Category Archives: Press Release

Hillsborough County State Attorney’s Office Hosts
Workshop on Wrongful Convictions Featuring Death Row Exonerees

Tampa, Florida – On April 20, 2018, the Hillsborough County State Attorney’s Office is pleased to host a workshop to address wrongful convictions in the criminal justice system. The workshop will include a panel of three exonerated death row survivors from Witness to Innocence (WTI), a national organization composed of exonerees dedicated to reducing the number of wrongful convictions in capital cases.

The workshop will engage in an in-depth analysis of the legal framework for exonerations and pitfalls common to wrongful convictions. Prosecutors from the State Attorney’s Office will attend the workshop along with detectives and investigators from local law enforcement agencies, including the Hillsborough County Sheriff’s Office and the Florida Department of Law Enforcement.

“A prosecutor’s job is to seek justice, not merely just obtain convictions,” said State Attorney Warren. “Wrongful convictions undermine the integrity of our criminal justice system. They punish the innocent while the actual perpetrators go free. The men and women of my office are committed to an open and honest conversation on these issues, which will serve to build a safer and stronger community.”

Richard Dieter, the former Executive Director of the Death Penalty Information Center in Washington, DC and an expert on capital exonerations, will facilitate the workshop, which will include presentations from death row exonerees Ray Krone, Randy Steidl and Sabrina Smith. The workshop will consist of two sessions: a detailed two-hour session for homicide prosecutors and law enforcement, and a more general one-hour session for other prosecutors.

State Attorney Warren has previously declared his intention to establish a Conviction Integrity Unit (CIU), a specialized section within the State Attorney’s Office to identify and remedy wrongful convictions by conducting fact-based reviews of convicted defendants. Warren said, “Although CIUs have become common in major cities over the past decade, the idea is still new to Hillsborough. Bringing Witness To Innocence here so our 2

prosecutors can hear first-hand the stories of men and women who sat on death row for crimes they did not commit is an important first step in building a successful Conviction Integrity Unit.”

State Attorney Warren and the Witness to Innocence participants will be available for questions from the media prior to the start of the workshop on Friday, 4/20/18, at 12:45 p.m., at the George Edgecomb Courthouse Jury Auditorium, 800 E. Twiggs Street, Tampa, 2nd Floor.

For more information, visit the State Attorney’s Office website at https://sao13th.com or email [email protected].

The Office of the State Attorney, 13th Judicial Circuit is committed to making our county a safer place to live, work, and raise a family. It is our privilege and honor to service this community.

Facilitator Bios

Richard Dieter

Richard Dieter received his law degree from the Georgetown University Law Center, where he was named a Public Interest Law Scholar. He served as the Executive Director of the Death Penalty Information Center in Washington, D.C. from 1992 until 2015. He has authored 40 reports on the death penalty that have been widely cited in the national media and utilized at all levels of state and national government, including the U.S. Supreme Court. His most recent publication, Battle Scars: Military Veterans and the Death Penalty (2015), received the Congressional Black Caucus’s Veterans Braintrust Award. He also served as an Adjunct Professor at the Catholic University School of Law for 14 years.

Ray Krone

In 1991, a woman was murdered in a Phoenix bar where Ray was an occasional customer, and he was arrested for the crime. The case against him was based largely on the testimony of an “expert” witness, later discredited, who claimed bite marks found on the victim matched Ray’s teeth. He was sentenced to death in 1992. In 1995, he received a new trial but was again found guilty and sentenced to life in prison. In 2002 his attorneys demonstrated that DNA found at the murder scene belonged to another man. Prosecutors dropped all charges against Ray, and he became the 100th person exonerated from death row in the United States since 1973. Ray Krone co-founded Witness to Innocence with Sister Helen Prejean in 2003.

Randy Steidl

Randy Steidl spent 17 years in Illinois prisons, including 12 on death row, prior to his exoneration. He was wrongly convicted and sentenced to die for a double murder committed in 1986. When questioned, Randy cooperated with the police and gave a corroborated alibi for the night of the murders. Randy had poor legal representation, and witnesses fabricated testimony against him due to police misconduct. An investigation by the Illinois State Police proved that local law enforcement and prosecutors had framed Randy. In 2003, a federal judge overturned Randy’s conviction and ordered a new trial. The state reinvestigated the case, tested DNA evidence, and found no link to him. All charges were dismissed in 2004.

