defense attorneys Refik Eler and Christopher Anderson led him to believe Morrison never had a chance at a fair trial. Eler handled the guilt phase and Anderson handled the penalty phase.

    Eler was in private practice at the time he defended Morrison and is now the chief deputy public defender working for 4th Circuit Public Defender Matt Shirk. Anderson is still in private practice.

    Attorney Martin McClain, who now represents Morrison, said his previous lawyers never investigated his case before defending him at trial.

    “It was like he had no attorney,” McClain said.

    The office of State Attorney Angela Corey said they would appeal Davis’ ruling to the Florida Supreme Court and ask justices to reinstate Morrison’s death sentence. Morrison will technically remain on Death Row while that appeal occurs.

    If the appeal is unsuccessful, Corey’s office will have to decide whether to try Morrison again and seek the death penalty. Spokeswoman Jackelyn Barnard said it was too early to say what would happen if the appeal is unsuccessful.

    In his ruling Davis seemed especially concerned that Eler and Anderson didn’t address Morrison’s mental health and also said the lawyers didn’t actively investigate the case and prepare for Morrison’s defense during the trial and penalty phase.

    There were several people willing to testify that they saw Morrison somewhere else around the time Dwelle was killed, but Eler didn’t call any of them to testify.

    Davis said that was a mistake.

    “The court delivered to the jury the standard alibi instruction,” Davis said. “Nonetheless the entire record shows Mr. Eler did not adequately investigate or prepare an alibi defense.”

    Examinations of Morrison after he went to Death Row showed that he had abnormal brain metabolism, consistent with someone who’d suffered a serious head injury. One doctor who testified at a post-conviction hearing said Morrison had “organic brain damage and intellectual disability” likely due to his abuse of alcohol and drugs and his being born prematurely.

    Morrison confessed to killing Dwelle after police questioned him for hours, with one officer telling him he had to get right with God by confessing to Dwelle’s murder.

    “Given the findings of these mental-health experts, it is likely defendant had a significantly impaired mental state at the time of the interrogation,” Davis said in his ruling. “Because defendant’s statement was a key piece of evidence against defendant, it was unreasonable for counsel not to investigate defendant’s mental state at the time of his statement.”

    Morrison was sentenced to death for the Jan. 8, 1997, throat slashing of Dwelle in a Ramona Boulevard apartment. Dwelle, who was disabled, was found a day later by a Meals on Wheels worker who delivered his lunch.

    In his statement to police, Morrison said he went to Dwelle’s apartment to ask for a cigar and a light but wound up taking money from Dwelle’s shirt pocket. That led to a confrontation in which, Morrison said, Dwelle stabbed himself with a knife.

    Police found the murder weapon based on where Morrison said he hid it.

    Morrison had also smoked crack cocaine hours before his arrest, and Davis also said that should have been used by Morrison’s lawyer to explain the multiple stories, some contradicting each other, that Morrison told to police during his interrogation.

    Had he or the jury known about Morrison’s serious mental-health issues it would have been a major factor to evaluate when determining whether Morrison told the truth in his confession, Davis said.

    A number of people also said Morrison had a habit of taking responsibility for crimes that had been committed by other people, including once confessing to shooting a man when he had nothing to do with it. Eler never investigated that or brought it up at trial, and that fact would have allowed jurors to consider whether Morrison was telling the truth when he confessed this time, Davis said.

    McClain said the case was originally handled by the office of former 4th Circuit Public Defender Lou Frost. But Frost’s office had to recuse itself because of a conflict of interest, and Eler ended up being appointed as a private lawyer paid for by taxpayers.

    Eler seemed to believe that the Public Defender’s Office had done all the investigation necessary on the case, but that wasn’t true and a lot of investigation work never got done, McClain said.

    McClain acknowledged it is unusual for the original trial judge to throw out the conviction and death sentence.

    “First time I can ever remember that happening,” McClain said. “But that shows you how serious the issues were in this case.”

