Johnathan Bun allegedly killed a Clayton County sheriff’s deputy.
Prosecutors thought he should go to death row if convicted. But a higher authority, and the luck of his birth date, will save the 17-year-old from ever having to face death by lethal injection.
“We wanted to seek the death penalty, but were precluded from doing so by the U.S. Supreme Court,” Clayton’s Chief Assistant District Attorney Erman Tanjuatco said Thursday in a statement.
In light of the apparently wanton fatal shooting of Deputy Richard “Rick” Daly, prosecutors and Clayton Sheriff Kem Kimbrough certainly believe the teen deserves it.
“We are out there everyday putting our lives on the line for the citizens we serve and protect,” Kimbrough said. “We expect that when one of us loses our life, that the ultimate penalty is available.”
On July 20, as Daly stopped Bun and a friend to arrest the teen wanted for an armed robbery, Bun stepped from the car and opened fire, authorities have said. Daly was fatally wounded.
The Supreme Court has said 17 is too young for capital punishment. Bun won’t be 18 until May.
"The accused must be at least 18 at the time of the crime in order to be eligible for death penalty punishment,” UGA law professor Ronald Carlson told The Atlanta Journal-Constitution.
A 1993 murder case involving 17-year-old Christopher Simmons set the stage for a Supreme Court ruling that Bun's defense now can cite to keep him alive.
Simmons and two younger teens broke into Shirley Crook’s home in St. Louis County, Mo., tied her up and drove her to a bridge where they threw her into the Meramec River, killing the woman.
Simmons was tried as an adult and found guilty, and a jury sentenced him to death.
He appealed his sentence citing a troubled and abusive upbringing, but the decision held until the Missouri Supreme Court overturned the sentence in 2003.
The State of Missouri appealed to the U.S. Supreme Court, which upheld the Missouri court’s decision, giving Simmons life in prison.
Among cases impacted across the country by this decision was the fate of convicted Beltway Sniper Lee Boyd Malvo, who was 17 when he and John Allen Muhammad went on a killing spree in the Washington, D.C.-area in October 2002. Malvo is no longer eligible for the death penalty.
.Cobb County District Attorney Patrick Head said that Bun, a perpetual juvenile offender wanted at the time of the shooting for armed robbery, met several criteria for capital punishment in Georgia. The law only requires one.
“When somebody is just mean to the core, and you have the statutory aggravating circumstances, then you ask for the death penalty,” Head told the AJC.
The criteria are:
-- The defendant knowingly created a grave risk of death of death for someone other than the victim. At least one other deputy was in the line of fire when Bun allegedly started shooting.
-- The murder was committed to avoid or prevent arrest. There was a warrant for Bun's arrest, and he allegedly ran away after the shooting.
-- The defendant has been convicted of, or committed, a felony involving violence.
Bun has been at the center of more than one instance of legal wrangling recently. Just weeks ago, his defense attorney filed a motion to grant his client bond, as the teen had been jailed more than the state-required minimum of 90 days without having been indicted.
A bond hearing scheduled for Friday was cancelled after a grand jury late last month filed formal charges, 11 days after the deadline.
Kimbrough said he is unhappy with the Supreme Court ruling about executions, but he has resolved to accept it.
“There is some resentment because of that,” he said. “But at the same time, we all respect the law and we respect the fact that if we as a society have decided that someone under 18 is to be considered a child and can’t be put to death.”
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