New Sentencing Ordered in Carlie Brucia Kidnap-Murder
The Florida Supreme Court rules a unanimous jury verdict is required to impose the death penalty on the man convicted in the infamous videotaped kidnapping.
April 05, 2018 at 12:23 PM
2 minute read
A new sentencing hearing was ordered Thursday in the notorious kidnapping, rape and murder of 11-year-old Carlie Brucia by a stranger who was caught on camera leading her away from a carwash.
The Florida Supreme Court authorized the new penalty phase to comply with a U.S. Supreme Court order in 2016 requiring unanimous jury decisions to impose the death penalty. Joseph P. Smith was sentenced to death after a 10-2 jury split.
Sarasota Circuit Judge Charles Roberts granted Smith's motion for a new sentencing last summer based on the ruling in Hurst v. Florida, but the state attorney general's office appealed.
The Supreme Court ruled 6-1 that Smith was protected by Hurst and entitled to a new hearing, which would amount to a mini-trial to introduce the crime to a new jury, which would determine the sentence and factors justifying it. The conviction remains intact.
Justice C. Alan Lawson dissented with a February case citation but no explanation. In the earlier case, Lawson dissented and said he would apply the proper rational jury test to Hurst-driven appeals.
Carlie was walking home from a friend's house when a car wash surveillance camera showed them crossing paths and exchanging a few words before Smith led her away by the arm in 2004. The manhunt for her kidnapper received national attention based on the video and her mother's heart-rending appeals for the return of her daughter.
Smith had been released from prison 13 months earlier and was on parole. He was in custody on a parole violation when tipsters identified him as the man in the video. Days later, Smith told his brother where to find Carlie's body, which was in woods behind a church.
In its unsigned opinion, the Supreme Court said: “The jury did not make the requisite factual findings and did not unanimously recommend a sentence of death. Instead, the jury recommended the sentence of death by a vote of ten to two. Therefore, this court has no way of knowing if the jury unanimously found any of the five valid aggravating factors.”
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