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Lawyer defends death case strategy

By COLLEEN JENKINS
Published September 1, 2006

TAMPA - The Florida Supreme Court upheld a death sentence Thursday for a Tampa killer, but two dissenting justices had some unusually harsh language for the man's attorney, cable news show staple Joe Episcopo.

Even as the court said the death sentence for Patrick Charles Hannon should stand, two justices called Episcopo's representation of Hannon in the trial's penalty phase a "classic example of legal incompetency."

Justice Harry Lee Anstead said Episcopo failed to investigate and present to jurors reasons why his client should live. The defense attorney maintained "a head-in-the-sand posture" that his client was innocent, Anstead said, despite a jury finding him guilty of a January 1991 double slaying.

Justice Barbara J. Pariente concurred with the dissenting opinion.

At age 26, Hannon was convicted of slitting one man's throat and shooting another man six times in a North Tampa apartment.

Episcopo, a longtime Tampa lawyer with a clean Florida Bar record, said his client insisted on presenting a "not guilty" strategy during the penalty phase, despite the trial judge's warnings against doing so.

"I don't think it's fair that (Anstead is) blaming me," said Episcopo, who had not read the 120-page majority and dissenting opinions Thursday afternoon. A reporter shared the highlights. "He's trying to second-guess me when he wasn't privy to a lot of conversations that I had with my client."

Episcopo, a former state and federal prosecutor, is perhaps best known for his regular appearances for legal commentary on cable TV shows, including Nancy Grace, The Abrams Report and Larry King Live.

Anstead said Hannon should be entitled to a new sentencing proceeding.

"The case before us today presents a classic example of legal incompetency where it hurts the most - by counsel's blatant failure to investigate or present a case for life for a defendant already found guilty of capital first-degree murder," Anstead wrote.

The four justices in the majority, however, said Episcopo had "specific tactical and calculated reasons" for his strategy.

[Last modified September 1, 2006, 05:47:52]