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Thread: Dacarius Holliday - Louisiana Death Row

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    Dacarius Holliday - Louisiana Death Row


    Darian Coon, 2





    Summary of Offense:

    A Louisiana judge has formally sentenced Dacarius Holliday to death for fatally beating his girlfriend's two-year-old son in 2007. An East Baton Rouge Parish jury convicted the 33-year-old Holliday, of St. Louis, of first-degree murder on March 14, 2010. Three days later, the same jurors recommended that Holliday die by lethal injection for the killing of Darian Coon on May 14, 2007. An autopsy revealed Coon suffered 75 contusions to his body and lacerations to his liver and kidney, among other injuries.

    Holliday was sentenced to death on July 7, 2010.

  2. #2
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    July 8, 2010

    St. Louis man sentenced to death in beating death of 2-year-old

    BATON ROUGE, La. (AP) — A Louisiana judge has formally sentenced Dacarius Holliday to death for fatally beating his girlfriend's 2-year-old son in 2007.

    An East Baton Rouge Parish jury convicted the 33-year-old Holliday, of St. Louis, of first-degree murder on March 14.

    Three days later, the same jurors recommended that Holliday die by lethal injection for the killing of Darian Coon on May 14, 2007.

    The Advocate reports an autopsy revealed Coon suffered 75 contusions to his body and lacerations to his liver and kidney, among other injuries.

    Shortly after denying Holliday's motion for a new trial Wednesday, state District Judge Wilson Fields formally sentenced him to die.

    The Louisiana Supreme Court automatically reviews all death penalty cases in the state.

    http://www.theadvertiser.com/article...08013/-1/rss01

  3. #3
    Administrator Heidi's Avatar
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    State judge rejects murder retrial

    BATON ROUGE, La. (AP) - A judge has rejected a claim by an attorney for condemned child-killer Dacarius Holliday that an East Baton Rouge Parish jury was "duped" last year into believing 2-year-old Darian Coon was sexually abused when he was beaten to death in 2007.

    The Advocate reports Richard Bourke, who is handling Holliday's appeal, argued to state District Judge Wilson Fields that the defense has evidence that contradicts trial testimony that Coon was sexually assaulted.

    Prosecutor Dana Cummings countered during a 90-minute hearing that the state stands by its trial witnesses and added it is a "tossup" to say which is more despicable: sexual abuse or "just plumb torture."

    "What this man did is despicable. It is horrid," she told the judge.

    In the end, Fields denied Holliday's motion for a new trial.

    Bourke said afterward the case now goes to the Louisiana Supreme Court. The high court automatically reviews all death penalty cases in the state.

    Holliday, 34, was convicted March 14, 2010, of first-degree murder in the fatal beating of Coon - his Baton Rouge girlfriend's son - on May 14, 2007.

    The same jury recommended Holliday die by lethal injection. Fields formally sentenced him July 7, 2010, to death.

    An autopsy revealed Coon suffered 75 contusions to his body and lacerations to his liver and kidney, among other injuries.

    Prosecutors argued at Holliday's trial that the killing merited the death penalty because the victim was under the age of 12 and because Holliday was engaged in the commission of second-degree cruelty to a juvenile.

    Several months before the trial began, prosecutors dropped aggravated rape as one of the aggravating circumstances in the case.

    Bourke complained Tuesday about a prosecution witness who testified at trial that Coon's body showed "unquestionable sexual abuse."

    Bourke, who alleged the state used sexual abuse as a "sword" against Holliday, called sexual assault of a child "morally condemned behavior."

    "The state can't say the issue of sexual abuse wasn't raised," he argued. "Once that was injected there was no going back."

    Cummings countered that aggravated rape was withdrawn as an aggravating factor because the state could not prove the specific cause of the injury to Coon's anus.

    "I never abandoned sexual abuse," she insisted. "I wasn't barred from mentioning sexual assault." Cummings labeled as a "ludicrous explanation" Holliday's statement to police that he put his finger in Coon's anus to check his temperature when he found him unresponsive.

