Feb. 7
FLORIDA:
Jury To Begin Deliberating Shaken Baby Death Penalty Case
Closing arguments were held Monday in the trial of a Brevard County man
accused of shaking a baby to death. Jurors won't start deliberating
Sherman Dorsey's death penalty case until Tuesday.
Attorneys for both sides spent the entire day arguing their case. But
rather than let the jury start deliberations Monday, the judge told the
jury to come back Tuesday and make their decision.
For the last time, prosecutors described to the jury how the mother of
Samari Player found her baby after leaving the little girl to go get her
hair done, placing all blame on her then boyfriend, Sherman Dorsey.
Prosecutors say, while Dorsey was babysitting, he shook her so violently
her brain was left swollen and the force of something being shoved in her
mouth tore the underside of her tongue.
But Dorsey's attorneys contend prosecutors never proved the girl was
injured by Dorsey, that the injuries could have been caused by someone
else before Dorsey started babysitting and just weren't discovered until
afterward.
Defense attorneys also claim the doctors jumped the gun when they said
Player died from shaken baby syndrome.
The child, defense attorney's claim, was Dorsey's favorite, and he treated
her as his own and should not be convicted of 1st-degree murder and face
the death penalty if there is no witness and no proof she was hurt while
under his care.
Since it is a death penalty case, if the jury was sent to deliberate
Monday they would have to either stay late into the night or be
sequestered in a hotel. Instead of doing that, the judge and attorneys
agreed to let the jury go home and begin deliberations first thing Tuesday
morning.
(source: WFTV News)
