Enrico Forti (born February 8, 1959), also known as Chico Forti or Kiko Forti, is an Italian former sportsman and entrepreneur. In 1997, he tried to buy the famous Pikes Hotel on the Mediterranean island of Ibiza. In June 2000, a Miami jury convicted Forti of shooting to death Anthony "Dale" Pike, the son of the founder of Pikes Hotel.
Forti was born in Trento, Italy, where he lived until graduating from high school in 1978. In 1979, Forti started learning the sport of windsurfing on Lake Garda which is the largest lake in Italy. With Robby Naish, he became one of the first in the world to loop (i.e. back flip complete with the windsurf board), at Diamond Head, Hawaii (1984). Forti helped to design and produce the first windsurf jump ramp (funboard). In 1985, he was the first Italian to compete for the windsurfing world cup.
In 1987, a car accident interrupted his windsurfing career. Following a long convalescence, Forti began producing extreme sports films. He wrote for sports magazines, and appeared on various sports television shows. In 1990, he created a production company that broadcast on ESPN and elsewhere, specializing in extreme sports. Also in 1990, Forti appeared in the Telemike television quiz show and won a large sum of money. That enabled him to move in 1992 to the United States. He divorced his Italian wife, and married a model with whom he has three children.
In 1998, Forti was in process of buying the Pikes Hotel in Ibiza from the owner, Anthony Pike. Pike’s son Dale flew to Miami in February 1998 to find out what was going on, after he discovered a fax where his father (who had dementia) apparently signed the hotel and resort over to Forti. The body of Dale Pike, son of Anthony Pike, was found on February 15, 1998, at Virginia Key in Florida. [1] Prosecutors provided cell phone records showing Forti was near the beach where the body was found, plus a small sample of sand they found in Forti’s vehicle, matching the unique sand from Virginia Key. [2] They also provided airport paging records confirming that Forti and Pike had been communicating over the airport intercom system, thus proving that Forti was lying when he denied having picked Dale Pike up at the airport. [3]
Forti was sentenced to life in a Florida prison for killing Dale Pike, and state courts rejected his appeals on the murder conviction. [2] While Forti began serving his sentence of life without parole, the press in his native Italy compared his case to that of Amanda Knox, an American living in Italy who was famously convicted of murder based upon little evidence. [3] Forti claims the Miami Dade Police Department, prosecutor Reid Rubin and judge Victoria Platzer fabricated evidence to punish him for his documentary on Versace's killer Cunanan. [4]
Forti claims lieutenant John Campbell, detective Confesor Gonzalez and detective Katherine Carter fabricated false evidence against him and told him "You're the Italian who accused the Miami police, you will never see your kids again". [5] [6] Forti also claims the Miami Dade police officers ripped the photos of his kids and spat on them. [7]
Florida governor Ron DeSantis officially granted Forti a discount on his sentence as in the published document there is no mention of LWOP life without parole. [8] This sets a new precedent for American law as LWOP criminals will use the same right to be transferred to their home countries and get out of jail with a reduced sentence. [9]
The U.S. Department of Justice and the Italian government requested that Florida transfer Forti to prison in Italy; in December 2020, Florida Governor Ron DeSantis conditionally approved transferring Forti to Italy, over the objections of Miami-Dade prosecutors. The transfer was conditioned upon an assurance from the Italian government that Forti would complete the prison sentence given to him in Florida, plus consent of the victim’s next of kin. [2] In Italy, life without parole is illegal. [10] DeSantis's move led commentators to predict Forti would be released from jail. [2] [11] Forti's transfer to Italy was therefore impeded because Italy's internal jurisdiction would allow Forti to receive a reduced sentence. On March 1, 2024, Italian Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni announced during her mission in the US that an agreement upon Forti's release and return to Italy was reached. [12]
Life imprisonment is any sentence of imprisonment for a crime under which convicted criminals are to remain in prison for the rest of their natural lives. Crimes that warrant life imprisonment are extremely serious and usually violent. Examples of these crimes are murder, torture, terrorism, child abuse resulting in death, rape, espionage, treason, illegal drug trade, human trafficking, severe fraud and financial crimes, aggravated property damage, arson, hate crime, kidnapping, burglary, robbery, theft, piracy, aircraft hijacking, and genocide.
Florida State Prison (FSP), otherwise known as Raiford Prison, is a correctional institution located in unincorporated Bradford County, Florida, with a Starke postal address. It was formerly known as the "Florida State Prison-East Unit" as it was originally part of Florida State Prison near Raiford. The facility, a part of the Florida Department of Corrections, is located on State Road 16 right across the border from Union County. The institution opened in 1961, even though construction was not completed until 1968. With a maximum population of over 1,400 inmates, FSP is one of the largest prisons in the state. FSP houses Florida's one of two male death row cell blocks and the State of Florida execution chamber. Union Correctional Institution also houses male death row inmates while Lowell Annex houses female death row inmates.
