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Ten killers were executed in
November 2005. They had murdered at least 20 people.
Two
killers were given a stay in November
2005. They have murdered at least 4 people.
One killer's death
sentence was commuted in November 2005. He has murdered at
least 1 person.
Date of scheduled execution |
State |
Victim name |
Inmate name |
Status |
November
2, 2005
|
Texas |
Juan Saenz Guajardo
Marcos Sanchez Vasquez |
Jaime Elizalde, Jr. |
stayed |
Jaime Elizalde, Jr. was paroled
from prison approximately 8 months before he was involved in the murder of two
men outside a Houston nightclub. Elizalde had served almost 4 years of a 10 year
sentence for possession of cocaine and car theft. On November 1, 1994, Elizalde
was at a nightclub with his father when the two men got into a confrontation
with Juan Guajardo and Marcos Vasquez. Four days later, the father and son
returned to the bar and sat on opposite sides of the room. Jaime Elizalde, Sr.
gestured to the two men to follow him outside of the El Lugar bar, where
Elizalde Jr. was waiting for them. He pulled a gun and shot both men to death. A
witness testified that from the bar he saw Guajado as he was shot. He further
testified that, although he did not see the killer shoot Guajado, when he exited
the bar he saw Elizalde flee with a gun. Elizalde was arrested a few months
later in a drug bust. While incarcerated, Elizalde was a leader of the Mexican
Mafia, a dangerous prison gang. Prosecutor Terrance Windham told the jury that
Elizaldle stabbed someone in prison and assaulted guards; he added that the
defendant had numerous chances to change his life, but failed to do so, adding
that "the system tried to rehabilitate him, but he kept getting worse."
Authorities suspect that the defendant's father is hiding in Mexico. Defense
attorneys had asked the jury to show mercy for their client because of his age,
but that plea went unheeded. After convicting Elizalde for capital murder, in
less than 1 hour the jury decided that Elizalde Jr., 25, would be a threat to
society and sent him to death row for the slayings of Juan Saenz Guajardo and
Marcos Sanchez Vasquez. After the judge read the sentence, the defendant smiled
and patted one of his attorneys on the back. UPDATE: The Harris County District
Attorney's Office will ask a court to postpone Wednesday's scheduled execution
of Jaime Elizalde Jr. so prosecutors can bring him to Houston to question him
about a different slaying. "We are still conducting our investigation,"
Assistant District Attorney Jack Roady said this week, adding that his office
wants to question Elizalde in open court. Elizalde is on death row for the Nov.
5, 1994, shooting deaths of 2 men. He claims he did not commit that crime, and
his attorney argues in a clemency appeal before the governor and state parole
officials that another man, Albert Guajardo, was the real killer. Guajardo was
slain in 1995, and another man is serving a life sentence for that murder. Last
week, the 2 cases became entangled when Elizalde claimed in a sworn statement
that he strangled Guajardo with a nylon rope, hit him on the head several times
with a blackjack and slit his throat with a hunting knife. Guajardo's body was
found wrapped in a carpet in northeast Harris County. Elizalde said he killed
Guajardo because he stole drugs and "paperwork" from him. Hermilio Herrero Jr.
was convicted of killing Guajardo 3 1/2 years ago. The state's case was based
largely on the testimony - several years after the slaying - of 2 prison inmates
who claimed Herrero bragged to them about killing Guajardo while serving time in
a Beaumont federal prison. Wednesday, Herrero's attorney, Norman Silverman, said
he was "very appreciative that the state is taking this seriously and is doing
the right thing. I want for them to have the opportunity to talk to Elizalde ...
and if we all work together we can get to the bottom of this." Silverman filed,
along with Elizalde's sworn statement, a request in state district court and a
state appeals court last week asking Elizalde be brought to Harris County to be
interviewed about Guajardo's death. |
Date of scheduled execution |
State |
Victim name |
Inmate name |
Status |
November 3, 2005
|
Texas |
Jennifer Lee Gravell, 9 |
Melvin White |
executed |
On August 4, 1997, the subject
kidnapped 9-year-old Jennifer Lee Gravell in Ozona, Texas, during
the nighttime hours. He then took her to a roadside park out of the
city limits and attempted to have sexual intercourse with her. The
victim resisted, but he taped her hands behind her back with black
electrical tape and continued to sexually assault her. During this
time, a vehicle pulled up behind him and he left the location. He
then he took the victim to another location, hit her several times
on the head with a tire tool, and left the scene. Authorities were
given the location of the body by the subject. The victim was found
with her hands tied behind her back, deceased. On August 4, 1997,
then forty-seven-year-old White kidnapped, sexually assaulted and
murdered a nine-year-old girl who lived in his neighborhood in
Ozona, Texas. On the night of a neighborhood barbeque, White went
home between 10:30 and 11:00 p.m. after consuming several alcoholic
drinks. Around this time, Jennifer came over to his house. White
took her in his truck to a roadside rest area where he bound the
girl’s hands behind her back with electrical tape, stuffed a sock in
her mouth and sexually assaulted her with an object – possibly a
screwdriver. He also admitted that he molested her with his finger.
White then killed Jennifer by repeatedly striking her head with a
tire tool and dumped her body behind a water tank in a field outside
of town. In a trash can in White’s house, investigators discovered
the victim’s underpants, sandals, and a ball of electrical tape with
her hair in it. At the punishment phase of trial, the prosecution
presented evidence that White had forced his daughter to perform
oral sex and penetrated her with his finger when she was twelve
years old. White’s daughter testified that two years later her
father had offered her fifty dollars per week if she would provide
him with sexual favors upon demand. Further evidence demonstrated
that when White was between ten and twelve years old he molested a
four-year-old relative. Additionally, a witness testified that White
allowed teenagers to have parties at his house where alcohol was
served, and during a party he touched a teenage girl’s breast.
Another witness testified that White had watched her engage in sex
with his son and later described the events in detail. Dr. Windell
Dickerson, the chief psychologist employed by the Texas prison
system, opined for the prosecution that, if one believed that White
had raped his daughter, then White posed a very serious risk for
further violent conduct. On June 10, 1999, the jury found White
guilty of capital murder. Following a separate punishment hearing,
White was sentenced to death. |
Date of scheduled execution |
State |
Victim name |
Inmate name |
Status |
November
4, 2005
|
Delaware |
Frances Kiefer, 44
Sandra Lee Long, 29 |
Brian Steckel |
executed |
Brian D. Steckel was convicted of
raping and strangling a 29-year-old woman. Steckel met Sandra Lee Long
approximately one week before the murder. He stayed occasionally with Sandra’s
neighbors. After Steckel witnessed a verbal dispute between Sandra Long and the
wife of his friend, he commented, “I should rape the bitch.” On September 2, 1994, the
day of Sandra Lee Long’s murder, Steckel gained access to her Driftwood Club
Apartment by asking her if he could use her telephone. Once inside, the 6' 3",
195-pound Steckel
pretended to use the phone, but unplugged it from the wall. Steckel then
demanded sexual favors from Sandra, and she refused. Steckel beat Sandra and
threw her onto a couch pinning her beneath him. During the struggle, Sandra bit
Steckel’s finger causing it to bleed. Steckel then attempted to strangle Sandra
with a pair of nylons which he brought with him. When his attempts to strangle
her with the nylons failed, Steckel grabbed a sock and continued to strangle her
with the sock. Sandra eventually fell unconscious, and while unconscious Steckel
sexually assaulted her, first using a screw-driver he brought with him, and then
by raping her anally. Sandra remained unconscious while Steckel dragged her to
the bedroom and set the bed on fire using a black lighter which he had brought
with him. Steckel also set fire to the curtain in Sandra’s bathroom. After
setting the fires, Steckel departed to have a few beers with a former coworker.
