Couey gets death

A Miami jury thinks John Couey should die for the kidnap, rape and murder of nine-year-old Jessica Lunsford.

After just over an hour of deliberation, and in a vote of ten to two, jurors recommended that the convicted killer be put to death. The Lunsford family sat quietly as the verdict was read, Archie, Jessica's grandfather, wrapping his arm around his wife.

Mark Lunsford shut his eyes briefly in relief. Archie extended his arm to rest on the backs of both his wife and son.

As usual, Couey appeared unemotive, fiddling with his tie and looking at the ceiling.

During closing statements this morning, attorneys for the state and defense instructed jurors to weigh the circumstances of the crime against any mitigating factors. Prosecutor Ric Ridgway urged them to vote for death.

There is only one word that encompasses the horror of Couey's crime, he said.

"Evil."

Whatever abuse happened in Couey's early life, whatever intellectual disadvantages he suffers from, "the choices John Couey made, with his life and the life of Jessica Lunsford, outweigh everything."

The jury agreed.

-- Elena Lesley