Kevin Dean Young was sentenced to death twice, first in 1989 and second in 1993 for the robbery and shooting death of 35-year-old Dennis Ray Hepler on August 31, 1988.  Dennis had just begun his first year as the principal of an elementary school in Anderson, SC.  He was leaving the school at night when he was robbed by Young and three accomplices.  He was shot twice, even after giving up his wallet containing $67. Young fired the first and fatal shot, then William Bell shot Dennis in the head while he was on the ground.  Young had a long criminal history and was on parole at the time of Dennis's murder.  Bell also received a death sentence in this murder.   UPDATE: After 12 years on South Carolina's death row for killing an Anderson County school principal, Kevin Dean Young died Friday at 6:18 p.m. from lethal injection. Young along with 2 other men were convicted for the robbery and killing of Dennis Hepler, a 35-year-old principal of West Franklin Elementary School near downtown Anderson on Aug. 31, 1988. Hepler had stayed late at the school to get it ready for opening for the school year. After Hepler handed over his wallet, he was fatally shot. Marilyn Alexander remembers the Wednesday night, 12 years ago, when she learned by phone her only brother, an elementary school principal, had been shot to death outside his Anderson school. Robbers took $67 from him and fired 2 shots, 1 into his head, another into his back. Alexander, a church secretary, was at the prison, but did not want to see the execution as it occurred Friday. "I will feel that justice has been done," she said in an interview earlier this week. Through the years, Alexander has awakened crying in the night, she said. Nightmares of her brother's murder track her sleep. Alone, she cared for their dying mother. "But the hardest part," she said, "remains dealing with those Wednesday night fears that something bad is going to happen to another family member."  The South Carolina Supreme Court on Wednesday denied the latest of Young's appeals, which raised questions about the qualifications and potential conflicts of interest of some of his appeals lawyers. Young's request for clemency from Gov. Jim Hodges was rejected. Young is the 1st inmate executed since David Rocheville of Duncan was put to death last December. Daniel Westbrook, one of Young's lawyers, read a brief statement in which Young asked God, Allah to forgive him.  Also convicted in connection with Hepler's death were William Henry Bell, who is on death row with appeals still pending; John Glenn, convicted of armed robbery and accessory and sentenced to 35 years and Arthur Ray Jones, who drove the 3 men away from the shooting scene. Jones pleaded guilty to an accessory charge and was sentenced to 10 years, with all but 7 1/2 months suspended. Glenn told police the 3 men were searching for someone to rob. He later testified before a jury that they were drunk but never planned anything. Whatever their intentions, Bell and Young surprised Hepler as he left the West Franklin Elementary School about 10 p.m., court testimony shows. They demanded his wallet. Hepler flipped it to the men, police said, and the men shot him. The men used the money later to buy cocaine, police said. Hepler left behind a wife, and 3 young daughters, who are now teen-agers. Mrs. Hepler died in 1993 from breast cancer. "In effect, he orphaned those girls," Doug Kessel, Hepler's brother-in-law, said of Young. "They've had to grow up without parents." Kessel, who lives in Montgomery, Ala. and is married to the sister of Hepler's wife, was among the witnesses to the execution. Kessel said Hepler's daughters, who are being raised by an aunt and grandmother, have mixed feelings. "They really kind of wanted to be there but didn't," he said. But Kessel had no such qualms. For years, the 42-year-old auto repairman has traveled back and forth to attend Young's 2 trials and many court hearings. "I'm ready for it to be over with," he said. Shortly after 6 p.m., the 2 executioners sent 3 drugs into Young's arms. The 1st, Pentothal, rendered Young unconscious. A dose of procuronium bromide, a muscle relaxer, followed, causing Young to stop breathing. Finally, potassium chloride was injected, stopping his heart.  In Anderson, the school where Hepler was shot has since been closed and turned into a community center. City officials wrote about Hepler's death and how the community came together to create the center in their successful application for designation as an All-American City. Hepler has not been forgotten. A park was named in his honor in 1992. His memory also lives in the hearts of his former church softball teammates, who wore his name and number on their sleeves for years after his death and begin each season by remembering him in prayer.

