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Thread: James Bernard Belcher - Florida

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    James Bernard Belcher - Florida




    Summary of Offense:

    James Belcher was convicted and sentenced to death for the January 8, 1996 murder of Jennifer Embry. On the evening of January 8, 1996, James Belcher entered the townhouse of Jennifer Embry. There were no signs of forced entry. There, Belcher sexually battered and killed Embry. He strangled her by placing his hands around her neck and holding her head underneath the water in the bathtub. At the time of the murder, Belcher lived near Florida Technical College, where Embry took classes. A friend of Embry’s and an employee of the college testified that they had seen Belcher and Embry talking on different occasions. After obtaining a warrant for a sample of Belcher’s blood, DNA tests revealed that the semen found inside Embry and on a slipper in her bathroom matched Belcher’s DNA profile.

    Belcher was sentenced to death in Duval County on May 17, 2001.

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    Administrator Heidi's Avatar
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    On May 20, 2011, the US Eleventh Circuit Court of Appeals AFFIRMED the district court's denial of Belcher’s petition for habeas corpus.

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

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    Senior Member CnCP Legend Mike's Avatar
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    On November 2, 2017 the Supreme Court of Florida ordered that Belcher's sentence be vacated and remanded his case for a new penalty phase proceeding due to Hurst.

    https://www.floridasupremecourt.org/.../sc17-1144.pdf

    He was apparently resentenced to death, I don't know where the order for that is.
    Last edited by Mike; 10-22-2020 at 01:10 AM.
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    Administrator Helen's Avatar
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    Death penalty case against James Belcher back before jurors in Jacksonville

    The death penalty case against James Belcher is back before jurors because his original death sentence was not unanimous

    By Anne Schindler
    First Coast News

    JACKSONVILLE, Fla. — A 63-year-old convict is back on trial for the crime that sent him to Death Row 25 years ago: the 1996 rape and murder of a Jacksonville woman.

    James Belcher was sentenced to death for the murder and sexual battery of Jennifer Embry, a student at Florida Technical College. She was found strangled and sexually battered in the bathtub of her Westside townhome.

    Belcher's case is one of dozens in Florida that must be resentenced in the wake of legal changes, because the original jury verdict was not unanimous. Jurors voted 9-3 for death.

    "Whoever did this deserves the death penalty," Assistant State Attorney Alan Mizrahi told jurors during opening statements Wednesday. "This murder was the worst of the worst."

    But Belcher's attorneys argued he has made positive changes since his conviction, including getting married and counseling fellow inmates.

    Public Defender Lewis Buzzell noted, "he is a dead man walking" regardless of whether he is sentenced to life or death.

    "Mr. Belcher can continue to make positive contributions," Buzzell told jurors, "to his wife, and family, and even to the world at large."

    The first witness called Wednesday was Embry's brother Ricky, a former firefighter in both Clay and Duval counties. He discovered her drowned and lifeless body in her bathtub after she didn't show up for work on Jan. 8, 1996. He described walking around her townhome, calling her name and looking for her.

    “When I walked back up, looked in the bathroom, I seen her body in the tub. And it was devastating. It was very painful, what I seen.”

    Embry wept as he testified. He was one of several family members in court, some gasping as prosecutors showed photos of the crime scene.

    The trial is expected to continue into next week. The only question before the jury is whether Belcher will be sentenced to life or death.

    https://www.firstcoastnews.com/artic...8-38a5a37a4597
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    Jacksonville man convicted in 1996 murder avoids death penalty second time around

    James Belcher was resentenced for the rape and murder of Jennifer Embry because the original death verdict wasn’t unanimous.

    By Anne Schindler
    First Coast News

    JACKSONVILLE, Fla. — Prosecutors called the crime “the worst of the worst,” but jurors resisted giving James Belcher the ultimate punishment.

    Instead, the 63-year-old man will serve the rest of his life in prison instead of returning to death row.

    Belcher was previously convicted of the 1996 murder of 29-year-old Jennifer Embry, a student at Florida Technical College who was raped, strangled and drowned in her Westside townhouse.

    Belcher was sentenced to death in 1999, but because the original jury verdict wasn’t unanimous, he had to be resentenced.

    Belcher is one of dozens of defendants in Florida entitled to being resentenced following a 2020 decision by the U.S. Supreme Court finding non-unanimous death sentences unconstitutional.

    The resentencings apply retroactively only to certain defendants: those whose death sentences became final -- including any postconviction appeals – after June 2002 (when the Arizona case that triggered the Supreme Court decision was decided).

    “Death cases — especially ones that go back decades — are difficult to prosecute, but our decision to proceed was warranted by the egregious facts of this crime and the defendant’s extensive violent record. The jury in this case could not reach unanimity in its finding and we respect its decision," the Florida State Attorney's Office said in a statement to First Coast News.

    Belcher’s case comes just a few months after the resentencing of Alan Wade, a man convicted of murdering a Jacksonville couple by burying them alive in 2005. In that case, as in Belcher’s, the jury failed to find the crime especially “heinous, atrocious and cruel” – one of the aggravators that qualifies a crime for the death penalty. Wade will also spend the rest of his life in prison.

    Last December, purported serial killer Paul Durousseau was also resentenced to life after spending years on death row. He was convicted of the 1999 rape and murder of Tyresa Mack, but he's a suspect in five other murders that occurred in Jacksonville between December 2002 and February 2003. He is also linked to several other murders in Germany that occurred during the time he was stationed there with the Army.

    Durousseau was only prosecuted for Mack’s murder, and therefore jurors were not told of the other cases.

    The original prosecutor Bernie de la Rionda, and the original defense attorney Lewis Buzzell, returned to retry the Belcher case, along with current Assistant State Attorney Alan Mizrahi and Assistant Public Defender Al Chipperfield.

    https://www.google.com/amp/s/www.fir...6-445b2b7cfc9b

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