This afternoon, a Knox County (Tennessee) jury sentenced Lemaricus Davidson, now 28, to death for kidnapping, torturing, and murdering Channon Christian, 21, and her boyfriend Christopher Newsom, 23, on January 7, 2007.
“The jury of five women and seven men deliberated about four hours before returning its decision to a packed courtroom….‘The punishment is death,’ the jury foreman said.
The victims’ families gasped at the verdict, but Davidson showed no reaction….
‘The murder was especially heinous, atrocious and cruel,’ the foreman said, reading from the verdict form for Newsom….
The jurors this morning heard closing arguments in the penalty phase of this 11-day trial before getting a final round of legal instructions from Criminal Court Judge Richard Baumgartner.
Prosecutor Takisha Fitzgerald told jurors Davidson killed Christian [and Newsom] … to save his own neck.
“The only thing Chris had left was the knowledge of who his attacker was,” Fitzgerald said. “(Davidson) took everything else. The only thing (Channon) had left was the knowledge of who her attacker was.”
Defense attorney Doug Trant asked jurors to spare Davidson’s life, noting the abuse he suffered and the foster parents who still love him….
The jury, chosen from Knox County at Davidson’s insistence, considered death by lethal injection, life without parole or life, a mandatory 51-year sentence.”
The jury resisted attempts by Judge Baumgartner to induce it to impose a less severe sentence.[Torture-slaying sentence: Death for Davidson by Jamie Satterfield, Knoxville News Sentinel, October 30, 2009.]
Look for more on the trial later in an exclusive VDARE.COM report.
