Convicted murderer Thomas Wayne Akers says he would rather die than spend the rest of his life confined in prison.  Akers has instructed his attorneys to say nothing in his defense. Akers, 31, has spent a decade in the prison system. Convicted in 1988 for statutory burglary, he remained behind bars until August 1998. The Department of Corrections says he was placed in isolated confinement many times. Released on parole Aug. 13, 1998, he was free just 4 months. Akers was back in jail Dec. 31 on capital murder and robbery charges in the beating death of Wesley Brant Smith, 24, of Roanoke. Smith was found beaten beyond recognition Dec. 19, 1998 in a Franklin County field. Three pools of blood saturated the ground on the shoulder of the road, where the beating began, and "a clear drag mark which was saturated with blood that went down the hill toward a creek."  Following the trail of blood, police discovered Smith’s body, which was covered with blood and bore the unmistakable signs of a savage beating including "several wounds to the back of his head, deep cuts, hair knocked off his head, a lot of blood on his shirt and his coat, and a large pool of blood under his face". Searching further, Jamison found an aluminum baseball bat "lying in the creek partially submerged" twelve to fifteen feet from Smith’s body. Subsequent laboratory testing established that Smith’s blood was on the bat. Forensic examination of Smith’s body revealed that he had been struck a minimum of three times in the head "and probably a great deal more than three" times. As a result, Smith suffered several fractures to his skull causing a subdural hematoma. The blows were not instantly fatal, and it would have taken "minutes to hours, at least," before Smith died. In addition to the lethal wounds inflicted to his head, Smith suffered numerous defensive wounds to his hands and arms. He also had been struck several times on his back, and his neck was bruised in a manner consistent with an attempted strangulation by ligature. The ligature marks were consistent with the size and shape of a belt subsequently discovered in Smith’s car. Franklin County Sheriff’s Department interviewed Smith’s mother, his sister, and George Slusser, a family friend. The investigators determined that on the evening of December 18, 1998, Slusser had visited Smith at his apartment in Roanoke. At approximately 8:00 p.m., Akers and Timothy Martin, Akers’ cousin, arrived at Smith’s apartment. Martin and Smith had been acquainted for some time and Martin had recently introduced Smith to Akers. Akers and Martin told Smith that they had set him up for a "blind date." The four men left the apartment and drove in Smith’s car a short distance away to drop Slusser off at the home of his girlfriend. Akers, Martin, and Smith were seen together later that evening at a Roanoke nightclub. After it was discovered that Smith had been murdered, that Smith’s apartment had been ransacked, and that several items of value were missing from the apartment, arrest warrants were issued for Akers and Martin for the murder and robbery of Smith, along with a bulletin for law enforcement officers to be on the lookout for Smith’s car, which had vanity plates reading "WESMODE." On December 22, 1998, an officer with the St. Regis Mohawk Tribal Police in northern New York observed Smith’s car in an area of the Mohawk reservation near the Canadian border known for smuggling activity and illegal alien entry. Upon learning that the vehicle and its occupants were wanted in Virginia, tribal police stopped the car and took Akers and Martin into custody. Akers subsequently attempted to flee from a room at the police station and when he was subdued he told the tribal police officers, "It’s a good day to die."  When he was arrested, Akers had Smith’s wallet. A search of Smith’s car revealed numerous items from Smith’s apartment, the belt used as a ligature, and a pair of black boots covered with Smith’s blood. The boots were subsequently identified as belonging to Akers. Thereafter, Akers talked openly with other prisoners about Smith’s murder. Akers stated that he, Martin, and Smith had stopped at the field to urinate. Akers took the belt and placed it around Smith’s neck, using it to drag Smith away from the car. Akers then held Smith down on the ground and choked him with the belt. Akers and Martin then took turns beating Smith with the baseball bat, which they had found in Smith’s car. Smith resisted and begged the two men to stop. Akers and Martin then dragged Smith to the creek where they beat him again and abandoned him, throwing the baseball bat into the creek. Akers subsequently admitted to the killing in letters sent to the prosecutor. In one letter, Akers admitted that it "was my full intent to kill and rob Wesley Smith after I got acquainted with him," and that he had taken approximately two hundred dollars from Smith’s wallet. In another letter, Akers admitted beating Smith to death before returning to Smith’s apartment to have "a decent meal and change into [Smith’s] clothes and [take] a pleasurable trip to New York." Akers further stated that he left his boots "all blood covered for the Commonwealth" and "I have no sympathy or remorse for beating Mr. Smith to death," Akers wrote on April 27. In the same letter: "Death is just a game to me," and "I will escape someday and execute justice again."  Akers vowed to kill Hapgood and Franklin County Circuit Judge William Alexander if he were not sentenced to death. "I don't believe the judges have the heart to sentence me to death," Akers wrote.  Even more damning than the threats were the details the letters provided about the murder that only the murderer himself or an eyewitness could know. Until Akers mailed those letters, his lawyers said, they could have mounted a strong defense. Akers later told the probation officer preparing his pre-sentence report that he planned to kill Smith because Martin had told him that Smith "was going to get 20 other people to assault Martin."

