Lake County pursues death penalty in sex crime prosecution
Lake County prosecutor William “Bill” Gadson announced he is seeking the death penalty in the case against Joseph Andrew Giampa.
Giampa has been charged with two counts of sexual battery upon victims under the age of 12 and three counts of promoting a sexual performance by a child.
This is the first case in the state to seek a capital conviction since the law went into effect in July of this year.
The State was meticulous in passing the law to ensure it met the thresholds for a death sentence established by previous US Supreme Court (SCOTUS) precedence. Gadson qualifies this case as meeting the four aggravating factors necessary for a capital charge.
The State has prepared the law and selected this case for a review by SCOTUS. All the t’s seem crossed and i’s seem dotted from that perspective. Left for review will be an answer to the question can the State execute for reasons other than murder.
On the bright side, he wouldn’t have to register.
@ Ben:
Sure he would. It’s Florida.
The Death Penalty Information Center https://deathpenaltyinfo.org/ and its State of Florida affiliate Floridians for Alternatives to the Death Penalty https://www.fadp.org/ are great Activists and Advocates and a Great Resource against the use of Capital Punishment.
😩 Florida has lost its mind. 😒
(I have to wonder if this won’t lead some to the horrible, unintended belief that “Well, if I am caught for the child sexual offense I committed, I will be sentenced to death…. Therefore, I must make the victim ‘disappear’.[read: 😵]”
And if the accused is a relative or immediate family member of the victim?? “Oh, my Dad died when I was young. He was executed because he touched me inappropriately.” 😖)
Very scary law. 😩
Once a person or gov’t has reached god status the death penalty should only be applied to subjects that such god had created. Otherwise uch killings should not be allowed.
I already thought the criteria for the death penalty was too lax before this year. The criteria for conviction is “beyond a reasonable doubt” by a unanimous 12 person jury. You would think that, once convicted, the criteria for receiving the death penalty would be more stringent. Possibly “beyond a shadow of a doubt” by a unanimous 12 person jury. Nope, the criteria was EXACTLY the same. Now it is even easier. Now the jury only need be 8 of 12 to receive the death penalty. That’s crazy.
As for the sexual battery charge being a capital offense, I thought it was decided decades ago that the punishment didn’t fit the crime. I’m not trying to downplay the seriousness of sexual battery on a child, but in the end the child is still alive. In my opinion, you can damage a child as much or more by using drugs while pregnant, driving under the influence, being an extremely abusive parent, or many other crimes. Again, not saying sexual battery on a child isn’t a horrible crime, I’m just saying I don’t believe it rises to the level of killing someone. IMO, this law was made because of some people’s hate and/or distaste, not because of justice being sought. If someone who committed this type of crime is highly unlikely to re- offend, then there is no public safety gain by killing them. So killing them seems only to satisfy some people’s anger. Pre-meditated murder? I don’t know the statistics to compare.
If you decide to drink and drive and then cause an accident that kills or maims a child, that child is likely far more affected. Should you face the death penalty for that crime? No, because the anger for that crime has not been stoked over the years as it has for sexual abuse.
Just trying to look at this from a neutral perspective.
Sir, have YOU EVER BEEN SEXUALLY ASSAULTED RAPED MOLESTED BY ANYONE? Well, I was as a kid by 3 different people 2 adult men and 1 teen female when I was like 7 and 8 years old. I didn’t know what it was, but it felt weird, and it hurt badly. From this Trauma and others I became a Bipolar, High Anxiety, Manic Depressive person who was diagnosed in 1990. I’m 54 today and it still affects me alot alot. I’m not myself some days and I have to detach from LIFE and be in a peaceful place till this mood swing goes away. I take 2 meds for my Childhood Traumas Wellbutrin and Lexapro. It affected how I viewed adults and made me a closed off person, who didn’t do well with being around crowds or trusting others. I have anxiety so high that I sweat for no reason but because of the meds It’s a whole lot better. BTW I have to take the meds for the rest of my life akin to a person with HIV that someone gave to them based on a Rape, have to take meds for the illness, so that it doesn’t turn into Aids, which kills you faster. Oprah said it best many years ago that when a child is sexually abused, they’ll never be the same and they have mentally killed which is worst then the actual act of being killed. So, sir I say an EYE FOR an EYE because I can tell you if the person who commits these crimes did it once they more than likely did it before but never was caught. The law is well positioned to SLOW down people taking SEXUAL ADVANTAGE of another because they can overpower them. It damaged me in ways I never knew until later in my LIFE hence why I will protect kids from the same with my LIFE, if I ever catch someone sexually abusing a child. I guess it’ll be their last day on earth cus I know me and my ANGER. ijs.
