NASSAU COUNTY, Fla. – Patrick McDowell will remain on death row.
In an opinion issued in July but released this week, the Florida Supreme Court upheld the death sentence for McDowell, who shot and killed Nassau County Deputy Joshua Moyers during a traffic stop in 2021.
McDowell tried to argue that state law allowing for non-unanimous death penalty recommendations changed after he committed his crime, but the court said that didn’t matter because the new law was in place before McDowell was sentenced.
During his sentencing trial, McDowell, who pleaded guilty to gunning down Moyers, encouraged jurors to recommend the death penalty for him.
“I can’t take away the pain I’ve caused, but I can pay for it. So make me pay for it,” McDowell told the jurors before their near-unanimous vote.
They voted 11 to 1 in April 2024 to recommend a death sentence.
The sentencing hearing included emotional testimony from Moyers’ family, including his fiancée, brother and mother, about what it was like for them when Moyers died at the hospital days after the shooting.
But McDowell’s attorney, Robert Pearce, who presented his case before the Supreme Court of Florida, argued that juries shouldn’t hear such emotional victim impact statements because they unfairly push jurors toward recommending death.
The justices rejected that argument, saying the statements from victims’ families are limited to explaining who the person was and the loss to the community.
Watch McDowell’s full statement in the video below:
Breiana Tole, who pleaded guilty to accessory after the fact for trying to help McDowell escape capture, was previously sentenced to three years in prison, followed by three years of probation.
McDowell pleaded guilty to first-degree murder of a law enforcement officer, injuring a police dog and eight counts of aggravated assault on a law enforcement officer.