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Thread: Joseph Peter Smith - Florida

  1. #21
    Moderator Ryan's Avatar
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    Carlie Brucia's killer headed back to death row after judge rejects request

    SARASOTA, Fla. - Joseph Smith, the man convicted of abducting 11-year-old Carlie Brucia from a Sarasota car wash in 2004, is headed back to death row after a judge rejected his request for a new sentencing.

    The abduction was caught on surveillance video from Evie's Car Wash on Bee Ridge Road back on February 1, 2004. Carlie's body was found a few days later, behind Central Church of Crist on Proctor Road.

    A jury convicted Smith of Carlie's murder and sentenced him to death.

    He was removed from death row in 2018, after the state Supreme Court ruled that another man's death sentence in a similar case was unconstitutional.

    The Supreme Court reversed its decision earlier this year. That paved the way for today's ruling, which returns him to death row.

    An appeal is expected.

    https://www.fox13news.com/news/carli...ejects-request
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  2. #22
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    Good news I'd hard to find. This gave my spirits a boost.

  3. #23
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    Brucia killer headed toward new sentencing

    TALLAHASSEE, Fla. (News Service of Florida) - More than 17 years after 11-year-old Carlie Brucia was abducted and murdered in Sarasota County, the attorney general’s office acknowledged this week that convicted killer Joseph Smith should receive a new sentencing hearing.

    In filings Monday at the Florida Supreme Court, the attorney general’s office said rulings last year by justices in other cases require that Smith and four other convicted murderers be resentenced.

    The filing in the Smith case was the latest in a series of legal twists in a 2004 murder that drew national attention. A circuit judge in April 2020 resentenced Smith to death, but the Supreme Court subsequently issued rulings in two other cases that called that sentence into question.

    In a three-page filing Monday, the attorney general’s office made clear it was begrudgingly acknowledging that Smith’s case should be sent back to the circuit court for a new sentencing hearing. The move does not affect Smith’s conviction in the murder and sexual assault of Carlie Brucia.

    “While the state feels that it is patently unjust for a resentencing to be required under the circumstances and the state has concerns about the impact of the decision on a trial court’s traditional power to reconsider its prior rulings, the state acknowledges Jackson and Okafor are controlling precedent in this case. Accordingly, this case should be remanded to the trial court to conduct a capital resentencing,” Assistant Attorney General Christina Pacheco wrote, referring to the two cases decided in November by the Supreme Court involving convicted murderers Michael James Jackson and Bessman Okafor.

    The attorney general’s office also filed similar documents Monday about new sentencing hearings for convicted murderers Justin Ryan McMillian, Donald Lenneth Banks, Gerald Delane Murray and Tiffany Ann Cole.

    The filings stem from a series of complicated death-penalty developments that began in early 2016 when the U.S. Supreme Court found Florida’s death-penalty system unconstitutional because it gave too much authority to judges, instead of juries, in imposing death sentences.

    The Florida Supreme Court in October 2016, in a case known as Hurst v. State, interpreted and applied the U.S. Supreme Court ruling. The state court required unanimous jury recommendations before death sentences could be imposed and dealt with a critical issue of jurors finding what are known as “aggravating factors” that can justify death sentences.

    The state Supreme Court later said its decision in Hurst v. State should be applied retroactively to cases going back to 2002. That created a need to hold new sentencing hearings for many inmates in death-penalty cases, including in the case of Smith, who was sentenced to death in 2006 after a 10-2 jury recommendation. The Supreme Court in 2018 ordered a resentencing for Smith.

    But in January 2020, the state Supreme Court issued a ruling that backed away from its decision in Hurst v. State and the requirement of unanimous jury recommendations in death-penalty cases.

    After that ruling, prosecutors sought to reinstate Smith’s death sentence, which had remained unresolved. Circuit Judge Charles Roberts in April 2020 reinstated the death sentence.

    In two rulings in November, however, the state Supreme Court rejected requests to similarly reinstate death sentences in the Jackson and Okafor cases because earlier court orders had required them to receive new hearings.

    “We hold that our judgment vacating Okafor’s death sentence is final, that neither we nor the trial court can lawfully reinstate that sentence, and that resentencing is therefore required,” justices wrote in the Okafor case. “In reaching this conclusion, we acknowledge the burden that resentencing proceedings will place on the victims of Okafor’s crimes. We also acknowledge the consequences for the victims in similar cases that will be governed by our decision here. Nonetheless, our holding is compelled by applicable law.”

    While the attorney general’s office made the filings Monday in the Smith case and the other four cases, the Supreme Court had not taken action on the filings as of Tuesday afternoon, according to court dockets.

    https://www.google.com/amp/s/www.mys...outputType=amp
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  4. #24
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    Carlie Brucia killer gets new sentencing hearing

    The Sarasota Herald-Tribune

    The Florida Supreme Court on Friday ordered a new sentencing hearing for a man who killed 11-year-old Carlie Brucia in Sarasota County in a case that drew national attention.

    Justices issued a unanimous, one-paragraph order directing a new hearing for Joseph Smith, now 55, who was convicted in the 2004 murder. The order came more than two months after Attorney General Ashley Moody’s office acknowledged in a court filing that Smith should be resentenced because of rulings last year by the Supreme Court in other cases.

    Those rulings came after a series of complicated death penalty developments that began in early 2016 when the U.S. Supreme Court found Florida’s death penalty system unconstitutional because it gave too much authority to judges, instead of juries, in imposing death sentences.

    The attorney general’s office in March also acknowledged the need for new sentencing hearings for several other convicted murderers. Along with Smith, the Supreme Court on Friday ordered new hearings for David Sylvester Frances, Pinkney W. Carter, Gerald Delane Murray and Brandon Lee Bradley.

    https://heraldtribune.com/story/news...ng/5099263001/


    July 26th 2021
    Joseph Smith who was convicted of killing 11-year-old Carlie Brucia dies

    By Chris Anderson
    The Sarasota Herald-Tribune

    Joseph Smith, who was convicted of killing 11-year-old Carlie Brucia in Sarasota in 2004, died in prison on Monday, according to the state Attorney General's Office. Cause of death was unknown.

    Smith was on Florida's death row for the rape and murder of Brucia. The case captured headlines worldwide after Smith was captured on a car wash camera leading Brucia away by the wrist.

    Smith was awaiting a resentencing hearing scheduled for next year. The Florida Supreme Court ruled that juries must be unanimous in sentencing someone to death. The jury voted 10-2 in favor of the death penalty for Smith in 2005.

    "While nothing can bring back Carlie, we are grateful that her family, her friends, and the entire Sarasota community will finally have closure and will not have to endure any further court proceedings to bring Smith to justice," State Attorney Ed Brodsky said in a statement.

    https://www.heraldtribune.com/story/...ow/8092827002/
    Last edited by Steven; 05-08-2023 at 06:36 PM.

  5. #25
    Senior Member CnCP Legend Neil's Avatar
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    The guy looked so over bloated and looked very haggard. It’s not entirely surprising he died of natural causes. Out of all the Hurst guys he’s the biggest one to croak so far.

    Adam Davis was the healthiest Hurst guy and it’s absolutely ridiculous that someone like Davis was sentenced to death on just a bare majority.

    At least we were fortunate Smith was never officially resentenced to LWOP.
    Last edited by Neil; 07-26-2021 at 12:31 PM.

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