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Two
killers were executed in October 2003. They
had murdered at least 3 people.
Two
killers were given a stay in October 2003.
They have murdered at least 3 people.
| Date of scheduled execution |
State |
Victim name |
Inmate name |
Status |
| October
1, 2003 |
Georgia |
Edna Mary Griffin |
Earnest Morrison |
stayed |
|
Earnest Morrison was set to die by lethal injection tomorrow night at the state
prison in Jackson until the stay was signed by a Butts County Superior Court
Judge. The 43-year-old Morrison is on death row for the rape and murder of Edna
Mary Griffin. At the time of the murder, Morrison was a fugitive from Aiken
where he was charged with rape and robbery. Morrison's lawyer claims his client
is mentally retarded and received ineffective counsel from the attorney during
his murder trial. |
| Date of scheduled execution |
State |
Victim name |
Inmate name |
Status |
| October
3, 2003 |
North
Carolina |
Herman Smith |
Edward Hartman |
executed |
| Edward Hartman told authorities he
consumed 16 cans of beer before he fired a pistol at close range into Smith's
head while the man sat in a recliner and watched television. Hartman was living
at Smith's home at the time. Court records show
Hartman told a friend Smith was wealthy and carried thousands of dollars in his
pocket. He took the man's car and left the body in the chair.
He returned five days later after taking several trips where he wrote
checks on Smith's bank account. Bothered by the smell, he dragged the body to a
horse stable and buried it. Horses in the stable
trampled the ground so thoroughly that it would have been impossible to tell
where the body was buried. After he was identified as the suspect, Hartman led
officers to the spot. UPDATE: Edward Hartman, who said
he had guzzled 16 cans of beer before deciding to shoot the elderly man he was
living with in the head, was executed by lethal injection Friday morning at the
state prison. Hartman issued no final statement before his execution at Central
Prison, staring at the ceiling after greeting one of his lawyers. Hartman, 38,
had confessed to the 1993 murder of Herman Smith. Jr. Smith, 77, was Hartman's
mother's former boyfriend. Hartman later told lawmen that after consuming the
beer, he shot Smith in the head as the victim sat in a recliner watching
television. The murder occurred in Northampton County. After killing Smith,
court documents stated, Hartman left the victim's body in the reclining chair
and took his car. After about five days, Hartman took the body to a stable and
buried it. Hartman was originally scheduled for execution in February, but his
trip to the death house was delayed while the State Supreme Court decided
whether murder indictments must include the "aggravating circumstances" that
elevate first-degree murder to a capital offense. The court eventually ruled
that prosecutors did not have to list those aggravating factors in the murder
indictment. Hartman's defense lawyers claimed that Hartman was targeted for
death because he was gay. During Hartman's trial, defense lawyers argued that
Hartman had various psychological and alcohol related problems and that he had
been the victim of sexual abuse. The prosecutor countered that the sexual abuse
was not important because Hartman was gay. But the courts rejected those appeals
and Gov. Mike Easley rejected pleas to reduce Hartman's sentence to life in
prison. |
| Date of scheduled execution |
State |
Victim name |
Inmate name |
Status |
| October
9, 2003 |
Alabama |
James Dewey Cash
Wilson W. Thompson |
David
Nelson |
stayed |
| David Larry Nelson was convicted of
killing James Dewey Cash and Wilson Thompson on the night of
December 31, 1978. He was sentenced to die for a slaying during a
New Year's Eve and New Year's Day crime spree 25 years ago. Nelson is scheduled
to die at 6 p-m October ninth at Holman Prison in Atmore. Court records show the
58-year-old Nelson was sentenced to die for the January 1st, 1978 shooting death
of Wilson W. Thompson in Kimberly. Thompson was fatally shot in the head while
he was having oral sex with Nelson's girlfriend. His girlfriend was also shot,
but recovered from her injuries. Nelson was also convicted and sentenced to life
in prison without parole for the fatal shooting the night before of Birmingham
cab driver James Cash. UPDATE: The U.S. Supreme Court blocked
the execution of David Larry Nelson less than three hours before it was to take
place Thursday, granting a stay until the court can review his appeal in a
quarter-century-old murder case. Nelson's attorneys filed papers with the court
earlier Thursday saying Nelson has collapsed veins and that lethal injection
