LEXINGTON, S.C. (AP) - The fate of a man convicted of killing his 4-month-old daughter in 2001 remains unknown because a judge never did a routine review of a ruling he made nine years ago.
It could be years before Clinton Robert Northcutt finds out if his second death sentence for killing the girl stands because this week the prosecutor on the case turned it over to the state Attorney General’s Office after contacting the judge.
Northcutt slapped, punched, choked, shook and bit his infant daughter, whose diaper was full and stomach was empty, while his wife was at work in January 2001, prosecutors said.
Northcutt was convicted of murder and sentenced to death in 2003. But the state Supreme Court overturned the death sentence, ruling then-Solicitor Donnie Myers went too far in appealing to emotion in his closing argument by putting a black shroud over the crib and staging a funeral procession.
Myers also said unless jurors returned a death sentence it would be “open season on babies in Lexington County,” according to the Supreme Court ruling.
A second sentencing hearing was held in 2009 before Circuit Judge James Williams, who again sent Northcutt to death row. But defense attorneys asked Williams immediately to review his ruling and he never did, halting all appeals, The State newspaper reported.
Williams has since retired, and a second judge was considering the case this week when Northcutt’s lawyers objected to Solicitor Rick Hubbard calling Williams to testify.
The new circuit judge on the case, Frank Addy, said that didn’t harm Northcutt’s rights, but Hubbard said he decided, in an abundance of caution, to turn the case over to the Attorney General, creating more delays.
“This case, like many other capital cases, has a number of complicated legal issues in it. Because of this history, it could be litigated another 15 or 17 years,” said Bill McGuire, one of the lawyers for Northcutt.
Northcutt’s wife threatened to leave him two days before he killed his daughter. After attacking the infant, Northcutt left his wedding ring on the table and drove away, leaving a message on the couple’s answering machine confessing and apologizing for the killing, according to court records.
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