Sabrina Smith

Sabrina Smith was a Mississippi teenager who was convicted of murder and child abuse in the death of her nine-month-old son. In 1989, Sabrina rushed her son to the hospital after he suddenly stopped breathing. Doctors had attempted to resuscitate the child for thirty minutes, but failed, and Sabrina’s baby died the next day. The day of her son’s death, Sabrina was arrested for child abuse due to the bruises left by her resuscitation attempts. At the trial, prosecutors sought to prove that Sabrina’s account of the events leading to her son’s death were false, and that she had inflicted the fatal wounds intentionally. Sabrina did not testify at her trial, and was convicted of both murder and child abuse, becoming the only woman on Mississippi’s Death Row at the time. The Mississippi courts reversed her conviction in 1992, declaring that the prosecution had failed to prove that the incident was anything more than an accident. In 1995, Sabrina was retried. The medical examiner changed his opinion about her son’s cause of death, which he newly attributed to a kidney malady. In 1995, Sabrina was acquitted of all charges. She is one of only two women in the United States exonerated from death row.

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Hillsborough County State Attorney’s Office Selected to Participate in Innovative Safety and Justice National Research Project

(March 20, 2018, Tampa, Fla.) – The Hillsborough County State Attorney’s Office is excited to announce having been selected as one of only four prosecutor’s offices in the nation to participate in a $1.7 million grant-funded project under the MacArthur Foundation’s Safety and Justice Challenge to study and develop more effective prosecutorial practices.

The grant will fund a two-year project conducted by researchers at Florida International University and Loyola University to examine data and policies to increase effectiveness and fairness in four districts nationwide: Hillsborough, Chicago, Jacksonville, and Milwaukee. In addition to participating in this initiative, the Hillsborough State Attorney’s Office will receive $100,000 to improve its data collection capabilities.

State Attorney Warren said,” From day one, we have embraced data-driven and evidence-based policies to build a safer community and promote justice and fairness. This partnership will help put Hillsborough County at the forefront of innovation in our criminal justice system.”

State Attorney Warren will be in Miami, Florida, on March 20, 2018, to meet with the research team and participants to discuss project details and plan. The MacArthur Foundation’s Safety and Justice Challenge aims to study and reduce over-incarceration and disparities within the criminal justice system by focusing on how prosecutors can analyze data to improve outcomes and better respond to community needs.

State Attorney Andrew Warren Is Disarming Domestic Abusers

Tampa, Florida – On December 13, 2017, State Attorney Andrew Warren announced that his office has undertaken a major initiative aimed at disarming domestic abusers. The State Attorney’s Office is taking steps to remove firearms from domestic violence offenders who, by law, are prohibited from having them. The initiative will increase the safety of the public and police officers, and assist the office in prosecuting domestic violence offenders.

State Attorney Warren said, “Domestic violence is a serious problem, and guns in the hands of domestic abusers are a deadly combination. The time has arrived to take serious action about domestic violence and guns. We can do more, we need to do more, and here in Hillsborough, we will do more. As State Attorney, I refuse to stand by while our mothers, sisters, daughters, and friends are being threatened, assaulted, and killed by domestic abusers who have forfeited their right to have a gun.”

The statistics are alarming. Nationwide, over one-half of domestic violence murders are caused by a firearm, and the presence of a gun in the home increases the risk of homicide by over 500%.1 The state and local statistics tell an equally disturbing story — a Floridian is killed in a domestic incident every other day, and guns were responsible for almost one-half of the domestic violence homicides in Florida between 2010 and 2016.2 A Hillsborough County resident is the victim of a domestic violence offense every 79 minutes.3 In many cases, the perpetrators had a known criminal history of domestic violence.

The State Attorney’s Office has and continues to work with law enforcement agencies and domestic violence organizations to reduce the number of shooting deaths at the hands of domestic violence offenders.

Pursuant to the new initiative, the State Attorney’s Office will aggressively seek the relinquishment of firearms from domestic violence defendants who are prohibited by law from possessing a firearm, as well as those who have been charged with an act of domestic violence based upon a probable cause determination. The office will work with law enforcement upon responding to a domestic violence incident to conduct an initial risk assessment and inquiry pertaining to the offender’s access to a firearm. Prosecutors will utilize that information and conduct a background check to determine whether the perpetrator is legally prohibited from possessing a gun. At the defendant’s first appearance or bond hearing, the State Attorney’s Office will seek relinquishment of any firearms as a condition of pre-trial release. The office will also seek relinquishment of any firearms and prohibit the possession of firearms, as part of plea agreements, entry into diversion programs, and probation in domestic violence cases. The perpetrator’s possession of a firearm in violation of the pre-trial release conditions or probation terms can serve as the basis for additional criminal charges.

Mindy Murphy, President/CEO of The Spring, and Clara Reynolds, President/CEO of the Crisis Center, stood with the State Attorney and spoke at the press conference in support of the initiative. Also in attendance were Tiffany Bolt, Executive Director of Are You Safe, and representatives from the Florida Coalition Against Gun Violence, League of Women Voters, Sexual Violence Task Force of Tampa Bay, and Moms Demand Action Against Gun Violence.

