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Tina Lasonya Brown Women On Death Row

Tina Brown is currently on Florida death row for the murder of a young woman. According to court documents Tina Lasonya Brown and the victim were involved in an argument that quickly turned deadly. The victim was hit with a stun gun and a crowbar before being kidnapped and brought to a wooded area where she was then set on fire. The victim would die two weeks later in hospital. Tina Lasonya Brown would be arrested, convicted and sentenced to death

Tina Lasonya Brown 2021 Information

DC Number:	155917
Name:	BROWN, TINA L
Race:	BLACK
Sex:	FEMALE
Birth Date:	07/19/1970
Initial Receipt Date:	10/03/2012
Current Facility:	LOWELL ANNEX
Current Custody:	MAXIMUM
Current Release Date:	DEATH SENTENCE

Tina Lasonya Brown Other News

A Pensacola woman on death row for the fatal assault, kidnapping and burning of her neighbor had her most recent appeal denied last week.

Tina Lasonya Brown, 48, was one of three people who in 2010 ambushed 19-year-old Audreanna Zimmerman, attacked her repeatedly with a stun gun, gagged her, stuffed her in the trunk of a car, drove her into the woods, beat her with a crowbar, doused her with gasoline, set her on fire and left her to die.

In 2017, Tina Lasonya Brown filed a motion for post-conviction relief that raised numerous arguments for vacating her conviction and sentence. Among them were claims that her attorneys were ineffective, that multiple jurors should have been dismissed from the trial because of their biases and that “new evidence” implicated one of her co-defendants was more culpable in the murder than jurors were led to believe.

In a 110-page order filed Friday, Circuit Judge Gary L. Bergosh reviewed all of Tina Lasonya Brown’s arguments and found them insufficient. In most instances, the accusations failed to provide supporting evidence or demonstrate how they had impacted the outcome of the trial.

Tina Lasonya Brown was the only one of the three co-defendants who received the death penalty in the case. Tina Lasonya Brown’s daughter Britnee Miller, who was 16 when she participated in the vicious attack, was sentenced to life in prison for her role in the murder.

Heather Lee, a friend and neighbor of Tina Lasonya Brown and Miller, was the third accomplice in the killing, and she was sentenced to 25 years in prison after making a plea agreement with the state.

Much of Tina Lasonya Brown’s appeal was dedicated to a claim that Lee had actually been the party most responsible for Zimmerman’s killing.

The appeal claimed Lee wanted revenge against Zimmerman because she had an affair with Lee’s husband. It said all the weapons used in the attack — the stun gun, crowbar and gas can — came from Lee’s house, and that Lee later admitted to associates she had been the one to set Zimmerman on fire.

Tina Lasonya Brown’s appeal said multiple witnesses could have testified to these facts, but Bergosh noted that none of that testimony would have affected the case against Brown. He said there was evidence Brown had been the one to use the stun gun against Zimmerman, to kidnap her and to beat her with the crowbar.

“The evidence is simply too strong against (Tina Lasonya Brown) that she played a substantial role in the victim’s murder,” the judge wrote. “… Regardless of whether (Brown) actually poured the gasoline and lit the victim on fire, the evidence at trial shows (Brown) was not being dominated or under extreme duress when she launched the fatal attack against the victim.”

Tina Lasonya Brown was sentenced to death because of the brutality of Zimmerman’s murder, and she is currently one of only three Florida women on death row.

