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.
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(Excerpt) Read more at knoxnews.com ...
Lemaricus Davidson and his Posse. Cut off Christopher Newsom's penis, set him on fire, shot him before doing horrific things to Channon. And we are supposed to feel sorry for this pig getting the death penalty! People have souls, but some people act like damn animals.
The press is not interested in the truth.
I yearn for the old days of immediate hanging or being shot after a trial...
Did the words HATE CRIME ever come up in the trial?
Barring a miracle of repentance, he will. And it'll last far longer.
Great idea. The way to get this story on front page news coast to coast would be to expedite the execution.
If you put him in a structured environment, he does everything he should. ... I think Death Row is kind of structured.. He should do GOOOOD
Even the judge warned them against using the death sentence (”because of the costs”).
He got off easy, if you ask me...
"I was supposed to use sodium pentathol?? Oops! I thought the instructions said sodium hydroxide!"
This wasn’t a “robbery gone wrong”. It was an abduction, torture, rape, and murder case. The stolen vehicle was soon ditched. Theft was not the motive.
Every once in a while somebody comes down the pike who actually deserves that South African practice called necklacing. All these perps fit the bill.
We are in a low intensity - as measured statistically, not savagery - race war. We have been for some time. It will not end well for today’s aggressors.
Not well at all.
And by the time 2035 rolls around, the sentence might actually be carried out!!
“If you put him in a structured environment, he does everything he should.”
He’s about ready to be in a real structured environment. A box six feet under. Plenty of structure there.
A hate whitey crime the MSM is afraid to talk about.
Bastards.
Wish we could pour Drano down him like he did to the girl.
Drano? Or, was it bleach? Shoot. I forgot.
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