# 9-year-old's killer gets death sentence. (How low can you go?)



## Lucky13 (Aug 25, 2007)

By MITCH STACY, Associated Press Writer 
39 minutes ago



INVERNESS, Fla. - John Evander Couey looked straight ahead as a judge told him he should be executed for crimes that led to new laws in many states cracking down on convicted sex offenders. The 49-year-old convicted sex offender was sentenced to death Friday for kidnapping 9-year-old Jessica Lunsford, raping her and burying her alive in his yard. 

Sheriff's deputies hustled the handcuffed inmate out of the crowded courtroom.

The girl's father, Mark Lunsford, teared up as he listened to Circuit Judge Ric Howard read a detailed history of the case for nearly an hour. He hugged relatives after the sentence was read.

Outside court, Lunsford had a message for Couey: "Skip all these appeals. Take your punishment. Stand up and be a man."

The jury that convicted Couey in March recommended 10-2 that he die for his crimes, but the decision was left to Howard.

An attorney for Couey, 49, had argued that he couldn't legally be executed because he is mentally retarded, but Howard brushed aside that claim in a strongly worded ruling earlier this month. Mentally retarded people cannot be executed under a 2002 U.S. Supreme Court decision.

The jury convicted Couey of taking the girl in February 2005 from her bedroom to his nearby trailer, sparking a massive search. The third-grader's body was found about three weeks after she disappeared in a grave in Couey's yard, about 150 yards from her own home.

Couey, already a convicted sex offender when he committed the crime, was arrested in Georgia and confessed to the killing. That confession was thrown out as evidence because Couey did not have a lawyer present.

Despite the confession being tossed, Couey incriminated himself other times. Jail guards and investigators testified that he repeatedly admitted details of the slaying after his arrest, insisting that he hadn't meant to kill the third-grader but panicked during an intense, nationally publicized police search.

Prosecutors also had overwhelming physical evidence, including DNA from the girl's blood and Couey's semen on a mattress in his room as well as her fingerprints in a closet where investigators said she was hidden.

Howard recounted the evidence in detail, including Couey wrapping her in two garbage bags, putting her alive into a hole then piling a foot of dirt on top of her.

"His actions crushed the very breath and life out of Jessica Marie Lunsford," Howard said.


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## Screaming Eagle (Aug 25, 2007)

shocking story. that **** deserved what he got.


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## DerAdlerIstGelandet (Aug 25, 2007)

Good the ****** deserves to die, but only after he has been raped by an elephant a 100 times! 

Low life piece of ****!


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## Lucky13 (Aug 25, 2007)

Another one that goes down the stairs to keep devil company....


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## Screaming Eagle (Aug 25, 2007)

yes he can also keep hitler company while the devil is shoving pineapples up their asses


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## ToughOmbre (Aug 25, 2007)

His execution can't happen soon enough! The piece of garbage will rot in hell!


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## syscom3 (Aug 25, 2007)

One thing that caught my attention to this case when it unfolded a few years ago, was the ineptness of the police.

They searched his property without a warrant.

They questioned him without reading him his rights.

Good thing there was other evidence that convicted him or he could have walked.

That said, I think he didnt deserve the death penalty, just a regular sentence. That way he would be put into the general population and the other inmate would kill him long before the state of Florida could.


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## johnbr (Aug 25, 2007)

It to bad that Florida Di's not use the chair no more.


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## ToughOmbre (Aug 25, 2007)

syscom3 said:


> That said, I think he didnt deserve the death penalty, just a regular sentence. That way he would be put into the general population and the other inmate would kill him long before the state of Florida could.



Good idea. I'm with you on that.

TO


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## Erich (Aug 25, 2007)

an elephant Chris ? was thinking more the likes of a badger but ........

well because if this guy is retarded this may take literally years. Like about 15 or if he dies naturally first.

it's these type of pisses on fences that concerns me about my three young grand-daughters


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## Soundbreaker Welch? (Aug 26, 2007)

I glad he got what he got.


