May 14, 2015 3 min read

Deputy Public Defender Brian Gorman repeatedly asked the Washington County jury that sat before him if Jordan Clemons, who was convicted of brutally murdering Karissa Kunco in January 2012, truly deserves the death penalty.

“Death row is reserved for the worst of the worst, the worst people among first-degree murders,” Gorman said in his closing argument today. “Is Jordan Clemons the worst of the worst?”

Kunco’s family and friends seemed to think so, as a chorus of “yes” could be heard from their portion of the courtroom. But Clemons’ fate, life in prison without the possibility of parole or death, isn’t up them. It’s up to 12 men and women who spent the last eight days listening to gruesome, and often sad, testimony and evidence. On Monday, they found him guilty of first-degree murder after a little more than a hour of deliberations.

The attorneys completed their arguments in the penalty phase of the case Thursday morning, and the jury is now deliberating.

Although two doctors, both experts in their fields of neuropsychology, psychology and psychiatry, confirmed that Clemons, formerly of Canonsburg, suffered from a brain injury, limited cognitive function, drug and alcohol problems, post-traumatic stress disorder and depression, and testified that they could not determined if these issues contributed to Kunco’s murder, Gorman disagreed.

“I respectively take issue with that because everything we do plays a part in every important decision we make,” he said.

Clemons’ attorneys argued head injuries he suffered both on and off the football field, plus years of drug abuse, diminished his mental capacity.

Gorman implored the jury to sentence Clemons to life in prison.

“Is he going to be the same man when he is 30, 40 or even 50? He will be a different person if he does what he should, if you give him life,” Gorman said. “If you give him death, then you are killing a different person. If I’m wrong, then he still dies in prison.”

He also asked the jury to take Clemons’ family and two young children into consideration.

“Good person after good person took the stand (and testified on Clemons’ behalf),” Gorman said. “They love him and he loves them. They still speak highly of him regardless of what he did. They haven’t abandoned him.”

First Assistant District Attorney Chad Schneider admitted that the task at hand isn’t easy. He reminded the jury members that they were selected because they were “capable of the task.”

“It’s time for you to decide what is justice, what is fair,” he said.

Schneider said Clemons lured and manipulated Kunco, of Baldwin, before killing her on Jan. 11, 2012 and dumping her body along a wooded section of Sabo Road in Mt. Pleasant Township.

“He preyed on her,” he said.

The prosecution said a protection-from-abuse order Kunco had against Clemons from Allegheny County Court following a Dec. 18, 2011, assault and his prior criminal history warranted the death penalty.

“Not all killings are murder. Not all murders are subject to the death penalty, but this murder is subject to the death penalty,” he said in court.”