The execution of Ernest Paul McCarver has been set for 2 am on March 2.  McCarver, 40, was convicted Sept. 9, 1992 in Cabarrus County Superior Court. He received the death sentence for the murder of 71-year old Woodrow Hartley. In addition, McCarver was convicted of robbery with a dangerous weapon. On January 2, 1987, Ernest Paul McCarver stabbed Woodrow F. Hartley to death. McCarver and his accomplice, Jimmy Rape entered through the rear entrance of the K & W Cafeteria shortly after Hartley arrived at 5:00 a.m. McCarver walked up to Hartley and talked to him for a few minutes. Rape grabbed Hartley from behind in a headlock and attempted to strangle him. Rape released Hartley, who was then grabbed by McCarver in a headlock. When McCarver let him go, Hartley fell to the ground. McCarver took a knife from his pants pocket and stuck it into Hartley's chest several times. Hartley died within minutes. 

Ronald Spivey's path to death row began late Dec. 27, 1976, when he killed Charles McCook in a Macon pool hall brawl over $20. Spivey then drove to the Final Approach Lounge in the Peachtree Mall in Columbus. Billy Watson, a Columbus police officer, was employed as a security guard at Brer Rabbit's, a restaurant in Peachtree Mall directly across the hall from the Final Approach Lounge. Shortly after 2:00 a.m. on December 28, 1976, Watson noticed that the door to the Final Approach was still open. He and Brer Rabbit's manager, Welton Emmit "Buddy" Allen, decided to walk over and investigate, as they knew that the doorway should have been closed at 2:00 a.m. They entered the lounge, which was empty, and proceeded towards the bar, where they heard voices. As they approached the doorway to the bar, Ronald Spivey shot Watson twice, in the head and chest, killing him. Spivey then shot Allen two or three times. Spivey, who had just robbed two waitresses and a customer of approximately $ 400, herded his three hostages out of the Final Approach, taking Watson's gun as they left. When they reached the door, Allen groaned. Spivey turned and shot him again. Allen played dead.  Spivey took his hostages outside the mall to the parking lot, demanding that someone furnish him a car. Meanwhile, Allen got up and proceeded to Brer Rabbit's in an effort to get help. Spivey followed him, and then fired several times through a window into the restaurant. One bullet struck a bartender in the hip. Spivey then ordered a hostage, college professor and part-time bar waitress Mary Jane Davidson, to drive him to Alabama. Authorities captured him just before daybreak, two miles south of Wedowee, Ala. They found $360 in cash believed to have come from the bar along with two guns -- a .38-caliber revolver and a .357 Smith and Wesson that had Bill Watson's name and badge number 197 engraved on the butt. Spivey received a life sentence for the murder of Charles McCook. Spivey was tried twice for killing Watson. The first conviction in 1977 was thrown out because he was "compelled to be a witness against himself in a psychological exam," court records said. In 1983, a second Muscogee County jury convicted Spivey of murder, armed robbery and kidnapping.  UPDATE: 3/6/01 - The Georgia Supreme Court today granted a stay to Ronald Keith Spivey's scheduled execution, opting to wait until it decides whether death by electrocution is cruel and unusual punishment. The court granted the stay by a 4-3 vote. Chief Justice Robert Benham and Justices Norman Fletcher, Leah Ward Sears and Carol Hunstein voted to grant the stay. Justices George Carley, Hugh Thompson and Harris Hines dissented. The majority opinion, which was unsigned, said the stay was granted until the court decides the issue of cruel and unusual punishment "or until further order of this court." "Obviously, I'm happy," Tom Dunn, Spivey's lawyer, said after the decision. "It's the right decision... The system worked." Spivey had been scheduled to be executed at 7 p.m. tonight. Convicted of killing 2 men, he received a death sentence for the 1976 murder of Columbus police officer Billy Watson. Spivey would have been the 1st Georgia prisoner executed in almost 3 years. He recently signed a consent form to have his execution videotaped as evidence in legal challenges to the use of the electric chair as cruel and unusual punishment. If his execution had been videotaped, it would have been the 1st known recording of an electrocution in the United States. But that will not be the case, at least for now. 5 months ago, a majority of the Georgia Supreme Court declared the continued use