Late last week, Pinellas-Pasco Circuit Judge Richard Luce sentenced John Lee Hampton to death for murdering Lashonda McKinnes in Clearwater in 2007.

Hampton was convicted of the murder back in June 2009. After returning a guilty verdict and hearing additional evidence and testimony related to sentencing, the jury voted 9-3 vote in favor of giving Hampton the death penalty.

Although Hampton gave police several different accounts to explain the incriminating evidence, including blood on his clothing, he ultimately said that he accidentally killed McKinnes because she came after him while he was going through her apartment looking for cocaine. Prosecutors aid Hampton raped McInnes and slit her throat, before trying to wash his DNA off her body with cleaning chemicals and lighter fluid. (more…)

The capital murder trial of John Lee Hampton is under way in Pinellas County this week. Hampton faces the death penalty if he is convicted of murdering Lashonda McKinnes in June, 2007 at her apartment in north Clearwater. Opening statements were heard on Monday.

Prosecutors allege that McKinnes was beaten, raped and repeatedly stabbed. Hampton was apprehended nearby with blood stains on his shorts and shoes. Bloody socks were found in a trash can in the complex. (more…)

The Adam Walsh Act was signed into law in 2006 and was largely concerned with the expansion of the National Sex Offender Registry and the grant of additional resources for Internet Crimes Against Children Task Forces. One minor piece of the legislation though has caused federal defense attorneys and their clients are great deal of trouble for the last two and a half years. A provision in the law restricting access to evidence of child pornography significantly undermines a defendant’s right to due process and a fair trial. (more…)

A case in which a mother was caught between her child and her boyfriend ended in a mistrial Wednesday night when a jury could not decide whom to believe. (more…)