    Morrison is the third Jacksonville person to have his Death Row sentence thrown out by a trial court in the last few years. Raymond Curtis Bright and Jacob Dougan both had their Death Row convictions thrown out by a trial court, although it was not the original trial judge who threw out their convictions.

    In all three cases, it was poor defense work by the original defense lawyers that led to the convictions being thrown out. Corey and the office of Florida Attorney General Pam Bondi are appealing the Bright and Dougan cases to the Florida Supreme Court and asking justices to reinstate their convictions.

    McClain said everyone should be concerned with seeing so many convictions overturned because of bad lawyering.

    “It’s a major concern,” McClain said, pointing out that most death-penalty lawyers end up getting defended at taxpayer expense, and that money goes up when new trials become necessary.

    http://jacksonville.com/news/crime/2...Times-Union%29

  4. #4
    Senior Member CnCP Legend CharlesMartel's Avatar
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    Supreme Court grants new sentence in throat-slashing death of elderly Jacksonville man

    By Eileen Kelley
    The Florida Times-Union

    A 49-year-old Jacksonville man on Death Row for killing an 82-year-old disabled man 20 years ago had his sentence vacated by the Florida Supreme Court on Thursday.

    The court did not throw out Raymond Morrison’s 1998 guilty conviction, just his sentence. Now it is up to the State Attorney’s Office to review the case and determine if it wants to empanel a new jury to once again seek the death penalty. If not, Morrison will be automatically sentenced to a life behind bars for killing Albert Dwelle.

    In its ruling the Supreme Court found that a lawyer for Morrison failed to properly investigate his mental health and background — potential mitigating factors that could have swayed a jury when deciding if Morrison should be condemned to die.

    In 1998 Morrison was found guilty of robbing and killing Dwelle, a neighbor of his girlfriend’s. Dwelle’s throat was slashed and he had been robbed. His body was discovered the following morning by a delivery driver for Meals on Wheels.

    Dwelle was disabled for many years after suffering a stroke when he was a child. He could not use his left arm and hand and could hardly stand. Dwelle needed assistance to bathe, dress and cook.

    Two years ago Circuit Court Judge Henry Davis ruled that one of Morrison’s lawyers did an ineffective job representing him in the case that ended with the jury voting 12-0 for a death sentence.

    The lower court judge found that there were several people willing to testify that Morrison was somewhere else around the time that Dwelle was killed but none were called to the witness stand.

    Davis said attorney Refik Eler did not adequately investigate or prepare an alibi for his client. Two years ago the Times-Union reported that an examination of Morrison’s brain after he was placed on Death Row revealed that he had abnormal brain metabolism, something typically found with one who has a serious head injury.

    Morrison confessed to the crime after a detective told him to make everything right with God. It was later learned that Morrison had smoked crack cocaine hours before his arrest, which should have been used by his lawyers to explain the various contradicting stories he told police.

    A number of people said Morrison took responsibilities for crimes that he did not commit. The lower court found that Eler never investigated that or brought it up at trial. Eler had been Jacksonville’s chief assistant public defender and the office’s death-penalty director under former Public Defender Matt Shirk. On several occasions over the years, courts have called his counsel ineffective.

    Davis found that had he or the jury known about Morrison’s serious mental-health issues, that would have been a major factor to determine if he was telling the truth at the time of his confession.

    After the lower court’s decision to throw out the conviction, the then State Attorney Angela Corey vowed to fight the matter at the Supreme Court. The court came back with a unanimous decision to throw out the sentence but keep the conviction.

    State Attorney Melissa Nelson could not be reached for comment.

    http://jacksonville.com/news/public-...-death-elderly

  5. #5
    Administrator Heidi's Avatar
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    In today's orders, the United States Supreme Court declined to review Morrison's petition for certiorari.

    Lower Ct: Supreme Court of Florida
    Case Numbers: (SC15-1880)
    Decision Date: November 16, 2017
    Rehearing Denied: February 7, 2018


    Raymond Morrison Jr was re-sentenced to life.

    http://www.dc.state.fl.us/offenderSe...&TypeSearch=AI
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