Father of slain man ‘stunned' by state attorney's death penalty's announcement

It's been five years since the execution style shooting of Alex Zaldivar, and more than a year since a jury voted 11 to 1 to execute his killer, Bessman Okafor.

Alex’s father, Rafael Zaldivar, said he was stunned by State Attorney Ayala Aramis’ announcement Thursday that she would not pursue the death penalty in any cases.

He doesn’t understand the state attorney’s statement that the death penalty fails to help victim of crime.

As far as he’s concerned, Okafor has been a dead man walking from the moment he shot Alex.

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“I was going to do it myself, so what’s the difference?” said Zaldivar.

Ayala claims she can’t answer whether she’ll pursue the death penalty a second time against society’s worst.

“I haven’t received a mandate from the Supreme Court. I will deal with those on a case-by-case basis because I have to follow the ruled of the Supreme Court,” said Ayala.

Zalidvar said he would like an answer from that on Ayala.

WFTV legal analyst and former chief judge Belvin Perry said the only thing for the Supreme Court to do is send the case back to local courts.

After that, Ayala would have to be willing to fight for death a second time.

“I need to make sure that Bessman Okafor is terminated. And that’s my mission,” Zaldivar said.

He said that he’s been promised by others in Ayala’s office that that would happen, but Zaldivar is skeptical.

“That would be a miscarriage of justice, and then we’re going to have problems,” he said.

Other state attorneys have said they’re not waiting and are already looking at old cases and deciding whether to pursue death based on whether the evidence still exists and what the victim’s family wants.

Cox Media Group