To answer your question, yes. Two males when I was around 5 and by 3 different females between 7 and 12. Oh and another female that didn’t include sex when I was 11.
Do I hate these people?
No.
Do I blame my depression and all my medications on them (i am on the same meds as you)?
No.
My “crime” was attempted L.L. Unsure how that plays…whatever. My wife/children have been FAR more affected by my presence on the registry than I have been by my assailants.
Which brings to the fore the little spoken damage the registry creates on a portion of those it supposedly tries to protect. My child is absolutely affected by the registry. Having to leave sports she loved when people realized my status as a registrant and were intolerant of her because of it.
As to my issues and need for medication, they stem from the pressures, anxieties, and downright attacks that myself and my family bear because the registry is public. I see a psychiatrist every other month, a psychologist every two weeks, and a therapist the two weeks opposite the psychologist.
You say, “eye for an eye.” I say that the two males have children and grand children now. I believe what happened was (at least in their instance) a stupid mistake. Two of females also have great families. The other two females I have no more knowledge of. Should I lash out and screw up multiple families? To what end? I did go through an angry period when I was a young man, but I decided that their actions since showed me that they were not evil. I pushed aside my hurt and moved on. I have contact with the men on a rare occasions, the women I don’t see anymore. I have never told the men that I remember. I don’t see where that helps anyone. The registry is the constant hurt in my family’s life. The registry is what is doing the damage. If it were only me suffering the damage, I could probably find a way to deal with it. But it is harming people I love and I can’t stop it.
Should i “go postal” and attack the system or at least the ones using and abusing it. But, how will that help me out my family? It won’t. It would only bring more pain and emotional suffering on them.
There are no easy answers. But trampling others rights and killing them is no solution. Forgiveness and moving on is what works for me. I wish that it was something that could work for you. We are all different.
The death penalty has always been about revenge. It’s never been a deterrent, nor has it reduced homicide rates. The execution of a man doesn’t bring back the victims of his crimes. It doesn’t restore a person. It sucks that you were assaulted. I’m sorry that you feel that your life has been so negative because of this. I encourage you to get some therapy or join a survivors program.
Thanks for being so transparent. You’re keeping it real.
Let me be real with you too. You become the person you are by the words you speak over your life, but it doesn’t have to be that way. You can be free. Don’t imprison yourself in cell of pain that you have created by focusing intensely on your past trauma. Stop seeing yourself as a victim and realize you can be a victor over your situation. Let Jesus take the sword out of your hand before it devours you, and He will give you REAL peace.
Just speaking as one who has already been set free….
First off, Oprah is a fool who is not an expert in any field other than broadcasting and she has no authority to make such preposterous statements.
Second, I did experience some things that were abusive and should not have happened. I also experienced things that were NOT abusive, but the exact opposite, though they were illegal. That is to say, I did not wait until I was “legal” to have sex. Most people don’t.
If any of the latter things had been disclosed to the wrong people at the time, I would’ve become a “victim on paper” despite not being a victim of anything in any normal sense of the word. I probably would’ve been chucked into therapy and brainwashed into believing I was a victim. I thank whatever gods there be that that never happened.
As for the other person (who was abusive and uninvited), while I am disgusted by his actions I don’t wish he’d spent decades in a cage over it. It wouldn’t have done me an ounce of good.
Just a thought; The states have a history of putting aside the protections of Ex Post Facto when it comes to kicking sand in the face of those forced to register as sex offenders.
Why do I feel like I’m watching the stampeding bulls of prosecutors lathering at the bit on this one?
I saw that on the news today at noon. So, a 3-time murderer doesn’t get the death penalty (Sometimes) and yet someone who did not take a life gets death? I mean those are awful charges, we all agree, but putting someone to death who has not taken a life seems way out of proportion.
Most of us are already serving a life sentence on the registry, so was that not punishment enough? Will that also become retroactive? (giving us the death penalty). I have said all along either the authorities will find a way to kill us or vigilantes will.
