Judge rejects killer's motions

Death row inmate Amos Lee King wants the judge to recuse herself from the case.

By KELLEY BENHAM, Times Staff Writer
© St. Petersburg Times
published February 15, 2003

A frustrated judge rejected a number of motions filed on Friday to try to spare Amos Lee King from lethal injection, but she still is considering a request for more DNA testing.

As King pleaded with her over a speaker phone, Circuit Court Judge Susan Schaeffer refused to recuse herself from his case. She also would not give King's lawyers access to his latest DNA test results or let them study files from other cases they consider relevant.

"She intends to kill me at all costs," King said during a recess.

Schaeffer scolded his attorneys and said she thinks conclusive DNA results would prove King's guilt. But she is still deciding whether to allow testing of the nightgown worn by 68-year-old Natalie Brady when she was raped, beaten, stabbed and left to die in March 1977.

Schaeffer shouted her frustration at repeated requests for testing in a case that has gone on almost 26 years and has made King the longest-serving death row inmate from Pinellas County. She has twice denied other requests for testing and said his attorneys ask only when time is running out.

"Apparently nobody really cares unless there's an execution date," Schaeffer said.

King, 48, is set to die on Feb. 26. He received the latest of six reprieves on Dec. 2, when Gov. Jeb Bush allowed DNA tests of hair samples, fingernail scrapings and ambulance sheets. Those results were inconclusive.

The nightgown and a pair of knitting needles used in the assault were not tested then because King's newest attorney did not know they existed. David Menschel of the Innocence Project in New York did not ask for a stay, but said semen could be found before King's execution and the tests should be done even if the results come back after his death.

"It would be important for Mr. King, for the state of Florida and for the family of the victim to know for certain," Menschel said.

Schaeffer also refused to recuse herself from the case, in part because King's state-appointed attorneys did not prepare their request properly.

Peter Cannon and James Viggiano had not shown the motion to the state's lawyers and had not gotten King to swear to the facts it contained. Schaeffer let Menschel read King the motion over the phone, and swore in King long-distance, trusting him to raise his right hand.

King says that at a hearing a year ago, Schaeffer expressed her astonishment that he was not yet dead. But his motion did not include the date of the hearing or her exact words. Schaeffer denied the allegation and chastised King's attorneys for not having their evidence together.

Later, King pleaded with Schaeffer about his case, saying Cannon and Viggiano were doing a bad job.

"They are helping the state to execute me," King said.

Schaeffer told King he could not raise that issue. Cannon tried to ask that King's statements be admitted into the record, but the judge interrupted him and then hung up the phone on King.

Cannon said later he had a week to prepare the motions and he did the best he could. "Amos has been on death row 25 years," he said. "He's here because of bad lawyers. "But I am not going to not bring something forward because the judge might yell at me. That's not a good lawyer."

Schaeffer is expected to rule on the DNA request today.

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