David Freeman
Summary of Offense:
Was sentenced to death for murdering Mary Gordon, 17, and raping and murdering Gordon's mother in Montgomery in 1988. According to trial testimony, Freeman killed them because Gordon told him she did not want to be his girlfriend.
In August 1989, a jury found Freeman guilty on all six counts of capital murder and recommended, by a vote of 11-1, that the trial court sentence Freeman to death; the court did sentence him to death. However, on direct appeal, the Court of Criminal Appeals reversed Freeman's convictions and remanded the cause for a new trial, holding that the prosecution had used its peremptory strikes discriminatorily, in violation of Batson v. Kentucky, 476 U.S. 79, 106 S.Ct. 1712, 90 L.Ed.2d 69 (1986). See Freeman v. State, 651 So.2d 573 (Ala.Crim.App.1992), rev'd on return to remand, 651 So.2d 576 (Ala.Crim.App.1994).
In his second trial, Freeman did not deny that he murdered Mary and Sylvia Gordon, but, instead, alleged that he had been unable to conform his conduct to the requirements of the law because of a mental disease or defect. Freeman was again convicted on all six counts, and the jury recommended the death penalty, by a vote of 11-1. The trial court, after weighing the aggravating and mitigating factors, accepted the jury's recommendation and sentenced Freeman to death by electrocution. The Court of Criminal Appeals affirmed the convictions and the sentence. See Freeman v. State, 776 So.2d 160 (Ala.Crim.App.1999). On March 10, 2000, the Alabama Supreme Court granted Freeman's petition for certiorari review and affirmed the judgment of the Court of Criminal Appeals.
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