would be so painful it would be cruel and unusual punishment. Nelson, 58, had
been sentenced to die at 6 p.m. CDT for the Jan. 1, 1978, shooting death of
Wilson Thompson of Kimberly while Thompson was with Nelson's girlfriend. Nelson
also was convicted in the shooting death of a Birmingham cab driver the night
before. Nelson has been tried twice and had four sentencing hearings in what has
been one of the longest death penalty appeals in Alabama. The Supreme Court said
the stay will be lifted if the court later decides not to hear Nelson's full
appeal. Nelson once told a jury and a judge that he wanted to be executed. But
when he was scheduled for execution in 1996, he received a stay because of a
physician's statement that he could be a kidney donor for a seriously ill
brother. The operation did not take place. |
| Date of scheduled execution |
State |
Victim name |
Inmate name |
Status |
| October
29, 2003 |
Missouri |
Brandie Kearnes
Wayne Hoewing |
John
Smith |
executed |
| The victims in this case
were Brandie Kearnes and Wayne Hoewing. John Clayton Smith and
Brandie Kearnes started dating in 1995. At that time,
Brandie lived with her mother, Yvonne Kurz, and her step-father, Wayne Hoewing,
near Canton, Missouri. Around June 1, 1997, Brandie
broke off the relationship with Smith. Brandie
continued to live at the Hoewing residence with her daughter, mother and
stepfather. At about 7:30 a.m. on the morning of July
4, 1997, Smith drove by O.C.'s Tavern in Canton and
looked at Kearnes's car, which had been parked in the
lot next to the tavern since the night before. Approximately fifteen minutes
later, Smith telephoned his ex-wife
and asked what she planned to do with the children that day.
Smith was upset and when
his ex-wife asked why, he
replied, "Everything." When his ex-wife asked
Smith if he was having difficulties with Brandie, he
said, "Just everything. I can't talk about it now. I gotta go," and
hung up. Sometime later during the same
morning, Smith telephoned Yvonne Kurz and asked
whether Brandie had come home the night before. Yvonne
responded that Brandie had not come home. Smith then
asked, "She is seeing someone else, isn't she?" Later
that afternoon, Smith, after seeing Brandie driving on
the highway, followed her to a friend's house and
pulled up behind her in the driveway. Brandie got out of her car and spoke to
Smith for about three minutes. He
then left. At 11:05 p.m.,
Smith purchased a twelve-pack of beer at a convenience store in Canton.
The store clerk noticed that Smith was preoccupied and
appeared to be in a "weird mood."
Smith left the convenience store and, sometime
after 1:48 a.m. on July 5, 1997, drove to the residence where Brandie Kearnes
and Wayne Hoewing resided. Smith parked his truck
approximately thirty yards from the residence. Taking some of the beers with
him, but not any of the three guns he had in the truck,
Smith walked around a large pond on the property and
approached the residence. He entered the residence
through the basement door, took off his shoes, and went upstairs.
Once inside, he went to Brandie's
bedroom, and attacked her with a knife. At some point,
Brandie also tried to call her father, and she left a
message that said, "Dad, come to the house and get Tatum".
Brandie got away from Smith and ran toward the living room area. As she
ran, Smith grabbed the back of her shirt and tried to stab her in the back. In
the living room and kitchen area, Smith scuffled with Brandie,
stabbing and cutting her eight times. Smith stabbed or
cut Brandie eight times during the scuffle. The wounds did not immediately cause
Brandie's death; she had time to write "It was Joh-"
"I Y Tatu-" and "--andi s-v- T-tum" on the kitchen floor with her own blood. The
last two messages referred to Tatum, Brandie's infant
daughter, who was found unharmed at the feet of Brandie's body.
Smith then entered the Hoewing's bedroom and attacked Wayne, who had been
awakened by the sounds of scuffling coming from the living room.
Smith pushed Wayne onto the bed,
got on top him and
began stabbing him, inflicting eleven stab or cut
wounds, but Wayne did not die immediately. Yvonne Kurz,
who had also gotten out of bed when she heard the sounds of the struggle, tried
to push Smith off Wayne, but Smith
slashed her forearm. She retreated into the bathroom
and closed the door. While Smith was at the door of
the bedroom, Wayne was able to gain possession of a loaded
gun he kept in the house. As he tried to get into the bathroom, Smith saw
Wayne with the gun, and he said, "Shoot me. Go ahead and shoot me". Wayne did
not fire the gun, however, and eventually, Smith left the bedroom, went back
downstairs, put on his shoes, and left the house through the basement door.
