Twice sentenced to death in son's slaying, mother wins 3rd trial due to prosecutors' comments
Twice sentenced to death, a Florida mother was granted a new trial Thursday by the state supreme court in the 1990 slaying of her toddler son because of inflammatory remarks made by prosecutors.
Ana Maria Cardona, now 54, was also accused of torturing the boy, who weighed just 18 pounds and had multiple injuries when his body was found.
“As we have stated for decades, we expect and require prosecutors, as representatives of the state, to refrain from engaging in inflammatory and abusive arguments, to maintain their objectivity, and to behave in a professional manner,” said the court in its 6-1 ruling (PDF).
Among the remarks the court found objectionable were repeated calls to the jury at closing to provide “justice” for 3-year-old Lazaro Figueroa and describing his mother a “drama expert” who would have fit right into a Latin American soap opera, the Miami Herald reports.
“The prosecutor compared her to a character on a telenovela, which was a racially charged comment that served no purpose other than to ridicule Cardona,” the majority wrote.
Prosecutors in the case either could not be reached for comment by the newspaper or declined to comment.
Cardona’s lover, Olivia Gonzalez Mendoza, pleaded guilty to second-degree murder in the boy’s death and served nearly 20 years before she was freed in 2008.
