USA - Florida. Judge Jalal Harb sentenced Benjamin Davis Smiley Jr. to death

Circuit Judge Jalal Harb sentenced Benjamin Davis Smiley Jr. to death for the April 16, 2013 murder of Clifford Drake during a home invasion. A jury voted unanimously for death on April 29, 2017 (see). In an unrelated case, Harb sentenced Smiley to life imprisonment for killing Carmen Riley, 46, who was gunned down during an attempted robbery at her home in March 2013. He was convicted of her first-degree murder following a jury trial in November 2015, and prosecutors initially were seeking the death penalty in that case. They later withdrew the death penalty, leaving life imprisonment as the only option.