Updated info on the death of John Couey
Ok, so I admit it. I liked the caption from the picture above (taken from the Fox News page). It’s appropriate, cuz that’s sure where John Couey is headed.
I haven’t been able to find a great deal more info than I had earlier. I’ve read that he died from cancer (that was on Wikipedia…the info is only as good if the person who’s entering it knows what they’re talking about…but Couey was only 51, which is young to just drop dead…so it’s probably accurate). A commenter on the previous post said she heard that it was complications from anal cancer….that would sort of be poetic justice.
No matter what caused John Couey’s death, he didn’t suffer enough. He got off easy, when you think of what he did to that poor little girl. But I guess even the death penalty would not have been enough. Nothing would be.
Rest in peace, Jessica. The world has one less evil person in it now.
Jessica Lunsford’s Killer Dies of Natural Causes
A convicted sex offender awaiting execution for kidnapping, raping and burying 9-year-old Jessica Lunsford alive in 2005, died of natural causes Wednesday in Florida.
John Evander Couey, 51, had been ill for some time and died in a Jacksonville hospital where he had been since Aug. 12, said Department of Corrections spokeswoman Gretl Plessinger.
Plessinger declined to provide any specifics, citing a federal law protecting the privacy of hospital patients.
“It was not a surprise,” she said.
Jessica’s grandmother, Ruth Lunsford, 77, said in a telephone interview with the Associated Press
“He murdered my granddaughter. He didn’t show any mercy to my granddaughter,” she said. “God took control of it. He took him out of this world. … I’m not crying, honey. If my legs and feet would hold up, I’d go out and shout all over Citrus County.”
The crime prompted many states to pass laws named for Jessica that impose restrictions on sex offenders, including tougher penalties and registration requirements. Florida’s version also bans them and others convicted of serious crimes from school grounds.
Couey died just over a month before the Florida Supreme Court was scheduled to hear his automatic appeal. He had an IQ of 78, slightly above the level generally considered mentally disabled, but the judge rejected an argument by his lawyer that he couldn’t legally be executed.
Couey spent much of his 2007 trial, which was moved to Miami because of publicity about the case, drawing in coloring books. He looked straight ahead as Circuit Judge Ric Howard told him he should be executed.
Jessica’s father, Mark Lunsford, teared up then as he listened to the judge read a detailed history of the case. Outside court, he had a message for Couey: “Skip all these appeals. Take your punishment. Stand up and be a man.”
Couey took Jessica from her bedroom to his nearby trailer in February 2005, triggering a massive search. The third-grader’s body was found about three weeks later in a grave in Couey’s yard, only about 150 yards from her home.
Couey’s confession was thrown out as evidence because he did not have a lawyer present. Jail guards and investigators testified he repeatedly admitted details of the slaying but said he hadn’t meant to kill the girl.
Prosecutors also introduced overwhelming physical evidence, including fingerprints and DNA.
Jessica’s body was found wrapped in two garbage bags under a foot of dirt.
Couey previously had been convicted of exposing himself to a 5-year-old girl in 1991. His criminal record also included 24 burglary arrests and carrying a concealed weapon.
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