Tina Brown More News

In March 2010, Tina Brown, Brown’s sixteen-year-old daughter Britnee Miller, Heather Lee, and Audreanna Zimmerman lived in neighboring trailers in an Escambia County mobile home park. The four women were initially good friends, but their relationships—particularly between Miller, Brown, and Zimmerman— were volatile and often escalated to violence. Brown had previously accused Zimmerman of slashing her tires. Zimmerman had accused Brown of shattering a window in her car, having her boyfriend arrested, and reporting to the Florida Department of Children and Families that she was providing inadequate care to her children. Lee testified that she had intervened on multiple occasions to stop physical altercations between Miller and Zimmerman. On one occasion, Miller, who had recently discovered that Zimmerman was sexually involved with her boyfriend, attempted to strike Zimmerman. Zimmerman, however, defended herself by attempting to disable Miller with a stun gun. Later that day, Lee informed Brown that Zimmerman had used a stun gun on Brown’s daughter, to which Brown responded that she was “going to get” Zimmerman. 1 Several days later, on March 24, 2010, Brown invited Zimmerman to her home under the guise of rekindling their friendship. Before Zimmerman arrived, Brown, Miller, Lee, and Miller’s thirteen-year-old friend, were inside the trailer. Brown and Lee were in the kitchen, where Lee instructed Brown on the proper use of a stun gun. Miller then pulled her friend aside and told her, “we’re fixing to kill Audreanna [Zimmerman].” Shortly after 9 p.m., Zimmerman entered the trailer. 1. Lee’s testimony regarding Brown’s state of mind following the altercation was corroborated during trial by Corey Doyle, an inmate housed with Brown at the Escambia County jail. Doyle testified that Brown told her when she heard Zimmerman had used a stun gun on Miller, Brown informed Miller, “don’t worry, I’ll take care of it.” -2- Brown waited several minutes and then used the stun gun on Zimmerman multiple times. When Zimmerman lost muscular control and fell to the floor, Brown continued to use the stun gun on Zimmerman, who was screaming and crying for help. Eventually, Brown pulled Zimmerman across the trailer into the bathroom. Zimmerman continued to scream and cry for help, so Miller struck Zimmerman in the face and Lee stuffed a sock into Zimmerman’s mouth. Zimmerman was then forcibly escorted outside and forced into the trunk of Brown’s vehicle.2 Brown, Miller, and Lee then entered the vehicle and drove away. The women drove to a clearing in the woods about a mile and a half from the trailer park. Brown exited the car and pulled Zimmerman out of the trunk. Zimmerman attempted to flee, but stumbled in the darkness and was caught by Brown and Miller. The two women wrestled Zimmerman to the ground and simultaneously attacked her. Brown used the stun gun again on Zimmerman as Miller beat her with a crowbar. Brown and Miller then switched weapons and continued to torture and beat Zimmerman. Miller eventually dropped the stun gun and repeatedly punched Zimmerman. Brown returned to the car, retrieved a can of gasoline from the trunk, and walked back toward the beaten and prone, but still 2. During trial, Lee disputed this summation of what occurred in the trailer after Brown began to attack Zimmerman. The veracity of Lee’s testimony concerning her involvement in this crime, however, was significantly challenged during trial, particularly because Lee, who claimed that she was a victim and was not involved in Zimmerman’s murder, pled guilty to second-degree murder based on her involvement in Zimmerman’s death. -3- conscious, Zimmerman. Brown poured gasoline on Zimmerman, retrieved a lighter from her pocket, set Zimmerman on fire, and stood nearby to watch the screaming Zimmerman burn. Lee testified that she was standing beside Miller, who exuberantly jumped up and down and screamed, “Burn, bitch! Burn!” After a few minutes, the three women returned to the car and drove away. During the ride home, Miller said, “Mom, you’ve got to turn around. I left my shoes and the taser.” Brown, however, refused to return to the location of the event. Shortly thereafter, Terrance Hendrick was outside his home which was located approximately one third of a mile away from the location of the attack. Hendrick heard a faint female voice asking for help, but he could not see anyone in the darkness. Eventually, Hendrick saw Zimmerman walking slowly toward his house. When Zimmerman reached Hendrick’s house, she asked for assistance and sat on the front steps. As he waited on the porch with Zimmerman, Hendrick noticed that she had suffered a significant head injury, did not appear to be wearing clothes, and had a strong odor of gasoline. He testified that her skin was black and he could not identify her race. At 9:24 p.m., an emergency medical technician (EMT) arrived at the scene. When the EMT approached Zimmerman, he observed her sitting on the porch, rocking back and forth with her arms straight out. Due to the extensive nature of Zimmerman’s burns, the EMT testified that he could not initially identify whether -4- she was wearing clothing. The EMT noticed that Zimmerman’s skin was falling off her body, and he believed that over ninety percent of her body was burned. She had severe head trauma, and her jaw was either broken or severely dislocated. The EMT explained that the extent and severity of the burns prevented him from providing Zimmerman medical assistance. He testified that while he generally placed sterile gauze and oxygen on burns, he did not have enough gauze to cover her entire body. He attempted to stabilize her neck, but her skin was charred to such an extent that he could not touch Zimmerman without her skin rubbing off onto his gloves. Despite her injuries, Zimmerman was conscious and alert. She identified Brown and Lee as her attackers and told the EMT that she was “drug out of the house, tased, beaten in the head with a crowbar, and then set on fire.” She also provided her address as well as the addresses of her attackers, and asked the EMT to protect her children. The ambulance arrived within a few minutes and transported Zimmerman to the hospital. Inside the ambulance, Zimmerman repeatedly asked if she was going to recover. She told the paramedic that Brown, Miller, and Lee poured gasoline on her and set her on fire. She also stated that she “thought they had made up.” Zimmerman was stabilized at a local hospital and then transferred to the Burn Center at the University of South Alabama Hospital in Mobile, Alabama, where she died sixteen days later. -5- When Brown, Miller, and Lee returned to Brown’s trailer, Brown and Miller removed their bloodstained clothing and placed it in a garbage bag. Lee removed her shoes, which were also stained with blood, and placed them in the bag. Miller informed her friend, who had remained at the trailer during the attack, that she had injured her hand striking Zimmerman, and that the three women had set Zimmerman on fire. Miller and her friend then used Brown’s car to drive to the hospital to get medical care for Miller. Before returning from the hospital early the next morning, Miller discarded the bag of bloodstained clothing in a dumpster and attempted to remove the bloodstains from the inside of Brown’s car. With the information provided by Zimmerman, law enforcement officers apprehended Brown and Lee shortly after the attack and Miller was arrested after she returned from the hospital the next day. The three women were, however, released while Zimmerman was in the hospital. During that time, Brown informed her friend Pamela Valley that she, Miller, and Lee had beaten Zimmerman, forced her into a car, driven her to an open field and “lit her on fire and didn’t look back.” A few days later, Brown informed Valley that Zimmerman was still alive and requested Valley to finish her off. Valley declined and later reported the conversation to law enforcement. Brown, Miller, and Lee were re-arrested on April 9, 2010, the date of Zimmerman’s death. -6- At the scene of the burning, law enforcement officers discovered several pieces of evidence including a pair of white shoes; a stun gun with blood on the handle; paper stained with blood; an orange, gold, and black hairweave 3; a crowbar; and a pool of blood. Additional blood was discovered on the passenger seat headrest in Brown’s vehicle. During trial, a DNA expert testified that the blood on the headrest matched the known DNA profile of Zimmerman. Another DNA expert testified that the blood on the stun gun matched the known DNA profile of Brown. Finally, the medical examiner testified that the cause of Zimmerman’s death was multiple thermal injuries, and the manner of death was homicide. On June 21, 2012, a jury convicted Brown of the first-degree murder of Audreanna Zimmerman. During the penalty phase, the defense presented the testimony of several family members, including Brown’s two sons, her brother, her aunt, and two of her uncles. The defense also presented the testimony of Dr. Elaine Bailey, a psychologist, and introduced several family photos. The State presented one witness, Dr. John Bingham, a licensed mental health counselor, and also entered a photograph of Zimmerman into evidence.

https://www.courtlistener.com/opinion/2689191/tina-lasonya-brown-v-state-of-florida/

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Tina Brown 2021

Tina Brown is currently incarcerated at Lowell Annex the home of Florida Death Row for Women

Why Is Tina Brown on Death Row

Tina Brown was convicted of the kidnapping and murder of a woman

Tiffany Cole Women On Death Row

Tiffany Cole is currently on Florida death row for the murders of her elderly neighbors. According to court documents Tiffany Cole , Alan Wade and her then boyfriend Michael Jackson planned to kidnap and rob the elderly couple before murdering them. The group predug a grave in Georgia two days before the double murder took place.

