Terry Lenamon Interview Re Miami's Nubia Barahona Murder Case
This week, Terry Lenamon was interviewed by Ana M. Valdes of the Palm Beach Post for his expert opinion as a death-qualified criminal defense attorney regarding the Jorge and Carmen Barahona murder trial, now that the prosecution has announced that it will be seeking the death penalty.
In an article entitled, "Barahonas to face death penalty on charges of murdering adopted daughter; trial set for July," Lenamon discussed his views on what the focus of the defense team must be at this juncture, when the case has received such national media coverage and where the investigation has already revealed so much since 10-year-old Nubia's body was discovered, decomposing, in a garbage bag on February 14, 2011.
The defense will have hard facts to face regarding the guilt phase, since the child's body was found in the back of Jorge Barahona's pickup truck on IH 95 - among other things revealed during these few short weeks of investigation. As Terry explained to the Palm Beach Post reporter, it is his opinion that the defense focus will be on mitigation: fighting against the death penalty itself.
What could those mitigating factors be? For one thing, mental illness probably will be a mitigating issue. Jorge Barahona is already being considered as mentally unstable by his jailers, wearing special garb to identify him as being mentally ill when he appeared in court for the arraignment.
Trial is scheduled to begin in July 2011 before Miami-Dade Circuit Court Judge Sarah Zabel of the Eleventh Judicial Circuit of Florida, who along with Terry graduated from the Nova University School of Law (Judge Zabel is a 1993 graduate). Judge Zabel has presided as a Florida Circuit Court Judge since 2003.
Expect the defense to ask for that trial date to be extended. Death penalty defense argubably will need much more than a couple of months to get ready for this case.
After reading, re reading web pages about this case, watching and re watching the videos. Jorge is not as guilty as the state claims he is.Numerous timeS i have read that Nubia was very fearful of Carmen but not a word was said about her being afraid of Jorge.Like for instance when Nubia wet her pants in school, the teacher said she would call Carmen, have her bring dry clothes, Nubia went into hysterics, why didnt the teacher say something along the lines of well what about i call your dad instead? see what type of reaction she would have gotten. That would have spoke VOLUMNS. Plus there is also the issue of him being phsycally and especially mentally messed up from the use of toxic chems in his yrs as a pest exterminator. plus other issues throughout his life i'm sure. The court of public opinion has already found them guilty and executed them both. There is no way on God's green earth they will get a fair trial.THANK YOU MEDIA! UGH. Potential jurors will lie their butts off in order to get on those juries and find him guilty.Plus i HIGHLY doubt he will receive fair mental and physical examinations, and if he is found to be totally off his rocker, then what? I believe the state will still put him on trial.Have they released any of the court ordered mental evaluations he was ordered to undergo early on in this case or will that be saved for future court hearings? and what type of language will legal experts that are following this case look for in their opinion on if him being off his rocker or not? and what SHOULD happen if he is shown to be mentally, phsycially unfit? Another issue i have is Carmen, all the children, she will say ANYTHING to keep from going down and i'm sorry to say but i believe ALL of the children have already been tainted, brainwashed and prolly even threatened by law enforcement, DCF,the children being told what to say, how to say it in order to bolster the states case and deflect some of the CRIMINAL heat off of DCF since they have been so neglegent, lazy etc in this entire case. If i may, i would like your professional, legal opinion on the things i stated.
Sincerely,
Darlene
Hi Darlene,
I'm responding to your comment today because Terry is wearing his law hat this week.
I've left a message on his cell phone, asking for his response to your comment - and when he has a chance to answer, then I will relay Terry's answer here in a comment to the post.
Thanks for your patience,
Reba