With trials approaching, death sentences are hanging over the heads of 2 suspects accused in the 2015 death of a Bonita Springs doctor.
The victim’s husband Mark Sievers, 51, and Jimmy Ray Rodgers, 29, are co-defendants in the case. Both are charged with 1st-degree murder and will face the death penalty if convicted.
Teresa Sievers, 46, was found dead, face down on the kitchen floor with the back of her head bashed in inside her family’s home at 27034 Jarvis Road on June 29, 2015.
There are several differences between a death penalty trial and other criminal trials in Florida, including the size of the jury.
The jury doubles from six people to 12 people during capital cases, according to the Florida Rules of Criminal Procedure.
Robert Dunham, executive director of the Death Penalty Information Center in Washington D.C., said other differences can be found in the structure of the trial and qualifications of the jury.
The jury selection process usually takes more time in death penalty cases compared to other criminal trials and involves a death-qualification process, Dunham said.
“In addition to being asked general questions about whether they can be fair, jurors are asked a series of questions related their beliefs about capital punishment,” Dunham said.
If a potential juror has religious, moral, ethical or other beliefs that preclude them from imposing the death penalty, or if a judge thinks they have substantial impairment in imposing the death penalty, they are excluded from serving on the jury, Dunham said.
"You are also excluded from service if you say you'd automatically impose the death penalty, but virtually nobody says that,” he said.
Death penalty trials are multi-phased compared to other criminal proceedings. The 1st step is for the jury to determine if the defendant is guilty or innocent.
“For the most part, that isn't different from a regular criminal trial except you have a death penalty jury hearing the case,” Dunham said.
If the defendant is found guilty, the trial moves forward to the next stage with the same jury. Prosecutors then must prove beyond a reasonable doubt that at least one aggravating factor applies to the defendant, Dunham said.
"It's those aggravating circumstances that actually make the defendant eligible for the death penalty,” he said. “Being convicted of first-degree murder is not enough to get you the death penalty.”
Florida Statue outlines 16 aggravating factors, including some related to the defendant’s criminal history and the age and person of the victim.
If the offense was committed for “pecuniary gain” that is also considered an aggravating factor, per Florida Statue.
Sievers had 5 life insurance policies under his wife's name totaling $4.4 million and planned to pay Curtis Wayne Wright, another defendant in the case, to kill her, according to an affidavit released by the State Attorney’s Office in 2015.
In a death penalty trial, all of the jurors must agree that prosecutors proved at least one aggravating factor applies to the defendant then the defense gets to present mitigating circumstances, Dunham said.
Legislators can direct juries to consider certain factors as mitigating circumstances, such as severe mental illness, but cannot limit what a jury considers mitigating, Dunham said.
"The defense can present anything that relates to the defendant's background, mental health, character or record that would give the jury a reason to spare the defendant's life or that could persuade the jury that life without parole is enough,” Dunham said.
After the evidence is presented, the jury must vote unanimously to impose the death sentence to move forward. Then the final decision during a death penalty trial in Florida comes from the judge.
"The original reason for judge sentencing was the judge knows the law and the judge would be a safeguard against a runaway jury,” Dunham said.
Another hearing is held during which the defense can present additional evidence to try and persuade the judge to override the jury and impose a life in prison sentence, instead of a death sentence.
A judge can only override a jury’s decision to impose the death sentence at this stage and cannot override a decision to impose a life in prison sentence, Dunham said.
Most often a judge will override a jury’s decision to impose a death sentence when there is significant evidence of mental illness, intellectual disability or if there was an extreme failure of the social services system to protect the defendant as a child, Dunham said.
In May of 2016, Sievers and Rodgers were indicted on 1st-degree murder charges and in June of 2016 prosecutors filed notices of intent to seek the death penalty against both defendants.
A judge signed an order in August, which separated Sievers’ case from Rodgers’. Both trials are scheduled to begin at 8:30 a.m. Tuesday in front of 20th Judicial Circuit Judge Bruce Kyle.
Sara Miles, a public information officer for the 20th Judicial Circuit, said if either case goes to trial Tuesday, she expects Rodgers would be tried first. Each trial is expected to last 4 weeks, she said.
Kathleen Fitzgeorge, Rodgers’ public defender, confirmed one of the jury trials is scheduled to start Tuesday but said she wasn’t sure which defendant would be tried first.
Michael Mummert, Sievers’ defense attorney, could not be reached for comment.
Source: Fort Myers News-Press, Staff, September, 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
but by the punishments that the good have inflicted." -- Oscar Wilde