FORT MYERS, Fla. — A Bonita Springs man sentenced to death for orchestrating his wife's murder returned to a Lee County courtroom Monday for the first time since 2020, challenging his conviction and death sentence.
FOX 4's Bella Line takes us into the courtroom as Sievers defense works to get him off death row:
Mark Sievers has spent nearly six years on death row for what prosecutors said was a murder-for-hire plot targeting his wife, Dr. Teresa Sievers, in 2015.
According to prosecutors, Sievers hired his friend, Curtis Wayne Wright, to kill his wife for her life insurance money. Wright then recruited Jimmy Rodgers, and the two drove from Missouri to Southwest Florida, where they prosecutors said they beat Dr. Teresa Sievers to death with hammers in her Bonita Springs home.
Sievers' current defense team is now challenging his conviction on multiple grounds, including claims that his previous lead attorney was not qualified to represent him in a death penalty case.
"I do, I also feel like I failed," former attorney Michael Mummert said when asked if he felt he did everything he could to represent Sievers adequately.
In death penalty cases, attorneys must be certified to handle capital punishment proceedings. While Sievers chose to proceed with Mummert as his counsel despite knowing this requirement, a certified attorney was later added to the case.
"Despite the knowledge of the protections in place of having a death qualified attorney he wanted to proceed with you as his counsel of choice," the State noted during Monday's hearing.
Mummert said he continues to believe in Sievers' innocence.
"If the purpose of this is a murder-for-hire, why was the murder carried out in the least efficient way possible?" Mummert questioned.
"I still believe Mr. Sievers is innocent and I'll go to my grave believing that. It just didn't make sense, that and the fact that Curtis Wayne Wright was a known liar and the jury knew it," he said.
The court proceedings are set to continue Tuesday morning and the defense said they expect to wrap up on Wednesday.
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