Amos King was the 55th person executed by Florida since 1976. While serving a larceny conviction in a Pinellas County work release facility in 1977, he walked away from the facility and murdered a 68 year old woman who lived a short distance from the facility. King, an African-American, was born August 16, 1954. He was convicted of stealing a rifle from a sporting goods store in 1972 and sentenced to eight years in prison.
As 1977 began, King was housed in Tarpon Springs Community Correctional Center, a minimum security work release facility and had a job at a Clearwater restaurant; when his shift was finished, at 1:30 AM, a prison van would come and take him back to the facility. On March 17, the prison counselor James McDonough noticed that King was missing when he did a routine bed check. He found King outside the facility, a blood stain on his pants. McDonough escorted him back inside and the two men got into a violent confrontation that culminated in King stabbing McDonough 25 times with a knife, after which he ran for it. Police who went to help McDonough then noticed a fire at the home of 68 year old Natalie "Tillie" Brady down the street. Firefighters went to put out the blaze and discovered Brady laying dead in the doorway where she'd crawled to get away from the flames. She had been raped, stabbed, and beaten.James McDonough ultimately survived his injuries. However, Brady, a widow and member of an old Tarpon Springs family who was well-liked by the community, had been subjected to considerable brutality. She was stabbed twice and had bruising and burn injuries. There was other internal trauma caused by being severely beaten and her vagina had been stabbed with wooden knitting needles found at the scene. There was also evidence of rape. Arson investigators concluded that the fire was deliberately set at around 3:00 AM and Tillie's home was a stone's throw from the work release facility.
Since DNA testing was not available yet in 1977, forensic analysis involved testing the typing of semen found in the victim, which did prove to match King's blood type. Medical examiner Dr. Joan Wood concluded that if King had stabbed the victim's vagina prior to raping her, and he did not fully remove his clothing during the assault, he would get her blood on his pants, explaining the blood stain that McDonough had seen. The paring knife King used to stab McDonough matched the wounds found on Brady, but it could not be positively said that it was the same one. However, the knife was from the same manufacturer as other knives in Brady's home and appeared to be part of a set. A friend of Brady's said she believed she'd seen the same knife in her house before.King was tried three months after the murder, found guilty, and sentenced to death July 8. He admitted to stabbing James McDonough but denied having killed Brady. King instead maintained that racist police had deliberately planted evidence to frame a black man for an elderly white woman's death. Blaine LeCouris, who was serving as Tarpon Springs chief of police when the murder took place, acknowledged that many residents of the town did not like having the work release facility near them. LeCourbis said that he understood this sentiment, but that the facilities had to be located somewhere and in heavily urbanized Pinellas County it was impossible not to put them near a residential area.
He got a re-trial on appeal in 1983 when the 11th Circuit Court of Appeals overturned his sentence, but a re-trial saw him sentenced to death again. Three Florida governors, Bob Graham, Bob Martinez, and Jeb Bush tried to execute him without success as he always managed to obtain stays or delay the execution. The end came on February 26, 2003 when he was executed by lethal injection, still arguing his innocence. As a last throw, King's defense team demanded DNA testing of hair and fingernail material found on Natalie Brady's body but there were no still usable hair, tissue, or body fluid samples left after 25 years. Floridians for Alternatives to the Death Penalty protested the execution. "The nutshell here is that there is no conclusive evidence to point to Amos King." said Abe Bonowitz, director of FADP. "I don't believe that Governor Bush wants to leave himself open to the accusation that he killed a prisoner where there was doubt about the man's guilt."King received the standard prison fare for his last meal; he was denied a custom-order last meal since he'd already gotten one twice during two previous, abortive attempts to execute him.
>>18361984man he looked good for spending a quarter century in a death row cell where he was only allowed outside one hour a day for showering and exercise. black don't crack.
>>18361986>King instead maintained that racist police had deliberately planted evidence to frame a black man for an elderly white woman's deathSpare me.
>>18361985The old lady probably called him the N word.
>>18362017a preventable tragedy, alas
