however, may be the most singular aberration in AMPAS history. It’s perhaps the only time that voters were too squeamish to make the correct choice.
That’s not to suggest that Hopper doesn’t do fine work in the film, playing a lost soul who’s given a chance as an assistant high school basketball coach despite his struggles with alcoholism. The role’s sentimentality, however, made it ideal cover for what was then (and still remains, to a large degree, though things are rapidly changing) a very conservative organization, with a membership heavy on retirees. Honoring Hopper for playing
As Circuit Judge Jalal Harb sat at the bench in a Bartow courtroom on Feb. 5, he held the power to usher Cheyanne Jessie into a unique category. Having been convicted of killing her father and her 6-year-old daughter, Jessie faced the possibility of becoming the first woman sentenced to death in Polk County.
A jury had recommended that Jessie be executed for the fatal shooting and stabbing of her daughter, Meredith, in 2015, while suggesting a life sentence for her father’s murder.
Instead, Harb sentenced Jessie to life for both killings. That decision placed her in another rare category: convicted murderers who have had jury recommendations of a death penalty overridden by a judge.