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## Maharg (Aug 26, 2007)

Put the **** in mainstream and let the cons with kids look after him. 
A quick death isn't good enough for this animal.


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## evangilder (Aug 26, 2007)

Being a father of a 20 month old girl, nothing, and I mean nothing, could be painful or heinous enough of a punishment for this dirtbag. Anyone who perpetrates a violent crime against a child deserves severe punishment.


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## Lucky13 (Aug 26, 2007)

Like hanged, drawn and quartered like in good ol' days, eh?


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## Konigstiger205 (Aug 26, 2007)

That bastard is going to hell and too bad it won't suffer enough....there is a code among the criminals in the jails here but I think is the same all over the world...as soon as a rapist is brought in it has "special treatment" but one way or another they all end up dead...


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## The Basket (Aug 26, 2007)

I'm usually against the death penalty but I would shoot this guy myself.

I have no time for such filth. They deserve to be destroyed. No excuses, no pity.


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## DerAdlerIstGelandet (Aug 26, 2007)

Its because of **** heads like this why the Death Penelty is around.


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## The Basket (Aug 26, 2007)

DerAdlerIstGelandet said:


> Its because of **** heads like this why the Death Penelty is around.



Not in EuroLand.


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## mkloby (Aug 26, 2007)

Bread and water rations for life in an 8x8' cell. He'd be begging for death after a couple months...


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## ccheese (Aug 26, 2007)

I saw clips on the news of him hearing the death sentence. That S.O.B.
didn't bat an eye ! He might actually be executed..... in ten or so years.

Charles


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## Lucky13 (Aug 27, 2007)

Not if his cellmates get to him first.....


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## DerAdlerIstGelandet (Aug 27, 2007)

The Basket said:


> Not in EuroLand.



I am talking about the United States. 

I am an American and I am for the Death Penatly.


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## Aussie1001 (Aug 29, 2007)

Let me see...
Punishment day 1....
Fingernails removed, castorated, left arm compleatly ripped off by a jackhammer, branded all over torso patch up arm wound so does not die...
Get one of thoes nazi doctors to work on him and then leave him out in the sahara desert for the lions and hyeneas.


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## DerAdlerIstGelandet (Aug 29, 2007)

Lions and Hyenas dont live in the Sahara. Not much lives in the Sahara.


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## Lucky13 (Aug 29, 2007)

Why not use him as a piñata?


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## timshatz (Aug 29, 2007)

I heard bits and pieces of the story. At first, it just looked like another sick SOB out there. But then I found out the guy buried her alive. The only thing she had with her (after he had finished with her and thrown her into the grave) was some cheap, plastic dolphin that you pick up at carnivals. 

Also, there were other people in the trailer with him while he was doing what he did. Not sure how that all worked out but it is thought they did nothing. 

The guy was a repeat offender too. He's going to die, sooner or later. But it's going to cost millions for somebody not worth a red cent. I agree with the general consensus of the board, put him in the general population and let them handle it. Cost effective and gets the job done.


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## mkloby (Aug 29, 2007)

timshatz said:


> I heard bits and pieces of the story. At first, it just looked like another sick SOB out there. But then I found out the guy buried her alive. The only thing she had with her (after he had finished with her and thrown her into the grave) was some cheap, plastic dolphin that you pick up at carnivals.
> 
> Also, there were other people in the trailer with him while he was doing what he did. Not sure how that all worked out but it is thought they did nothing.
> 
> The guy was a repeat offender too. He's going to die, sooner or later. But it's going to cost millions for somebody not worth a red cent. I agree with the general consensus of the board, put him in the general population and let them handle it. Cost effective and gets the job done.



Always bringing that good business aspect to it. "Cost effective and gets the job done."


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## Rusker (Aug 29, 2007)

timshatz said:


> I agree with the general consensus of the board, put him in the general population and let them handle it. Cost effective and gets the job done.