Tiffany Cole 2022 Information

DC Number:	J35212
Name:	COLE, TIFFANY
Race:	WHITE
Sex:	FEMALE
Birth Date:	12/03/1981
Initial Receipt Date:	03/07/2008
Current Facility:	LOWELL ANNEX
Current Custody:	MAXIMUM
Current Release Date:	PENDING

Tiffany Cole Other News

The Florida Supreme Court is ordering new sentencing hearings for four inmates currently on the state’s Death Row, including one of three women residing there.

The high court on Thursday threw out the sentences because a jury did not unanimously recommend the death penalty in the cases. The Court ruled last year that death sentences have to be unanimous, and anyone sentenced after a 2002 ruling could be eligible for a new sentence.

Among those getting a new hearing is Tiffany Cole. She was convicted for her role in the 2005 murders of a Jacksonville couple that was buried alive.

The court also ordered a new sentencing hearing for Michael Bargo, who was convicted for taking part in 2011 the murder and torture of a Marion County teenager.

Tiffany Cole More News

In 2007, “Cole was convicted of two counts of first-degree murder, two counts of kidnapping, and two counts of robbery for the 2005 murders of James and Carol Sumner.” Cole v. State, 36 So. 3d 597, 599 (Fla. 2010). On appeal, this Court set out the facts of the crimes:

The evidence presented at trial established that on the night of July 8, 2005, Cole and codefendants Michael James Jackson, Bruce Kent Nixon, Jr., and Alan Lyndell Wade robbed, kidnapped, and murdered the victims. At trial, the evidence primarily consisted of codefendant Nixon’s testimony, Cole’s taped interview with Homicide Detective David Meacham of the Jacksonville Sheriff’s Office (JSO), and Cole’s in-court testimony.

Cole was the only codefendant who knew the victims. The victims were friends with and previous neighbors of Cole’s father before the victims moved from the Charleston, South Carolina, area to Jacksonville, Florida. The victims also had recently sold Cole a vehicle and informed her that she was welcome at their home if she was ever in Jacksonville. The plan to rob and murder the victims evolved from knowledge that Cole already had about the victims and that she obtained from the victims in the weeks prior to the crimes.

Cole and Jackson met and became involved in a personal relationship two months before the crimes. During that two-month period, Cole and Jackson often traveled together. In June 2005, Cole and Jackson went to Jacksonville, Florida, to visit Jackson’s friend Wade. During this visit, Cole contacted the victims, and Cole and Jackson stayed one night at the victims’ home. During the visit, Mrs. Sumner informed Cole that she and Mr. Sumner had recently sold their home near Charleston, South Carolina, and had profited $99,000. Following the initial trip to Jacksonville and additional trips between Charleston and Jacksonville, Cole, Jackson, Wade, and Wade’s friend Nixon developed a plan to rob the victims. At the time of the crimes, Cole and Jackson were twenty-three years old and Wade and Nixon were eighteen years old. The victims were in their early sixties but were both in poor health and especially frail.

In preparation for the robbery, Nixon stole four shovels to dig a hole. From a rental agency in South Carolina, Cole had previously rented a Mazda RX–8, which she used to transport the group. Two days before the murders, Cole, Jackson, and Wade picked Nixon up in the Mazda. The group drove around until they selected a remote location—in Georgia, just across the Florida state line—to dig a large hole. While Cole held a flashlight, Jackson, Wade, and Nixon dug the hole, which was approximately four feet deep and six feet square. The group left the shovels at the hole when they completed the excavation. Nixon testified that in the two days after digging the hole, the foursome drove around discussing “what [they] were going to do” and “how [they] were going to do it.” He stated that the foursome planned the robbery together and that Cole was the one who knew the victims and who “set everything up.” The group initially did not know whether they would enter the Sumners’ home while the victims were home and kidnap the victims or wait until the victims were away from their home. Nixon testified that Cole knew when the victims would be away from their home for a doctor’s appointment. The foursome ultimately decided that they would kill the victims. Nixon testified that Jackson informed the others that he would kill the victims at the grave site by injecting them with a lethal dose of medication.

On the night of the crimes, July 8, 2005, Cole and her codefendants purchased duct tape and plastic wrap. Cole wrote a personal check for these items. Later that night, Cole drove the foursome to the victims’ home. Initially, Cole and Jackson remained outside in the rented Mazda. Wade and Nixon knocked on the door, and when Mrs. Sumner responded, Wade asked to use her telephone. After Mrs. Sumner allowed Wade and Nixon into her home, Wade ripped the telephone cord from the wall. Nixon held the victims at gunpoint with a toy gun, took the victims to a bedroom, and bound them with duct tape. After Wade and Nixon contacted Jackson through Nextel two-way radio phones—which the group used to communicate throughout the course of the crimes—Jackson entered the victims’ home. Jackson and Wade then searched the victims’ home for bank account records. Cole drove down the street and waited in the Mazda. Eventually, the victims were taken to their garage and forced into the trunk of their Lincoln Town Car. Cole drove back to the victims’ home in the Mazda after Jackson called her. Jackson placed a trash bag containing some of the victims’ belongings in the Mazda’s trunk and got into the Mazda. Wade and Nixon then drove the victims’ Lincoln to a gas station to refuel it, and Cole and Jackson followed in the Mazda.

The foursome, with the victims in the Lincoln’s trunk, then drove to the remote Georgia location where they had previously dug the large hole. Upon arrival, Cole remained with the Mazda at the edge of the road, while her codefendants drove the Lincoln into the woods to the hole. At some point, Nixon joined Cole at the road. The evidence shows that only Jackson and Wade were present at the hole when the victims were put into the hole and buried alive. When Jackson returned from the woods to the Mazda, Jackson had the personal identification number (PIN) for the victims’ automated teller machine (ATM) card. The foursome drove both cars from the grave site to Sanderson, Florida, where they wiped down the Lincoln and abandoned it. The foursome then left in the Mazda, with Cole driving.

The group next stopped at an ATM in Jacksonville, from which Jackson withdrew money from the victims’ bank account. The group then retired to a motel. Later that night, after purchasing Clorox and gloves, Cole and Wade returned to the victims’ home. The evidence shows that at that time Cole and Wade took the victims’ computer from the home. Subsequently, Cole pawned Mrs. Sumner’s rings and the victims’ computer.

