[Deathpenalty] death penalty news----GA.

[Rick Halperin]

July 22



GEORGIA:

Friends, relatives tearfully speak of Hood's victims


A steady stream of friends, co-workers and loved ones took a seat and leaned 
into the microphone to tell jurors how Jamie Hood had altered their lives when 
he murdered an Athens-Clarke County police officer and wounded another in 2011.

Several cried as they read from written statements and each walked past Hood 
without glancing at him when they were done testifying Wednesday in the penalty 
phase of his trial.

"My life was changed forever," said police officer Tony Howard, whom Hood shot 
and wounded moments before he killed officer Elmer "Buddy" Christian on March 
22, 2011.

He still has pain. He can no longer work extra jobs that boosted his family's 
income. Howard said he avoids people to avoid being asked about Hood.

Howard's wife, Shirlisa, said she had to quit her job at the Clarke County Jail 
because of taunts from inmates and never leaves home without a gun. She told 
the jurors of the scene when she got to the hospital where her husband was 
taken.

Still, Hood blamed others for putting him in the situation where he shot and 
killed Christian.

Hood told the jurors who Monday convicted him of 2 murders and several other 
charges he was going to use the sentencing phase of his death penalty trial to 
tell them things that he was not allowed to bring up before he was convicted. 
He spoke of the circumstances of the armed robbery that cost him 12 years in 
prison and his younger brother's fatal shooting by a police officer.

--If he had not been "illegally" convicted of a 1997 armed robbery he would not 
have gone to prison, which meant selling drugs was the only way he could earn a 
living once he was released.

--If Judon Brooks had not called police to report Hood had kidnapped him, law 
enforcement would not have been looking for him on March 22, 2011.

--If his brother, who picked him up after he abandoned his car because Brook 
escaped from the trunk, had not missed the turn he would never have crossed 
paths with Officer Tony Howard and Officer Elmer "Buddy" Christian and shot 
them.

--If Howard had "followed protocol" and not reached out the car window to grab 
him as he ran past, he would never have pulled a gun and started shooting, 
wounding Howard and killing Christian.

"I'm here about why," Hood told jurors who had convicted him of murder on 
Monday and now will decide if he should die for murdering Christian and for 
murdering his friend, Omar Wray, Dec. 28, 2010.

District Attorney Ken Mauldin told jurors to ignore his excuses.

"There's no way those circumstances justify what this defendant did," Mauldin 
said.

Hood was also convicted Monday of kidnapping a friend, Brooks, on March 22, 
2011, setting of a series of events that left Howard wounded and Christian 
dead. It was the police shooting that led police to suspect Hood in Wray's 
death 3 months earlier. They matched a bullet casing in Hoods car to the gun 
used to kill Wray.

Wray's mother, Ruby Jordan, tearfully told the jurors of how her son's death 
has affected her and the lives of his 2 daughters and son.

"How could this man murder my son outside my house on my carport with me 
inside?" Jordan said. "What was the purpose of this senseless, cold-blooded 
action? There is no answer. There is no way to tell the harsh impact on my 
life. A part of me is gone and never to return."

(source: Atlanta Journal-Constitution)