As Circuit Judge Jalal Harb sat at the bench in a Bartow courtroom on Feb. 5, he held the power to usher Cheyanne Jessie into a unique category. Having been convicted of killing her father and her 6-year-old daughter, Jessie faced the possibility of becoming the first woman sentenced to death in Polk County.
A jury had recommended that Jessie be executed for the fatal shooting and stabbing of her daughter, Meredith, in 2015, while suggesting a life sentence for her father’s murder.
Instead, Harb sentenced Jessie to life for both killings. That decision placed her in another rare category: convicted murderers who have had jury recommendations of a death penalty overridden by a judge.