Death-Row Inmate Martin Grossman Appeals to Florida Governor for Stay of Execution

Declaring that a Jewish inmate who has languished on death row for more than a quarter of a century should not be executed next week, some 200 Jewish and non-Jewish organizations are petitioning Florida Gov. Charlie Crist to intervene and spare his life.

In the petition, the organizations which include Amnesty International, the National Council of Young Israel, Agudath Israel of America, the Orthodox Union, the Rabbinical Alliance of America, Floridians for Alternatives to the Death Penalty, and the Aleph Institute, a Chabad-Lubavitch program that serves Jewish prisoners in the United States argue that Martin Grossman (pictured), 45, had no intent to kill and was not able to fully comprehend the nature of his crime when he shot Florida Wildlife Officer Margaret Park on Dec. 13, 1984.

At the time, the organizations state, Grossman was a 19-year-old drug-addicted drop-out with borderline intelligence who panicked when Park came upon him and a friend who were going to fire a found handgun in an isolated nature reserve.

"He may have killed, but he is not a killer," reads a letter submitted by several of the organizations. "He acted under the influence of drugs and alcohol."

"A psychiatrist who evaluated him concluded, from his psychological and medical condition, that he could not have formed the intent to kill," declares a press release from the Aleph Institute. Grossmans accomplice, Thanye Taylor, "served less than 3 years in prison, while Martin was sentenced to death."

Grossman's "childhood history," says a petition signed by almost 12,000 people, "is marked by the fact that as a young child, Martin had [a] feeling of impotence imposed upon his undeveloped psyche, much too young, because he was unable to relieve the suffering of his father, a veteran whom Martin only knew as an ailing and needy invalid."

Among other contentions, Grossmans attorneys and those supporting his plea to the governor argue that allegations of prosecutorial misconduct and an insufficient effort by Grossman's past defense team as well as several mitigating circumstances ignored by the court during sentencing compel Crist to grant a 60-day stay in order for the attorneys to prepare a comprehensive clemency application.

The Florida Supreme Court this week upheld the sentence.

Rabbi Menachem Katz, who has visited Grossman regularly over the past 15 years, says that he is different from the youth who robbed Park's life.

"Martin has shown deep and profound remorse over the years," says Katz, "and is no longer the same wild, reckless person he was 26 years ago."

Source: Associated Press, Feb. 10, 2010

Click here to sign an online petition asking Gov. Crist to grant Martin Grossman a 60 day stay which would enable for a comprehensive clemency application to be presented to the court.