Gary Etheridge was sentenced to die for the February 2, 1990 murder of 15-year-old Christi Chauvierre. Christi was sexually abused and stabbed to death when Etheridge went to her Brazoria Co. Texas home looking for money to buy drugs. The victim's 50-year-old mother was also stabbed at least 15 times in the attack but survived.  Etheridge had once worked for Christi's mom, who managed a condominium complex near Surfside. At the time of the murder, Etheridge was recently paroled and had a lengthy criminal record, with multiple parole violations over the years.  He had served about 6 months of a 1982 five-year theft sentence.  He returned to prison with a new 5-year sentence for burglary and was again paroled early, in October 1985.  He returned to prison about 8 months later with a 10-year sentence for burglary and was paroled again about 20 months later.  He was returned to prison less than a year later as a parole violator and spent 10 months before being released a month and a half prior to Christi's murder.  "I'm a Christian hypocrite backslider," Etheridge recently said from death row. "I'm repentant but can't follow the rules. I still lust after pretty women. I'm human. I'm scared to death of death."

Daniel Saranchak, a father of five, was sentenced to be executed for the October 15, 1993 robbery and murder of his uncle, Edmund Saranchak and his grandmother, Stella Saranchock (she had kept the original spelling of the surname.)  Edmund was shot between eyes as he was sitting on the couch.  Stella was bedridden and was shot to death in her bed.  Saranchak said he killed because he needed money to keep drinking with a friend and stole approximately $355.  UPDATE: In Pennsylvania, a federal appeals court blocked the execution of Daniel Saranchak, who was scheduled to die for the 1993 shooting deaths of his grandmother and uncle. Saranchak, 32, has opposed all appeals on his behalf, but attorneys who formerly represented him are arguing he is not competent to waive appeals and have requested legal standing to file appeals on his behalf.

Miguel Flores was convicted of the June 28, 1989 kidnapping, rape and stabbing of an Eastern New Mexico University student.  Flores went to death row in 1990 for the slaying of Angela Tyson, a beauty queen and outstanding college student in Portales, N.M., who was working over the summer at a video rental store in Borger in the Texas Panhandle.  Flores rented a movie from the store, went home and began watching it but apparently became fixated on Angela, and returned a short time later to await the store's closing time.  Flores abducted Angela at knifepoint as she was closing the store and forced her into her car. He drove her to a remote area outside Borger, where he sexually assaulted her. Angela's parents knew she would not be late coming home so her father went out looking for her. After the rape, Flores drove Angela to a spot where they were seen by the victim's father.  He approached the driver's side of the car and Flores pushed Angela to the floorboard, then tried to run down Angela's father with her car. Angela's father tried to chase them, but lost track of the fleeing vehicle.  Flores drove back to Borger, where he parked the car and talked to Angela for several minutes.  When Angela began screaming, Flores stabbed her with a pocket knife. She was stabbed 6 times in the chest and 4 times in the back.  Her body was found in the front seat of her car about 1 a.m. June 29, 1989.  Flores confessed to the murder and led police to the rape site for additional evidence.  Flores came within days of being executed in 1995. On Aug. 5, 1995, Flores received a stay of execution from U.S. District Judge William Wayne Justice. Attorney John Jay Thorpe asked that the court appoint him to represent Flores at the federal level and to put off the execution. Justice granted Thorpe's request and gave him 180 days to prepare the petition that would challenge the constitutionality of Flores' conviction and death sentence. The Texas Court of Criminal Appeals upheld Flores' conviction and death sentence in December 1993 and denied an application for relief on July 28, 1995, court documents show. 

Michael Sexton has been on death row since September 1991 for the rape and murder Kimberly Crews, a social worker at a pediatric clinic at Raliegh's Wake Medical Center, on August 8, 1990.  Kimberly was kidnapped from the hospital parking lot and taken in her mini-van to a wooded area of town where she was raped and strangled.  She was found dead in her van several hours later.  Sexton also worked at the hospital and had a previous assault conviction.

