Lionel Francis, a man convicted of fatally shooting his toddler daughter, was sentenced today to death by lethal injection.
Madison County Circuit Judge Ruth Ann Hall upheld the recommendation of a jury that voted 11-1 in favor of the death penalty. Francis, 37, was convicted by the same jury of capital murder at a trial earlier this year.
Alabama’s capital murder sentencing law provides two possible sentences — the death penalty or life in prison without the possibility of parole.
Francis is the first person to be sentenced to death in Madison County in more than a decade.
“We give (death) to the people who are the worst of the worst," Madison County Assistant District Attorney Tim Douthit said. "I cannot think of anybody more deserving than somebody who executes another human being, let alone a child, let alone a toddler, let alone his own biological 2-year-old. If you think some people just deserve death, this is the guy.”
Francis fatally shot his 20-month old daughter, Alexandria, in May 2016 at their Huntsville home after arguing with the child’s mother about money and Francis not having a job, prosecutors said.
Prosecutors said Francis held a handgun firmly against Alexandria’s forehead and pulled the trigger.
At the sentencing, defense attorneys Bruce Gardner and Eric Wood said Francis was remorseful and asked for a life without parole sentence.
“Saying that man showed remorse is just not true,” Douthit said. “He was sitting on the porch smoking a cigarette while his child died, joking with the police. A week later he’s more concerned with anything else in the world than the fact that they’re burying their daughter. Even when we’re standing in court, and half the room is in tears listening to this testimony, he’s wondering what’s for dinner.”
Asked whether he wanted to speak at his sentencing hearing this morning, Francis said he plans to appeal.
Francis’ attorneys asked the judge to issue a life without parole sentence because the jury’s vote for the death penalty wasn’t unanimous. Alabama is one of the only states that does not require a unanimous jury when recommending death.
“We hope that at some point in the future, the jury is going to be required to be unanimous in recommending the death penalty,” Gardner said after the hearing.
Gardner said he fully expected the judge to impose the death penalty. He also said he thinks Francis has a strong case for appealing the death sentence.
For a defendant to be sentenced to death in Alabama, prosecutors must prove at least one “aggravating factor.” One of the aggravating factors allowed by Alabama law is if the person has been convicted of a prior felony involving the use or threat of violence to the person.
In Francis’ case, prosecutors presented to the jury a prior conviction from North Dakota on a charge of accomplice to aggravated assault. While the charge to which Francis pleaded guilty was ultimately considered a misdemeanor in North Dakota, Judge Hall ruled the case would be considered a felony under Alabama law.
“We don’t treat it the way North Dakota would treat it, we treat it the way Alabama would treat it,” Douthit said. “If what you did was bad enough to be a felony here, we’re going to treat it like it’s a felony.”
Defense attorneys argued unsuccessfully during trial to exclude the prior conviction from being an aggravating factor in the case.
In cases in which prosecutors are seeking the death penalty, the defense presents “mitigating factors,” which are circumstances that would suggest a life without parole sentence is appropriate.
Francis’ attorneys wrote in court records that their client would adapt well to prison life if he receives a life without parole sentence, saying he has been a well-behaved inmate during his nearly three years in the Madison County jail. Francis has a son in Kansas. And, he was never abusive toward Alexandria or her mother, Ashley Ross, before the killing, according to the defense.
In the time since Francis’ 2016 arrest, Alabama has banned judicial override — a practice in which judges have reversed the sentencing recommendations of juries in capital murder cases. The judicial override ban took effect in 2017.
Because Francis was charged before the law was changed, Judge Hall ruled she still had the final say.
Before the ban, Alabama had been the only state that allowed a judge to override a jury’s recommendation when sentencing in capital murder cases.
The last time a Madison County defendant was sentenced to death was in 2008 when Benito Ocampo Albarran was convicted of the 2005 killing of Huntsville police officer Daniel Golden. In 2015, Albarran killed himself in prison while awaiting his execution on death row.
Currently, there are four people from Madison County on death row, according to Alabama prison system records.
Source: al.com, Hailey Auglair, July 25, 2019
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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
