Jeana (DP)
Former Member
MONTPELIER, Vt. (AP) Donald Fell started drinking in the third grade and began using cocaine, marijuana and LSD soon after, according to court documents. He was abandoned by his father at 10 and by his mother three years later.
A doctor who evaluated him called Fell "the most drug-abusing and chronically intoxicated individual" he had ever evaluated.
Defense lawyers hope that Fell's background of neglect and abuse will help persuade jurors to spare Fell's life if they find him guilty of murder. Opening statements were scheduled to begin Monday in federal court in Burlington.
It is the first time in more than 40 years that a defendant in Vermont has faced the death penalty. Vermont has no death penalty, but Fell was charged under a federal capital murder law because the victim was abducted in Vermont and then murdered in New York.
http://www.courttv.com/trials/news/0605/20_vermont_ap.html
A doctor who evaluated him called Fell "the most drug-abusing and chronically intoxicated individual" he had ever evaluated.
Defense lawyers hope that Fell's background of neglect and abuse will help persuade jurors to spare Fell's life if they find him guilty of murder. Opening statements were scheduled to begin Monday in federal court in Burlington.
It is the first time in more than 40 years that a defendant in Vermont has faced the death penalty. Vermont has no death penalty, but Fell was charged under a federal capital murder law because the victim was abducted in Vermont and then murdered in New York.
http://www.courttv.com/trials/news/0605/20_vermont_ap.html