Regardless of homicide crimes or sex crimes or all other violent crimes both capital punishment/the death penalty and public sex offender registry are cruel and unusual punishments that need to be abolished. They do not work and they are both barbaric.
I agree 100%. I once heard a former prosecutor say that the death penalty was state sanctioned murder
I Advocate for the Abolition and the End of and the Repealing of:
1.) Florida’s Sex Offender Registry.
2.) Florida’s Career Criminal/Habitual Felony Offender/Repeat Offender Registry.
3.) Florida’s Death Penalty/Capital Punishment.
4.) Florida’s Natural Life Sentencing Without Parole of Violent Offenders. (Natural Life Sentences Should Have A Maximum 25 Year Cap.)
5.) Florida’s Civil Commitment of those deemed to be Sexual Predators.
6.) Florida’s Civil Commitment of those deemed to be Not Guilty by Reason of Insanity.
7.) Florida’s Direct Filing Against Minors to Prosecute and Convict them as Adults.
8.) Florida’s use of Minimum Mandatory Sentencing.
9.) Florida’s use of the Indefinite Closed Management/Indefinite Solitary Confinement of its Incarcerated Persons.
If this death penalty passes then the registry needs to be taken down. A death penalty should be enough deterrent, superseding the registry.
Eventually this death penalty will become retroactive. (Sarcasm) Why not? Everything else becomes retroactive and If they can’t make a death penalty retroactive then why can they make everything else retroactive?
I don’t know the evidence against this man, but I believe there may be a bit more than one or two of us who are victims of someone (possibly ex-wife) weaponizing the law against us to achieve their own ends (whether it is to get custody, some type of revenge, or other reason). We already know that once the allegation is leveled, we are at a serious disadvantage. We are cut off from all contact with the ‘witness’ yet they are given exclusive contact to further manipulate the situation to their agenda. We can be, and often are, convicted on testimony alone with no corroborating evidence. So, now that we find ourselves at all these disadvantages, let’s have the me, more easily enacted, death penalty thrown at us.
Just thinking. In the current state of affairs here in Florida, the whole Markel murder for hire situation would be infinitely cheaper and with less consequences to accuse the guy of sexual battery on a minor. Think about it. Why hire a hit man when the state offers you this easy solution to take someone out.
Only need 8 of 12 to kill someone….f#$%&@* ridiculous.
Ever since the time I first began this journey into activism back in 2004, there have been concerns that we could be rounded up and taken to concentration camps. After all, 2004 wasn’t too long after 9/11, and the PATRIOT Act was instituted and Hallibuton company was tied to Dick Cheney. Halliburton was, in tun, rumored to be tied to a number of facilities, including some in FloriDUH, that could be used to house undesirables in a time of crisis. In 2006, the NYT reported, “Halliburton Subsidiary Gets Contract to Add Temporary Immigration Detention Centers.”
Now here we are in 2023. We have a head-stratchingly popular presidential candidate spewing the kind of rhetoric that makes people think it is 1930s Berlin, and who has stated he would act like a dictator if elected. Then you have the FloriDUH governor who is already acting like a would-be dictator, and he helped push this death penalty bill and spent millions to ship immigrants to from states along the border into other states.
If either of these wicked people get elected president, and they succeed in passing laws to round up the “vermin plaguing our great nation” as one of them put it, then just who are the “vermin” they plan on exterminating?
The Feds execute people for some drug trafficking charges [citation needed]. I’m sure this one won’t be overturned by the courts. I don’t think it can be made retroactive.
This is a horrifying example of gateway punishment, however. Next, they’ll just keep expanding the laws that have the death penalty on the table.
Seem only trying to keep certain crimes away all together but any government official or police etc you hear at first the crime then resignation then nothing yet prostitute are still running around how far is all that
The death penalty is a the worst case for anyone. These Goveror’s seem to take the Bible or Commandments for grant and want it done their way. No wonder this Nation needs help. That’s America for you.
Isn’t the death penalty for those who kill another? Should not the punishment fit the crime. This death penalty for someone on the sex registry is like inducing one’s own vengeance. Government should understand true justice.
And if they are killed using the death penalty, in Florida that person would most likely remain on the offender registry.
If the death penalty is merely punishment for the killing of another, then that is eye for eye, which is Old Testament. We don’t live in Old Testament times, but many want to still use those ways in our New Testament times. You cannot have it both. Our country is sick and needs a good naked butt whooping internally to realize that to stand up and heal itself of where it is going, IMO.
