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Thread: Robert Jeffrey Trease - Florida Death Row

  1. #1
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    Robert Jeffrey Trease - Florida Death Row


    Paul Edeson


    Robert Trease and Hope Siegel


    Summary of Offense:

    The defendant, Robert Trease, and his accomplice Hope Siegel conspired to rob the victim Paul Edeson. The robbery resulted in Trease killing the victim with a knife.

    Trease and Siegel planned for her to arrange a date with the victim so that she could learn where the victim kept a hidden safe. They planned to return later to recover any money the victim may have had. Siegel arrived at the victim’s home and after spending time with the victim, determined that he did not have a safe. She left the victim’s residence and met with Trease, to inform him that the victim did not own a safe. Trease followed Ms. Siegal back to the victim’s house where he surprised and attacked the victim in an effort to obtain the safe’s location. The victim continued to insist that he did not have a safe in his house. Trease told Siegel to get a gun, which he put to the victim’s head as he continued the questioning. The victim remained uncooperative so Trease fired a non-lethal bullet into his head and then asked Siegel to retrieve a knife. He then cut the victim’s throat resulting in his death. Subsequent to his arrest, Trease denied any knowledge or involvement in the crime. Siegel, however, gave a detailed statement implicating them both.

    Trease was sentenced to death in Sarasota County on January 22, 1997.

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    January 6, 2008

    Trease has a signed death warrant but no date

    Robert Trease might not be on death row, were it not for one bullet investigators found in his girlfriend's pickup truck.

    Prosecutors cut a deal with his girlfriend that allowed her to avoid the death penalty if she testified that it was Trease who shot and slit the throat of a Lido Key man in 1995, even though a cellmate said that the girlfriend confessed to killing the man herself.

    But because no blood, hair or other physical evidence linked Trease to the murder of the Sarasota car dealer, prosecutors still needed other witnesses to back up her story and connect the bullet to the crime.

    They called on an FBI crime lab expert who used a process called bullet lead analysis to tell the jury how the ammunition from the truck was manufactured at the same plant at the same time as bullet fragments found at the murder scene.

    But the forensic technique has been discredited in the 10 years since Trease took up residence on death row, and several defendants nationwide have already won their freedom or a new trial by appealing bullet lead analysis testimony.

    In November, the FBI offered to work with defense attorneys to make sure the lead analysis did not help imprison innocent people in the hundreds of cases where their experts testified.

    One judge has already denied another hearing over the evidence that convicted Trease, who has always maintained his innocence.

    A frustrated Trease wrote the Florida Supreme Court in September asking to be put to death now.

    His death warrant had already been signed.

    But now his appeals lawyers will be asking the same justices to take another look at the "voodoo science" and the other evidence that helped put him behind bars.

    Trease's case dates back to August 1995, when a house cleaner found Paul Edenson dead in his Lido Key home. Edenson had been shot in the head, leaving only bullet fragments, and his throat had been slashed three times.

    Hope Siegel's truck was spotted in front of Edenson's house that night. Other witnesses saw Trease and Siegel, his girlfriend, in bars and walking in the neighborhood the night of the killing.

    Police found the truck in Pennsylvania days later and arrested Trease and Siegel. They found a 9-millimeter Glock gun in the apartment where the couple were staying, and bullets in a gym bag in her car.

    Trease denied any knowledge of the crime. Siegel told police Trease made her arrange a "date" with the car dealer so they could rob his safe.

    There was no murder weapon. But the state argued it was the Glock found in the Pennsylvania apartment, and called FBI analyst Kathleen Lundy to testify about the bullet lead analysis.

    A bullet in the truck and the fragments at the crime scene were all manufactured from the same source of lead at an ammunition plant in Minnesota on the same day, or during a short time period.

    Siegel's first-degree murder charge was reduced to a 20-year prison sentence after she told it to the jury.

    But five years later, a report from the National Academies' National Research Council concluded that there is inadequate data to support statements that a crime scene bullet came from a particular box of ammunition or that it was manufactured on a given date.

    "Attorneys, judges, juries and even expert witnesses can easily and inadvertently misunderstand and misrepresent the analysis of the evidence and its importance," the report stated.

    The FBI stopped using the technique in 2005. But in November, the Washington Post and "60 Minutes" reported that the FBI had never gone back to determine how many times its scientists misled jurors.

    That prompted the FBI to announce that it would review transcripts of the trials of those convicted with the help of bullet lead analysis, including the cases of Trease and three other Florida death row inmates.

    It is hard to say how important the FBI testimony was to the jury, and getting a hearing for new evidence is an uphill battle. But some death penalty experts say this issue has a good chance to be heard.

    Trease's attorneys say there is other evidence they want heard, including that Lundy, the FBI expert, was convicted of giving false testimony in another case and that a 9-millimeter Baretta and ammo belonging to Edenson were mysteriously documented as evidence six months after the trial.

    (Source: The Associated Press)

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    On June 24, 2010, Trease was denied a writ of habeas corpus and a subsequent request to reinstate his postconviction proceedings by the Florida Supreme Court.

    Opinion is here:

    http://www.floridasupremecourt.org/d...0/sc08-792.pdf

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    June 25, 2010

    High court says killer can appeal no more

    Since going to death row for a 1995 murder in Sarasota County, Robert Trease has repeatedly changed his mind about whether he wants to end his appeals and take the fast track to the death chamber.

    Here is an excerpt of a conversation between death row inmate Robert Trease and a Sarasota judge in 2008 where Trease pleaded to end his appeals:

    Trease: Well, it's fairly simple. I'm essentially tired of living the life that I'm living, and I'm just not going to do it any longer, and these are the reasons. And (by) the Florida Supreme Court, I have the right to end my appeals.

