Court takes officer's killer off death row
Associated PressPublished December 17, 2004
TALLAHASSEE - The Florida Supreme Court on Thursday granted a police officer's killer his appeal to be spared from a death sentence.
Jeffrey Weaver, from Salisbury, N.C., was sentenced to death by Broward Circuit Judge Mark Speiser in August 1999, even though a jury recommended life in prison for shooting a 27-year-old police officer in Fort Lauderdale.
The unsigned ruling upheld Weaver's conviction but vacated his death sentence and ordered that he be resentenced to life.
Weaver was convicted of first-degree murder for shooting Officer Bryant Peney during a chase in January 1996. Weaver denied aiming at Peney, saying he fired a shot only to try to frighten the officer into breaking off the chase.
The high court said the trial judge erred in overriding the jury, which recommended life in prison by an 8-4 vote. Under Florida law, a judge cannot condemn a killer after a jury has recommended life in prison unless evidence is "clear and convincing that virtually no reasonable person could differ."
Before 1996, Weaver's criminal record had five misdemeanor offenses between 1979 and 1982.
Court won't hear appeal in fatal after-school fightTALLAHASSEE - The Florida Supreme Court has refused to hear the appeal of the manslaughter conviction and prison sentence for a Bradenton man who killed a high school classmate in an after-school fight.
John Acosta, 20, was sentenced to more than nine years in prison for killing James Brier, 16, in 2001.
Acosta's attorney, Robert Barrar, appealed to the court in August to hear Acosta's original appeal, which was denied by a lower court. But the high court declined to hear the appeal on Monday.
Barrar argued that Circuit Judge Marc Gilner should not have allowed jurors to consider a broad definition of manslaughter. He argued that Brier's death should have been ruled an excusable homicide because it a was a "freak accident."
But an appeals court said Acosta should have known his actions could kill Brier. Acosta's first trial in Bradenton ended with a deadlocked jury. In February 2003 a Pinellas County jury convicted him.
Acosta is being held at the Lancaster Correctional Institution in Gilchrist County.