Lemaricus Davidson A.K.A Slim, was the ringleader of the five gang members who
murdered Channon Christian and Christopher Newsom, was sentenced to death on this
date, October 30, 2009. I will post the latest news on him.
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Lemaricus Davidson
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INTERNET SOURCE: http://www.knoxnews.com/news/breaking-news/appellate-court-upholds-death-sentence-for-lemaricus-davidson-in-torture-killings_43054906
Appellate court upholds death sentence for
Lemaricus Davidson in torture killings
Jamie Satterfield
8:13 PM,
Mar 10, 2015
8:36 PM,
Mar 10, 2015
A
state appeals court late Tuesday issued an opinion upholding the conviction and
death sentence for the ringleader in one of Knoxville’s most notorious crimes.
The
Tennessee Court of Criminal Appeals in a 91-page opinion rejected every
argument advanced by Lemaricus Davidson, who was sentenced to die in the
January 2007 torture killings of Channon Christian, 21, and Christopher Newsom,
23.
Davidson
was tried in October 2009. Trial testimony showed Davidson orchestrated the
initial carjacking of the couple, who were held captive at Davidson’s Chipman
Street house before their deaths, and DNA evidence linked him to repeated rapes
of Christian. Of the four defendants charged and convicted in the case,
Davidson was the only one to receive a death sentence.
The
appellate court, in the opinion authored by Judge James Curwood Witt Jr., ruled
there was ample evidence to support all of Davidson’s myriad convictions for the
carjacking, kidnapping, rape and slayings of the couple. The court rejected
claims by Davidson’s defense team of bad rulings before trial, legal mistakes
during the trial and constitutional issues involving the law itself.
The
court also affirmed a jury’s decision to order Davidson put to death for his
crimes. In so doing, the court noted the Knox County jury was instructed to
make its decision based not on emotion but on the weighing of listed
aggravating factors and mitigating factors. The jury, the court said, concluded
the aggravated factors outweighed those mitigating factors — with good cause.
“The evidence established that (Newsom) was forced to walk barefoot over gravel, half naked, to the railroad tracks where he suffered three gunshot wounds,” Witt wrote. “(Christian) was kept alive inside the Chipman Street residence and repeatedly sexually assaulted and beaten before she was stuffed alive into five trash bags and then a trash can. There, she suffocated to death, even after, according to (Davidson’s) own statement to the police, she asked not to die.“Proof of the aggravated circumstances in this case was simply overwhelming.”
More
details as they develop online and in Wednesday’s News Sentinel.
