Dakota White defense team to argue against life sentence

The case against convicted murderer Dakota White will go before the Supreme Court of Georgia next month.

Wednesday, Nov. 6, White’s defense attorneys and Houston County Superior Court Attorneys will have a hearing/oral argument regarding White’s sentence.

According to Houston County Assistant District Attorney Greg Winter, White’s attorneys are appealing his previous sentence of life without parole, for the 2016 murder of Sam Poss, handed down by Chief Superior Court Judge Edward D. Lukemire.

Winters says White’s attorneys will argue that due to White being a minor at the time of the murder, his sentence was therefore unconstitutional. The second argument is that he was illegally arrested.

A now 20-year-old White was 17 when he lured his former classmate, 18-year-old Sam Poss, into his grandparent’s Perry home and murdered him, as part of a suicide pact, with the help of 18-year-old Brandon Warren.

White’s attorneys, according to Winters, are citing a United States Supreme Court case law that states anyone under the age of 18 cannot receive a life sentence without a hearing.

Winters says the Houston County District Attorney’s Office will argue that White did receive a hearing prior to his life sentence and that Judge Lukemire was righteous in his decree. Winters also stated that White’s defense team maintains that White’s initial arrest in October 2016 was unlawful because a warrant was not presented at the time.

The opinion of the Houston County Superior Court, according to Winters, is that law enforcement handled the situation correctly and that judge Lukemire made the just decision in the trial court.

“The judge ruled in the trial, and in motions prior to trial, that law enforcement did everything correctly, and it’s our opinion, and our argument up at the Supreme Court, that they were correct in what they did. Court judge Lukemire ruled correctly in his decision,” Said Winters.

Nicole Poss, Sam Poss’ mother, released statement via Facebook addressing the news of White’s appeal, stating, “he deserves to be in prison for life instead of having a chance to live among us ever again.” Nicole also shared her victim impact statement from White’s original sentencing.

In the Statement, Nicole outlines how her life changed after her son’s murder. She mentions suffering from agoraphobic like symptoms and panic attacks. She also recalls the day White showed up at her house to help search for Sam before the body was found. “Dakota lied over and over again,” the statement read. “Dakota destroyed Sam’s life with his bare hands. Dakota also destroyed his own family…Dakota succeeded in destroying everything and everyone except Dakota, judge. He does not have respect for his own life, so he took my son’s life…I ask the court to put Dakota White in Prison with no possibility of parole for the violent murder of my son, Samuel Christian Poss.”