of the electric chair a "troubling moral and legal issue." It also said it was willing to confront the issue if presented with "sufficient" evidence. With its ruling today, the court apparently will not allow another execution until it decides whether the electric chair is constitutional or violates the Eight Amendment's protections against cruel and unusual punishment. Ward Sears wrote a concurring opinion today, noting that the Legislature changed the method of execution to lethal injection for crimes committed after May 1, 2000, because use of the electric chair "offends the evolving standards of decency that characterize a mature, civilized society." The Supreme Court, she said, "is charged with the responsibility of protecting the state from the indignity of exacting punishment that exceeds the bounds of humane sensibilities." Sears, who has already stated her opposition to the electric chair, said the court made  the right decision staying another execution by electrocution. Carley said he "vigorously" opposed a stay and accused Spivey's lawyers of pursuing a "blatantly apparent effort to frustrate and delay the judicial system." He added, "Although there are individuals who have heart-felt objections to capital punishment, under any and all circumstances, they have no viable claim to moral superiority. They must abide by the same laws as those who are equally firm in their belief that the life of murder victims is so sacred that there are cases in which society must resort to the ultimate sanction."

In Conroe, Texas, on June 13, 1990 sixteen-year-old Gracie Purnhagen and her 9-year-old sister Tiffany were picked up at a bowling alley by Gracie's ex-"boyfriend", Delton Dowthitt, also 16, and his father, Dennis Dowthitt. They drove to a secluded area. Delton's father began fondling Tiffany when Delton and Gracie had walked to the back of the truck to talk about their relationship and left the girl alone with Dennis. Tiffany screamed and broke away from him and ran to her sister, chased by the elder Dowthitt. Dennis told Delton he had "messed up" and they had to kill the girls and ordered Delton to strangle Tiffany with a rope. The father attempted to rape Gracie, then cut her throat and subsequently took a beer bottle and sexually assaulted Gracie with it. A bloody beer bottle was later found in the trash at his used-car shop. Authorities lifted a fingerprint that matched Dennis Dowthitt's left index finger. The blood was clearly identified as belonging to Gracie.  He also stabbed Gracie in the chest with a knife. Delton thought he had convinced a friend to help bury the girls but the friend backed out on both visits to the remote wooded murder scene.  When Delton was arrested in Metairie Louisiana, he confessed to the murders but said he acted alone, however, his stepmother told police that she knew her husband and his son were together that night.  Dennis Dowthitt voluntarily went to the sheriff's office for questioning and was confronted with the evidence that he was with his son the night of the slayings. The elder Dowthitt then admitted in a written statement that he was present at the time the Purnhagen sisters were murdered but blamed the murders on his son. At trial, Dennis's daughter testified that her father had raped her, and also that he had confessed to the murders. Testifying in the punishment phase of Dowthitt's capital-murder trial, she said her father had been raping her with his hands, bottles and broomsticks since she was 11. Delton was sentenced to 45 years and will be eligible for parole in 2003.  UPDATE: 3/8/01 - Just before he was executed, Dowthitt for the first time offered an emotional confession for the 1990 sexual mutilation and murder of his son Delton's teen-age girlfriend. Dowthitt, who for years said his son was responsible for both murders, wept as he lay strapped to the execution gurney, apologizing profusely for killing Grace Purnhagen. "I am so sorry for what y'all had to go through. I am so sorry for what all of you had to go through. I can't imagine losing two children. If I was y'all I would have killed me. You know? I am really so sorry about it, I really am. I got to go sister, I love you. Y'all take care and God bless you. Gracie was a beautiful and Tiffany was beautiful. You had some lovely girls and I am sorry. I don't know what to say. All right Warden let's do it."  