    Prosecutors contend Holliday killed Coon because the toddler urinated on himself.

    Holliday had moved in with Coon's mother about six weeks before her son's death.

    Amanda Coon testified at Holliday's trial that May 14, 2007, was the first day she left her son alone with Holliday at her Dalton Street home.

    Holliday initially told police that after Coon wet himself, he forced the boy to sit on the toilet for two hours, then put him in a bathtub. Holliday told police he fell asleep and the toddler must have injured himself in a fall.

    The next day, the same day the autopsy was performed, Holliday called police and gave a second statement, saying he disciplined the child by hitting him with a fist.

    Holliday told police he may have "misfired" while hitting the boy on the arms and legs but insisted he was not a "baby-killer."

    Jurors heard both of Holliday's videotaped statements during the trial.

    http://www.fox8live.com/news/local/s...MbzMQFzXw.cspx

  4. #4
    Administrator Helen's Avatar
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    In fatal 2007 beating of Baton Rouge toddler, man's conviction and death sentence affirmed

    By Joe Gyan
    The Advocate

    A St. Louis man's conviction and death sentence in the fatal 2007 beating of his Baton Rouge girlfriend's 2-year-old son were affirmed Wednesday by the Louisiana Supreme Court.

    Dacarius Holliday, now 42, had challenged the sufficiency of the evidence presented at his 2010 trial. He also claimed, among other things, that his trial should have been moved out of East Baton Rouge Parish due to extensive pretrial publicity.

    A unanimous state Supreme Court rejected all of Holliday's arguments, saying they were without merit.

    "We find that the State presented sufficient evidence to show that the two-year-old victim died because of the severe beating the 29-year-old defendant inflicted upon him," Justice Scott Crichton wrote for the court.

    "Moreover, we conclude there is sufficient evidence to show that defendant had the specific intent to inflict great bodily harm on the victim when he repeatedly punched him with enough force to lacerate the toddler's internal organs and cause internal bleeding, ordered him to sit for hours on the toilet as punishment for a toilet-training accident, and bit the victim on the foot with enough force to leave clearly visible dental impressions," Crichton added.

    He also said Holliday failed to help a dying Darian Coon for at least an hour, despite recognizing the child was unresponsive and not breathing.

    Holliday was found guilty in March 2010 of first-degree murder in the May 14, 2007, killing of Darian and sentenced to die by lethal injection.

    An autopsy revealed the child suffered 75 contusions to his body and lacerations to his liver and kidney, among other injuries.

    East Baton Rouge Parish District Attorney Hillar Moore III called the Supreme Court ruling a just decision that affirmed that Holliday had a fair trial in the guilt and penalty phases of his trial.

    "Our office only pursues the death penalty in the most egregious cases," Moore said. "There is not much that is more egregious than the torture and murder of a 2½-year-old child."

    The Supreme Court said the boy's mother, Amanda Coon, met Holliday on the last day of her vacation in Pensacola, Florida, in early April 2007. Holliday, who was in Florida visiting his aunt, traveled back to Baton Rouge with
    Coon and moved in with her and her two young children.

    Amanda Coon testified that May 14, 2007, was the first day she left her son alone with Holliday at her Dalton Street home.

    Holliday initially told police that after Darian wet himself, he forced the boy to sit on the toilet for two hours, then put him in a bathtub. Holliday told police he fell asleep and the toddler must have injured himself in a fall.

    The next day, the same day the autopsy was performed, Holliday called police and gave a second statement, saying he disciplined the child by hitting him with a fist.

    Holliday told police he may have “misfired" while hitting the boy on the arms and legs but insisted he was not a “baby-killer."