Steckel drove to the man's residence during lunch time. Although the man came
home for lunch, he then returned to work, leaving Steckel alone with his wife.
Steckel then asked the woman to drive him to a liquor store to purchase beer.
The route she took to the liquor store went past the now burning apartment of
Sandra Long. Upon passing the apartment, Steckel became visibly angry and
slouched down in his seat. Steckel asked the woman why she went this way, and
she said, “What’s the matter with you, you’re acting like you killed someone.”
Steckel then denied killing anyone and instructed her to proceed to the liquor
store. While driving, she noticed that Steckel’s finger was bleeding, but she
dismissed the wound. After drinking several beers back at the woman’s home,
Steckel requested another ride from her, and she dropped him off at a
convenience store on Lancaster Avenue. In the meantime, police, firefighters and
passers-by responded to Sandra Long’s burning apartment building. Two men who
worked as tree trimmers were driving past the apartments, saw the flames and stopped to render
assistance. When they approached the building, they heard Sandra, who had
regained consciousness, screaming for help. Lane Randolph testified at Steckel's
trial that he heard Sandra cry out weakly, "Help me, please." He kicked out the
window of the basement apartment, and was able to grasp her arm briefly, but he
was driven back by the flames. His co-worker, John Hall, was able to kick in the
door of the apartment, but could not reach Sandra through the flames. Sandra died in
her apartment and over 60% of her body was badly burned. Later the same day, the News
Journal received an anonymous phone call from a male who identified himself as
the “Driftwood Killer.” The man named his next victim by name. The News 4
Journal contacted the police, and the police brought the woman the caller had
identified into protective custody. The woman had previously reported to the
police that she had been receiving harassing phone calls with a “very lurid,
very sexual” content. The authorities had traced these calls to Steckel. Based
on the phone calls to the News Journal and the connection to the woman under
protection, the authorities began to suspect Steckel of Sandra’s murder. Steckel
was arrested in connection with an outstanding harassment warrant for the phone
calls to the woman. Steckel was visibly intoxicated upon his arrest and
agitated, so the police did not question him immediately. When Steckel awoke the
next morning, he asked police, “So I killed her?” The police advised Steckel of
his Miranda rights and offered him breakfast. Steckel waived his rights and was
then interviewed by the police. During the interview, Steckel confessed in
detail to his crimes against Sandra Long. Steckel recounted his attempts to
strangle Sandra, his rape of Sandra and the fires he set. Steckel told police he
had taken the nylons, screw driver and lighter with him for use in the attack.
Steckel also told police that he discarded the screwdriver in a nearby dumpster.
Steckel further confessed to harassing the woman that police were protecting and
calling the News Journal and threatening her. With Steckel’s permission, he was
taken to a forensic dentist who examined the wounds on Steckel’s finger. The
dentist opined that the wound had been caused within 24 hours by Sandra’s teeth.
Although some portions of Steckel’s confession lacked credibility, many of the
details were confirmed by subsequent investigation by the police, including the
autopsy of Sandra, the fire department’s discovery of the points of origin of
the fire, DNA testing of blood found on Sandra’s apartment door, which matched
Steckel, and the discovery of the nylons, lighter and screwdriver used in the
attack. During his trial, Steckel sent a copy of Sandra Long's autopsy to her mother,
writing "Read it and weep. She's gone forever. Don't cry over burnt flesh." The
jury convicted Steckel of three counts of Murder First Degree, two counts of
Burglary Second Degree, one count of Unlawful Sexual Penetration First Degree,
one count of Unlawful Sexual Intercourse First Degree, one count of Arson First
Degree and one count of Aggravated Harassment. Following a penalty hearing,
Steckel was sentenced to death. The victim's sister, Karen Thomas, said she does
not know if she will attend the execution, but another family member may attend.
"I don't care if he lives or dies, I just want people to remember Sandra. She
was beautiful. An angel," she said. Sandra's family described her as a
loving person who was close to her family and friends. She was the youngest of
foru children and also had worked as a waitress and a saleswoman. Sandra's
mother Virginia Thomas said her daughter was a giving person who would offer
help to whomever needed it. After witnessing the execution, Virginia thanked
prosecutors, police and the courts for their assistance during "this terrible
nightmare. Now hopefully, we will have some peace and closure." Steckel's latest appeal to the Delaware
Supreme Court, arguing that Delaware's death-penalty law was unconstitutional,
was turned down in September. He had argued, unsuccessfully, that he had
ineffective attorneys at trial. He admitted his crimes and told jurors during
the penalty phase of his trial that he deserved to die. "I ask you to hold me
accountable for what I did ... I know what I did was wrong: it was selfish [and]
despicable," he said. Prosecutors also presented letters Steckel had written to
the victim's mother, Virginia Thomas, that read: "I'm not sorry for what I did
to your daughter. She deserved everything she got." Ten years ago,
Steckel mailed a confession to Fountain Hill police claiming responsibility for
the abduction and murder of 44-year-old Frances Kiefer. Steckel's mother's former
neighbor disappeared from her S. Hoffert Street home on March 22, 1994. Frances
has never been found. |
Date of scheduled execution |
State |
Victim name |
Inmate name |
Status |
November 4, 2005
|
South
Carolina |
Charles Griffeth, 56
David Moore, 30
Leonard
Earnest Filyaw, 30
Sheryl Wood, 27 |
Arthur Wise |
executed |
 The state Supreme Court has set an
execution date for a man convicted of killing four former co-workers
at an Aiken County plant in 1997. The justices have set a November
4th execution date for 51-year-old Arthur Hastings Wise. Wise had
asked to have his appeals dropped almost immediately after his 2001
conviction. The attorney general's office says Wise had offered no
defense during his trial. Wise was within weeks of dying by lethal
injection in June 2004 when the state Supreme Court stopped his
execution because his lawyer said he wanted to appeal and Wise wrote
a letter to the court saying he wanted to die. Charles Griffeth,
David Moore, Earnest Filyaw and Sheryl Wood died and three other
people were hurt in the attack at the R.E. Phelon lawnmower ignition
plant. UPDATE: Charles Griffeth was hired by R.E. Phelon to fill the
management opening in human resources. Pam Morey, his assistant,
said. "(Mr. Phelon) got the best man for the job when he hired
Charles. Charles would walk through the plant and talk and joke with
the workers. He treated people with tenderness. He made it
worthwhile going to work." But the good times ended violently Sept.
15 that year, when Hastings Arthur Wise, a former Phelon machine
operator who had been fired two months earlier, returned with a gun,
nearly 200 rounds of ammunition and a plan to make those he felt had
wronged him pay in blood. At the end of the rampage, four were dead
and three wounded. The violence started at about 3 p.m. on that
Monday eight years ago when security officer Stanley Vance took the
first bullet from Wise's gun - in the chest at close range - and
fell in the guard shack where he had been on duty. From there, Wise
headed for the human resources department inside the main building.
Pam Morey, whose last name at the time was Holley, was on the
telephone at her desk in the outer office when Wise rushed in,
searching for Charles Griffeth. "I saw the shadow just dart past me.
