A convicted Florida killer sentenced to loss of life final year for raping and murdering a 9-year-used girl has filed an charm with the affirm’s Supreme Court, seeking a new sentencing trial, in maintaining with a legend.
Granville Ritchie used to be chanced on responsible in 2019 of raping and strangling to loss of life Felecia Williams and stuffing her physique into a suitcase in 2014, FOX 13 in Tampa Bay reported.
“The kid sufferer suffered a horrendous, bodily painful, psychologically torturous loss of life,” Hillsborough County Circuit Recall Michelle Sisco acknowledged whereas administrating the sentence final year. “May perhaps perhaps moreover objective God include mercy for your soul, Mr. Ritchie.”
At the heart of the defense’s argument is whether one of the prosecutors violated the “Golden Rule Regulation” by telling the jury to position themselves in the sufferer’s station, which critics remark can lengthen a spotlight on a particular person’s biases in desire to the evidence.
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“Are you able to imagine the awe of lustrous that your existence is ending and you are feeling misfortune in every single place your physique?” Tampa prosecutor Scott Harmon acknowledged to the jury when he used to be advocating for the loss of life penalty. “That misfortune would’ve been greater for reasonably girl.”
The jury unanimously advised the loss of life penalty, FOX 13 reported.
Granville Ritchie used to be convicted in 2019 of raping and strangling Felecia Williams, 9, to loss of life and shoving her physique in a suitcase in 2014.
(Tampa Police/Temple Terrace Police)
Florida Supreme Court Justice Jamie Grosshans acknowledged recently she used to be “seeking to establish how” Harmon’s remarks were “now not a Golden Rule violation.”
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Rick Buckwalter, the appellate legal decent for Florida, agreed Harmon came halt to violating the rule of thumb however claimed he didn’t pass the freeway.
Ritchie’s legal decent Rachel Roebuck disagreed.
“Mr. Harmon is a delicate prosecutor who has been prosecuting homicides for 20 years. He wrote out this argument, he gave it to colleagues I guarantee you and tested it. This used to be deliberate,” she acknowledged, in maintaining with FOX 13.