After Smith left the Hoewing residence, Yvonne was
able to leave the bathroom and call for help. Smith
walked from the Hoewing residence to the nearby farm
of Bill Lloyd, where he hid his knife under some tin and attempted to steal a
tractor. After crashing the tractor into a flatbed
trailer on the property, Smith fled on foot. He
eventually traveled to another nearby residence, where
he stole a truck and drove away. Soon thereafter Smith
was apprehended after crashing the truck. When medical
personnel reached the Hoewing residence, Brandie was already dead.
Brandie had been partially stripped of her clothing
during the attack, and she was lying face up on the kitchen floor.
Brandie had been stabbed or cut eight times in the
neck, chest, abdomen, arm, and thigh. Two stab wounds in her right breast
punctured her lung and the wounds to her abdomen cut her
liver and one kidney. The first responders treated Wayne briefly, but
while still at the scene, he was pronounced dead. He had been cut and stabbed
eleven times in the chest, arms, leg, hand, and hip; he died from loss of blood. Police
found several pieces of evidence at the scene of the crime. Police
noticed a trail of blood left by Smith as he
left the house. One of Smith's socks was recovered
from under the body of Wayne Hoewing. Police found three beer cans outside of
the residence and also found the keys used by Smith to
break into the house. After being apprised several
days after the murders of the messages written with blood on the kitchen floor,
police seized
the linoleum bearing those messages. The police did not find any weapons. Later
in July, however, a worker at the farm where Smith had
attempted to steal the tractor found a knife hidden under some tin. The original
owner of the knife identified it as the knife she had
given to Smith. At trial,
Smith did not contest his identity as the killer, but
he offered the testimony of Dr. Michael Stacy, who testified that
Smith's capacity to deliberate before the killings was
substantially impaired. The state offered expert testimony to rebut Dr. Stacy's
diagnosis and findings. The jury found Smith guilty on
both counts of murder in the first degree and both counts of armed
criminal action. During the penalty phase of the trial, the state
introduced evidence of Smith's prior violent history
with women, his prior convictions for
felony stealing and violating an order of protection, and the impact that
the murders had on the victims' families. Smith
presented the testimony of friends and family and the testimony of a mental
health professional in mitigation of punishment. After
the close of the penalty phase evidence and after the
instructions and arguments of counsel, the jury found the following aggravating
circumstances with regard to Brandie Kearnes: that the murder of Brandie
Kearnes was committed while Smith was engaged in the
commission of another unlawful homicide and that her murder was committed while
Smith was engaged in the perpetration of a burglary. With respect to
Wayne Hoewing, the jury found that the same aggravating circumstances applied.
The jury also found that Wayne's murder involved depravity of mind in that
the murder was wantonly vile, horrible, and inhuman. The jury recommended
a sentence of death on each count of murder in the
first degree. UPDATE: A Missouri inmate who waived his
remaining appeals and said he preferred death over more prison time was executed
early today in the 1997 bloody slayings of his former girlfriend and her
stepfather. John Clayton Smith, 42, was put to death by injection at the Potosi
Correctional Center in the fatal stabbings of Brandie Kearns and Wayne Hoewing
in their northeast Missouri home. Smith stabbed and cut Kearns, 22, 8 times. She
survived long enough to scrawl "It was Joh-" in her own blood on the kitchen
floor and leave a dying farewell to her toddler daughter. The girl was later
found unharmed at the feet of her dead mother's body. Hoewing, 51, was knifed 11
times. Tuesday afternoon, Gov. Bob Holden declined two clemency requests filed
without the inmate's blessings. Smith also had access to forms for 11th-hour
federal appeals Tuesday but never made use of them. Department of Corrections
officials declared Smith dead minutes after the first of three injections were
administered. Smith mouthed the words "I'm sorry" to reporters and other state
witnesses, then did the same toward the victims' witnesses. Smith's push to halt
his appeals dated at least to mid-2001, when he told the judge who condemned him
that he was "totally guilty," "very sorry," mentally fit to abandon his legal
challenges and ready to die "once and for all." At the time he wrote, "The
punishment of death is suitable." Without comment, the U.S. Supreme Court last
week declined to intervene. Earlier Tuesday, one of Brandie Kearns' sisters said
she looked forward to watching Smith die, accusing the killer of "taking the
easy way out" as a killer "too much of a coward to live in prison. I'm just very
glad he's going to burn in hell," said Bridie Brooks, 31, an insurance claims
examiner in Williamstown. She called Smith's demise "the ultimate justice."
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