Posted on 10/30/2009 12:14:25 PM PDT by abb
KNOXVILLE - A Knox County jury this afternoon sentenced convicted torture-slaying ringleader Lemaricus Davidson to death by lethal injection for the January 2007 murders of Channon Christian and Christopher Newsom.
The jury of five women and seven men deliberated about four hours before returning its decision to a packed courtroom.
“The punishment is death,” the jury foreman said.
The victims' families gasped at the verdict, but Davidson showed no reaction. Criminal Court Judge Richard Baumgartner admonished those in the courtroom to control any outburst.
“The murder was especially heinous, atrocious and cruel,” the foreman said, reading from the verdict form.
Davidson, 28, most likely will be taken to Riverbend Maximum Security Institution in Nashville where death row is housed. Some male inmates, however, are incarcerated at Morgan County Correctional Complex in Wartburg for security reasons. Two inmates with the death penalty are currently housed at that prison.
The jurors this morning heard closing arguments in the penalty phase of this 11-day trial before getting a final round of legal instructions from Criminal Court Judge Richard Baumgartner.
Prosecutor Takisha Fitzgerald told jurors Davidson killed Christian, 21, a University of Tennessee student and her boyfriend Newsom, 23, to save his own neck.
"The only thing Chris had left was the knowledge of who his attacker was," Fitzgerald said. "(Davidson) took everything else. The only thing (Channon) had left was the knowledge of who her attacker was."
Defense attorney Doug Trant asked jurors to spare Davidson's life, noting the abuse he suffered and the foster parents who still love him.
snip
(Excerpt) Read more at knoxnews.com ...
It will be interesting to see who steps forward to suggest that somehow the defendant doesn’t deserve it. BTT.
And I love the line about being an abused child, foster parents, blah blah blah. Can't folks see through that? I thought that kind of sympathy-grabbing ploy had been widely discredited.
http://www.wbir.com/news/breaking/story.aspx?storyid=103206&catid=29
DEATH: Davidson jury recommends death sentence for Christian/Newsom murders
This piece of crap is gonna die a lot quicker and less painfully than his victims (may both of them rest in peace).
For a crime of this nature, the only real punishment is the death penalty.
I just wish there was a way to make him feel the horror and pain that his victims did.
Along with the Wichita Horror, this is probably the most horrible American crime the MSM ever decided the sheeple should NOT hear about.
You have to dig into local news even to find a mention.
Reverse the races, and it would be Rodney King times the Duke lacrosse team to the Nth power in the MSM.
Good.
The jury’s back. They just gave him the death penalty. Two more trials to go...
Correct. However, they can't quite keep it covered up thanks to blogs and the internet. Many, many people are following the trials.
Yeah, right.
Switch the races of perps and victims and "prosecutors and police" would be squawking at the top of their lungs like a flock of mynah birds: "Hate Crime, Hate Crime, Hate Crime!"
But in this case, it is more likely that the Southern Poverty Law Center will bestow the "Hate Group" label on the JURY.
The vile pieces of human garbage who participated in and/or committed this crime should ALL be executed, regardless of their "race".
Found it at Wikipedia...
On Thursday, two women who offered Davidson a better life as a teenager asked the jury to spare his life.
“Foster mother Flo Rudd and group home mother Alice Rhea told jurors Davidson was worth saving despite the fact that he turned to robbery and, ultimately, murder despite their efforts to rescue him from a troubled upbringing.
“He’s my son,” Rhea said. “I love him. HE HAS SUCH POTENTIAL. If you put him in a structured environment, he does everything he should. I think he can be an influence to young men for years to come.””
After reading of the utter barbarity of what this monster did to the victims, it is hard to imagine what his “potential” might be.
great. deny appeals and get it done. the sooner he and his accompices are off the face of the earth,the better.
Re: news blackout, you got that right. Can you imagine the uproar that would have followed if the races were reversed? Even apart from any racial aspect, this story should have been covered just because of the exceptional level of violence and depravity. Such crimes are rare so that is all the more reason the “news” media should be on it.
As far as this slime getting the death penalty I am relieved. It doesn’t bring those kids back but it gives the families what they wanted. His time on death row presumably will be more harsh than it would be in regular prison. He has plenty of solitary time now to think of how he got there. If he is so smart and had such potential, as his foster family says, then he might just be regretting his actions now.
We hear lots about Mathew Sheppard and James Byrd but nothing about this case. I wonder why?
That would have melted my heart and got the tears a'runnin. So glad I wasn't on the jury.
The sooner the better for the rest of us!
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