    Jurors heard both of Holliday’s videotaped statements during the trial.

    https://www.theadvocate.com/baton_ro...d5960b432.html
    "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."
    - Oklahoma Rep. Mike Christian

    "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.”
    - Rowan Atkinson

  5. #5
    Administrator Helen's Avatar
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    In 2007 killing of 2-year-old Baton Rouge boy, condemned man's conviction, sentence reaffirmed

    By Joe Gyan Jr.
    The Advocate

    A St. Louis man’s conviction and death sentence in the fatal 2007 beating of his Baton Rouge girlfriend’s 2-year-old son have been reaffirmed by the Louisiana Supreme Court.

    The high court unanimously upheld Dacarius Holliday's 1st-degree murder conviction and sentence in late January, and on April 10 the justices denied his rehearing application.

    In the application, Holliday's attorneys with the Capital Appeals Project in New Orleans argued that his death sentence is “clearly excessive” within the 19th Judicial District and disproportionate to all other child-murder cases in East Baton Rouge Parish.

    "Mr. Holliday identified 25 cases involving the murder of a child in East Baton Rouge Parish just in the past decade — none of the 25 cases resulted in a death sentence," lawyers Cecelia Trenticosta Kappel, Erica Navalance and Shanita Farris wrote in the application filed in February.

    East Baton Rouge Parish District Attorney Hillar Moore III said Tuesday his office pursues the death penalty "in only the most egregious cases."

    "The facts are that Dacarius Holliday using his feet, hands and body viciously beat the 2½-year-old victim to death," Moore said.

    The justices also rejected Holliday's attorneys' argument that race plays a role in who receives the death penalty in East Baton Rouge. Holliday, 42, is black, as was Darian Coon, the victim.

    2/3 of the people on death row in Louisiana are African American, while blacks make up only 1/3 of the state's population, Holliday's attorneys pointed out.

    At the time of his trial in 2010, all 16 men on death row from East Baton Rouge were black, the lawyers said.

    Moore, who took office in 2009, said his office fairly considers the facts of each case, previous criminal conduct by the defendant, strength of the case, and all other factors that are aggravating or mitigating.

    "Race is never a factor," he stressed, noting that Holliday's criminal history includes a conviction for pouring boiling water on a juvenile.

    Holliday is the only death row inmate convicted by Moore's office.

    In its January ruling, the state Supreme Court found that Holliday's trial was conducted "free of racial discrimination" and that "race was not an issue" in his case because the victim also was black.

    An autopsy revealed that Darian suffered 75 contusions to his body and lacerations to his liver and kidney, among other injuries.

    The boy's mother, Amanda Coon, met Holliday on the last day of her vacation in Pensacola, Florida, in early April 2007.

    Holliday, who was in Florida visiting his aunt, traveled back to Baton Rouge with Coon and moved in with her and her two young children, the Supreme Court said.

    Amanda Coon testified that the day Darian was killed was the first time she left her son alone with Holliday at her Dalton Street home.

    https://www.theadvocate.com/baton_ro...54346dfdd.html
    "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."
    - Oklahoma Rep. Mike Christian

    "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.”
    - Rowan Atkinson

  6. #6
    Moderator Bobsicles's Avatar
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    Distributed for conference January 22, 2021.

    https://www.supremecourt.gov/search....c/20-5748.html
    Thank you for the adventure - Axol

    Tried so hard and got so far, but in the end it doesn’t even matter - Linkin Park

    Hear me, my chiefs! I am tired. My heart is sick and sad. From where the sun now stands, I will fight no more forever. - Hin-mah-too-yah-lat-kekt

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  7. #7
    Moderator Bobsicles's Avatar
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    Petition for certiorari denied.

    Lower Ct: Supreme Court of Louisiana
    Case Numbers: (2017-KA-01921)
    Decision Date: January 29, 2020
    Rehearing Denied: April 9, 2020

    https://www.supremecourt.gov/search....c/20-5748.html
    Thank you for the adventure - Axol

    Tried so hard and got so far, but in the end it doesn’t even matter - Linkin Park

    Hear me, my chiefs! I am tired. My heart is sick and sad. From where the sun now stands, I will fight no more forever. - Hin-mah-too-yah-lat-kekt

    I’m going to the ghost McDonalds - Garcello

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