I froze when I heard the noise (of gunfire)," she said. Charles
Griffeth had also been on the phone when Wise entered. He tried to
take cover when he spotted the gun, said his sister-in-law Janet
Cooper. But there was no time to find safety. The well-loved manager
died at his desk when he was shot twice in the back. Returning to
the outer office, Wise accosted Pam Morey. "He put the gun between
my eyes," she said. He then ordered her off the phone and yanked it
out of the wall. "I just started pleading and praying. I said, 'I
have kids. I'm a single mother. Please don't kill me,'" Mrs. Morey
said. The gunman was distracted by someone who entered the building,
and he left the room. Terrified, Mrs. Morey said she hid under her
desk "because I didn't want to see somebody get shot." When she
eventually heard shots farther off, she jumped up and ran from the
building. Wise continued his rampage, firing and reloading. He moved
to the tool and dye area where he had wanted to work but had been
denied. There, David Moore, Earnest Filyaw, Lucius Corley and John
Mitchell were shot. David Moore and Earnest Filyaw both died. After
a frantic search, worker John Goad discovered his brother behind a
work station and figured he was hiding from the gunman. Then he
rolled his brother over. "I could see the blood on his chest. His
eyes were still open. He was starting to turn purple," Mr. Goad told
the jury in Wise's trial as tears streamed down his face. ``When I
realized he was gone, I just started calling his name. I said, 'No,
David, no!'" David Moore, his brother and co-worker, was gone. But
the war-like atmosphere around Mr. Goad continued. "I could hear the
shots, and I could hear people screaming,'' he said. "I knew I had
to go. I knew I couldn't carry him out. So I ran out the way I
came." An Aiken resident, Moore had a fiancee when he was killed. He
was a member of Holiness Church. He was survived by his parents, a
brother and sister and his maternal grandparents. After the gunman
walked out of the tool and die area toward the quality assurance
division, employee David Langille said, Mr. Langille checked on
co-worker Leonard Filyaw, who had been hit once with gunfire. "His
eyes, there was a blank stare. I knew he was dead,'' Mr. Langille
said. David Moore had the same lifeless stare, he said. But John
Mucha was alive, begging and pleading for help for his gunshot
wound. His co-workers came to his aid and carried him outside.
Earnest Filyaw was from Warrenville and had been engaged for two
weeks when he was killed. He was a 1985 graduate of Silver Bluff
High School and liked to collect guns. He was survived by his
parents, two sisters and his maternal grandparents. After hearing
gunfire from the shootings of Moore and Filyaw, other employees ran.
Sheryl Wood almost made it out, but that wasn't Wise's plan. He shot
the young woman who got the job he wanted. She fell, with bullets in
her back and leg. The gunman walked up to where she lay on the floor
and shot her in the head. In the quality assurance office, she lay
there, pleading with others not to leave her. Minutes later, die
cast worker Bruce Mundy appeared. He had been outside but decided to
return and help the wounded. He soon discovered Ms. Wood. "I yelled
into the radio that I had found somebody and they were hurt,'' Mr.
Mundy told the jury, fighting back tears. "I couldn't move her. She
squeezed my hand, but as far as talking - no, she couldn't talk. ...
She was gurgling, her eyes rolled back into her head, and she
died.'' Still, Mr. Mundy and others lifted Ms. Wood onto a stretcher
and carried her outside, just in time to meet arriving police and
rescue personnel. Sheryl Wood was the last of seven victims. The
27-year-old from Bath was a 1988 graduate of Midland Valley High
School, where she played basketball, volleyball and softball. She
was survived by her mother and father, a brother, five sisters and
her grandmother. Only Mr. Vance, Mr. Corley and Mr. Mitchell
survived. Aiken Public Safety Officer Bob Besley testified that he
arrived at the plant and eventually found the body of human
resources manager Charles Griffeth in the front office, a telephone
still in his hand. The manager's eyes were fixed and dilated, and he
had no pulse, Officer Besley said. Beth Griffeth, Charles Griffeth's
widow, was too traumatized to attend any of the trial and will be
out of the state, said her sister Mrs. Cooper. "She didn't want to
face it," Mrs. Cooper said. "We're just so hoping that once this is
over, it will give her some closure. She won't have to deal with it
every time something else comes up." Pam Morey understands her pain.
"She lost one of the best men God ever made. I felt like I lost my
dad when I lost him," she said. UPDATE: Hastings Wise was put to death by lethal injection
Friday night for killing four workers at an Aiken County plant in
September 1997 out of revenge for being fired. Wise, 51, tried to die the day of the killings, drinking
insecticide after the plant emptied. But it only made him violently
ill. Wise refused to let witnesses testify for him as jurors chose
between the death penalty and life in prison, then refused to appeal
his conviction. Prosecutors said Wise waited for afternoon
shift change at the R.E. Phelon lawnmower ignition plant so he could
make sure all of his targets were there. He only shot people who he
thought led to his firing several weeks before or took jobs he
wanted, authorities said. Wise made no final
statement and never looked at the victims' families or other
witnesses. Instead, he stared at the ceiling and took several deep
breaths as the lethal mix of three chemicals went into his veins.
His rapid blinking ended with his eyes wide open at about the same
time his chest stopped rising. It was about two minutes after the
curtain to the death chamber opened. The official time of death was
6:18 p.m. "He didn't die a violent death. He died easy, went to
sleep," said Tommy Thompson. Thompson's son David Moore was one of
the four killed eight years ago. He wanted to be there to watch
justice be served. "He's dead. He won't be able to commit crimes
again, but you never get over the loss," said Thompson. According to
witnesses, Wise didn't look at anyone nor did he offer any words to
the victims' families. "I was hoping he might have said, I'm sorry,
but it just wasn't in him," said John Wood, whose daughter Sheryl
was killed in the attack. Zach Bush was working at R.E. Phelon that
fateful day, but Wise spared his life. He came to honor those who
weren't as fortunate. "All of our family there at the R.E. Phelon
company hope this will be a passing page in the chapter of the book
of our lives," said Bush. "When it happens to you and your family,
that's when it comes home and no one should ever have to go through
that," said Thompson. And though the execution brings closure,
victims say they'll never forget the loss. |
Date of scheduled execution |
State |
Victim name |
Inmate name |
Status |
November 9, 2005 |
Texas |
Karen Gail Crawford, 25 |
Charles
Thacker |
executed |
Karen Gail Crawford was a 1991 Sam
Houston State University graduate who majored in education. She
taught second grade in the Klein Independent School District for
less than two years before her tragic death in April 1993. On the
evening of April 7, 1993, during a telephone conversation with a
friend, Karen Crawford said that she was going to go to the store
for dog food. That same evening, a resident of her apartment complex
informed the maintenance supervisor that Karen Crawford’s keys were
hanging from her mailbox, which was located in a common area near
the apartment offices. The maintenance supervisor went to Karen’s
apartment, but she did not answer the door. He then noticed her car,
with her dog inside, parked near the mail room. While checking the
area of the mail room and pool, he found the women’s restroom
locked. He beat on the door, and a man’s voice answered from the
inside. The man became quiet when asked why he was using the women’s
restroom. The maintenance supervisor attempted unsuccessfully to
force open the door of the restroom. He then telephoned the
apartment manager. She and her husband arrived at the scene, and the
three discussed what to do. Suddenly, the restroom door opened and
Thacker emerged. A fight ensued when the maintenance supervisor
attempted to stop him. He attempted to cut Thacker with his pocket
knife, but Thacker sprayed him with mace and got away. Thacker
sprayed the manager's husband as well, and then pushed his way
through one of the two exit gates. The maintenance man and others
nearby chased Thacker down the block and tried to cut off his
escape. In the meantime, the manager found Karen lying face down on
the restroom floor. She was unconscious. One shoe and one leg of her
jogging pants were pulled off; the other pants leg was pulled down
to her ankle. The maintenance man and another bystander administered
CPR. They detected a heart beat, but she was not breathing. Some
faint brain activity was detected when she arrived at the hospital,
but it ceased within twenty-four hours. Medical examiners concluded
that Karen’s death was the result of strangulation. Karen’s neck was
bruised on the front and left side and her face and eyes exhibited a
condition known as pinpoint hemorrhaging. It was determined that a
choke hold or “hammerlock” was the probable method of strangulation.