On July 10, 2005, Rhonda Alford, Mrs. Sumner’s daughter, reported to the JSO that she had been unable to contact the victims for several days. That same day, Officer Vindell Williams of JSO spotted a Lincoln Town Car in Sanderson that was later determined to be the victims’ Lincoln. On July 12, 2005, Homicide Detective David Meacham of the JSO responded to the victims’ home to investigate. In their home, he saw a bank statement that showed a large sum of money in the victims’ bank account. After contacting the bank, he learned that during the past few days there had been an unusually large amount of ATM withdrawals—totaling several thousand dollars—from the victims’ account.

Later on July 12, Detective Meacham learned that someone claiming to be Mr. Sumner had contacted the JSO. Detective Meacham returned the call. The person claiming to be Mr. Sumner was later identified as codefendant Jackson. As Mr. Sumner, Jackson asked Detective Meacham to assist him in accessing his bank account; by that time Jackson was apparently having trouble accessing the account. As Mr. Sumner, Jackson explained that he and Mrs. Sumner had left town quickly to attend Mrs. Sumner’s sister’s funeral in Delaware. When Detective Meacham asked to speak to Mrs. Sumner, Cole posed as Mrs. Sumner and pretended to be tired and ailing. Detective Meacham contacted the bank and requested that it continue to allow access to the victims’ account so that Detective Meacham could continue his investigation.

Since Detective Meacham suspected that he was not actually speaking to the Sumners, he contacted United States Marshal David Alred to assist in tracking the cellular telephone number used by the callers. The cell phone was registered to Jackson and had been used near the victims’ home around the time of the victims’ abduction. The cell phone records also showed calls to a South Carolina rental car company. Detective Meacham contacted the company, which indicated that it had rented a silver Mazda RX–8 to Cole and that the car was overdue. Using the rental car global positioning system, law enforcement officers determined that the Mazda had been within blocks of the victims’ home on the night of the murders.

As Detective Meacham continued to investigate the victims’ disappearance, Jackson continued to withdraw money from the victims’ bank account. Jackson made multiple ATM withdrawals from the victims’ bank account between the early hours of July 9 and the night of July 13, 2005. Photo surveillance captured Jackson making several of these withdrawals. Cole drove Jackson to the ATM machines in the rented Mazda; the Mazda could be seen in some of the surveillance photographs.

Detective James Rowan of the North Charleston Police Department testified that he found the rented Mazda in the parking lot of an abandoned office building near the rental company. Detective Rowan went to Cole’s residence near Charleston, South Carolina, and David Duncan, Cole’s brother, led Detective Rowan and other officers to the nearby Best Western Hotel where Cole, Jackson, and Wade were staying. Two rooms were rented to Cole. At the motel, officers found and arrested Cole, Jackson, and Wade. The police obtained a search warrant for the motel rooms. In the motel room where Cole and Jackson were staying, police found the victims’ South Carolina driver licenses, credit cards, checkbook, mail, and papers indicating the victims’ America Online account and passwords, social security numbers, and birthdates. In the same room, police found what appeared to be a new laptop computer and bags of new merchandise. Additionally, officers found photographs showing Cole, Jackson, Wade, and another female, who was uninvolved in the crimes, “partying” in Myrtle Beach before the crimes. The victims’ ATM card was found in Jackson’s back pocket. In the motel room where Wade was staying, police found a key ring that belonged to the victims. The victims’ coin collection was found in the trunk of Cole’s car.

Detective Meacham testified that he drove to Charleston immediately after learning that Cole, Jackson, and Wade were apprehended. A recording of Detective Meacham’s July 14, 2005, interview of Cole was played for the jury. In it, Cole admitted that before the crimes she had gone to Myrtle Beach with Jackson, Wade, and another female uninvolved in the crimes. Cole stated that the group stayed in a hotel room, “[s]pending money up there, partying up there.” She stated also that on the return trip from Myrtle Beach, the group stopped at a flea market, where Wade and Jackson purchased pocketknives and BB guns that appeared to be real firearms. Cole admitted that she knew that Jackson, Wade, and Nixon were going to the victims’ home to steal things such as credit cards. Cole also admitted that she spent the victims’ money after the murders and impersonated Mrs. Sumner during the telephone call with Detective Meacham.

Codefendant Nixon was also arrested. Nixon revealed to law enforcement officers the location where the victims were buried, and on July 16, 2005, the victims’ bodies were discovered. Nixon testified that he understood that because of his guilty plea that he could receive a sentence between fifty-two years and life imprisonment without parole. Nixon understood that he would not be sentenced until after testifying against Wade. (Nixon had previously testified against Jackson.)

Dr. Anthony J. Clark, Medical Examiner for the Georgia Bureau of Investigation, performed autopsies on the bodies and testified that both of the victims died as a result of mechanical obstruction of the airways by dirt. Essentially, the victims were buried alive and asphyxiated from the dirt particles smothering their airway passages.

https://caselaw.findlaw.com/fl-supreme-court/1866373.html

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The only white woman on Florida’s Death Row will ask the Florida Supreme Court to throw out her conviction and death sentence this week for robbing, kidnapping and burying a disabled Jacksonville couple alive.

Lawyers for Tiffany Cole, 33, will argue the attorneys who represented her during her criminal trial in Jacksonville were ineffective. Cole was convicted of two counts of first-degree murder, armed robbery and kidnapping. A jury recommended death by a 9-3 vote and Circuit Judge Michael Weatherby concurred.

Tiffany Cole was one of four people who kidnapped Carol and Reggie Sumner, both 61, from their St. Nicholas home in 2005 and drove them to Charlton County, Ga., where they were buried alive.

Michael James Jackson, 27, the mastermind of the murder plot, and Cole’s boyfriend, Alan Lyndell Wade, 27, are also on Death Row. A fourth participant, 27-year-old Bruce Nixon, testified against the others and was sentenced to 45 years in prison for second-degree murder

They were arrested in Charleston, S.C., a week after the Sumners disappeared. Police found Jackson with the couple’s ATM cards and personal information.

