JACKSONVILLE, Fla. — One man tasked with saving another who doesn’t want to live.
First Coast News sat down Friday with the attorney of a confessed killer following an unexpected twist in his death penalty case.
In a decision that shocked even his own legal team, Patrick McDowell told jurors to make him pay for his crime, the murder of Nassau County Sheriff's deputy Joshua Moyers, in 2021. McDowell's attorney, Public Defender Alan Chipperfield, said when this happened, he wasn't thinking about the years of work he put into the case, but of his client's life.
“It was a surprise and an attempt to get the jury to give him the penalty that he thinks he deserves, which is death," Chipperfield said. "Which was exactly the opposite of our goal.”
The jury gave McDowell what he wanted; only one juror voted for a life sentence instead of the death penalty.
“Morally, spiritually, inside of him, he saw it as his best interest to say what he needed to say so that people would understand the truth and understand how sorry he was for what he had done,” Chipperfield said.
Following the verdict Thursday, Nassau County Sheriff Bill Leeper made the following statement.
"When this death sentence is carried out, I’ll be sitting on the front row with a box of popcorn, eagerly waiting for him to take his last breath on earth," Leeper said. "And when that happens it will be a great day."
Chipperfield calls these statements “inappropriate.”
“It's not a joyous occasion, should never be for anybody, when a human life is being taken,” Chipperfield said.
The Nassau County sheriff's executive assistant says the sheriff's office has no statement in return.
McDowell's next hearing is set for Thursday. Chipperfield said McDowell’s family was shaken up by his statement to the jury and didn’t like “what he did to his case,” but they still love him.
Last year, Florida law changed to need only eight of 12 jurors to recommend death, the lowest threshold in the country, instead of a unanimous jury. Chipperfield believes if the former law were still in place, McDowell would not have received a death recommendation.