No evidence of a completed sexual assault was found. In the early
morning hours of April 8, 1993, a police canine unit found Thacker
hiding in a yard near Karen Crawford’s apartment complex. A truck
containing papers bearing Thacker’s name was found parked outside
the offices of Karen’s apartment complex. Thacker was identified by
several witnesses who saw him loitering about the mail room just
before the offense. He was also identified by witnesses who saw him
running where Karen was found. A pubic hair matching a sample from
Karen was found in Thacker’s underwear. UPDATE: A convicted
serial rapist was executed tonight for the strangling and attempted
rape of a suburban Houston elementary school teacher 12 years ago.
His voice choked with emotion, Charles Daniel Thacker expressed love
to his family and friends and apologized. "I am sorry for the things
I have done," he said. "I know God will forgive me." Thacker asked
the two spiritual advisers who were his witnesses to keep track of
his daughter for him. "I will miss you guys. I love you," he said.
As the drugs began flowing, he said that he would "get to see Mom."
One of the needles was in his left hand and another on his right
arm. He asked his witnesses to tell his attorney that "they couldn't
find a vein on my arm." The issue of injection procedures was in his
appeals that were rejected by the Supreme Court about 30 minutes
before his execution. He gasped several times as the drugs took
effect and was pronounced dead at 6:32 p.m., nine minutes later.
Thacker argued he was innocent of the death of Karen Gail Crawford,
26, who was attacked outside her apartment in Tomball in northwest
Harris County. At the time of the April 1993 offense, Thacker had
been out of prison about eight months after serving less than four
years of two 12-year sentences for robbery and sexual assault. After
a Harris County jury convicted him of capital murder, the same
jurors condemned him after hearing from at least a half dozen
victims who testified how he raped or attempted to sexually assault
them. Thacker's relatives testified he had been molested as a child
by his mother's boyfriend and underwent counseling. Appeals
attorneys tried unsuccessfully to delay his punishment, contending
new DNA testing should be performed on evidence and challenging the
execution procedures and the questions asked of jurors who decided
Thacker should die. The Texas Board of Pardons and Paroles this week
refused to commute his sentence to life in prison and refused a
request to delay the punishment for 120 days. Thacker, 37, a native
of Lorain County, Ohio, declined to be interviewed in the weeks
leading up to his execution, but on a Web site where death row
inmates seek pen pals acknowledged he was in the area when Crawford
was attacked "up to no good with two other guys looking for stuff to
steal and sell." There was no evidence of others involved. Thacker's
truck was found in the apartment complex parking lot, and witnesses
reported seeing him loitering in the area. On his Web site, Thacker
suggested Crawford accidentally died because of CPR efforts. The
second-grade teacher was surprised from behind while at a community
mailbox at her apartment complex and was dragged into a restroom. A
search began when a passer-by spotted a key dangling from Crawford's
open mailbox and her car was nearby with her dog inside. A
maintenance worker found the women's restroom nearby locked but was
surprised to hear a male voice from inside. When the door opened,
the worker was blasted with pepper spray from the fleeing man, whom
he later identified as Thacker. Other residents who chased the man
as he ran into a wooded area also said it was Thacker. Crawford was
found unconscious inside the restroom. Police using tracking dogs
found Thacker hiding in a yard. Authorities found a hair belonging
to the victim in Thacker's underwear, Thacker wanted the DNA testing
to support his claim he was not involved in Crawford's death. An
autopsy showed Crawford had been choked or was held in a hammerlock,
leading to her death two days later. The women who testified he
raped or tried to rape them ranged in age from 13 to 64. "I remember
he was a particularly dangerous guy," recalled Joe Owmby, a Harris
County assistant district attorney who prosecuted Thacker. "You get
the feeling that sometimes when you have violent robbers something
went wrong in a capital murder. "But with him, you didn't get the
feeling something went wrong, that he just hadn't gotten up the
nerve to kill anyone yet. He was stalking these women and he was
going to kill." |
Date of scheduled execution |
State |
Victim name |
Inmate name |
Status |
November 11, 2005 |
North
Carolina |
Mildred Johnson Adams
Wesley Dalton Adams, Sr. |
Steven
McHone |
executed |
Steven
McHone was the son of Mildred Adams, who had divorced Wesley Adams
Sr. and remarried after having his children. She later left Bobby
McHone and remarried Mr. Adams, about seven years before they were
killed, their son Randall Adams said. In the summer of 1990, his
brother Wesley
Adams Jr., a Captain in the
United States Air Force, and his family were visiting in his
parents' home in Surry County, NC. Wendy Adams, Wesley Jr.'s wife and the mother of
two-year-old Alex, testified at trial that on the evening of June
2, 1990, she, Wesley Jr., Alex, and Mr. and Mrs. Adams went on a
fishing trip. Wendy and Wesley Jr. cleaned Mr. Adams' camper prior
to leaving for the trip. While cleaning the camper they discovered a
handgun. Mrs. Adams explained that the gun was for protection from
animals when camping. The family returned from the fishing trip at
approximately 12:30 a.m. on 3 June 1990. Steven McHone, who resided
with his parents, was at home when they arrived. Wendy began getting
Alex prepared for bed, and while doing so, she overheard McHone
arguing with Mr. and Mrs. Adams about money. McHone told them "he
wanted his money and he couldn't go on living like that."
McHone was upset because his mother would not give him money she had
set aside to pay his court-ordered restitution from a previous
conviction. McHone, who had a string of larceny and theft
convictions on his record, chased his mother around the yard of her
Surry County home before shooting her in the back of the head.
Testimony at trial showed that Wendy,
Wesley Jr., and Alex had gone to bed. Approximately ten or fifteen
minutes after they were in bed, Mildred Adams opened the door to their
room. She asked Wesley Jr. if he had taken the handgun from the
camper. Wesley Jr. said that he had not moved the gun. Mrs. Adams
responded, "then its missing" and she closed the bedroom door.
Wesley Jr. got up and began to get dressed so that he could find out
why McHone was arguing with his parents. However, before he left the
bedroom, he and Wendy heard three gun shots. Wesley Jr. told Wendy
"to stay down and keep Alex covered." He then went out into the
hallway to find out what had happened. Wendy heard someone coming up
the basement stairs, then heard Mr. Adams tell Wesley Jr. to call
911. Wesley Jr. testified that while he was talking on the telephone
with the 911 operator, he turned and saw McHone and Mr. Adams enter
the back door. They were wrestling and McHone had a pistol. Wesley
Jr. immediately dropped the telephone and disarmed McHone. Wesley
Jr. went back to the telephone and McHone and Mr. Adams began
wrestling again. Mr. Adams and McHone struggled out of the living
room and headed down the hallway, out of Wesley Jr.'s sight.
Approximately a minute later, Mr. Adams reappeared in the kitchen
doorway and said, "Your mother is facedown out back. You have got to
get help for her. Your mother's facedown. I don't know how badly
she's hurt." As Mr. Adams approached Wesley Jr., McHone came to the
doorway carrying a shotgun. When Mr. Adams realized that McHone was
bringing the gun up into a firing position, aimed at Wesley Jr., he
immediately moved toward McHone, reaching for the gun. McHone fired
the shotgun into Mr. Adams' chest, and the force of the discharge
threw Mr. Adams into Wesley Jr.'s arms, knocking them both to the
floor and injuring Wesley Jr.'s leg. After shooting Mr. Adams,
McHone raised the gun in the direction of Wesley Jr. who managed to
get up from the floor and take the weapon from McHone. When the
struggle ended, Wesley Jr. told McHone to stay down and not to move.