I'll have to agree with this. A lifetime in jail in fear of your life is more of a punishment than death by lethal injection (or whatever that state uses). The death penalty would be giving him mercy... something he did not show that poor girl.


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## timshatz (Aug 29, 2007)

mkloby said:


> Always bringing that good business aspect to it. "Cost effective and gets the job done."



Doing my best to keep govt overspending to a minimum (as long as he has to get whacked anyway-and if it's a little messy, so what- a shiv costs next to nothing)


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## Aussie1001 (Aug 29, 2007)

Adler personally don't give a f#ck if hyeanas and lions don't live in the sahara i was simply stating that he should be killed slowly and with maximum pain...


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## Lucky13 (Aug 30, 2007)

How about using some of these on people like him? On a slightly different note about the iron maiden to the right in the picture, in 2003, an iron maiden was discovered in the backyard of Uday Hussein's house in Iraq by a TIME magazine reporter. Former athletes stated that it had been used to punish athletes who were not performing up to standard. The spikes inside the device were worn down with use.





Perhaps a rack like this one in Tower Of London?

In case that we'd run out of ideas, I suggest some shown here on Wikipedia: Category:Torture - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia


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## Rusker (Aug 30, 2007)

I don't even want to imagine what half of that stuff does. I'm glad Uday was killed and not captured.


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## Clave (Aug 31, 2007)

I can't get into the mind of child-killers, hell I can't even get into the mind of people that try to help them. I'm not a parent, more by circumstance/bad luck than anything, but there can be nothing worse than the thought of your child in the hands of these vile people. I could not sit across the table from one of them and interview them like the police do - I just could not sit there and listen to a confession like that, I would strangle them with my bare hands rather than risk them being free...

I'm sitting here trying to calm down now, these scum upset me so much, and they are everywhere...

We have jailed this _thing_ for life: BBC NEWS | England | Oxfordshire | Serial paedophile jailed for life

89 offences.. words fail me....


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## timshatz (Aug 31, 2007)

Before you have kids, it's kinda weird. The offense has a distance to it all. You are ed but in an esoteric kind of way. It's not really affecting you directly. 

Then you have a kid and the idea of your kid in the hands of such a ing piece of human filth is enough to make you sick. Followes only by the legal system that allows these lowlifes mulitiple opportunities before it puts them away. 

You're right Clave, 89 offenses and the guy is still alive? We all are familiar with vigilante justice and how it gets out of hand. But what is the reward of passivity? The paedofile has no fear of the justice system.


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## Clave (Aug 31, 2007)

I know how intensely you must feel about this, I suppose the closest I came to knowing that, was when my little brother was a baby, he was so cute, and even though I was like 10, I felt very protective towards him... Course he's a hulking great brute now who could easily kick my ass... but he's still my bro...

I think pedos are very adept at deception and blending in... they _know_ how bad things will be if they get caught, and so are 10 x more clever then the average criminal...  

And you know, the side effects of the fear are not good either - I'm a nice guy, and would be inclined to help out someone in distress, but these days I would have to think twice or three times before approaching a child who was crying in the street, because I am afraid of having that suspicion turned on me - It's a sad society we live in...


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## parsifal (Aug 18, 2016)

just a low lif who doesn't deserve even one second of thinking about.

We have several mass murderers I know of in Australia. we don't thave the death penalty, but these guys get never to be released, and it drives them nuts. in some ways that's more punishment than giving them the prospect of a governors release.

I just feel for the victims family and the way that little girl must have suffered.


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## Peter Gunn (Aug 18, 2016)

Wow does this old thread bring back many (Bad) memories. Inverness is not tremendously far from where we live, at the time our daughters were 4 and 7 so you can see our concern. Met Mark Lundsford, poor guy, I can't imagine what his nightmares must be like. He's a Florida boy but not a dumb hayseed and did get the law changed on sex offenders. God, to know that if the cops had done things right, your girl might have been saved, my skin crawls at the thought. UGH, going to stop thinking about this now and go do something fun.


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