Tiffany Moss sentenced to death for hungry daughter-in-law | New

The sentence is a win – not necessarily happy – for Gwinnett County District Attorney, Danny Porter, who has announced his intention to seek the death penalty at an early stage of the case.

"I think the jury made the right decision, otherwise we would not have argued, we would not have asked for the death penalty," he said. "There has never been great joy in any of these cases, we have presented the case that we have had, and the case itself is one of the worst cases that I've ever had. From my experience, I think the jury saw that. "

On the fourth day of the trial, Moss was found guilty of the six counts against her: one count of malicious murder, two counts of murder for felony, two counts of first degree cruelty to children, and one count of murder. hiding the death of another.

Conscious of her lack of vocalization during the trial, in which she did not present any defense and did not attempt to cross-examine any witnesses, Moss sat quietly while the Chief Justice of the Gwinnett County Superior Court, George Hutchinson, read the verdict Monday afternoon.

She continued in the same vein Tuesday morning, remaining expressionless when, shortly after 10 am, the judge read the death sentence recommended by the jury by lethal injection. Hutchinson sentenced shortly after, setting the execution date to seven days between 7 and 14 June at noon.

Under Georgian law, all death sentences are subject to mandatory review by the Supreme Court of Georgia, which means there is "no chance" that Moss will be executed this year. year, said Porter.

While Moss was silent for the five days of the trial, Porter and Jones told the story of an evil mother-in-law who wanted to get rid of her daughter-in-law.

"Emani was nothing (for Moss) she was a nuisance, she was ugly, she was nothing," Jones said in closing closing arguments Monday. "She was a pain, she was disposable, she was a junk."

Through 18 witnesses, Porter and Jones impressed the jury on how horrible the crimes against Emani were, starting with the violence in 2010, when Moss repeatedly hit Emani with a brown leather belt, sometimes side of the loop.

Moss, who pleaded guilty to cruelty to the children at the time, was put to the test, although this apparently had no effect on her. Three and a half years later, she let Emani starve – a slow and painful process, Porter reminded the jury on Monday.

"In the last state-summoned witness, Dr. Michele Stauffenberg (medical examiner) spoke about the characteristics of famine and the famine sequence," Porter said. "The first phase is a loss of well-being, hunger pangs and cravings.The second phase is apathy and fatigue and weight loss, changes in skin pigmentation … a look wild, hypothermia. (Then) extreme lethargy and mental retardation, nutritional edema, immunosuppression, infection, diarrhea and death ".

As if the process of starving was not horrible enough, Porter and Jones insisted throughout the trial, once Emani died, Moss and her husband, Eman Moss, placed the girl in a computer room for a day or two before separating. his body.

When they were ready to get rid of the child, Eman Moss bought a galvanized bin, but as Emani's body had entered a rigor mortis, he and Moss were forced to break it. Eman Moss said Thursday that these noises came from the body. They made "crunches" until they managed to insert the girl into the canister.

From there, they took her to a wooded area, sprayed her with kerosene, and set her on fire. When they realized that his body was not burning the way they wanted, they put out the fire, put the trash in the trunk of the car and went home.

The next day, Eman Moss was driving between his two jobs before finally calling 911, while Moss was taking off with the two younger children of the couple. She finally surrendered to the police.

& # 39; The harm that is in it & # 39;

In asking the jury to pronounce a death sentence against Moss on Monday, Porter said the 35-year-old was the mastermind behind Emani's death.

"Eman has arrived, he has pleaded guilty, he is serving a sentence of life imprisonment without parole … Is Eman a hero?" No, Ms. Jones has told him exactly: he is a He was part of it, but his role was negligence. (Moss) Part was intent, "said Porter. "When you really look at it, do you think that fool Eman really could have crafted that plan?" Do you really think he was the brains of the outfit? No, he was not. He was seduced, in love and under threat, the influence of this defendant to the extent that he was ready to look away from his own child and he was willing to accept this horrible stratagem to get rid of this baby. "

Because of this, Porter accused the jury, they should make a death sentence – not life with the possibility of parole.

"When you think of (life with the possibility of parole), let me ask you the following question: do you think she's going to change? Do you think she's going to rehabilitate herself?" Porter asked. "The answer to this question is no, she has shown too much of herself, she has shown too much of the harm that is in her … there will always be that dark side, waiting to go out. "

Porter made a similar argument against life without parole, stating that many people think that staying in prison without parole would be worse than death.

"But it's you and me, it's not wired that way," Porter says. "She does not have that awareness, and the reason I can say that with such confidence is the nature of the crime." Who in the world designs and executes a plan to starve a child of 10 years? Think about it. "

The only option, Porter said, and finally convinced the jury, was death.

"What the accused really did, is that she woke up every day since September 2013, when they moved into the apartment, so she decided: "I'm going to kill that baby," Porter said. "She woke up the next day and said:" I'm going to take care of my children, I'm going to take care of my home, I'm going to make sure there's food in the house, but I'm going to kill that baby. I will kill Emani today. & # 39; For 60 days … it was cold, calculated, every day you wake up and you go, I'm going to kill her. " "

"Ladies and gentlemen, (Moss) is not going to think about it, she will not suffer because it has not bothered her for 60 days," Porter continued. "She decided that Emani was going to die, she decided how it was going to happen and she did it.That's why I think this case calls for justice, this case calls for a sentence that tell the truth about the punishment I'm not going to say that it's easy, but sometimes doing what's good is not easy. "

First death sentence in five years

The death sentence passed on Moss is the first in five years in the state of Georgia. The last jury death sentence was handed down in March 2014 by Adrian Hargrove, an Augusta who had committed triple murder.

While Porter and Jones applauded the verdict and the jury's award, Brad Gardner and Emily Gilbert, his "counsel," were assigned to Moss by the Capital Defender's state office after the court granted him the right to represent oneself in the capital. trial, were visibly upset by the results.

"I think this ridiculous show speaks for itself," said Gilbert after the closing of the hearing. "(We will call) it will be another complete team plus us, there will probably be lawyers all over the country who want to help us with that."

The family of Emani Moss – the grandmother and aunt of the child, among other family members, attended the trial – did not comment after the pronouncement of the sentence, although she indicated, through Porter's intermediary, that she was satisfied with the verdict and the sentence.

Porter and Jones also said they were satisfied, adding that he was somewhat worried when, on Monday night, the jury sent the note to Hutchinson, informing him that they were in a dead end.

"I thought (Moss) had surpassed us, that she had come up with a brilliant legal strategy that these two big bullies had just hit her for a week and that a juror was simply saying: & # 39; You know that something is wrong with her, I can not give the death penalty, "Porter said. "I spent the night waking up (Monday) thinking about this and I'm sure Lisa did the same." Looking back now, the only rational explanation, and I'm not sure rational explanations work here she was resigned to what was going to happen and she was going to cause someone else to inflict that. "

But Ken Driggs, a longtime defense attorney from the capital who attended Moss's trial as a bystander, said that there might be another explanation: a brain injury, Gilbert and Gardner allege that & # 039; She has been affected, or a mental illness.

"I was struck by the total lack of emotion on his part during the verdict, which seems to me consistent with a mental health problem, brain damage or something else," he said. declared. "I mean, it will clearly not be executed on June 7, this case will last a very long time."

Calls for death sentences often take decades, and although Moss continues to represent herself and not appeal, the mandatory revisions of the Georgian Supreme Court ensure that it will take some time before it is executed.

The High Court can either confirm the sentence, or set it aside and remit the case for it to be sentenced to a penalty or some other action, and it's almost never a quick process .