McHone began crying and saying, "Oh, my God. What have I done."
Wesley Jr. turned away from McHone to see if his wife was safe.
McHone then stopped crying and reached for the shotgun. Wesley Jr.
struggled with McHone again, and was able to keep the weapon from
him. McHone suddenly began to curse Wesley Jr. and told him, "I
killed him. Now I want you to kill me, because I don't want to spend
the rest of my life in jail. Just shoot me. Just get it over with."
McHone continued to curse Wesley Jr. in a very loud voice and stated
that Wesley Jr. was gutless and "if Wesley Jr. didn't kill him and
he got out of jail he'd hunt him down and hunt his family down and
finish them off." A member of the first response team organized by
the volunteer fire service testified that when he arrived at the
Adams residence Mr. Adams was lying on the kitchen floor. He
determined that Mr. Adams had a large chest wound and he did not
have a pulse. Another member of the first response team found Mrs.
Adams on the ground in the backyard. She appeared to have been shot
in the back of the head, but she was still alive. Mrs. Adams later
died from the gunshot wound. A Deputy Sheriff with the Surry County
Sheriff's Department arrived at the crime scene shortly after 2:00
a.m. When the officer entered the house, McHone yelled, "Why did I
do it? What have I done?" McHone was taken outside and placed in the
patrol car. The officer smelled alcohol on defendant's breath. At
trial, the officer testified that a person is drunk when that
"person's mental and physical capabilities are impaired to the point
that he cannot walk, talk, or act in a proper fashion." In his
opinion, McHone was not drunk on the night the murders occurred. A
detective with the Surry County Sheriff's Department testified that
when he entered the couple's residence, McHone stated, "I know what
I've done, and I'll have to pay for it. Why don't you just shoot me
and get it over with." The detective also testified that although
McHone had been drinking, he did not believe that he was drunk. A
pathologist at North Carolina Baptist Hospital who performed
autopsies on Mr. Adams and
Mrs. Adams determined that Mr. Adams died of a shotgun wound to the
chest, and Mrs. Adams died of a gunshot wound to the head. The State
presented other witnesses who testified to a stormy relationship
between McHone and his mother, including several threats by McHone
to harm or kill her. McHone did not testify. However, McHone
presented witnesses who testified that McHone had been drinking
prior to the murders. The State told the jury that McHone may have
been intoxicated but he was not drunk to the point of not being
responsible for his actions. The jury heard evidence that on prior
occasions McHone had chased his mother around the house with a
knife, threatening to kill her, that Mildred reported to her friends
that she was afraid to be alone with him because "he had told her
that he was going to kill her," and that she was "afraid to lay down
and go to sleep at night" because she believed that "sooner or later
he was going to kill her." The jury convicted McHone of two counts
of first degree murder, one each for killing his mother, Mildred,
and his step-father, Wesley, Sr. The jury also convicted McHone of
one count of assault with a deadly weapon with intent to kill, for
his attack on his step-brother, Wesley, Jr. UPDATE: Steven Van
McHone was executed early Friday for the shooting deaths of his
mother and stepfather. McHone, 35, was pronounced dead by injection
at 2:10 a.m., said Pam Walker, spokeswoman for the state Department
of Corrections. He issued no last statement, but appeared to say
"I'm so sorry" to a half-brother who supported the execution. He
lost his last chance to halt the execution when Gov. Mike Easley
denied clemency late Thursday. That decision was announced after the
U.S. Supreme Court turned down McHone's appeal without comment. The
court rejected the appeal from McHone's lawyers to stop the
execution so that his mother's dying statement that he didn't intend
to shoot her could be considered. Earlier in the day, the state
Supreme Court had overturned a stay issued by a lower court judge
for the Surry County man. McHone was sentenced to death for the 1990
slayings of his mother and stepfather. He's the third person
executed this year in North Carolina. "Given the facts and
circumstances of this case, I find no compelling reasons to
invalidate the sentences recommended by the jury and affirmed by the
courts," Easley said in a statement. Last week, the governor and his
legal adviser met with prosecutors, defense lawyers and members of
McHone's family. Two half sisters and a half brother had asked that
McHone not be executed, saying they forgave him and wanted to forge
a relationship with him. But another half brother, who caught his
father after he was hit by a shotgun blast, told Easley that justice
demanded the execution. Surry County Superior Court Judge Anderson
Cromer on Wednesday ordered the execution stopped to allow a
paramedic who treated Mildred Adams, McHone's mother, to testify
about her patient's dying statement. Paramedic Teresa Durham said in
an affidavit that Adams told her that McHone didn't mean to fatally
shoot her. McHone also killed Adams' husband, Wesley Adams Sr. The
state's high court rejected the defense argument, but didn't say why
in its one-page order vacating the stay. The U.S. Supreme Court then
followed with its decision. McHone's half brother, Wesley Adams Jr.
and wife Wendy, drove from their home in Dayton, Ohio, to witness
the execution. Wesley Jr. caught his father's body after McHone shot
him. Adams cites threats that McHone made in a letter written to a
girlfriend in September 1990 as part of his reason for not feeling
safe. The state attorney general's office released the letter last
week. In the letter, McHone wrote that every time he thought of the
way his half-brother was treating him, it "tears me up! I know one
thing, if I ever get out of prison, I'm going off on his ass ... he
won't have a snowball's chance in hell when and if I get out!" Adams
said that he and his wife, Wendy Adams, and their child still feel
threatened. "Wendy and I and my son Alex were there," Adams said in
an interview last week. "Unless you've experienced this type of
terror - and that's exactly what it was - you're really an outside
party. That crosses a threshold where I'm having difficulty saying
'OK, everything's forgiven here.' I don't know that I'm ready to say
I'm fully comfortable that the state of North Carolina will
incarcerate him for life." Wendy Adams said she was inside a bedroom
with her young son when the shootings occurred. She specifically
rebuts the comments that Mildred Adams is said to have made to
Durham. "She could not have imagined what he did afterward. None of
us can say how she would have felt if he had killed her only
grandson," Wendy Adams said. "Our family has lived in this shadow
for 15 years now." Wendy Adams said in a telephone interview that
the paramedic's testimony was suspicious. "There was another
paramedic with her and do we have any word from whoever it was that
they heard it, too?" she said. "It was iffy because from all
accounts she didn't tell anybody about it until years afterward."
McHone, who was housed alone in a cell block near the death chamber,
visited with family members who supported his try for clemency - his
half sisters, Tina Walker and Cheryl McMillian, and a half brother,
Randall Adams. Randall Adams said he always looked forward to
holidays with his parents, especially after Mildred and Wesley Adams
Sr. remarried after years apart. “It was a good thing,” said Mr.
Adams, 44, of Siloam. “We had good food and everybody was laughing
and joking and carrying on. That was the first time in a long time
that we had been able to do anything like that. They’d been
separated a lot of years.” Evidence showed McHone and his 52-year-old mother
argued over money and that he chased her around the yard before
shooting her in the back of the head. Wesley Adams Sr., 52, disarmed
McHone and went to help his wife while McHone found another weapon
and shot his stepfather before being disarmed by his half-brother Wesley Jr. |
Date of scheduled execution |
State |
Victim name |
Inmate name |
Status |
November 15, 2005 |
Texas |
Irving Wright
Raymond David Mata |
Robert
Rowell |
executed |
On 05/10/1993 in Houston, Texas,
Rowell entered a crack house in an attempt to rob Irving Wright of
drugs and money. Rowell started shooting with a 25 caliber pistol
striking all three victims, killing Wright and Raymond David Mata.