Dowthitt was obviously emotional and choking back tears and looked directly at the girls' mother, Linda Purnhagen as he spoke. "We thought he would be ugly because he had been arrogant throughout the trial," Linda Purnhagen said in a press conference following the execution. "I think (he meant his apology)," she said, adding that she stared Dowthitt in the eyes as he made his last statement. Linda said she was surprised and relieved that he admitted his guilt and apologized and she said she felt much less anger towards him than she had the day before.  When asked if she said anything to the inmate as he looked at her, Linda replied, "I didn't come here to say anything to him - I came to see him be executed.  The girl's father, Art Purnhagen said, "I was so shocked. I would have bet a million dollars he wouldn't have apologized - I would have lost my shirt on that one."  Linda Purnhagen compared witnessing the execution to watching someone be put under anesthesia before surgery. "He's just not going to wake up," she said, adding that Dowthitt's death was "nothing like what (my daughters) had to go through." Linda Purnhagen said her next mission will be making sure Delton is not released from prison. She said he is up for parole in July 2005. When asked her reaction about the anti-death penalty protesters rallying outside the Huntsville (Walls) Unit's execution chamber, Linda Purnhagen said they likely have never had a loved one murdered. "If they had gone through something like I have and still felt that way, then I could talk to them about it," she said. "If you haven't gone through it, you don't know what the heck you're talking about."  About 8 to 10 anti-death penalty activists protested against the execution, but nearly twice that many people stood at the other end of the prison, to support the family of the victims.

The Missouri Supreme Court set an execution date of March 7 for Antonio Richardson, 26, of Pine Lawn, who took part in the murders of two sisters on the old Chain of Rocks Bridge on April 4, 1991. Robin Kerry, 19, and Julie Kerry, 20, of north St. Louis County, were raped and thrown from the bridge into the Mississippi River. The Chain of Rocks Bridge is a highway bridge over the Mississippi River that formerly permitted traffic to travel between Illinois and Missouri before authorities closed the bridge to vehicular traffic. Julie and Robin Kerry arranged to take their visiting cousin, Thomas Cummins, to the bridge to show him a graffiti poem they had painted there several years earlier. On April 4, 1991, at approximately 11:25 p.m., the two sisters and Cummins went to the bridge. Earlier that evening, Reginald Clemons, along with Marlin Gray, Daniel Winfrey, and Clemons cousin, Antonio Richardson, met at a mutual friend’s home. They drank beer and smoked marijuana. Gray suggested that they go to the Chain of Rocks Bridge. About 11:00p.m., Clemons, Richardson, Gray and Winfrey drove in two separate cars to the bridge. Parking near the Missouri end of the bridge, the foursome went through a hole in the fence, over a pile of rocks blocking the bridge entrance to vehicles, and onto the bridge deck. They attempted to smoke a joint of marijuana, but found the marijuana too wet to light. The group walked back toward their cars. They left behind a long metal flashlight that Richardson brought to the bridge. The Kerry sisters and Cummins arrived at the bridge sometime after Clemons and his friends. The Kerrys and Cummins made their way onto the bridge deck and walked toward the Illinois end of the bridge. They encountered Clemons and his companions, who were headed back toward the Missouri side. The two groups briefly chatted. One of the Kerry sisters gave Winfrey a cigarette. Gary showed the Kerrys and Cummins how to climb over the bridge railing and come back up through a manhole in the bridge deck. He told Cummins that the manhole was "a good place to be alone, and take your woman." The two groups parted, heading in opposite directions. Cummins and the Kerry sisters stopped to look at the graffiti poem and then continued walking toward Illinois. In the meantime, Clemons and his friends had returned to the Missouri end of the bridge. As they lingered there, Clemons suggested to his companions, "Let’s rob them." Gray replied "Yeah, I feel like hurting somebody." Richardson suggested they rape the girls. Clemons agreed. The foursome walked back toward the Illinois end of the bridge. As they walked, Winfrey saw Gray talk to Clemons, after which Gray came to Winfrey and handed him a condom. Winfrey put the condom in his pocket and stated that he "wasn’t going to do it." Clemons grabbed Winfrey, pushed him toward the rail of the bridge, and threatened