In court filings attorney Wayne Henderson, who’s representing Cole on appeal, argues that defense lawyers Quentin Till and Greg Messore did a poor job during both the criminal trial and the sentencing phase of Cole’s case. Oral arguments in Cole’s appeal will occur Thursday.

Henderson argued that Till, the lead lawyer, expected to reach a plea deal for Cole and was unprepared for trial when Cole rejected the state’s offer.

Tiffany Cole didn’t believe she was guilty of first-degree murder because she didn’t personally kill the Sumners, saying that she did not “bury the bodies and therefore was not guilty.” But under Florida law someone who participates in a crime can be found equally culpable for a murder even if they didn’t pull the trigger or directly cause the death.

Henderson also argues that Messore, who handled the penalty phase, was unprepared because he didn’t join the case until a month before Cole’s trial began and was only properly certified to be a lawyer in death-penalty cases days before Cole’s trial began.

“Cole’s appointed trial counsel was ineffective in both the guilt and penalty phases for failing to adequately investigate her background and psychological deficiency in order to show that she was under extreme duress and effectively under the control of her co-defendants during the time of the offense,” Henderson said. “Had trial counsel sufficiently investigated Cole’s psychological makeup and history, they would have discovered that Cole does not interact well with men and is generally fearful, intimidated and willing to please.”

Till and Messore never investigated Cole’s mental-health or dysfunctional family history and substance-abuse problems. During the penalty phase, the jury heard nothing about Cole’s low intelligence level and mental health.

Tiffany Cole was an abused child who started running away at 12. She left home as a teenager and turned to drugs and prostitution, Henderson said.

Cole’s lawyers also didn’t object to evidence that had been seized in the case or make a motion to suppress statements Cole made after she was arrested. Till has acknowledged that he made a tactical decision to use Cole’s statements because he believed they supported their contention that she was a minor participant in the crime and a good person who got caught up with bad men.

But a large amount of the information introduced at trial, including that the Sumners’ strongbox was found in Cole’s car, hurt Cole and letting it in had no strategic benefit, Henderson said.

But prosecutors respond by saying that Till and Messore put on a solid defense.

Assistant Deputy Attorney General Carolyn Snurkowski, in filings to the Supreme Court, argues that Till did look into Cole’s mental health but decided the best defense would be to portray Cole as a non-violent good person who exhibited aberrant behavior after getting involved with Jackson.

Till believed that bringing out the bad parts of Cole’s life would not help her with the jury and preferred they not know that she’d been a prostitute and dealt drugs, Snurkowski said.

During a hearing to throw out the conviction, Till also testified that the strategy in the guilt phase was to show that Cole’s participation was marginal, she was not involved in the killings and didn’t know that the Sumners were going to be killed.

Till also said during that hearing that Cole had admitted to him that she had a bigger role in the kidnapping and murder than she’d previously said, Snurkowski said.

Till and Messore could not be reached for comment.

The Florida Supreme Court previously affirmed Cole’s death sentence in 2010. It did disagree with Weatherby’s finding that Cole’s behavior in the killing was especially heinous, atrocious and cruel because Cole didn’t bury them alive herself, but the court found that error didn’t justify setting aside the conviction or death sentence.

This second appeal occurred after Henderson moved to throw out the original conviction, and Weatherby denied the motion.

Tiffany Cole was the only one of the four who knew the Sumners. At one point the couple were friends and neighbors with Cole’s father in South Carolina, and they had sold a car to Cole and told her she was welcome at their house if she was ever in Jacksonville.

The plan to rob and murder the Sumners evolved from knowledge Cole had about the couple.

There are 394 people on Death Row and five of them are women. Two women are black and the other two are Hispanic.

It is unclear how long it will take the Supreme Court to rule on Cole’s appeal. But death-penalty appeals usually take months to decide after oral arguments occur.

https://www.jacksonville.com/article/20150503/NEWS/801244522

Linda Carty Women On Death Row

Linda Carty is on death row in Texas convicted of a brutal robbery and murder. Linda Carty and three others would force their way into the home of the victim and proceeded to kidnap her and her three month old child. The mother and child were forced into the trunk of a car with a bag around her head and she would end up dying of suffocation. Linda Carty would be convicted and sentenced to death

Linda Carty 2021 Information

Name	Linda Carty
TDCJ Number	999406
Date of Birth	10/05/1958
Date Received	03/07/2002
Age (when Received)	43
Education Level (Highest Grade Completed)	1st year of college
Date of Offense	05/16/2001
	Age (at the time of Offense)	42
	County	Harris
	Race	Black
	Gender	Female
	Hair Color	Black
	Height (in Feet and Inches)	5′ 3″
	Weight (in Pounds)	220
	Eye Color	Brown
	Native County	St. Chistopher, British Virgin Islands
	Native State

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A Texas judge declined to grant a female British citizen on death row a retrial, which could have changed the outcome of her 2002 capital murder conviction. Lawyers for Linda Carty argued that their client was denied due process when prosecutors did not disclose false witness testimony that painted the defendant as the apparent mastermind of a 2001 murder kidnapping. The Houston Chronicle reported that Carty was sentenced to death after she was convicted of the murder of her neighbour, Joana Rodriguez, in May 2001. Rodriguez was found bound and gagged in the trunk of a car after she and her newborn baby were taken from her Houston home.

After hearing Carty’s appeal, Judge David Garner said prosecutors still had overwhelming evidence of the defendant’s guilt from other sources. Mr Garner agreed that prosecutors should have turned over their witness statements in the 2002 trial, but he ruled that it was not likely have changed the course of Carty’s conviction. These were serious and unfounded allegations of misconduct against two very senior prosecutors who have done nothing for the past two decades except protect and serve people of Harris County. And this recommendation serves to uphold their fine reputations,” Assistant District Attorney Josh Reiss told the Chronicle after the Thursday ruling. Carty – an ex-Drug Enforcement Agency informant born in the Caribbean island of St Kitts when it was under British rule – reportedly led police to the vehicle where Rodriguez was found asphyxiated. The newborn was rescued.

