A federal appeals court Thursday turned down arguments of a Death Row inmate convicted of killing a Fort Pierce police officer in 1991 after a traffic stop.
A panel of the 11th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals ruled against Billy Kearse, who shot Officer Danny Parrish 13 times after snatching his service pistol during a struggle, according to the ruling.
In the appeal, Kearse argued, in part, that he received ineffective legal representation during a 1996 sentencing hearing because his lawyer did not properly investigate and prepare for testimony by a state mental-health expert.
But the appeals court, in a decision written by Judge Robert Luck and joined fully by Judge Ed Carnes and partly by Judge Charles Wilson, agreed with a federal district court and state courts that the arguments about legal representation should be rejected.
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Wilson dissented from part of the ruling because he said the Florida Supreme Court ”failed to analyze whether Kearse’s death sentence was proportional or unconstitutionally excessive given the facts of his case.”
Wilson cited a 2000 opinion by then-Florida Supreme Court Justice Harry Lee Anstead that said Kearse was 18 years old at the time of the shooting and had not planned to commit the crime.
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