FORT LAUDERDALE — A man who has been convicted and sentenced to die twice in the 2010 slayings of a Wilton Manors few has been granted a new penalty period demo.
Peter Avsenew, 38, was discovered guilty previous June for the murders of Stephen Adams and Kevin Powell, who had been located slain in their Broward County residence soon after being overwhelmed and shot.
The jury’s choice last summer season was the 2nd time that Avsenew had been located responsible.
In 2017, he was convicted and sentenced to demise but that determination was overturned by the Florida Supreme Court docket, which tossed it based on a technicality involving testimony by his mother that was ruled inadmissible.
Avsenew was once more sentenced to dying in October by the very same jury that convicted him 5 months previously. His law firm then alleged jury misconduct.
In the course of a hearing in November, that jury’s foreman admitted in the course of a hearing that he had watched a documentary about the situation ahead of he deliberated on Avsenew’s punishment.
That bolstered Avsenew’s legal professionals, who argued that the jury foreman did his very own exploration right after the panel handed down its responsible verdict but before the sentencing stage experienced occurred.
A next juror was also questioned by the judge, who reportedly reviewed some created correspondence, parts of which were not presented through the second listening to.
When the juror was questioned by the decide if they had conducted any investigate exterior of the court proceeding, which violated an instruction by the decide, the juror explained, “Certainly, your honor.”
The new penalty phase trial for Avsenew is established for late next yr.
