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Judd says wait should be over for execution in deputy's murder

Staff file photo by CLIFF MCBRIDE

Sheriff Grady Judd has said Theron Burnham, the slain deputy, was his best friend.

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By RAY REYES | The Tampa Tribune

Published: October 2, 2009

Updated: 10/02/2009 05:44 pm

Related Links

• Database: Who's on death row?
• GoPetition Web Site

Paul Beasley Johnson

BARTOW - Sentenced to die for the killings of three men including a Polk County sheriff's deputy, Paul Beasley Johnson requested new trials and filed multiple motions delaying his execution for 28 years.

Justice, Sheriff Grady Judd said, has waited long enough.

In a move that legal professionals have called unusual, odd and unheard of, the sheriff's office launched an online petition Wednesday requesting Gov. Charlie Crist sign Johnson's death warrant.

By this afternoon, the posting on GoPetition.com had more than 350 signatures.

"I feel everyone deserves a fair trial or an appeal," Judd said. "Or two appeals. Or three appeals. But how can this go on for 28 years? This is absolutely incredible. We're asking our constituents to go petition or write a letter and join us and say, 'Time out. When are we going to get justice?"

Attorneys are currently reviewing cases, including Johnson's, for Crist's consideration, governor's spokeswoman Erin Isaac said.

"The governor certainly appreciates the sheriff's desire for justice to be served," Isaac said. "This was a horrific case."

On Jan. 9, 1981, deputy Theron Burnham was investigating reports of a kidnapping when he was shot to death with his own gun after he confronted Johnson on a desolate road near Lakeland Municipal Airport, prosecutors say.

Burnham, 27, was the third person slain that night, Judd said. Taxi driver William Evans, 55, was robbed and his cab was set on fire in a Winter Haven citrus grove. Then Darrell Ray Beasley, 21, was robbed and killed after he gave the killer a ride from a Lakeland restaurant.

Johnson was arrested a day later after a massive manhunt.

Tiffani Kase, who was a student at Winter Haven High School at the time of the killings, said reading the online petition triggered memories of the fear that gripped the community nearly three decades ago.

"I just remember being so horrified," Kase said. "It was big news. It was a big deal."

Kase, 45, an attorney in Montoursville, Pa., said she signed the petition because she is a proponent of the death penalty.

"I thought it was no problem to jump on that bandwagon," she said.

Johnson's attorney, Terri Backhus of Tampa, said the posting of the online petition was surprising.

"I have not heard of anyone doing something like this before," Backhus said. "It's kind of odd."

Backhus said her client has an appeal pending in the Florida Supreme Court, and during this process, the governor's office cannot sign death warrants.

Other than saying attorneys are reviewing death row cases, the governor's office declined comment.

Chip Thullbery, the spokesman for the State Attorney's Office in Polk County, said he was not aware of the sheriff's online petition until today. Using the Internet is a new twist, but "it's not unusual for law enforcement to ask the governor for action to be taken" in death row cases that have stalled for years, Thullbery said.

"The sheriff has the right to express his opinion and ask for the public's response," Thullbery said.

Stetson University College of Law professor Robert Batey called the sheriff's office online petition unusual, but said the agency was "well within its rights to organize this campaign."

"It doesn't appear unseemly," Batey said. "It smacks a bit of bloodthirstiness."

Judd said it was his department's obligation to the community to post the online petition. A print version of the petition and letter-writing campaign to Crist were spearheaded by one of Judd's lieutenants.

"It's not only within our scope, I think it's certainly a responsibility of our department," Judd said. "As a community, we're interested in equality, fairness and justice. And there won't be justice until this man is held accountable for the three people he murdered that night."

Judd said he held the rank of lieutenant the night deputy Burnham was gunned down. The two were close friends, having attended Lakeland High School together. Both also attended Rollins College and sat beside each other during classes at the police academy, Judd said.

"He would've been a leader in the law enforcement world today had he been given an opportunity," Judd said of Burnham.

Johnson, now 60, was tried and convicted twice on three counts of first degree murder, two counts of attempted first degree murder and two counts of robbery, and one count each of kidnapping and arson, records show. He was given the death sentence after both trials in 1981 and 1988.

Johnson filed his latest appeal on June 27, 2008, after more than a dozen other appeals had been denied over a span of 15 years, state records show.

"The two trials and the large number of appeals have contributed to the delay" of his execution, according to records from the state commission of capital cases.

There are currently 386 inmates on death row, according to the Florida Department of Corrections.

The average number of years an inmate stays on death row before being executed is 12 and a half years, the corrections department said.

News Channel 8 photographer Wally Patanow contributed to this report. Reporter Ray Reyes can be reached at (813) 259-7920.

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