Melissa Ross
Death penalty cases across Florida have been thrown into a state of uncertainty after last week’s Supreme Court ruling finding the state’s sentencing system for capital cases unconstitutional.
That’s simply more heartache for Jacksonville’s Farah family, who say they simply want closure after the 2013 slaying of Shelby Farah.
“I never believed in the death penalty,” says Shelby’s mother Darlene Farah.
“Two wrongs don’t make a right. Killing somebody is not bringing the victim back,” she told WJCT.
“I have two other children. And as we are waiting for this to go to trial, it’s been such a struggle for all of us going through the court proceedings. I feel like I didn’t just lose one child, I lost all three of them.”
Farah is concerned the high court decision will create further delays in her daughter’s case. The man accused of Shelby Farah’s killing, James Xavier Rhodes, has yet to stand trial.
The 23-year-old Rhodes is accused of killing Shelby during a robbery of a Metro PCS store she managed. His trial is set for May 2.
Two years ago, Rhodes offered to plead guilty to the murder in exchange for life in prison without possibility of parole. Darlene Farah urged State Attorney Angela Corey to take the plea. However, Corey says she’ll pursue the death penalty for Rhodes.
So Farah is constructing a petition to ask Corey to take the plea.
At the same time, the Farah family’s story will be told in the upcoming feature documentary film “The Penalty,” scheduled for release later this year.
Close to 400 people sit on Florida’s death row, and a high percentage of them come from the 4th Judicial Circuit, made up of Duval, Clay and Nassau counties. Duval County ranks eighth in the country for administering death sentences.
“What you see in the Hurst v. Florida decision is a microcosm of what you see with the death penalty over the last decade,” said Ben Jones, campaign strategist for Equal Justice USA, a criminal justice reform organization. “There is so much uncertainty and delay that characterizes the system. Across the country it takes years, often decades for an execution to be carried out. And often the conviction gets overturned. And often family members of those killed, like the Farahs, actually end up speaking out against the death penalty.”
Thirty-one states still have the death penalty, including Florida, while 19 have abolished the practice and a few have imposed moratoriums.
