USA - Florida

IRAN - Florida. Jury voted 8-4 for death sentence for Michael James Jackson

May 24, 2023:

(May 24, 2023) - Duval County jury voted 8-4 for death sentence for Michael James Jackson.
A Duval County jury has recommended death for Michael Jackson, 52, Black, one of the defendants found guilty in the 2005 murder of Reggie and Carol Sumner.
The jury verdict was 8 to 4. Florida law was recently changed to say that the jury does not need to be unanimous for a death sentence. Instead, the majority of jurors must vote in favor of the death penalty. Under the previous law, Jackson would not have received a death sentence.
Judge Michael Weatherby will formally sentence Jackson at a later date. His sentencing is currently scheduled for August 11.
Jackson was the ringleader of a group of 4 who buried a Jacksonville couple alive in 2007.
It was a heinous crime that has been mentioned in several TV documentaries. The couple, both 61, were bound and buried alive in a shallow grave. When they were discovered by police, the couple had broken out of their binds but was only able to embrace before dying.
It was Jackson who prosecutors said had the idea for the crime. He was initially sentenced to death, along with co-defendants Alan Wade and Tiffany Cole. But a Florida law change that altered the requirement for a defendant to be sentenced to death allowed Jackson to appeal his original sentence.
The Sumners were Cole's neighbors in South Carolina before they moved to Jacksonville. Jackson, the mastermind of the crime and Cole's boyfriend, targeted the couple because of their money.
Despite the couple handing over passcodes for multiple bank accounts, Jackson murdered them to "eliminate them as witnesses" according to the SAO release.
Wade was initially sentenced to death, but at resentencing, in June 2022, he got a LWOP sentence.
Tiffany Cole is yet to be retried.
Judge Michael Weatherby will formally sentence Jackson at a later date.

https://sao4th.com/jackson-death-duval-county/