Judge orders death for Couey

INVERNESS - A judge sentenced John Couey to death today for the 2005 kidnap, rape and murder of 9-year-old Jessica Lunsford.

Citrus Circuit Judge Ric Howard's sentence followed the recommendation of a Miami jury this spring.

Defense attorneys argued in July that Couey, 49, should not be executed because he is mentally retarded. But Howard was not convinced, declaring Couey eligible for death in a recent decision.

During Friday's hearing, he recounted the history of the case, from Jessica's disappearance in Feb. 2005 to the recent Atkin's hearing to assess Couey's mental abilities. Howard classified the crime as "HAC -- heinous, atrocious and cruel," and described how Couey had boasted of his sexual exploits to a jail guard.

Couey had "made crude, vulgar and repulsive comments," he said, emphasizing each adjective, "about his sexual experiences with a nine-year-old child."

Though he admitted Couey may have "some intellectual limitations" and a troubled past, Howard said such factors couldn't mitigate the crime he had committed.

Couey "crushed the very life and breath out of Jessica Marie Lunsford," he said.

Said Mark Lunsford after the hearing: "We won. Jessie won."

-- Elena Lesley, Times staff writer

The case for the death penalty

Prosecutors listed five factors in a court filing that asks a Citrus judge to impose the death penalty.

In legal-speak, these are called “aggravating factors.” A list is prescribed in state law and established in previous high-court rulings. Prosecutors must prove at least one element and show how it outweighs the contrary “mitigating factors.”

Chief Assistant State Attorney Ric Ridgway says these five apply to the Jessica Lunsford murder:

• Committed while engaged in a sexual battery or kidnapping
• Committed for purpose of avoiding arrest
• Especially heinous, atrocious or cruel
• Victim was less than 12 years old
• Cold, calculated and premeditated killing

“Even if only one of the five aggravating circumstances had been proven, that factor could far outweigh the mitigation present in this case,” Ridgway wrote in a sentencing memorandum. “The jury recommended the court impose a sentence of death upon the defendant. That recommendation is entitled to great weight.”

--John Frank, Times staff writer

The case for life in prison

Defense attorneys hope to spare John Couey’s life by asking the judge for mercy when considering his dysfunctional childhood, life-long abuse and mental illness.

Altogether, they list 22 “mitigating factors” that they say warrant life in prison without parole. They include:

• Mental illness and limited intellectual ability
• Mental, physical and emotional abuse as a child - Chronic alcohol and substance abuse
• Never received appropriate mental health treatment
• Cooperated with law enforcement and led them to victim's location

In the defense sentencing memorandum, court-appointed attorney Alan Fanter argues that the state cannot argue the death was “especially heinous, atrocious or cruel” because Jessica Lunsford endured no “high degree of pain.”

“There is no evidence of defense wounds,” he wrote. “…Nor other evidence to indicate that the defendant did anything other than asphyxiate her in a way similar to the way that Dr. (Jack) Kevorkian assisted his patients when they were committing suicide.”

--John Frank, Times staff writer