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Florida Supreme Court reverses death sentence on proportionality review

By Douglas A. Berman

As detailed in this local AP story, Florida's "state Supreme Court has overturned the death sentence of a crack-bingeing killer who beat his girlfriend to death with a baseball bat in the Florida Panhandle." Here are more of the details of the ruling: The justices, in a 5-2 opinion Thursday, ordered a life sentence for Kirk Douglas Williams for the 2006 murder of Susan Littrell Dykes in Walton County. They ruled Circuit Judge Kelvin Wells erred by rejecting drug impairment as a mitigating factor.  A psychologist testified Williams was unable to appreciate the criminality of his actions because he was strung out.... The dissenting justices agreed with reversing the death sentence but would have ordered a new sentencing hearing. The full ruling is available at this link...continue to full post

Full post as published by Sentencing Law and Policy on May 20, 2010 (boomark / email).