During the investigation of a shooting death outside a motel in 2000, police arrested 15-year-old Brenton Butler and charged him with the murder. The incident could have been worse then what it was., Machine Gun McGurn had what became called a blonde alibi he had been at a hotel with his blonde girlfriend from 9 p.m. on February 13 through 3p.m. I just felt compelled to get it finished. Jermel Williams testified that he and Curtis were using cocaine on the morning of May 7, 2000. Murder on a Sunday Morning follows the trial of Brenton Butler, a 15-year-old black male who is charged with robbing and murdering Mary Ann Stephens, a 65-year-old white woman, in the parking lot of a hotel in Jacksonville, Florida. Butler was acquitted of murder and robbery charges in November 2000, according to News4Jax. coming on campus to pick up the girl. There was no evidence presented to the jury in Curtis' case to prove or even suggest that Butler's confession was coerced. See Grim v. State, 841 So.2d 455, 464 (Fla.2003); Sliney v. State, 699 So.2d 662, 670 (Fla.1997); Gudinas v. State, 693 So.2d 953, 965 (Fla.1997); Hartley v. State, 686 So.2d 1316, 1321 (Fla.1996); Lightbourne v. State, 644 So.2d 54, 57 (Fla.1994). When the police officers informed him that he had been identified by the victim's husband, he started crying and said, If that's the case, I need a lawyer. Butler asked to speak with the officers again that afternoon, but again he denied that he had committed the offense. The announcement comes less than a month after Brenton Butler's family reached a $775,000 settlement with the city of Jacksonville. Brenton Butler was solely charged based on the fact that, an eye witness, Mr. Stephens identified Brenton as the murderer. Next The Brenton Butler Case Taking all of the relevant factors into consideration, we conclude that the exclusion of Butler's confession denied the defendant his right to a fair trial. A subsequent grand jury investigation criticized the police handling of the investigation but found no criminal wrongdoing. Summary Of State Of Florida V. Brenton Leonard Butler 831 Words | 4 Pages. One year ago, Butler was arrested for trespassing at Sandalwood High School when he was allegedly trying to take the same girl off campus in his car. That is what the Court said in Chambers, and we are not at liberty to disagree. When the police arrived at the scene, her husband described the man who ran away with her purse - over 6ft tall, 20-25, skinny. Rule 804(b)(3) of the Federal Rules of Evidence establishes an exception to the hearsay rule for declarations against penal interest. Later in the afternoon, Butler told the officers that he had shot the victim by accident. The only thing the jurors did not hear is that Butler had confessed to the crime. [1][2], After the case, the State Attorney's Office launched a grand jury investigation into the conduct of the officers and prosecutors, while the Jacksonville Sheriff's Office began an internal affairs investigation. The case against Butler proceeded to trial, but he was acquitted. [1] State Attorney Harry Shorstein decided to prosecute the case. Here again, Curtis was no better off than Chambers. "Ten years later, the Butler trial's legacy remains palpable. For example, in Davis v. Alaska, 415 U.S. 308, 94 S.Ct.
During the trial, however, Butler testified that two detectives involved in the investigation, including Michael Glover, son of the then current Sheriff Nat Glover, had intimidated and physically abused him into confessing. The confession is corroborated by the fact that Mr. Stephens positively identified Butler as the assailant. The Brenton Butler case (officially State of Florida v. Brenton Leonard Butler) was a murder case in Jacksonville, Florida. The officer must weight utilitarian concerns with what is best for the greater good, with deontological concerns over absolute moral rights and wrongs that can never be broken. Chambers called McDonald as a witness, but he was not permitted to confront him with the oral confessions. trial jury: 8 men, 4 women, and a few opinions, Dog killed in Wednesday Sugar Hill house fire, Herschel Walker fires up supporters in Cleveland. Escuchar este artculo. The writers behind Seven Seconds gave us a real ending to the trial involving the tragic death of Brenton Butler and its cover-up. Butler (pictured, left) was apparently cut during a struggle with the girl. As these opinions implicitly recognize, a trial judge may be required to admit a third-party confession under constitutional principles, even if it does not qualify as a declaration against penal interest under the state law of evidence. The gist of this testimony was that Jermel Williams told Bryant that he and Curtis had robbed a woman, and Curtis got mad at Williams for telling the story. Family, friends and soldiers from an Army Reserve company in Gainesville are preparing for the company's deployment this weekend. A grand jury determined that there had been no "criminal wrongdoing" on the part of the city, but changes to the department's interrogation policy were instituted. After he spent months in prison, a jury deliberated less than an hour before acquitting him. Free Online Library: Brenton Butler didn't do it: but he did confess. Brenton is an English place name and surname. The prison have been put under investigation as they should for not making reports. Please try again. Brenton Butler was accused for murdering Maryann Stephens who was walking with her husband to their hotel room after breakfast, when he supposedly approached Ms. Stephens and demanded for her purse at gun point, then proceeded to lift his gun and shot her in the face, leaving Mr. Stephens as the eye witness to the. Rather, the question is whether