David Paul Hammer pled guilty in June 1998 to strangling his cellmate with a cord on April 13, 1996, after tying him to a bunk.  Hammer was serving a 1,223-year sentence at the Allenwood Federal Penitentiary for a 1980's crime spree in Oklahoma at the time of the murder.  The spree included kidnapping and attempted murder following his escape from the Oklahoma State Penitentiary in McAlester in the early 80's.  Oklahoma officials considered Hammer so dangerous that they opted to have him placed in federal custody.  By the time the transfer was requested, Hammer had run credit card scams and shut down the Oklahoma Capitol with a bomb threat.  State officials spent thousands of dollars investigating his schemes and building a special cell before transferring him.  Hammer, 39, addressed the judge during a sentencing hearing in Williamsport, Pa., and said in a statement afterwards that "With my death comes freedom from over 20 years of incarceration. So rather than be overwhelmed by what lies ahead, I will actually be relieved when my time with the executioner arrives."  Hammer is still serving his Oklahoma sentences, but the judge ordered that the death sentence take precedence.  Oklahoma officials previously said they would accommodate Hammer's death sentence through an interstate compact that would give control of Hammer to federal authorities unless his conviction were overturned. Hammer would be the 1st inmate executed under a new federal death penalty law. 

Tony Chambers was convicted and sentenced to die for the November 19, 1990 abduction and murder of 11 year old Carenthia Marie Bailey in Tyler, Texas.  Carenthia disappeared after attending a middle-school basketball game and was last seen leaving the school with Chambers.  Her body was found dumped near a road and she had been sexually assaulted and strangled.  Chambers called police and told them he had taken Carenthia but later denied involvement.  After her body was found, he gave both a written and verbal confession and has confessed at least 5 times. 

Jessica Oestricker Coplin of Herculaneaum said the May 1982 shooting death of her brother Jerry Oestricker by James Wilson Chambers "should never have happened." Chambers had received a 3-year sentence in July 1972 for the felony of 2nd-degree burglary.  Then-Gov. Christopher Bond freed Chambers through commutation about halfway through his sentence.  A few weeks later, Chambers was arrested for shooting a man in the stomach outside a bar in Jefferson County. In April 1975, Chambers received a 15-year sentence for felony assault with intent to kill, according to state records provided by Nixon's campaign. Seven years after beginning his second prison sentence, Chambers received a Memorial Day weekend pass and killed Jerry Oestricker while outside prison walls. In September 1982, while awaiting trial for the Oestricker killing, Chambers' sentence for shooting Griffin was commuted by Bond. Chambers is now on death row for the Oestricker slaying. Ms. Coplin said no commutations should have been approved by Bond: "This was senseless and should never have happened."  The Missouri Supreme Court set the new execution date for Chambers, thrice-convicted and long under death sentence for a tavern slaying nearly 2 decades ago.  Chambers has been convicted 3 times of killing Jerry Oestricker outside an Arnold, Missouri bar on May 29, 1982.  Jerry had inadvertently bumped into a friend of Chambers's outside the bar restroom.  Chambers challenged the victim to step outside and after hitting him over the head with a gun, shot him in the chest, pistol-whipped him, then dragged him across the parking lot, and taunted him before fleeing. Two of the convictions were set aside, with a state court and a federal appeals court each ordering new trials.  Chambers was tried and convicted a 3rd time in 1991. Chambers won a stay of execution from the St. Louis-based 8th Circuit last November after the U.S. Supreme Court agreed to decide about the federal Anti-Terrorism and Effective Death Penalty Act law's application in a Nevada death row case. Last April, the Supreme Court upheld the decision from Nevada.  That's when Attorney General Jay Nixon filed a motion with the 8th Circuit to lift Chambers' stay of execution. The Missouri Supreme Court sets state execution dates.

