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Biden Has 65 Days Left in Office. Here’s What He Can Do on Criminal Justice.

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Judicial appointments and the death penalty are among areas where a lame-duck administration can still leave a mark. Donald Trump’s second presidential term will begin on Jan. 20, bringing with it promises to dramatically reshape many aspects of the criminal justice system. The U.S. Senate — with its authority over confirming judicial nominees — will also shift from Democratic to Republican control.
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Florida: Man convicted in 1991 North Tampa double murder set to die next month

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Patrick Charles Hannon
Patrick Charles Hannon, convicted in the grisly 1991 killings of 2 men in a North Tampa apartment, is scheduled to die next month by lethal injection.

Gov. Rick Scott signed Hannon's death warrant Friday. The execution is scheduled for 6 p.m. Nov. 8.

Hannon, 52, has been on death row for 26 years since a jury voted unanimously that he should die. Appeals and pleas for post-conviction relief have all been denied, according to information contained in the warrant.

Hannon was a 26-year-old mason before the Jan. 10, 1991, murders of friends and roommates Brandon Snider and Robert Carter. 

The 2 men were found dead in their townhome in the Cambridge Woods apartments near the University of South Florida.

Snider, 27, had been stabbed in the chest and had his throat slashed. Carter, 28, was shot 6 times while he hid under a bed in an upstairs bedroom. 

Relatives said they had grown up together in Indiana and moved to Florida 4 years before their deaths.

2 other men were involved in the murders, Ronald I. Richardson and James C. Acker. Richardson, a 47-year-old Brooksville slaughterhouse worker in 1991, accepted a charge of accessory after the fact and a 5-year prison sentence in exchange for testifying against Hannon and Acker, who had been a billiards repairman.

Acker, now 53, remains in state custody. He was convicted of the killings and sentenced to 2 life sentences in prison before winning a new trial. He was convicted again in 2001 and sentenced to 1 life sentence plus 22 years in prison.

Revenge may have played a role in the killing, authorities have said. Investigators said Snider returned to Indiana a few days before the murders and threatened his ex-girlfriend, Toni Acker, James Acker's sister. He reportedly fired a gun into her home and left a threatening note.

"We think Brandon was the intended victim," said sheriff's Capt. Gary Terry in 1991.

Source: Tampa Bay Times, October 7, 2017


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"One is absolutely sickened, not by the crimes that the wicked have committed,
but by the punishments that the good have inflicted." -- Oscar Wilde
Location: Florida, USA
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