Although, Carty maintains her innocence, prosecutors said she orchestrated the kidnapping with three other men – who did not receive death sentences for their participation in the crime. Prosecutors said that Carty wanted Rodriguez’s newborn son after suffering several miscarriages. Carty was convicted under the Texas “law of parties” which dictates that a person is criminally liable if one “solicits, encourages, directs, aids, or attempts to aid the other person to commit the offence”. Carty worked with three co-conspirators, according to court documents, but was the only of the group to be sentenced to death. Two men testified against her – who later accused prosecutors of coercion – but all three were still convicted and sentenced to time in prison for kidnapping.

Texas is the most active capital punishment state in the US, but as public opinion of the method dwindles, so do execution numbers. The state has, so far, executed six inmates this year, with five more scheduled in 2016. In 2000, the US carried out 85 executions in total – 40 of those occurred in Texas. But in 2015, the state only executed 13 people, according to the Death Penalty Information Centre

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The Supreme Court last week turned down an appeal from a British woman sentenced to die for a Harris County murder-kidnapping, moving the case one step closer to a possible execution date.

Linda Carty was sent to death row in 2001 after she was convicted of masterminding a plot to murder her 20-year-old neighbor and steal the woman’s baby in order to save her own common-law marriage.

In the years since the killing of Joana Rodriguez, Carty has consistently professed her innocence, insisting she was railroaded by prosecutors who failed to turn over evidence and coerced witnesses to win a conviction.

Yet the nation’s highest court has now turned down her most recent appeal without comment, refusing to review the argument that the combination of bad lawyering and “egregious prosecutorial misconduct” was enough to make a difference in the outcome of the case.

The now 60-year-old had lived in the Houston area for more than a decade at the time of the slaying, but was born on St. Kitts. At the time, the Caribbean island was a British protectorate, so Carty holds British citizenship – a fact that’s brought her case celebrity attention, spawned a documentary film and landed her on the front pages of papers in the U.K.

During her 2002 trial, prosecutors argued that the former schoolteacher and erstwhile DEA informant had directed three men to storm the victims’ apartment, steal $1,000 and kidnap the mother and her 3-day-old child at gunpoint.

Afterward, authorities found Rodriguez asphyxiated, bound and gagged, in the trunk of a car linked to Carty. Using witness statement, phone records and evidence from cars at the crime scene, Harris County prosecutors persuaded a jury to find her guilty and vote for a death sentence.

For the past 16 years, the now-grandmother has been fighting her conviction.

Carty’s trial was handled by a famously overworked lawyer who never won a death penalty trial, and a federal appeals court decided some of his work on the case was “objectively unreasonable.” But, the court said, it wouldn’t have made a difference in the outcome – even though it was a “close case.”

Later, a Texas state court decided that prosecutors had failed to hand over potentially exculpatory evidence and neglected to reveal information that could have called into question some of the witnesses who testified against her. But, again, the court said it wouldn’t have made a difference in the outcome and wasn’t enough to overcome the evidence against her.

Now in the latest Supreme Court appeal, Carty’s current counsel – a team from Baker Botts led by Michael Goldberg – argued that those things combined would be enough to sway a jury to a different verdict.

And, they said, courts have offered different opinions as to how and when the legal system should handle “cumulative error” claims alleging different types of Constitutional violations all at once.

The National Association of Criminal Defense Lawyers, a group of criminal justice experts including Democratic state Rep. Gene Wu, and the United Kingdom all filed briefs supporting Carty’s appeal.

Now, after the Supreme Court’s rejection, Goldberg says he plans to file another appeal.

https://www.chron.com/news/houston-texas/article/Supreme-Court-turns-down-appeal-from-British-13403410.php

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Linda Carty is currently incarcerated on Texas Death Row for Women

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Linda Carty was convicted of a brutal robbery and murder

Tiffany Moss Women On Death Row

Tiffany Moss was sentenced to death in Georgia for the starvation death of a ten year old girl. According to court documents when the girls remains were weighed she weighed in just over thirty pounds. Tiffany Moss husband would help her to dispose of the child’s body and would later plead guilty to stay off of death row. Tiffany Moss who decided to represent herself at trial and not offer an explanation was quickly convicted and sentenced to death

Tiffany Moss 2021 Information

YOB: 1983
RACE: BLACK
GENDER: FEMALE
HEIGHT: 5’04”
WEIGHT: 140
EYE COLOR: BROWN
HAIR COLOR: BLACK

MAJOR OFFENSE: MURDER
MOST RECENT INSTITUTION: ARRENDALE STATE PRISON
MAX POSSIBLE RELEASE DATE: DEATH
ACTUAL RELEASE DATE: CURRENTLY SERVING
CURRENT STATUS: ACTIVE

Tiffany Moss Other News

A Georgia stepmother is set to become the state’s only female death row inmate after she was convicted this week of starving her 10-year-old stepdaughter to death.Tiffany Moss was convicted Monday in the 2013 death of her stepdaughter, Emani Moss, Gwinnett County District Attorney Daniel Porter told CNN.A jury found Moss guilty of torturing Emani, starving her to death and then, with the help of her husband, Eman, burned the child’s body in a trash can, according to CNN affiliate WSB.At the time of her death, Emani weighed just 32 pounds, the average weight of a toddler, according to the Atlanta Journal Constitution.

Tiffany Moss, 36, showed no reaction when the death sentence was handed down Tuesday, local media inside the courtroom reported.She’ll be transferred to state custody within the next 20 days, Porter said. Eman Moss is currently serving life in prison for the death of his daughter, according to WSB. Tiffany Moss acted as her own attorney in the case, but offered no defense, called no witnesses and gave no opening nor closing statements, the station reported. Tiffany Moss would be just the third woman executed in the state’s history, Lori Benoit, a spokeswoman for the Georgia Department of Corrections told CNN.

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It was the kind of question no one could imagine.

“So if in this case, and this is an if, you were picked for the jury and you did find the defendant — me — guilty of … starving a child, my own child, and burning her body, would you be able to consider life with parole as an option or would death be the necessary action taken? ” Tiffany Moss asked.