    Judge: I understand that, but do you understand that if in fact you are successful in your post-conviction proceedings, that that could end up in a — result in a new trial or a resentencing in your case?

    Trease: Yes, I know all that, judge.

    Judge: I know, but I have to ask you these questions.

    Trease: Yes, I'm well aware of that and well aware of that I would more than likely win, seeing that I'm not guilty.

    Then Trease told the courts that he wanted to fight his case again, and his appeal restarted. Since then, he has changed his mind four more times.

    On Thursday, the Florida Supreme Court said, basically, that enough is enough.

    The Florida high court ruled Trease knowingly waived his right to appeal during a hearing in 2008, and he can no longer pursue an appeal, even if defense attorneys are raising questions about the evidence in his case.

    "There would be nothing to stop Trease from changing his mind again at a later date," the opinion states. "In fact, based upon Trease's history, this is a likely scenario."

    "The cycle could continue indefinitely."

    Trease was convicted of the August 1995 shooting death of car dealer Paul Edenson in his Lido Key home. Edenson had been shot in the head, and his throat had been slashed.

    The Thursday ruling means Gov. Charlie Crist could soon schedule the execution of Trease, one of two Florida men with an active death warrant, unless his attorneys file a federal appeal.

    "They're likely to head to federal court and seek relief there," said Sarasota lawyer Adam Tebrugge, who teaches other Florida attorneys about defending death penalty cases.

    Trease is not the first death row inmate to waived the appeals -- a so-called "volunteer" -- who then was denied the right to change his mind by the Florida Supreme Court.

    In the Trease case, Justice Barbara Pariente wrote a dissenting opinion that argued the court runs the risk of Trease being executed without the Florida Supreme Court fully reviewing his claims of innocence.

    "We should err on the side of caution to avoid the chance of Trease being executed with outstanding unresolved questions about his guilt and possible innocence," Pariente wrote.

    Trease was convicted in part because of an FBI lab analyst who testified that the ammunition found in Trease's truck was manufactured at the same plant at the same time as bullet fragments found at the murder scene.

    But the forensic technique used in the bullet analysis has been discredited in the 10 years since Trease was convicted, and several defendants nationwide have won freedom or a new trial by appealing lead analysis testimony.

    The bullet fragments were found in Edenson's head after the killing.

    A truck owned by Trease's girlfriend, Hope Siegel, was spotted in front of Edenson's house that night. Other witnesses saw Trease and Siegel in nearby bars and walking in the neighborhood the night of the killing.

    Police found the truck in Pennsylvania days later and arrested Trease and Siegel. They found a 9 mm Glock handgun in the apartment where the couple was staying, and bullets in a gym bag in Siegel's car.

    Trease denied any knowledge of the crime. Siegel told police Trease made her arrange a date with the car dealer so they could rob his safe.

    There was no murder weapon. But the state argued it was the Glock found in the Pennsylvania apartment, and called FBI analyst Kathleen Lundy to testify about the bullet lead analysis.

    A bullet in the truck and the fragments were all manufactured from the same source of lead at an ammunition plant in Minnesota on the same day or close to it, prosecutors said.

    Siegel's first-degree murder charge was reduced to a 20-year prison sentence after she told her story that implicated Trease to a jury.

    http://www.heraldtribune.com/apps/pb...ID=20106251024

  5. #5
    Administrator Moh's Avatar
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    On February 4, 2011, Trease filed a habeas petition in Federal District Court.

    http://dockets.justia.com/docket/flo...v00233/254261/

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    In today's United States Supreme Court orders, Trease's petition for a writ of certiorari and motion for leave to proceed in forma pauperis was DENIED.

    Order here

  7. #7
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    On September 24, 2014, Trease's habeas petition was DENIED in Federal District Court.

    http://docs.justia.com/cases/federal...0233/254261/43

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    Supreme Court rejects 10 more death penalty appeals

    By News Service of Florida

    TALLAHASSEE, Fla. - With the total number of similar rulings reaching 30 over three days, the Florida Supreme Court on Wednesday rejected appeals by another 10 Death Row inmates challenging their death sentences.

    Justices, in a highly unusual move, have released batches of 10 rulings each day this week, with all of the cases dealing with issues about jury unanimity. The appeals were based on a 2016 U.S.Supreme Court opinion in a case known as Hurst v. Florida and a subsequent Florida Supreme Court decision.

    The 2016 U.S. Supreme Court ruling found Florida's death-penalty sentencing system was unconstitutional because it gave too much authority to judges, instead of juries.

    The subsequent Florida Supreme Court ruling said juries must unanimously agree on critical findings before judges can impose death sentences and must unanimously recommend the death penalty. But the Florida Supreme Court made the new sentencing requirements apply to cases since June 2002.

    That is when the U.S. Supreme Court issued a ruling known as Ring v. Arizona that was a premise for striking down Florida's death-penalty sentencing system in 2016. In each of the cases Wednesday, the Death Row inmates had been sentenced to death before the Ring decision and argued that the new sentencing requirements should also apply to their cases.

    The inmates who lost their appeals Wednesday were Donald David Dilbeck in a Leon County case; Steven Maurice Evans in an Orange County case; Etheria Verdell Jackson in a Duval County case; Gregory Alan Kokal in a Duval County case; Harold Gene Lucas in a Lee County case; John Christopher Marquard in a St. Johns County case; William Earl Sweet in a Duval County case; Steven Richard Taylor in a Duval County case; William Gregory Thomas in a Duval County case; and Robert J. Trease in a Sarasota County case.

    https://www.news4jax.com/news/florid...enalty-appeals

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