JACKSONVILLE, Fla. — Family members testified tearfully on Tiffany Cole’s behalf on the second day of her resentencing hearing Thursday, saying she is no longer the person who committed the heinous crime that led to her death sentence.
Cole is one of just three women on Florida’s death row for her role in the 2005 murder of Carol and Reggie Sumner. The Jacksonville couple was kidnapped in July 2005 and buried alive in a pit in south Georgia. Cole was sentenced to death along with two codefendants. A third man was given a 45-year prison sentence after cooperating with prosecutors.
Cole’s death sentence was overturned by the Florida Supreme Court in 2017 because it was not a unanimous verdict. A newly-comprised court reversed that decision, and state law now allows juries to sentence someone to death on a vote of just 8 to 4.
Today, Cole’s defense team began presenting emotional testimony today from her family members who described a turbulent childhood in which Cole was given adult-sized responsibilities at a tender age, and mistreated by her mother.
Her aunt, Nancy Cole, recalled Cole was punished for wetting the bed, forced to do her own laundry in kindergarten, and made to sit on the toilet for hours as punishment. She recalled coming to the house one night and finding Tiffany asleep on the toilet, sucking her thumb.
“I love her. I wish she was not in this situation. I wish things were different,” Cole testified via a video recording.
A cousin, Roesanna Cricks, said they both discovered religious faith in later life, adding she wished they could have had that structure and inspiration when they were young. She said Cole suffered anxiety over a birthmark under her eye, and described the girl’s relationship with her mother as fraught and tense.
Cole ran away repeatedly when she was 15, according to testimony from several family members, and moved out for good at 16, after which she was involved with drugs and exploitative relationships with men.
Cole also wept during testimony, wiping her eyes with her hands and tissues as family members described her upbringing.
Prosecutor Alan Mizrahi challenged that portrait, noting she always had a place to stay, a supportive extended family, and was never physically abused.
Cole’s attorneys have asked if she will be allowed to “allocute” – or speak directly to the jury – to apologize for her actions. However, senior Circuit Judge Michael Wetherby said if she takes the stand, she must submit to cross-examination by prosecutors. That would likely involve extensive questioning about a crime that Wetherby, who presided over the original 2007 trial, said was likely the worst death he could envision.
The resentencing proceeding is expected to last until Wednesday.