Anthony Farina

ANTHONY FARINA: THE UNITED STATES COURT OF APPEALS FOR THE ELEVENTH CIRCUIT EN BANC TURNS DOWN PROSECUTORS APPEAL

December 10, 2013: A new positive news for Anthony Farina is that of the rejection of the appeal filed by the Prosecutor against the decision to review of the death sentence.
A panel of the United States Court of Appeals for the Eleventh Circuit vacated Farina’s death sentence on Sept. 30. Prosecutors asked the en banc court to review the decision, but today their request was turned down.
Farina, 39, White, is an Italian-born American citizen, for which associations Hands Off Cain, Reprieve and the Community of Sant'Egidio have campaigned for the recognition of Italian citizenship (obtained on November 2, 2012) and against his death sentence.
Anthony Farina, whose family is originally from Santo Stefano di Camastra (Messina) was 18 in 1992 when, together with his brother Jeffrey, 16, robbed a fast food restaurant in Daytona Beach, Florida. Jeffrey shot and killed an employee, but being a minor at the time his sentence was converted to life imprisonment with the possibility of obtaining parole after 25 years. Anthony instead, though not having physically committed the murder, found himself sentenced to death after a trial in which the prosecutor, invoking the Bible, proclaimed himself “agent of God" and "instrument of divine punishment."
The federal appeal court panel, and today the en banc court, decided that Farina’s original counsel was so deficient that his sentence is unconstitutional. It found that the misconduct during his resentencing (namely the prosecutor’s statements about religion and manipulations of his pastor) were so egregious that the original counsel’s failure to raise that misconduct requires reversal.
At this point, for the reversal to be considered definitive, must wait to see if the prosecution will present the last of appeals at his disposal, that to the Supreme Court of the United States.
Though Anthony’s reversal is one step closer, he still needs your support.
For this Hands Off Cain with Reprieve and the Community of St. Egidio revived the mobilization to save Anthony Farina from the death penalty, and in the world day for human rights, invite citizens to mobilize (see www.handsoffcain.info) and also to send a Christmas greeting card to Anthony Farina, whose address is: Anthony Farina, # 684 135, UCI P6224, 7819 N. W. 228th Street, Raiford, FL 32026, USA.