him until Winfrey agreed to "do it." They caught up with the Kerry sisters and Cummins and ordered Cummins to lie on the ground. They raped the sisters and eventually ordered them into a manhole. On the metal platform under the bridge, Cummins laid down next to Julie and Robin Kerry. They were ordered to get up and go towards the concrete pier below the platform. Julie was pushed off first, then Robin. Cummins was ordered to jump. He did. When he surfaced after his seventy-foot fall, he saw Julie nearby in the water and called for her to swim. Fighting the current and rough water, Julie grabbed Cummins, dragging them both below the surface. Cummins broke free. Julie did not reappear. Cummins eventually reached a steep riverbank and came ashore by a wooded area near the Chain of Rocks waterworks. Authorities recovered Julie’s body from the river near Caruthersville, Missouri, about three weeks later. Robin’s body is still missing. Two of Richardson's accomplices were also given death sentences, and their appeals are pending in federal courts.  UPDATE - 3/6/01 - The U.S. Supreme Court on Tuesday allowed the execution of Antonio Richardson to continue, just hours after an appeals court had ordered it halted. There was still an appeal pending before the court and Gov. Bob Holden had yet to decide if he will grant Richardson executive clemency. Both could again place Richardson's execution on hold. Richardson's death by lethal injection had been scheduled for 12:01 a.m. Wednesday for murdering Julie Kerry in St. Louis in 1991. At 9:55 EST, the Supreme Court granted an application from Missouri Attorney General Jay Nixon, seeking to vacate a stay granted early in the evening by the 8th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals. No vote was taken by the Supreme Court. But Justices John Paul Stevens, Steven Breyer and Ruth Bader Ginsberg all went on record, saying they would have voted to uphold the stay. Ruling from St. Louis, the 8th Circuit ordered the execution halted pending the outcome of a Supreme Court hearing involving a convicted killer from Texas named John Paul Penry. Like Penry, Richardson is borderline mentally retarded. The Supreme Court said it will use the Penry case to clarify how much opportunity jurors in death penalty cases must have to consider the defendant's mental capacity. Richardson was just 16 at the time of the killings. In a clemency request to Gov. Bob Holden, his lawyer, Gino Battisti, cited Richardson's age, impaired mental capacity and organic brain damage. Nixon said the crime clearly deserved the death penalty. "This is one in which the guilt is not questioned and the violence is almost unspeakable," he said. Gray and Clemons are also on death row at Potosi for the killings. Winfrey pleaded guilty to 2nd-degree murder in exchange for his testimony. He received a 30-year sentence. Ginny Kerry, the mother of the victims, asked Holden to spare Richardson's life, citing his youth and diminished mental capacity. Her divorced husband and other family members wanted the execution to continue.  A Missouri Department of Corrections spokesman said Richardson met with relatives and friends on Tuesday. "His visitors kept him fairly busy all day," said the spokesman, Tim Kniest. 

The Oklahoma Court of Criminal Appeals set a March 8 execution date for a Muskogee man convicted of beating a man to death with a hammer in his apartment in the early morning hours of Nov. 4, 1983.  Smith was convicted of 1st-degree murder and sentenced to death in the slaying of Matthew Dean Taylor, 25.  Smith had been at Taylor's home earlier.  Evidence showed that Smith borrowed a hammer from friends before the murder. He later told a fellow inmate that he killed Taylor during a robbery attempt. A friend testified that he had given Smith a ride to Taylor's apartment on the night of the murder. He said that he waited in the car, and that when Smith returned, he had a small blood stain on his shirt.

David Dawson was sentenced to die for the December 1, 1986 murder of Madeline Marie Kisner of Kenton while burglarizing her home. Madeline was a 45-year-old bookkeeper and was stabbed to death by Dawson and a couple other inmates who had escaped from Delaware Correctional Institution near Smyrna a few days earlier. Some of the escapees were found in Arizona.  Dawson, who was originally condemned in 1988 to die for the murder, had his sentence vacated in 1992 by the high court because prosecutors wrongly introduced his membership in the Aryan Brotherhood as evidence in his penalty hearing.