Konstantinos "Gus" Boulis was an entrepreneur, land developer, casino operator, and restaurateur of Greek descent, who was murdered in 2001. The murder has been alleged to be in connection with the sale of his company, SunCruz Casinos.
Jack Roland Murphy, known as "Murph the Surf" or "Murf the Surf", was convicted of murder in 1969. He was also involved in the biggest jewel heist in American history, the 1964 burglary of the jewel collection of New York's American Museum of Natural History. Murphy is also known for being a surfing champion, musician, author, and artist.
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On January 27, 2001, Dartmouth College professors Half and Susanne Zantop, aged 62 and 55 respectively, were stabbed to death at their home in Etna, New Hampshire. Originally from Germany, the couple had been teaching at Dartmouth since the 1970s. High school classmates James J. Parker, age 16, and Robert W. Tulloch, age 17, were charged with first-degree murder.
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Daniel Eric Markel was a Canadian-born attorney and a law professor, who wrote various works on retribution in criminal law and sentencing, with a focus on the role of punishment in the criminal justice system. A native of Toronto, he earned a J.D. degree from Harvard University in 2001 and after working as a law clerk to a federal judge and as an associate at a law firm, joined the faculty of Florida State University in 2005.
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Ujjwal Nikam is an Indian special public prosecutor who has worked on prominent murder and terrorism cases. He helped prosecute suspects in the 1993 Bombay bombings, the Gulshan Kumar murder case, the Pramod Mahajan murder case, and the 2008 Mumbai attacks. He was also the special public prosecutor in the 2013 Mumbai gang rape case, 2016 Kopardi rape and murder case. Ujjwal Nikam argued on behalf of the state during the 26/11 Mumbai attack trial.
On November 29, 2009, four police officers of Lakewood, Washington were fatally shot at the Forza Coffee shop, located at 11401 Steele Street #108 South in the Parkland unincorporated area of Pierce County, Washington, near Tacoma. A gunman, later identified as Maurice Clemmons, entered the shop, shot the officers while they worked on laptops, and fled the scene with a single gunshot wound in his torso. After a massive two-day manhunt that spanned several nearby cities, an officer recognized Clemmons near a stalled car in south Seattle. When he refused orders to stop, he was shot and killed by a Seattle Police Department officer.
Scott J. Silverman is an American lawyer and a retired judge who served more than 21 years on Florida's 11th Judicial Circuit. He is currently a mediator and arbitrator with JAMS, the largest private provider of mediation and arbitration services worldwide.
Pikes Hotel, now known as Pikes Ibiza, is a luxury hotel in Ibiza, in the Balearic Islands of Spain. It is located in the countryside, 1.6 miles (2.6 km) to the northeast of the town of Sant Antoni de Portmany, and 10.2 miles (16.4 km) to the northwest of Ibiza Town. A 15th-century stone mansion which was a finca, it was converted into a hotel in 1978 by British-born Australian Anthony Pike.
James Joseph Richardson was an African-American man who was wrongfully convicted and sentenced to death in 1968 for the October 1967 mass murder of his seven children. They died after eating a poisoned breakfast containing the organic phosphate pesticide parathion. At the time of the murders, Richardson was a migrant farm worker in Arcadia, Florida living with his wife Annie Mae Richardson and their children. At a trial in Fort Myers, Florida, the jury found him guilty of murdering the children and sentenced him to death. As a result of the United States Supreme Court's 1972 Furman v. Georgia decision finding the death penalty unconstitutional, his sentence was commuted to life imprisonment. He was then exonerated in 1989 after 21 years, when his case was revisited by appointed Miami-Dade County prosecutor Janet Reno. Following Richardson's exoneration, the babysitter of the Richardson children, Bessie Reece, has been named as the key suspect. Reece died in 1993. In 2016 he began receiving compensation under a state law narrowly tailored to his case.
Odin Leonardo John Lloyd was a semi-professional American football player who was murdered by Aaron Hernandez, a former tight end for the New England Patriots of the National Football League, in North Attleborough, Massachusetts, on June 17, 2013. Lloyd's death made international headlines following Hernandez's association with the investigation as a suspect. Lloyd had been a linebacker for a New England Football League (NEFL) semi-professional football team, the Boston Bandits, since 2007.
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On May 30, 2021, twenty-three people were shot, of whom three were killed, in a mass shooting outside a banquet hall in Miami-Dade County, Florida, United States. Some of the suspects in the shooting are still at large.
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