there is substantial evidence to corroborate the confession. As it turned out then, Curtis was no better off than Chambers. He raised the gun to her face quickly and it went off. The apparent reason for the unavailability requirement is that the hearsay statement is needed all the more if the declarant is not there to testify. No one was injured, but a dog died in a house fire Wednesday afternoon in Sugar Hill. However, this exception is applicable only when the declarant is unavailable as a witness. Murder on a Sunday Morning. Brenton Leonard Butler) was a murder case in Jacksonville, Florida. Butler subsequently confessed to the crime, and the case went to trial. Jacksonville station News4Jax reported that Butler was arrested and charged in May 2000 with killing a Georgia tourist at a motel. On cross-examination, Mr. Stephens conceded that he had originally identified Brenton Butler as the man who shot his wife. Brenton Leonard Butler) was a murder case in Jacksonville, Florida. Contact us. The detectives also can appeal it to the Civil Service Board or an arbitrator. The film won the Academy Award for Best Documentary Feature at the 74th Academy Awards in 2002. Curtis contends that the trial court deprived him of the right to due process of law by excluding Butler's confession from evidence. The claim of bias which the defense sought to develop was admissible to afford a basis for an inference of undue pressure because of [the juvenile's] vulnerable status as a probationer, as well as of [the juvenile's] possible concern that he might be a suspect in the investigation. Davis, 415 U.S. at 317-318, 94 S.Ct. Florida allows litigants to impeach their own witnesses, but that does not necessarily resolve the constitutional problem identified in Chambers. The shop is a cool throwback to the barbershops of the 50s and 60s. The state also called a jail inmate, William Johnson, who testified that Curtis had told him that he was the one who shot Mrs. Stephens. Likewise, the Court rejected the state's argument that the confessions could not be admitted on direct examination under the Mississippi voucher rule. And police started filming felony suspect interviews and confessions after Butler's acquittal. See Morton v. State, 689 So.2d 259 (Fla.1997), receded from on other grounds by Rodriguez v. State, 753 So.2d 29 (Fla.2000). 2023 Jacobs Media Corporation. From hair trends to relationship advice, our daily newsletter has everything you need to sound like a person whos on TikTok, even if you arent. A prosecutor cannot rely on evidence to obtain a conviction in one case, and then condemn the very same evidence as unreliable in another. This argument misses the point. There were various reasons that aided the jury's decision to declare Mr. Butler not guilty. See Cunningham v. Peters, 941 F.2d 535, 540 (7th Cir.1991); Rivera v. Director, Dep't of Corrections, 915 F.2d 280, 282 (7th Cir.1990); People v. Kokoraleis, 149 Ill.App.3d 1000, 1020-21, 103 Ill.Dec. Butler was acquitted by a jury.
Mr. Stephens described the assailant as a young black man wearing cut off jeans and sneakers in two or three colors of blue. For the investigators and the media it's just another messed-up youth, just another wasted life. Williams entered a plea to a reduced charge and became a witness for the state. It took her more than a decade, between working and raising children, to make the story be what it needed to be, and tobring the book to publication. Brenton just happened to be in the wrong place at the wrong time. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed. ``It was a poor piece of work,'' Gordon said of the case. [1] The jury deliberated for less than an hour before finding Butler not guilty; one juror later cited the testimony about the interrogation as one of the key factors in their decision. But the record does not disclose the presence of any of these factors.
1038, 35 L.Ed.2d 297 (1973), the Supreme Court concluded that the defendant should have been allowed to present evidence that someone else had confessed to the crime. Copyright 2011 by News4Jax.com. The state argued that Butler's confession was not admissible as a declaration against penal interest because he was available to testify. Tourist Murder", "Butler Family Plans $2.5 Million Civil Lawsuit", "Falsely Accused Teen Sues For $8.5 Million", "Butler Family Settles Lawsuit With City", https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Brenton_Butler_case&oldid=1126716534, Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike License 3.0, This page was last edited on 10 December 2022, at 21:37. Copyright 2023, Thomson Reuters. Useful 1. [5] The documentary follows Butler's defense team as they build their case for his innocence. The girl's parents had obtained a restraining order against Butler. Minor injuries in Gainesville car accident, Piedmont student receives Coca-Cola scholarship, Hall County Board of Education Post 1 candidates discuss school improvements, Hodie Meats opening Alto further processing facility, Trump Org. SEVEN SECONDS Review: Episode 8-10. 4/2/2002. Dirigida por el francs Jean-Xavier de Lestrade, y originalmente estrenada con el nombre en francs "Un coupable idal" (Un culpable ideal), el documental de 111 minutos narra el proceso de investigacin y arresto A grisly hit-and-run by a White police officer leaves a Black teenage boy dead, forcing his parents and an attorney to fight a police cover-up for justice in "Seven Seconds," a series that premieres on Netflix today (February 23).According to Netflix, the 10-episode series follows the chain of events stemming from Jersey City Police Department officer Peter Jablonski (Beau Knapp, "The Signal . 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