The 35-year-old Gwinnett County woman posed it last week to a Transportation Security Administration officer who’s a potential juror for her death-penalty trial. Because Moss is acting as her own attorney, she found herself asking the unthinkable.

Taken aback, and clearly uncomfortable, the TSA officer — Juror No. 52 — said death would be his “first priority.”

Jury selection, which consumed all of last week, will wrap up soon in this extremely rare instance in which a capital defendant is going it alone. Despite the recommendations of almost everyone, Moss has refused to be represented by two experienced state capital defenders who were assigned her case. (Instead, they have been appointed “standby counsel” and sit behind Moss in the courtroom gallery ready to help if she asks for it.)

Atlanta attorney Ken Driggs, who has represented capital defendants at trial and on appeal, spent time in court last week to see how Moss was doing. He left unimpressed.

Because Moss is not raising any objections, he said, she cannot appeal possible errors during her trial if she’s convicted and sentenced to death.

“When you represent yourself you can’t complain about your mistakes,” Driggs said. “You are stuck with the consequences of your mistakes or lack of knowledge.”

So far, more than 70 prospective jurors have been questioned about their thoughts on capital punishment and the criminal justice system to see whether they can be qualified as fair and impartial.

The jurors are also asked what they think about Moss’s decision to exercise her constitutional right to represent herself.

“I guess I feel that it’s kind of shocking,” Juror No. 56 said, looking over to Moss sitting alone by herself at the defense table.

“It might not be the most logical decision,” said Juror No. 17, a Gwinnett librarian.

“I would just say I hope she’s been given some guidance,” said Juror No. 41, a retired elementary school teacher. “That does bother me a little (but) you said it was her choice. You have to respect that.”

Others said they just wanted to know why Moss had made such a decision. (They were never told why, although Moss has said she’s putting her faith in God’s hands.)

Most jurors said they would not hold Moss’s self-representation against her or the state.

Juror No. 63, a school support technician, was an exception. “I think I would have a little bias,” she said, referring to Moss.

During jury selection, Superior Court Judge George Hutchinson has read the sobering indictment to panels of prospective jurors. This includes the murder-by-starvation allegation, various child cruelty charges and her alleged attempt to conceal the crime.

Then, one juror at a time sits alone in the jury box, first to answer questions posed by the judge. District Attorney Danny Porter or assistant DA Lisa Jones are next.

When it’s Moss’s turn, she most often smiles and tells Hutchinson, “No questions, your honor.” On very few occasions, however, she poses the question about the starvation and burning of her stepchild.

When she does speak, Moss is polite and pleasant, sometimes bubbling up with nervous laughter. Some jurors return her smile, while others cast a curious glace at the woman they’d just been told is accused of starving and burning her stepchild.

According to law enforcement, 10-year-old Emani Moss weighed just 32 pounds when her charred body was found in the fall of 2013.

On two occasions, Moss won challenges to keep potential jurors in the final selection pool. This occurred after prosecutors sought to disqualify them because they said they would be reluctant to vote for a death sentence.

One of them, Juror No. 30, a veterinary nurse, told Porter she had signed petitions opposing capital punishment. “I’m personally not a fan of it,” she said.

But when Porter asked her if she could consider all three sentencing options — life in prison with the possibility of parole, life without parole or the death penalty — the juror said, “I would like to think I could.”

As Porter continued to question her, the woman admitted to having bad experiences with law enforcement. One was being handcuffed by police as a teenager after squirting water from a car into the face of a taxi driver. Another included a friend she believed was wrongly convicted of a sexual assault.

After probing that, Porter finally asked Juror No. 30 if, given her views and life experiences, she could truly vote for the death penalty.

“I’ve been against it for so long,” the woman said, equivocating.

Porter later moved to have Juror No. 30 disqualified.

But Moss reminded Hutchinson the woman had said she could consider all three sentencing options, including death. Hutchinson granted Moss a small victory and kept the woman in the jury pool.

At the same time, Moss has stumbled a number of times. On one occasion, she failed to try and disqualify a juror who’d said she could not vote to sentence a person convicted of killing a child to life in prison with the possibility of parole.

Anther occasion involved Juror No. 138, who said she’d once supported capital punishment but now opposed it.

Experienced defense lawyers would have questioned such a juror to try and get her to admit that, in especially egregious cases, she could still vote for death. Such a concession could make her a qualified juror and one favored by the defense.

When Hutchinson asked Moss if she had any questions for this juror, Moss appeared to sense this possibility. She called for her standby lawyers, Brad Gardner and Emily Gilbert, and they spoke to her at length at the defense table. As they gave instructions, Moss repeatedly nodded her head in agreement.

After Gardner and Gilbert returned to their seats, Hutchinson asked Moss if she had anything to say. “No questions, your honor,” Moss said with a smile.

https://www.ajc.com/news/local/going-alone-death-penalty-defendant-poses-unthinkable-question/tq4mqnyQhRMEVrir6DAHzM/

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Tiffany Moss is currently incarcerated at the Arrendale State Prison the home of Georgia Death Row for Women

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Tiffany Moss was convicted of the starvation death of a ten year old girl

Robin Lee Row Women On Death Row

Robin Lee Row has the honour of being the only women on Idaho’s death row. Robin Lee Row who decided to torch the home of her ex husband killing him and their two children. According to authorities before she set the fire Robin Lee Row had taken out large insurance policies on her husband and children. According to the autopsy reports all three victims died from carbon monoxide poisoning. Robin Lee Row would be arrested, convicted and eventually sentenced to death for the fatal arson

Idaho Death Row Inmate List

Robin Row 2021 Information

Mailing Address:	POCATELLO WOMAN’S CORRECTIONAL CENTER, UNIT 4 1451 Fore Road Pocatello, Idaho 83205	Status:Age:	Inmate 62
Phone Number:	208-236-6360

IDOC Sentence Information	Data current as of: 4:15am Tuesday October 29th 2019
The sentence information shown is for active sentences under the jurisdiction, custody and/or supervision of the Idaho Department of Correction only.