Johnny Paul Penry has been tried and sentenced to death three times for the rape slaying of Pamela Moseley Carpenter. Penry has been on death row for over 25 years after being convicted in the 1979 rape-slaying of Livingston housewife Pamela Moseley Carpenter. She was the sister of former Washington Redskins kicker Mark Moseley.  Pamela, a 22-year-old housewife, was raped and then murdered as Penry sat on her chest and stabbed her with scissors. Pam had been married to Bruce Carpenter for two years and had recently moved into a house in Livingston.  Her family was happy that she had come home to Livingston from Houston because they felt she would be safer in the small town.  Penry had been let out on parole after serving two years of a five year sentence for a rape conviction about two months before he killed Pam.  He did odd jobs around town and had been hired to help deliver appliances to Pam's home.  Pam had commented to her mother that one of the delivery men had made her uncomfortable because he kept staring at her.  Penry stated in his confession that he had thought about Pam often in the two weeks after the delivery and on the morning of the murder, he saw a woman in town who reminded him of Pam and decided to go rape her and steal money from her purse.  Penry confessed that he went to Pam's home and walked around the back to make sure no one else was home.  He opened his pocketknife and slipped it into his back pocket for easy access, then knocked on the door.  When Pam answered, he asked her if her husband was at home.  Pam said he wasn't, then Penry said he was there to check on the operation of the stove.  Pam told him it was working fine and that he needed to leave.  At this point, Penry said he forced open the door and grabbed Pam, took his knife from his pocket and pushed her into the kitchen.  Pam began screaming and knocked the knife out of Penry's hand.  They began to struggle and Pam fell and struck her face on the stove and began to bleed. Penry hit her several times and told her if she didn't stop screaming, he would slit her throat.  Penry said Pam fell to the floor again and told him she was dizzy.  He picked her up and as he did that, Pam grabbed a pair of scissors and stabbed Penry in the back.  They struggled again, then Penry dragged Pam into the bedroom where Pam again tried to flee but Penry tripped her and she fell.  Penry demanded that Pam take off her clothes, and when she refused, he kicked her in the side two or three times with his boots, rupturing her kidney and leaving a boot print on her back.  Pam would obviously have been in excruciating pain at this time and finally began to remove her clothes.  As Penry approached Pam to rape her, she crawled over to the scissors and grabbed them again, but Penry kicked them out of her hand and dragged her back to the middle of the bedroom.  He told Pam he would kill her if she didn't "make love to me" and then hit her in the chest with his fist "2 or 3 times".  Penry then raped Pam for about 30 minutes, according to his estimation.  He said that it was during the rape that he decided to kill Pam with the scissors "since she stabbed me with them."  He retrieved the scissors from near the kitchen door and returned and sat on Pam's abdomen and told her he was going to kill her and "that I hated to but I thought she would squeal on me."  He said Pam did not respond, and he raised the scissors over his head and stabbed her in the chest.  Penry said after he got off of her, Pam raised up and pulled out the scissors.  "I thought I had killed her until she sat up.  This scared me and I forgot all about getting her money. I ran out the door and boogied. I got on my bike and went straight home."  After Penry left, Pam grabbed a shirt to try to stop the bleeding and slid over to the phone and called for help.  When police arrived, Pam described her attacker and what he was wearing.  When the description of the attacker was broadcast over the sheriff department radio, a deputy recognized the description as fitting John Paul Penry, a man he knew to have recently been paroled from prison. The officer knew Penry well since one of his relatives was one of Penry's earlier victims.  He went to Penry's home and asked him to go to the police station and Penry agreed.  It was there that they noticed blood stains on Penry's back, from the wounds received when Pam stabbed him.  When asked about the wounds, Penry said that he had fallen off his bike and a stick had punctured his skin.  The officers asked Penry about the shirt he was wearing at the time, and he agreed to take them back to his house to retrieve it.  They then went to the crime scene and Penry said "I want to get it off my conscience.  I done it."  Penry then was returned to the station where he gave a full confession.  In 1980, after a competency hearing, Penry was tried and convicted of Pam's murder despite an insanity defense.  He was sentenced to death, but was granted a new competency hearing and trial in 1990.  The second jury was urged to consider testimony that Penry was mentally retarded as mitigation but they did not buy it and also sentenced him to death.  