Another man was shot in the left arm and leg and paralyzed. Rowell
then robbed the victims of unknown money and fled the scene by car. Rowell
came to the home of people with whom he was supposedly friends in
search of drugs and money. While he probably could have gotten what
he wanted with very little resistance from Wright due to his size,
Rowell chose instead to beat him in the head with a claw hammer.
Then, still receiving no resistance from any of the victims, Rowell
marched all three into the bathroom and shot them. One of the
victims also had signs of continued beatings after he was shot.
Rowell then proceeded to take a shower and clean himself up. UPDATE:
Tuesday night Robert Rowell, 50, was executed for fatally shooting
three people at a Houston crack house. A third person was wounded
and left paralyzed. In a brief final statement as relatives of one
of his victims watched through a window, Rowell apologized "for all
the grief I have caused them." He was pronounced dead approximately
nine minutes after the lethal injection began. |
Date of scheduled execution |
State |
Victim name |
Inmate name |
Status |
November 15, 2005 |
Ohio |
unnamed victim
Betty Jane Mottinger |
John Spirko |
stayed |
John
Spirko was sentenced to die in 1984 for the murder of Elgin
postmaster Betty Jane Mottinger. Spirko, 58, claims that the state's
case against him was weakened when charges against his co-defendant
were dropped last year. He also says prosecutors withheld key
evidence and presented a false case. An important element of the Van
Wert County prosecutor's case was a witness who said she recognized
co-defendant Delaney Gibson, a friend of Spirko, near the Elgin post
office the day that Mottinger disappeared. No physical evidence tied
Spirko to the murder. He was convicted of the killing based largely
on his statements to police and the testimony of the eyewitness who
said she had seen Gibson near the post office. Prosecutors had
alleged that Spirko participated in the kidnapping and killing of
Mottinger with Gibson. Prosecutors never told the jury or defense
that they had evidence before the trial that Gibson was with family
in North Carolina, hundreds of miles from Elgin, the night before
the crime. Recently, Spirko's lawyers said evidence had surfaced
that a key investigator told the prosecutor before the 1984 trial
that Gibson wasn't involved in the murder, but that the prosecutor
used the Gibson allegations against Spirko anyway. The prosecutor
has denied this. Earlier this year, U.S. District Judge James Carr
of Toledo authorized Spirko's lawyers to investigate that evidence
further. Gibson was never tried in the Mottinger case. Capital
murder charges against him were dismissed last year. Spirko, born in
Toledo, was paroled in Kentucky in 1982 for a separate murder. He
returned to Swanton to live with his sister. He was soon jailed
there on an unrelated assault charge, a parole violation. Spirko's
attorneys argued he is sitting on death row because he lied to
investigators about having information about the unsolved Mottinger
murder. Spirko has maintained he wanted to trade false information
for leniency for himself on the assault charge as well as for his
girlfriend, who had been charged with helping him to attempt a
prison escape. Although investigators dismissed much of what he told
them, they latched onto Spirko's connection with Gibson and several
details they said could come only from the killer. These details
included: 1) the location of the stab wounds in Ms. Mottinger’s
body; 2) a description of Ms. Mottinger’s clothing; 3) knowledge
that a stone had been pried from a ring worn by Ms. Mottinger; 4) a
description of the ring; 5) the type of shroud and specific method
used to enwrap Ms. Mottinger’s body after her death; 6) a
description of Ms. Mottinger’s purse into which the perpetrators
placed the fruits of the Post Office robbery; and 7) a description
of what was stolen in that robbery. On October 28, 2004 and November
16, 2004, Spirko filed an application for DNA testing in the trial
court. Spirko requested DNA testing on “blood or other evidence
received from the person of the deceased, Betty Mottinger, or from
physical evidence recovered from the area where the body was
discovered including blood evidence on tarp and boots.” On March 10,
2005, the trial court denied Spirko’s request for DNA testing. In
doing so, the trial court noted the following: 1) There was no
biological material found at the site of the abduction; 2) At trial
it was never claimed that any of the blood found on or in the area
of the victim’s remains was the defendant’s; and 3) As to the boots,
it was conceded by the prosecution at trial that it could have been
Spirko’s blood on the boots. Thus, the trial court concluded that
DNA testing could not exonerate Spirko. In September, Gov. Bob Taft
delayed Spirko's execution to allow for a second parole board
hearing. Taft ordered the execution delayed from Sept. 20 until Nov.
15 to allow for the hearing. UPDATE: Gov. Bob Taft on Monday delayed
the execution of a condemned killer who says he's innocent, the
second time in two months Taft ordered a delay in a case nagged by
questions over evidence. Taft granted John Spirko a 60-day reprieve
at the request of Attorney General Jim Petro, who says he needs that
long to test several items that Spirko's attorneys want reviewed.
Petro informed Taft and Spirko's attorneys in letters Monday about
his willingness to conduct the testing and his request for the
60-day reprieve. "I am a proponent of DNA technology," Petro said in
the two-page letter to Thomas Hill, a Washington, D.C.-based
attorney representing Spirko. "It is important to accommodate the
use of DNA testing where practical and feasible." Petro, a
Republican running for governor next year, said he does not believe
the testing will be able to prove either Spirko's innocence or his
guilt. "Notwithstanding, I believe that to the extent possible, all
information should be made available for the parties, courts, and
the Governor to use for what purpose they feel necessary," Petro
said. Spirko was scheduled to die by injection Nov. 15 for the 1982
killing of Betty Jane Mottinger, 48, the postmistress in Elgin in
northwest Ohio. She was abducted and repeatedly stabbed, then
wrapped in a tarp and dumped in a field. Her body was found three
weeks later. Spirko, 59, was convicted on the basis of witness'
statements and his own comments to investigators. No physical
evidence linked him to the crime. Authorities say he described
details only someone at the scene of the crime could know. Spirko
says he got the details from media reports and used the information
to make a deal with authorities to gain the release of a girlfriend,
who was held on an unrelated crime. Spirko sued in federal court
last Wednesday to require the testing of the tarp, a cement block
found near Mottinger's body and duct tape wrapped around her, among
other items. On Sept. 8, Taft delayed Spirko's scheduled Sept. 20
execution to look into whether prosecutors presented inaccurate
information at a clemency hearing in August. In response, the Ohio
Parole Board granted an unprecedented second clemency hearing for
Spirko, and on Oct. 19 voted 6-3 to recommend that Taft allow the
execution to proceed. The majority said the claims of new evidence
weren't enough to merit clemency. The delay is encouraging, said
Alvin Dunn, an attorney also representing Spirko. "We're looking
forward to having this completed and believe it will demonstrate
that our client had nothing to do with this crime," Dunn said
Monday. The tarp is important to Spirko's case because of a house
painter who maintains his former boss on a painting crew is the real
killer. The house painter, John Willier, passed a lie detector test
last month as he repeated a 1997 statement accusing his boss, who is
now in a Louisiana prison. Spirko's attorneys say Willier told
investigators in 1984 that the paint-splattered tarp Mottinger's
body was wrapped in was the one his crew was using. Chemical tests
matched the paint to houses the crew worked on. In past court
filings, Spirko's attorneys also questioned prosecutors' attempt to
link Spirko to the crime through a friend. Prosecutors alleged the
friend, Delaney Gibson, was seen near the post office the day
Mottinger was abducted. But Spirko's attorneys say photographs and
other evidence place Gibson with a full beard in North Carolina the
day before. Witnesses say the man they saw at the post office was
clean shaven. Last year, prosecutors dropped death penalty charges
against Gibson in connection with Mottinger's death, saying the case
against Gibson was too old. |
Date of scheduled execution |
State |
Victim name |
Inmate name |
Status |
November 16, 2005 |
Texas |
Roberto Rios
Victor Rios, 13
Maria Rios, 10
Melathethil Tom Varughese |
Shannon
Thomas |
executed |
Relatives bringing Christmas
gifts to the home or Roberto Rios 12 years ago in Baytown, just east
of Houston, were greeted with the horror of discovering the three
bodies. On Dec. 24, 1993, Shannon Thomas
and Keith Clay committed the triple murder of Roberto Rios; Rios'
13-year-old son, Victor; and Rios' 10-year-old daughter, Maria, at
Rios' home. Rios, 32, had been shot, beaten and stabbed, a steak
knife still in his neck. His 11-year-old son, Victor, and
10-year-old daughter, Maria, were upstairs in the small house, both
face down and shot in the head. "When you're at a murder scene
looking at dead kids and there's Christmas presents around and you
look at the TV and 'It's A Wonderful Life' is playing, it took me
five years before I could watch that movie again," Baytown Detective
Randy Rhodes said Tuesday. "For the rest of my life, Christmas is
going to be associated with those kids. I hope for his own sake and
his own soul he's gotten straight with the Lord, but he's got a debt
to pay and it's time to pay it." Keith Clay confessed to only "roughing up" Roberto Rios, who
was found bound with duct tape, beaten with a pair of bolt cutters,
stabbed in the neck, and shot three times. His two children were
found shot execution style in the back of the head. Shannon Thomas
was also present with Keith Bernard Clay during the murder of a
convenience store clerk less than two weeks later. Thomas was
convicted of capital murder and sentenced to death for his role as
the primary actor in the Rios family murders. Authorities said Rios,
whose ex-wife lived in Monterrey, Mexico, was a small-time marijuana
dealer. "They wanted dope and money out of him," said Harris County
Assistant District Attorney Marie Munier, who prosecuted the case.
