Only woman on death row appeals sentence
TALLAHASSEE (AP) – A lawyer for the only woman on Florida’s death row urged the state Supreme Court to spare her life Tuesday because she didn’t know her co-defendants planned to kill a couple they had kidnapped and robbed by burying them alive.
Tiffany Ann Cole, 27, was convicted of first-degree murder for the deaths of James “Reggie” and Carol Sumner, both 61, of Jacksonville. Two men also have been sentenced to death in the case, and a third is serving a 45-year prison term as the result of a plea deal.
The Sumners were taken at gunpoint from their home in July 2005. They were bound with tape, placed in the trunk of their car and driven across the state line into Georgia. They were buried in a shallow grave after being forced to give out personal identification numbers for their financial accounts.
Circuit Judge Michael Weatherby of Jacksonville ruled Cole deserved the death penalty in part because the manner of death was especially cruel.
Assistant Public Defender W.C. McLain of Tallahassee argued the judge erred in citing that factor because the other defendants never told her what they had in mind after abducting the couple.
“There was no indication that they were going to be buried alive,” McLain said.
Deputy Assistant Attorney General Carolyn Snurkowski acknowledged Cole was unaware but said the judge also listed six other aggravating circumstances, including the fact that more than one person was killed.
The judge had also cited the victims’ vulnerability because of their age and disability. Additionally, the judge noted the killings were a cold, calculated act committed for financial gain.
The justices also were troubled because Weatherby did not explain why he cited the manner of death. Trial testimony indicated Cole was not at the grave site when they were buried but was waiting in the woods nearby, supporting the notion she didn’t know about the plan to bury the victims.
“We’re engaging in a lot of speculation,” said Justice Barbara Pariente.
If the justices don’t uphold the death sentence, they could send the case back to the trial judge for reconsideration or order an entirely new sentencing hearing with a new jury.
The trial jury had voted 9-3 to recommend death.
Cole’s boyfriend, Michael Jackson, and Alan Lyndell Wade also were sentenced to death. Prosecutors allowed Bruce Kent Nixon to plead guilty to second-degree murder in exchange for his testimony against the others.
McLain also argued that Cole was no more responsible than Nixon because neither person actually killed the victims, yet Nixon received the lighter 45-year sentence.
Snurkowski, however, said the death penalty was warranted because Cole introduced the victims to the killers. Cole also bought tape and gloves for the crime, and held a flashlight while her co-defendants dug the grave, she said.
McLain also argued the judge should not have allowed the prosecution to introduce photos of the suspects partying because they were irrelevant.
Florida has executed only three women in its history: a slave named Celia in 1848 who was put to death for murdering an elderly planter; Judy Buenoano in 1998; and Aileen Wuornos in 2002.
Buenoano, nicknamed the “Black Widow,” was electrocuted for poisoning her husband with arsenic in Orange County. She also was convicted of drowning her paralyzed son while canoeing on a Panhandle river and of attempting to kill her fiance in Pensacola with arsenic and a car bomb.
Wuornos was executed by lethal injection for the murder of a Clearwater man but also pleaded guilty to killing five other men along central Florida highways while working as a prostitute.