Jewish leaders urge stay of execution for 1984 murder
Last Modified: Monday, February 15, 2010 at 3:30 p.m.
Martin Grossman was 19 years old when he shot to death wildlife officer Margaret "Peggy" Park in Pinellas County in December 1984. More than 110 rabbis have signed a letter to Gov. Charlie Crist asking for a 60-day stay of execution for a clemency hearing, arguing that Grossman did not premeditate the crime and has been a a model prisoner.
"This should not have been a death penalty case," said Rabbi Menachem Katz, who has been Grossman's spiritual adviser in prison.
Park was 26, just three years out of college, when she found Grossman with a stolen handgun in the woods. Grossman, who was on probation, pleaded with her to let him go because he would be returned to prison. After she refused, the much larger Grossman beat her with her flashlight before taking her gun and shooting her in the back of the head.
Park's mother, also named Margaret, said the long delay between Grossman's conviction and possible execution has been difficult. The 79-year-old Ohio resident said she'll be a witness at the execution in part as a promise to her husband, who died in 2000.
"I promised my husband I would stay with this until the end," she said.
Grossman, now 45, is set to be executed by lethal injection at 6 p.m. at Florida State Prison near Starke. He would be the 69th prisoner executed since the state reinstated the death penalty in 1976 and the first in 2010. Crist signed Grossman's death warrant Jan. 12.
One death penalty opponent took issue with the timing of warrant, which came a day after a U.S. Senate straw poll in Pinellas County. Republicans in the poll favored Crist's primary opponent, former Florida House Speaker Marco Rubio, in a vote seen as significant because it came in the governor's home base.
"The decision to kill Martin Grossman was 100 percent political," said Mark Elliott of of Floridians for Alternatives to the Death Penalty.
Crist spokesman Sterling Ivey said in an e-mail that the governor’s legal team reviews criteria that include the cruelty of the crime, amount of time that the inmate has spent on death row and issues raised in appeals process before signing a death warrant.
"Signing a death warrant is a responsibility that Governor Crist takes very seriously and the warrant for Martin Grossman was signed after a careful review of the above stated criteria," he wrote.
Park said justice has been delayed long enough. The average inmate stays on Death Row for 12.5 years prior to execution, according to the Florida Department of Corrections. Park said the even longer wait for Grossman's execution has meant repeatedly reliving the pain.
"It's just like a big wave coming over you, that smacks you back down again," she said.
Her daughter had graduated from Ohio State University with a natural resources degree before moving to Florida for the job. She didn't want to sit at a desk, according to her mother, and embraced the idea of working with wildlife.
"She was well known in the community and was more than well liked -- she was beloved," said Florida Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commission spokesman Gary Morse, who worked with Park in hunter education courses.
Grossman lived in Pasco County at the time of the murder but had driven to Pinellas County, a parole violation in itself, with a 17-year-old companion As Park was using her radio to call the sheriff's office to report him, Grossman took her flashlight and hit her repeatedly on the head and shoulders, according to court records.
She managed to draw her handgun and fire a wild shot before Grossman -- who was 100 pounds heavier and a foot taller -- wrestled away the gun and shot her. Park's mother said Grossman made a choice to kill her and should have to pay the consequences.
"There is a point in time when you have to take responsibility for your actions and he did not," she said.
The rabbis' letter contends that Grossman was "drug-addicted, intellectually slow and emotionally immature youth" with an IQ of 77 and was high at the time of crime. He has since shown remorse and should be given life in prison without parole, they argued in the letter.
"If you look at all the people executed in the country in the last two years, you will not find a case resembling this case," said Katz, who directs prison outreach for the Surfside-based Aleph Institute.
The case is also different than most in attracting the attention of Jewish leaders. The Aleph Institute set up an online petition that has received more than 24,000 signatures. Holocaust survivor and human rights activist Elie Wiesel sent a letter to Crist asking him to spare Grossman's life.
Park said she'll be attending the execution with her son and daughter. She said Grossman has never apoligized to her for the killing, but she's not focused on whether he will do so before the execution.
"I do not feel any anger or hatred toward the man after this many years," she said. "I am not going to let him take away my peace of mind."
Contact Nathan Crabbe at 338-3176 or nathan.crabbe@gvillesun.com.
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