“We commend the State Attorney for implementing this initiative,” said Reynolds. She further explained, “The correlation between domestic violence, firearms, and homicide is well-documented. We’re communicating with domestic violence survivors everyday through 2-1-1, and our trauma counseling and sexual assault services departments. We know that many survivors of domestic violence live in constant fear of their abuser. This measure is instrumental for both the physical safety and emotional well-being of survivors in our community.”

Murphy added, “According to Everytown for Gun Safety, 54 percent of the 156 mass shootings from 2009 to 2016 were rooted in domestic or family violence. Getting guns out of the hands of batterers will keep victims and their children safer, and also will keep all of us safer. We applaud State Attorney Warren and his office for recognizing how dangerous abusers are, and for taking additional steps to hold them accountable.”

“We will aggressively enforce existing laws to protect victims of abuse, and make victims feel safe enough to come forward,” Warren announced. The policy has other benefits as well, including simplifying the prosecution of domestic abusers with additional potential charges for violation of bond or probation for illegal firearm possession, especially where a victim is reluctant to testify; removal of illegal firearms from the community; and alerting law enforcement to the possible presence of a firearm when responding to domestic violence incidents.

State Attorney Warren expressed, “By taking and keeping guns away from abusers, we will reduce the number of incidents of domestic violence. We will help victims overcome the overwhelming, paralyzing fear that comes with having an abusive, armed partner. And we will hopefully save lives.”

A recording of the press conference can be viewed at the SAO 13th YouTube page at http://bit.ly/2AocwTI.

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1 National Coalition Against Domestic Violence.
2 F.D.L.E. Uniform Crime Reports (“UCR”); Faces of Fatality 2017 Report – Attorney General’s Statewide (Florida) Domestic Violence Fatality Review Team.
3 UCR, 2012-2016

MEDIA ADVISORY and NOTICE OF PRESS CONFERENCE

State Attorney Andrew Warren to Disarm Domestic Abusers

December 12, 2017

What: State Attorney Andrew Warren will hold a press conference to announce a major policy initiative at the Hillsborough County State Attorney’s Office to remove firearms from domestic abusers. Mindy Murphy, CEO/President of The Spring, and Clara Reynolds, CEO/President of the Crisis Center, will participate in the press conference. Representatives from organizations that address domestic violence and gun safety issues will be in attendance as well.

When and Where: Wednesday, December 13, 2017, 10:30 a.m.
                                      Office of the State Attorney for the Thirteenth Judicial Circuit
419 N. Pierce Street, Floor 3
Tampa, Florida 33602

**Press conference area will be open starting at 10:00 am for media set-up.

Availability for Interviews and Photo Opportunity: State Attorney Andrew Warren will be available for interviews immediately following the press conference.

State Attorney Andrew H. Warren Participates in “Prosecutors Against Gun Violence” Summit in Response to Las Vegas Shooting

(November 29, 2017 – Washington, DC.) Hillsborough County State Attorney Andrew Warren is participating in a two-day summit in Washington, D.C. with elected prosecutors from across the country to discuss the impact of pending federal gun legislation on community safety. Hosted by the bipartisan coalition Prosecutors Against Gun Violence (PAGV), the summit is occurring on the 58th day after the Las Vegas shooting that claimed 58 innocent lives.

As part of the summit, State Attorney Warren will be meeting with Florida Senators Bill Nelson and Marco Rubio, and Tampa Bay area Representatives Kathy Castor, Dennis Ross, and Gus Bilirakis to discuss gun legislation, including strengthening background checks, limitations on concealed carry, restricting domestic abusers’ access, and regulating silencers, armor-piercing bullets, and so-called “bump stocks” like the one used in the Las Vegas shooting.

“Making it more difficult for dangerous people to obtain deadly weapons is critical to public safety,” said State Attorney Warren. “We need sensible, effective gun laws, and I’m talking with members of Congress as part of the unified voice of prosecutors and law enforcement officials dedicated to making our neighborhoods safer for everyone.”

PAGV was launched in September 2014 by Manhattan District Attorney Cyrus Vance, Jr. and Los Angeles City Attorney Mike Feur as a groundbreaking effort to combat gun violence. The bipartisan coalition of leading prosecutors identifies and promotes prosecutorial and policy solutions to reduce gun violence.

A press conference scheduled for Wednesday, November 29, 2017, at 9:30 am, will be streamed on Facebook Live from the Dirksen Senate Office Building, G-11, in Washington, DC 20002. Use hashtag #PAGVinDC.