Mr. Dorsett, at about the age of 4, I was molested by a female babysitter. I can only remember it happening one time. I don’t know why but I never said anything to my parents. I was never threatened or anything.
The way it all happened is probably so weird that I couldn’t tell my parents what actually happend. Short story is that I was blind folded. I didn’t realize what actually happened until I was 22 yrs old (I’m 45 now, on SO probation and court ordered to go through sex offender treatment through ITC for LL on a 15 yr old girl. That’s when it all came flooding back to me and it actually hit me what actually happened to me at 4yrs old. Everything started to come together and made sense to me. At the time I was also struggling with combat related PTSD from OIF 1. I didn’t even know I had combat related PTSD. I thought it was normal. How could I not know that PTSD is not normal when I started to experience PTSD at around 4 yrs old? I was put on some very potent meds like your self. I take a high dose of Effexor for depression and anxiety, a descent dose of propanalol for severe anxiety and a high dose of trazadone for insomnia and nightmares, and prazosin for nightmares/night terrors. I can definitely relate to your situation.
I said all that to say this. I do have empathy for you. But I would also like to say that I didn’t start to see any major improvement in my life until I started to let go of the victim mindset and started becoming a victor/survivor. I had to learn how to release all those resentments and anger. I could type a whole book on the steps that got me where I am today. A major portion was the ITC group therapy. I would’ve never known I was struggling with PTSD since 4 yrs old and then never sought help for combat PTSD through the VA. I make my story sound simple but it was not always that way.
Thank you for sharing your story with us.
Interesting. I hope that the victims in this case are not the defendant’s daughters or a close relative as usually is with these cases. Stranger danger cases are very rare. It is not beneficial for the victim to feel that his or her testimony sent their father or close relative to death-row, thus forcing the victim to live with that guilt in their conscious for rest of their life. The state of Florida before the SO registry crazed was more geared in providing psychological help to allow the reunification of these families and for healing to take place. Now is all about punishing the families.
Derek:
Has it really been 19 years? My how time flies when you’re having fun.
You’re right around the corner from your 20th anniversary of activism.
Please keep up the good work. I look forward to your activism for another 20+ years and hope to live to see you celebrating 50 years of activism.
I know a lot of haters don’t like me supporting you but they can all [moderated].
I personally hope he lives a long and prosperous life but I would rather not need his activism. I would rather FAC’s purpose come to an end. Then maybe our efforts can morph into getting people the help they need, both the victim and the perpetrator. Focus our efforts on prevention etc.
We can’t focus on prevention when we’re too busy struggling to survive. Society doesn’t seem to get this simple premise.
There’s always two sides to every story
But one thing we all need to remember is in our childhood.
Things have happened to cause the way we think. It is a mental illness in my correct. But you want to kill somebody on the deaf chair or penalize them. For a cri’m instead of helping them or incarcerated them into a cess pool, think about it.
I replied to your comment but for some reason it went to the main chat thread and not here.
I know exactly what you mean brother.
We all need to keep an eye on this case. This is not the only manner of state sanctioned murder of “sex offenders”. We recently reported on the case of the woman who chose to commit suicide rather than being placed on the sex offender registry for using a vibrator on a beach in Georgia. As we point out in our article at vocalhome.blogspot.com, this woman was actually innocent.
These sex offender registries must come to an end and this madness has to stop.
Hello my name is Thomas I spent 20 year’s in Florida state prison for a case that had no physical Evidence no DNA nothing, the people that know me.
I think I joined this group to have my voice heard. If I can’t quote any Bible versus without my comment being heard then this group is not for me. I didn’t say anything wrong in my comment. Thank you for all you do FAC but this is not me. I wish you all the best. You guys take care and keep fighfing the good fight.
Now Tim P and many of you lets show some respect to FAC as they are sympathetic to this human injustice and positive action is always good. Yes many are struggling in many ways in this registry. Even this death penalty seems a bit much for not just Florida but all states. Maybe we should talk about Ted Bundy…I don’t think so.
Nothing wrong with quoting bible verses or giving some christian understanding to many in this registry that many gotten hood-winked in or were badgered or enticed in many ways. Should we all say in many ways with this registry.. Do the ends justify the means or does one reap what they sow. Should we all go to the Sermon on the Mount or try to navigate thru this to end or put a stop to much of the sex registry for all in much of this injustice.