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Thread: Richard Jerome Flowers - Alabama

  1. #1
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    Richard Jerome Flowers - Alabama




    Facts of the Crime:

    Sentenced to death in 1998 for the murder of Annie Addy. It was a capital murder case, because he had committed another murder within 20 years of Addy's murder.

    On October 20, 1980, Flowers was convicted of murder in the second degree in the Coffee County Circuit Court;  he was sentenced to 99 years' imprisonment.   He was paroled about six months prior to the murder with which he is now charged.

    At the time of the murder, Flowers was living in Montgomery with his sister and her husband and had obtained employment at the Piknik Products plant in Montgomery. Flowers originally had worked the night shift but, after some employees complained about him, he was moved to the day shift. On May 28, 1996, the day after he was moved to day shift, Flowers returned to the Piknik Products plant during the night shift, even though he was not scheduled to work. Flowers asked several employees whether Annie Addy and two other persons were at work. Flowers had brought a handgun with him that night and had hidden it behind a tire of a parked automobile in the employee's parking lot. Flowers saw Annie Addy walking to her automobile in the parking lot during a work break. He followed her into the parking lot, and while she got into her vehicle he retrieved his handgun and then approached Ms. Addy's automobile. He fired his handgun five times through the driver's side window, striking Annie Addy four times as she sat in her automobile. Annie Addy died of gunshot wounds to her chest and abdomen. Flowers disposed of the gun in a nearby dumpster, where it was found by police investigators. The investigators traced the weapon back to Flowers's brother-in-law. Flowers indicated that he believed Annie Addy was one of the people responsible for his shift change.

    http://caselaw.findlaw.com/al-court-...s/1474332.html

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    Administrator Moh's Avatar
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    On July 6, 2010, Flowers filed a habeas petition in Federal District Court.

    http://dockets.justia.com/docket/ala...cv00579/43553/

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    Senior Member CnCP Legend JLR's Avatar
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    Death sentence reversed by the Federal District Court on the 13th of January 2021 on an ineffective-assistance-of-counsel claim.

    https://t.co/wcrW2Xd2y9?amp=1

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    Administrator Moh's Avatar
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    The judge was Senior Judge Keith Watkins, who was appointed by President George W. Bush.

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    Senior Member CnCP Addict johncocacola's Avatar
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    Judge Watkins is definitely not the most conservative appointee put forward by a GOP president.

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    Moderator Bobsicles's Avatar
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    Death sentence vacated by the federal district court and remanded to the Montgomery County Circuit Court for resentencing. The state is also not seeking the death penalty so Flowers will be resentenced to LWOP.

    https://law.justia.com/cases/federal...0579/43553/78/
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    Moderator Bobsicles's Avatar
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    Federal judge vacates death sentence in Montgomery County capital murder case

    Alabama has agreed to seek a reduced sentence for a man currently awaiting execution on death row for a 1996 Montgomery County murder.

    Federal Judge Keith Watkins last week vacated Richard Jerome Flowers' death sentence and remanded his case back to the Montgomery County Circuit Court for re-sentencing.

    Watkins in January ruled Flowers was entitled to a new penalty phase trial due to ineffectual counsel at his 1998 trial, though he denied Flowers' bid for a new guilt phase trial.

    The state and Flowers have agreed to forego further appeals if the state petitioned the lower court to re-sentence Flowers to life without parole, according to court records filed last week.

    Flowers' federal habeas petition, 11 years in the making, has now been stayed pending action in the lower court.

    The settlement agreement ends a decades-long bid by Flowers to overturn his death sentence on claims of ineffectual counsel, a constitutional violation, at his 1998 trial.

    Flowers, now 58, has spent the majority of his life in Alabama prison. At age 14, he was arrested and jailed for killing a 28-year-old neighbor who had sexually abused his sister and broken into the family home. At 17, he was sent to prison for 16 years on a second degree manslaughter charge.

    Six months after his parole, Flowers was arrested for the murder of a co-worker, Annie Addy, at the Piknik Products plant in Montgomery.

    “He came right back out to the streets, big man body, but still 14," Flowers' older brother said, according to court records.

    In his January opinion granting Flowers a new penalty phase trial, Watkins also denied Flowers a new guilt phase trial, citing the strength of the state's evidence against Flowers.

    But Watkins said a "cascade of unprepared attorneys" erred in representing Flowers at his trial. With pretrial proceedings a "calamity of cumulative errors," Watkins found Flowers' attorney presented no witnesses or testimony to the jury regarding Flowers' upbringing rife with abject poverty, abuse and credible psychological concerns.

    "Trial counsel presented, effectively, no meaningful evidence or argument at the penalty phase and at sentencing. More relevant, the evidence reflected counsel’s investigative effort —also zero," Watkins said in his January opinion.

    The Montgomery County jury hearing the case deliberated for just 12 minutes before finding Flowers guilty and deliberated over his sentence the same day, voting 10 to 2 for death by electric chair, the state's method of execution at the time.

    While the Montgomery County Circuit Court will have to accept Alabama's motion for re-sentencing, both parties stipulated in a filing last week that any remaining claims in the federal case would be dropped pending re-sentencing.

    https://www.google.com/amp/s/amp.mon...amp/5149824001
    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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