Munier said evidence showed Rios was duct-taped to a chair, tortured
and "beat with this pair of tin snips or metal snips, a humongous
pair of scissors, then stabbed ... The family comes over later that
evening to bring presents and they find bodies." It was almost two
years before any arrests were made in the slayings. Thomas and Clay
apparently told friends about the murders. When one of those friends
was arrested on a drug charge, he gave police information
implicating Thomas and Clay. A friend testified Thomas told him
shortly after the slayings he was responsible for the Rios family
killings. At the time of these murders, Thomas was on probation for
delivery of a controlled substance, and records show a motion to
revoke his probation was pending. He also had served time at a
Harris County boot camp after an assault conviction. On Jan. 4, 1994, Melathethil Tom Varughese, the clerk at the Texaco station who was
working alone, was found lying on the floor behind the cashier's
booth with Christmas tree lights wrapped around his wrists. Two $20
bills were found on the floor under the register, and eight shell
casings were found scattered around the store. Varughese had been
shot six times in various parts of his body. He suffered multiple
lacerations on his face and forehead, and suffered extensive blunt
force trauma to the head, including a fractured skull. Items missing
from the store included: most of the money in the cash register, a
pistol usually kept behind the counter, and a small red cigar box
kept behind the counter that occasionally had money in it. Evidence
presented at trial indicated that the eight shell casings found at
the scene came from the same 9 mm Hi-Point pistol. The bullets found
in Varughese's body were from two different guns, one a 9 mm, and
the other, a revolver like the one kept under the cash register.
Houston authorities arrested Clay the following December under
suspicion for Varughese's murder and for the 1993 Christmas Eve
triple murder of the Roberto Rios family that had occurred two weeks
before the Varughese murder. Clay was subsequently convicted of
capital murder and sentenced to death for his role in the Varughese
robbery/murder. Evidence presented during the punishment phase of
Clay's capital murder trial included his admitted presence and
participation in the Rios family incident. |
Date of scheduled execution |
State |
Victim name |
Inmate name |
Status |
November 18 2005
|
North
Carolina |
Teresa Yousef Syriani |
Elias
Syriani |
executed |
Elias Hanna Syriani, 67,
was scheduled to be executed Nov. 18 for the 1990 murder of Teresa
Yousef Syriani in Mecklenburg County. Fifteen years ago, the
four Syriani children - Rose, Sarah, John and Janet -- lost their
mother. Now, they are just weeks away from losing their father:
67-year-old Elias Syriani, who is scheduled to be executed next
month for the July 1990 murder of his wife and the mother of his
children, Teresa and they are pleading with Gov. Mike Easley to save
their father's life. "We're just begging that this does not get
carried out," daughter Rose Syriani said during a press conference
at the Legislature on Tuesday. "This is four lives that will be
destroyed." Teresa Syriani was stabbed 28 times with a screwdriver
as she sat in her car with her son, John, in Charlotte, police said.
Three of the children testified against their father either during
the guilt or penalty phase of the trial. After more than a decade of
estrangement, the children, who are now adults, met with their
father at Central Prison in August 2004. "I've always thought of him
as a murderer that took my mom. But when I saw him for the first
time waving and smiling like a kid in Disneyland, I saw my dad,"
daughter Sarah Barbari said. Over the past year, the children have
developed a new relationship with their father. All four children
said their change from anger and bitterness to forgiveness and love
is a "miracle" they believe is the work of God and their mother. The
U.S. Supreme Court and Easley will look at the law surrounding the
case. Defense attorneys, who have lost their appeals in lower
courts, claim Elias Syriani did not have a competent attorney at
trial. Syriani's attorneys said they have one more appeal to file
with the courts. On Nov. 8, they also plan to meet with Easley
during a clemency hearing in which they will ask the governor to
stop the execution. Syriani is scheduled to be executed at Central
Prison on Nov. 18. |
Date of scheduled execution |
State |
Victim name |
Inmate name |
Status |
November 28, 2005 |
Arkansas |
Julie Heath,
18 |
Eric Nance |
executed |
Governor Mike
Huckabee has set a November 28th execution date for convicted killer
Eric Nance. Nance raped and murdered 18-year-old Julie Heath in
October of 1993. Heath was driving from Malvern to Hot Springs. Her
car was found on Hwy 270. The young woman's body was found 5 miles
away by a hunter about a week after she vanished. Her throat had
been cut with a box cutter. Police
believe her car broke down and Nance saw her on the side of the
road. Julie Heath was last seen alive on
October 11, 1993. That evening she left her home in Malvern,
Arkansas, to visit her boyfriend in Hot Springs, Arkansas. Julie's
car broke down on the way. Nance was returning to Malvern from Hot
Springs in his pickup at about this time. When he left Hot Springs,
he was dressed in a shirt, bib-overalls, and shoes. According to
Nance, he stopped to help and offered Julie a ride to Malvern. Nance
was later seen in a convenience store with no shoes, socks, or
shirt. He also had dark, damp stains on his overalls that appeared
to be fresh. On October 18, 1993, Julie's body was found in a wooded
area just off an unpaved road about seven miles from where she had
left her car. The body was fully clothed. A photograph of the
clothed body that was admitted into evidence shows that the belt
buckle was partially undone; the pants' zipper was partially zipped;
and the portion of the shirt covering the body's right shoulder was
torn. An officer testified at trial that the shirt was inside out
when the body was found. And photographs of the shirt once it was
removed from the body reveal that the shirt's torn shoulder was its
left shoulder. The officer also testified that he concluded the
shirt was wrong-side out because when he saw the clothed body in the
woods, the shirt's shoulder pad was on the outside surface of the
garment. The shirt's other shoulder pad was found nearby. The
medical examiner testified that when the body was presented to him
it was dressed in one black shirt which was inside out, one pair of
black jeans, one black belt, one pair of black socks, which were
inside out, one pair of black shoes, a white bra, which was pulled
up around the neck and shoulder area, pink panties, which were
inside out. The shirt and pants were intact around the body. The
belt was buckled and the zipper was partially zipped and a slightly
soiled sanitary napkin was present. The medical examiner also
testified that the shirt was torn or cut near the shoulder. A search
of Nance's pickup revealed red pubic hairs in the cab. Julie had red
hair and an expert testified that these hairs were microscopically
similar to some taken from Julie's body. Nance's defense theory was
that he accidentally killed Julie. He claimed that when she was
riding in his pickup she saw his knife (a box cutter), became
hysterical, started kicking him and pulling his hair, and that he
put his hand up to make her stop. He claimed that after he put his
hand up, he realized the knife had become lodged in her throat.
