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Faye Copeland was a 69 year old woman with numerous grandchildren and great-grandchildren
when she was charged as an accomplice to five murder committed by her
husband. In spite of the fact that no evidence linked her to any act of violence, she was convicted of five counts of first-degree murder and was sentenced to death on four of those counts. There is little dispute that the murders were committed by her husband, Ray Copeland, and that here is no competent evidence placing Mrs. Copeland anywhere near the scene of any homicide at or near the time they occurred. Mrs. Copeland was convicted solely upon purely circumstantial evidence coupled with false assumptions of knowledge and assent in her husband's conduct. Mrs. Copeland's convictions and sentence were secured through repeated violations of her constitutional rights. The only evidence that her attorney attempted to present on her behalf to prove her innocence was the testimony of a psychologist that Mrs. Copeland suffers from Battered Woman Syndrome, supported only by testimony that her husband was verbally abusive. The court refused to permit trial counsel to present that testimony to the jury, in violation of the due process clause of the Fourteenth Amendment. Although the trial court would have permitted evidence Mrs. Copeland was beaten by her husband, trial counsel was not prepared to present such evidence, although there was ample evidence available. Police reports established that neighbors saw Ray Copeland beat Faye with a board, and other neighbors, friends, relatives and co-workers saw episodes of abuse or the injuries that Faye suffered as a result. Mrs. Copeland's trial was presided over by a partisan judge who stepped far outside his role of neutral arbiter and affirmatively prohibited the elected prosecutor from waiving the death penalty in this case. Repeated misconduct of the trial prosecutors-from which Mrs. Copeland's ill-prepared lawyer sought no protection or relief-infected the entire proceedings with incompetent, inflammatory and prejudicial testimony and remarks in the presence and hearing of the jury. Mrs. Copeland recently was granted relief from her sentence of death by the federal courts and she was resentenced to life without parole. See Copeland v. Washington, 232 F.3d 969 (8th Cir. 2000). In September of 2002, Governor Holden authorized a medical parole for Faye, fulfilling her one wish that she not die in prison. On December 28, 2003, Faye Della Copeland passed away at age 82 in a Chillicothe, Missouri nursing home. She left behind five children, seventeen grandchildren, and (at last count) twenty-five great-grandchildren.
REST IN PEACE |
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