Dwayne Weeks was sentenced to die for the April 10, 1992 murder of his estranged wife, Gwendolyn Weeks, 27, and her friend and co-worker Craig Williams, 33, in Wilmington, Delaware.  Gwendolyn had left Dwayne after a lengthy documented history of domestic violence.  Gwendolyn was shot twice in the head and Craig was shot three times by Weeks accomplice Arthur Govan as he called 911 on the phone.  Weeks stole Gwendolyn's purse to make it appear as though the murder had been part of a robbery.  The jury recommended a death sentence for Govan also, but the judge sentenced him to two life sentences.  Weeks was arrested leaving his residence with his girlfriend who originally told police that Weeks was with her all day but later admitted that he had been out for a while.  11/15/00 - A panel of federal appeals court judges in Philadelphia has ordered the execution of Dwayne Weeks put on hold so the U.S. Supreme Court can decide whether it will take up an appeal filed by defense attorneys. The stay is being challenged by state prosecutors, who have asked the U.S. Supreme Court to overturn the order immediately so that Weeks' execution, scheduled for Friday morning, can go forward. Weeks' attorneys argued that his original defense lawyer failed to tell him about an important weakness in the prosecution's case. Before Weeks pleaded guilty in 1993, his lawyer, Jack Willard, should have told him that damaging statements made by his co-defendant, Arthur Govan, could not be used in a trial against Weeks, appeals lawyer Adam Balick said. That argument has been rejected by Delaware's Supreme Court and the U.S. Third Circuit Court of Appeals. Weeks also has challenged the constitutionality of Delaware's death-penalty statute. His lawyers filed an appeal in the Third Circuit arguing that a recent U.S. Supreme Court decision voids Delaware's law. The U.S. Supreme Court ruled that when prosecutors argue that an aggravating factor in a crime makes the defendant eligible for a sentence stiffer than the legal maximum, only a jury may decide if the factor exists, Weeks' defense lawyer, Joe Bernstein, said. Under Delaware law, the jury recommends whether a defendant should receive the death penalty and a judge makes the final decision. In 1993, Weeks pleaded guilty to the 1992 slayings of his estranged wife, Gwendolyn Weeks, and her friend Craig Williams. A jury was empaneled for Weeks' sentencing and it voted 10-2 to recommend the death penalty. Judge John E. Babiarz ordered Weeks put to death, citing his previous criminal record and the fact that he masterminded the attack. A jury found Govan guilty of murder and recommended that he be executed, but Babiarz sentenced him to life in prison, citing his limited mental capacity and his compliant personality. - 11/16/00 - Stay was lifted

Marcus Carter was convicted in Wayne County Superior Court in 1990 of the attempted rape and murder of Amelia Renee Lewis. On Dec. 15, 1989, police responded to a report of screams in an alley in downtown Goldsboro, NC around midnight but found nothing.  Amelia's body was found in the alley three days later and she had been beaten and strangled and her clothing had been ripped off.  Forensic evidence against Carter included blood and skin tissue under her fingernails and hair.  The rape was similar to another rape Carter committed on the same day, but that victim survived and identified Carter.  Carter was sentenced to death for the murder and also sentenced to ten years in prison for attempted 2nd degree rape.  11/21/00 -  Just hours before the scheduled execution, Gov. Jim Hunt on Tuesday commuted the death sentence of Marcus L. Carter Jr. to life in prison without parole. Carter was scheduled to die by lethal execution at 2 a.m. Wednesday in Central Prison in Raleigh for the 1989 murder of Amelia Lewis in Goldsboro. "I have long supported capital punishment for first-degree murder, because I believe that in many cases it serves as a deterrent to the murder of innocent people," Hunt said in a prepared statement. "I am confident that Marcus Carter is guilty of the crime for which he was sentenced, and I also believe that he was mentally competent when he committed the crime and when he stood trial. But in cases where capital punishment could be imposed, we must go the extra mile to assure there is a fair trial. In the case of Marcus Carter, I am convinced that the overall circumstances of this case put that in question. Therefore, I cannot allow this execution to go forward." Lewis was murdered Dec.15, 1989 of strangulation and blunt trauma to the head. Carter was indicted on charges of first-degree murder, first-degree kidnapping and second-degree rape in 1991. The trial ended in a hung jury. In a second trial in 1992, Carter represented himself - a fact noted out in the statement from the governor's office. He was convicted of first-degree murder and attempted second-degree rape and sentenced to death. On Monday, Hunt met with the Wayne County district attorney, the state's appellate counsel from the Attorney General's office and criminal investigators, the press release said. The governor also met Monday with attorneys for Carter, members of the defendant's family, and representatives death penalty opponents. Hunt also, the statement said, reviewed all judicial opinions relevant to the case, key portions of transcripts from both trials, forensic reports, psychological evaluations of Carter, crime scene photographs, Carter's criminal record and related documentation from Department of Correction files.

On 5/27/85, Dickerson killed a Kevin McCoy and Nicole McLain in an apartment in Toledo, Ohio. Each had been shot twice. Dickerson's former girlfriend and two children had been staying with Kevin after she left Dickerson because of domestic violence. Dickerson tracked the girlfriend down and broke into the apartment through a bathroom window and found Kevin and Nichole, who was only 15 and was killed just because she happened to be there. Dickerson was captured with the murder weapon. NOTE: There are appeals pending and the execution is not likely to take place on this date.