Posted on 11/26/2002 12:38:09 PM PST by zingzang
By Herbert Lowe and Amanda Barrett Staff Writers November 26, 2002, 3:26 PM EST A Queens jury on Tuesday decided that John Taylor be put to death for his role in the massacre of five employees of the Wendy's restaurant in Flushing on May 24, 2000. The jury returned its decision after six hours of deliberations over two days in the penalty phase of Taylor's trial. Taylor's formal sentencing by state Supreme Court Justice Steven Fisher was set for Jan. 8. “I’m finally happy that justice prevailed. It’s basically an eye for an eye as I’ve always been saying," Josh Hall, 16, whose brother Jeremey Mele was one of the victims, told reporters outside the courthourse. "Finally he’s going to get what he deserved.” Taylor showed no emotion as the jury's decision was read aloud in the packed courtroom. "I don’t think this death sentence is going to take away the pain the families suffered,” Taylor's attorney John Youngblood said. "If anything it will spread the pain out wider." The jurors, who had six opportunities to sentence Taylor to death, found that he should be executed on three of those choices: for causing multiple deaths and for personally killing two of the victims. The panel declined to impose the death penalty on the three other charges that he had commanded his accomplice, Craig Godineaux, to kill the other three people who died. District Attorney Richard Brown was scheduled to hold a news conference later this afternoon. Before the jurors began deliberating the penalty phase, they were presented with 11 mitigating factors that they could consider in making their decision. At least one juror found cause for mitigation on all of them. Taylor, 38, addressed the jurors for the first time on Monday when he apologized for the crime. "I stand here before you to say I accept responsibility for my cruel and brutal acts," the former fast-food restaurant manager said. "By those acts I killed Jeremy Mele, Ramon Nazario, Jean Auguste, Ali Ibadat and Anita Smith," he said. Taylor fatally shot Auguste and Smith and commanded Godineaux to shoot Nazario, Mele, Ibadat, Patricio Castro and Jaquoine Johnson after they were all herded into a basement refrigerator during a robbery. Castro and Johnson survived and testified against Taylor, who was convicted last week of 20 counts of murder and attempted murder. Godineaux, 32, who is mildly retarded, is serving life in prison without parole. Taylor will be sent to the Clinton Correctional Facility near the Canadian border. Death would come by lethal injection. Taylor joins five other men on death row in New York state. No one has been executed in New York since 1963, although the state reinstated the death penalty in 1995. The Associated Press contributed to this story.
(Excerpt) Read more at newsday.com ...
The dirt bag will never be executed - this is New York State.
How will putting an end to this evil "spread the pain out wider"? When he/it is gone, then it's over and people can pick up the pieces and move on as best they can. As long as he's still breathing, the memory of what he did and what he took lives on and lingers until he finally dies. I'm assuming that life, even life behind bars, is better than death. He took life from innocent people and should thus be made to forfeit his own. Even his own death (by lethal injection) seems more humane than the deaths he caused.
Good point.
I'm sure he will be rehabilitated in a few years; in fact the dirt bag already said he's SORRY, so the liberals must be swooning.
I don't know - but if he did it would have been something like "I blacked out" and when I can to, people were lying on the ground dead.
I didn't follow the story closely, but I believe he pled not guilty and was convicted in a trial, so other than saying he was sorry it happened, I would guess he never explained why he did it.
My guess 15 - 20 years.
If he had shot killed less than 5, he might be only serving 10 - 15 years.
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