Offense	Sentencing County	Case No.	Sentence Satisfaction Date
MURDER, 1ST DEGREE	ADA	18945	Death
ARSON, 1ST DEGREE	ADA	18945	12/15/2013

Robin Lee Row Other News

During the early morning hours of February 10, 1992, a fire broke out at Robin Lee Row’s two-story apartment in a duplex at 10489 Seneca, in Boise, Idaho, and local fire trucks were dispatched to the scene. Due to recent problems in her relationship with her husband, Row was not living at the residence at that time. Instead, she was staying with a friend, Joan McHugh. After the fire was sufficiently under control, fire crews entered the apartment and found the bodies of Row’s husband, Randy Row, and her two children, Joshua (age 10) and Tabitha (age 8). All three had died from carbon monoxide poisoning as a result of the fire.

Fire investigators found that the fire primarily started where the apartment joined the garage and that a second fire was started in some clothes piled in the living room. The investigators determined that a flammable, liquid accelerant was used to ignite the fire, and found that the smoke detector in the residence had been disabled before the fire when the power to the upstairs was cut off at the circuit breaker. As a result of the disconnected smoke alarm, the victims were not alerted to the fire which caused their deaths. An investigation by the police ensued.

The police discovered Robin Lee Row had lost a daughter to Sudden Infant Death Syndrome in 1977, and that her son, Keith, had died in a house fire in California in 1980. A warrant was obtained to search Row’s burned apartment, Joan McHugh’s residence where Robin Lee Row was staying on the night of the fire, Row’s automobile, and Row’s storage unit located in Meridian, Idaho. During the search, the police discovered six insurance policies carried by Row on the lives of the deceased members of the Row family. These policies named Robin Lee Row as the beneficiary and provided a total of $276,500 in death benefits. The most recent policy had been obtained by Row on January 24, 1992, just seventeen days before the fatal fire.

In addition, at the storage unit in Meridian, police discovered evidence tending to prove that Robin Lee Row had been stealing from the bingo operation run by the YWCA where Row worked. This discovery resulted in Row’s arrest on February 13, 1992, for grand theft by unauthorized control of funds belonging to the YWCA. She was placed in the Ada County Jail, and bail was set at $100,000. While the arson and multiple-death investigation continued, Detective Raney prevailed upon Joan McHugh to put a tape recorder on her telephone to record conversations between herself and Row, if Row happened to call.

Around 1:00 on the afternoon of March 20, 1992, Row telephoned McHugh from the jail. As suggested by Detective Raney, McHugh told Robin Lee Row that she had awakened during the night of the fire and had gone downstairs, but could not find Row in the residence. In response, Robin Lee Row told McHugh that she had left the residence that night, but stated that she was outside the house talking to her psychiatrist. At about the same time on March 20, police and the prosecutor were holding a press conference to announce that a criminal complaint for three counts of murder had been filed against Row. The following Monday, March 23, Robin Lee Row was arrested while still in the Ada County Jail. She made her initial appearance before the magistrate that same day. The complaint was subsequently amended to include the charge of aggravated arson.

Robin Lee Row’s counsel filed a series of pretrial motions seeking to suppress statements Row had made to McHugh while she was incarcerated on the theft charge. The district court denied these motions. On March 5, 1993, following a jury trial, the jury returned verdicts of guilty on the murder and arson charges. A sentencing hearing was held, and on December 16, 1993, the district court imposed the death sentence. Row filed a notice of appeal on January 26, 1994.

Robin Lee Row More News

Attorneys for the only woman on Idaho’s death row say Robin Lee Row’s triple murder conviction should be thrown out because her trial attorneys didn’t have the time or money to develop evidence that Row’s brain had atrophied, and the damage may have hindered her decision-making abilities.

Row, now 52, was convicted of murdering husband Randy Row, 34, and her children from a previous marriage, Joshua Cornellier, 10, and Tabitha Cornellier, 8, by setting their duplex on fire in 1992. Row had two other children who died years earlier — a baby who investigators said died of Sudden Infant Death Syndrome and a son named Keith who was killed in a 1980 California house fire that investigators ruled accidental.

Fourth District Judge Alan Schwartzman sentenced Row to death in 1993, calling her a pathological liar and citing her purchase of $276,000 worth of life insurance for her family the year before they died.

“Robin Row’s actions represent the final betrayal of motherhood and embody the ultimate affront to civilized notions of maternal instinct,” Schwartzman said during her sentencing. “Maternal ’pedocide’ — the killing of one’s own children — is the embodiment of the cold-blooded, pitiless slayer — a descent into the blackened heart of darkness.”

Row’s appeals attorney, Teresa Hampton, told U.S. District Judge B. Lynn Winmill on Thursday that her client’s trial attorneys didn’t do enough to develop evidence that could have resulted in a lesser sentence.

“There is significant and powerful mitigating evidence that should have been developed at trial,” she said.

Row’s childhood was marred by long-term sexual abuse and mentally ill family members, and her own medical history included evidence of mental illness, including serious suicide attempts, Hampton said.

But Hampton said a CT scan showing Row had brain atrophy is “the major red flag in this case” that, if explored, could have changed the outcome. Brain atrophy is a loss of brain cells and the connections between them, and it can occur for a number of reasons, including trauma and disease. The damage left by atrophy can sometimes lead to mental illness, dementia and other problems.

Row’s trial attorneys did ask the court for money to hire an expert to evaluate Row’s brain function and history, but the trial judge refused their request and instead referred them to the public defender’s budget, Hampton said. The judge also refused to allow them additional time to investigate on their own, she said.

But Jessica Lorello, the deputy attorney general representing the state, said Row’s trial attorneys were never deprived the money or the time they needed to come up with mitigating evidence.

“The court’s position always was, ’I don’t know why you can’t take this out of the public defender’s budget,”’ Lorello said. “In terms of that social history evidence … the court determined it ultimately wouldn’t have made a difference.”

Winmill said he would take the matter under advisement and could have a ruling in the next several weeks.

https://www.spokesman.com/stories/2010/aug/06/only-woman-idaho-death-row-appeals-sentence/

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Robin Lee Row is currently incarcerated at the POCATELLO WOMAN’S CORRECTIONAL CENTER, home of Idaho Death Row For Women

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Robin Lee Row was convicted of three murders, her ex husband and two children