Jury Recommends John Couey be Executed for Murder of 9-Year-Old Jessica Lunsford
A jury took just over an hour Wednesday to decide that John Evander Couey should be executed for the kidnapping, rape and murder of 9-year-old Jessica Lunsford.
The jury, on a 10-2 vote, brushed aside pleas for mercy and a life sentence from defense lawyers based on claims that Couey, 48, is mentally retarded and suffers from chronic mental illness.
The final decision on Couey's fate will be made in several weeks by Circuit Judge Richard Howard, who is not bound by the jury's recommendation but is required to give it "great weight."
Since the jury recommended the death penalty, by law Couey now gets an automatic appeal of the sentence.
Prosecutors in their closing statement painted Couey, a convicted sex offender, as "evil" and asked the jury to find justice for the murdered girl by recommending the death sentence.
"If you could find one word to describe what John Couey did, and you could only use one word, it's the only one that comes close," chief assistant prosecutor Ric Ridgway said as he pointed to various pieces of evidence, pictures and charts to demonstrate Couey's actions the night in February of 2005 when he abducted Jessica.
