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Robin Lee ARCHER
Classification: Murderer
Characteristics:
Robbery
Number of victims: 1
Date of murder:
January 26, 1991
Date of birth:
October 12, 1964
Victim profile: Billy
Coker (auto
parts store clerk)
Method of murder:
Shooting
Location: Escambia
County, Florida, USA
Status:
Sentenced to death on September 20, 1991
Florida
Supreme Court
Robin Lee Archer, Appellant,
vs. State of Florida, Appellee. 613 So. 2d 446
First Judicial
Circuit, Escambia County, Case #91-0606
Sentencing
Judge: The Honorable Lacey Collier
Resentencing
Judge: The Honorable T. Michael Jones
Trial Attorney:
E. Brian Lang, Esq. – Private
Attorney,
Retrial: Spiro Kypreos, Esq. – Private
Attorney, Direct
Appeal: David A. Davis – Assistant Public Defender
Attorney, Direct
Appeal, Resentencing: David A. Davis – Assistant Public Defender
Attorney,
Collateral Appeals: Michael Reiter – Registry
Date of
Offense: 01/26/91
Date of
Sentence: 09/20/91
Date of
Resentence: 01/19/94
Circumstances of
Offense:
On January 26,
1991, Robin Lee Archer, through the acts of his cousin and three
accomplices, murdered the victim, Billy Coker. The victim was shot to
death.
Archer was fired
from his job at an auto parts store in March 1990. The following
January, he convinced his 17-year-old cousin, James Patrick Bonifay, to
kill the clerk he blamed for his having been fired.
Bonifay testified
that Archer told him to rob the store to conceal the motive for the
killing and also told him the location of the store’s cash box and
emergency exit. Bonifay asked a friend to borrow a gun. Bonifay was
not home when his friend brought the gun, so he gave it to Archer who,
in turn, gave it to Bonifay.
Bonifay talked
two friends into helping him, and the trio went to the parts store on
the night of January 25, 1990. Bonifay, however, could not go through
with the plan, and they left. The following morning Archer chastised
Bonifay for not killing the clerk and the three went back to the store
that night.
Bonifay and Clifford Barth each shot the clerk from outside
the store. They then crawled into the store through the parts window.
After opening the cash boxes, Bonifay shot the clerk twice in the head
execution-style as he lay on the floor begging for his life. Archer
later refused to pay Bonifay because he had killed the wrong clerk.
Bonifay
confessed to several people, one of who informed the authorities.
Archer, Bonifay and Bonifay’s two friends were arrested. The defendants
were tried separately. Archer’s jury convicted him of First-Degree
Murder. He was sentenced to death.
Codefendant
Information:
James Patrick
Bonifay, in a separate trial, also was convicted of First-Degree Murder
and sentenced to death in 1991. His appeals history resembles
Archer’s. The Florida Supreme Court in 1993 affirmed his conviction,
but remanded the sentence. A new jury resentenced Bonifay to death in
1994. The Supreme Court affirmed the sentence in 1996.
Clifford Barth
in 1991 received a life sentence for his role in the murder.
Trial Summary:
07/18/91 Defendant found guilty of one count of Felony Murder,
one count of Robbery and one count of Grand Theft as charged in the
indictment.
07/19/91 Upon advisory sentencing, the trial jury recommended
the death penalty by a 7 to 5 vote.
09/20/91 Defendant was sentenced to death.
Resentencing
Summary:
10/27/93 New jury recommended the death penalty by a 7 to 5
vote.
01/19/94 Defendant was resentenced to death.
Case
Information:
Archer filed a
direct appeal with the Florida Supreme Court in 1991. The defendant
argued that the jury should not have been instructed on the heinous,
atrocious or cruel aggravator because that aggravator did not apply to
him. The Supreme Court agreed and in 1993 affirmed the murder
conviction, but remanded the sentence. The defendant’s request for a
rehearing was denied that same year.
The trial court
resentenced Archer to death in 1994. The Supreme Court affirmed the
decision in 1996, and denied a request for a rehearing that same year.
The defendant
then petitioned the United States Supreme Court for a Petition for Writ
of Certiorari in 1996, which the court denied in the same year.
The defendant
filed a shell 3.850 Motion in the State Circuit Court in 1997 and an
amended motion in March 2000. The motion was denied 02/25/04.
Archer filed an
appeal in the Florida Supreme Court on 03/19/04, citing the following
issues: newly discovered evidence, as well as Giglio and Brady
claims. On 06/29/06, the FSC affirmed the denial of the motion.
Archer filed a
Petition for Writ of Habeas Corpus with the Florida Supreme Court on
04/22/05, citing
ineffective assistance of counsel claims. On 06/29/06, the FSC
denied the petition.