Though Nance did not testify, this version of his story arose at
trial through his brother and sister, to whom he had told the same
story. In the guilt phase of the trial, the jury found Nance guilty
of capital felony murder with attempted rape as the underlying
felony. In the sentencing phase, the State presented as evidence six
prior felony convictions stemming from Nance's rape and beating of
two Oklahoma girls in 1982. Nance was released from his twenty-year
sentence for those convictions five months before he killed Julie.
Julie's mother also testified about how her daughter's death
affected her and her family: "Mr. Nance took my only daughter. I
believe that he deserves the death penalty. He has ruined my
family's life. I have been under constant doctor's care since her
death. I've had to see a psychologist once a week. I'm on numerous
medications. My life will never be the same again. This has affected
all of my family. It's been very hard on my husband and my son. We
basically do not know how we can live without her." The State also
argued that Nance killed Julie to avoid arrest. To counter this
aggravating evidence, Nance produced some mitigating facts. He
offered his confession to police (which was not offered by the State
in the guilt phase of the trial) to show remorse. That recitation
recounted the story that was the basis for his guilt-phase defense.
In further support of his mitigation case, Nance introduced
testimony from his brother, sister, mother, employer, and minister.
The jury found that two statutory aggravating circumstances existed
beyond a reasonable doubt, that no mitigating circumstances existed,
that the aggravating circumstances outweighed any mitigating
circumstances beyond a reasonable doubt, and that "the aggravating
circumstances justify beyond a reasonable doubt the sentence of
death." The judge, following the jury's recommendation, sentenced
Nance to death. UPDATE: The 8th Circuit Court of Appeals vacated a
judge's stay of the November 28th execution of an Arkansas death row
inmate, saying "The case is closed." The court said the issue of
whether the state is prohibited from executing 45-year-old Eric
Nance because he is mentally retarded has been raised previously and
denied. Julie Heath’s cousin Belinda Crites said "He is not mentally
retarded, that is just a way he thinks he can get out of something.”
Belinda recently saw the crime scene photos for the first time. "He
left her like an animal -- just like a dead animal,” she said.
"Everybody wants to have pity for him, but I think about the pity
for Julie." UPDATE: Eric Nance was put to death by injection
after a 1½-hour delay so the U.S. Supreme Court could consider
appeals, one claiming that Nance is mentally retarded and the other
that additional DNA testing might clear his name. "This is not easy
for any of us and we do feel for his mother, his family," said
Johnie Hood, a cousin of the victim. "I just pray that Julie rests
in peace now. He couldn't say he was sorry. What he went through
tonight was painless compared to what he put Julie through." Hood
and other family members watched the execution via closed-circuit
television in a prison office. Heath's mother Nancy killed herself
at Christmas time a year after her daughter's murder. "I hope that
he did say he's sorry to someone for what he had done," said Belinda
Crites, another cousin. "We want to make sure the devil dies. He's
gone now so I hope they can rest in peace." |
Date of scheduled execution |
State |
Victim name |
Inmate name |
Status |
November 29, 2005 |
Ohio |
Brandy Green, 5
Maxine Armstrong, 56 |
John Hicks |
executed |
On 8/2/85, John Hicks murdered his
5-year-old stepdaughter, Brandy Green, and his 56-year-old
mother-in-law, Maxine Armstrong, in Maxine's Cincinnati
apartment. Earlier that day, Hicks had pawned his VCR for $50 to buy
cocaine with. After getting high, Hicks realized he needed to
retrieve the VCR before his wife realized it was missing, so he
decided to steal the money from his wife's mother. He woke
Brandy from where she was sleeping on the couch and took her to her
bed. After putting Brandy to bed, Hicks strangled Maxine with
his hands and then a clothesline and stole $300 to retrieve the VCR
and buy more cocaine.
When Hicks realized that Brandy could identify him as the last person with Maxine
Armstrong, he returned to the apartment, tried to smother Brandy
with a pillow but she struggled so he choked her with his hands and then taped her mouth
and nose with duct tape, while she was still breathing. Hicks
surrendered to police in Knoxville, Tennessee, where he confessed to
them and later confessed to Cincinnati detectives. Hicks was
sentenced to death for the murder of Brandy. UPDATE: After
Hicks was strapped into the gurney he said that he wished that he
could bring the victims back. He also told his victims' family
members that he's felt the same pain that they have for the last 20
years. "Y'all endured the pain each day," he said. "I hurt too. I
cared and loved them too. I know this may be shallow or hollow words
to y'all but it's coming from my heart." Brandy and Maxine's
relatives who witnessed the execution were not sympathetic to
Hicks's self-imposed loss and said they did see the comment as an
expression of remorse but more as self-pity. Maxine's daughter,
son-in-law and granddaughter witnessed the execution and talked
later about Hicks' final statement. "He didn't turn and look
away in shame," Douglas Hughes said about the look Hicks gave him.
"It was more like, 'so what? It's over for me now too." During his
final statement, Hicks mentioned Armstrong and Green by name. Pam
Hughes, Maxine's daughter, was bothered that Hicks laughed as the
lethal injection began to affect him. "It wasn't just a giggle," she
said. "I mean, it sounded kind of evil to us. It just wasn't
something that someone who was getting ready to die and was
remorseful, would do." During the bizarre outburst, Hicks shook his
head, then yelled, "Whoa. Hallelujah," before laughing loudly and
saying, "Yes.... thank you." |
Date of scheduled execution |
State |
Victim name |
Inmate name |
Status |
November 30, 2005 |
Virginia |
Clayton Dicks, 44, |
Robin Lovitt |
commuted |
Robin Lovitt was convicted in 1999
of fatally stabbing a man with scissors during a 1998 pool hall
robbery in Arlington. Prosecutors said he was trying to get money to
buy drugs. He previously worked at the pool hall, and its cash
register box was found at the home of his cousin, and a pair of
bloody scissors was found in woods halfway between the pool hall and
the cousin's home. On November 18, 1998, Clayton Dicks was brutally
murdered at the pool hall where he worked in Arlington County.
Clayton was stabbed six times in his back and chest. When his body
was found, the police discovered that the pool hall’s cash register
had been broken and one of the drawers was missing. Also missing
that morning was a pair of orange-handled scissors kept next to the
register. A police canine unit found scissors of a similar
description lying in the woods about fifteen yards behind the pool
hall. Those scissors had blood on them which matched the DNA of
Clayton Dicks. Amy Hudon, a manager at the pool hall, testified that
two months before Dicks was murdered, the cash register drawer was
not opening properly. Robin Lovitt, an employee of hers at the time,
assisted her by prying a pair of scissors into the drawer’s latch
and forcing it open. Clayton Dicks was scheduled to work the late
managerial shift at the pool hall on the night he was murdered. He
arrived for work between 1:30 and 2:00 in the morning. The other
employees left the pool hall by 3:00 a.m., making Dicks the only
employee remaining on the premises. At 3:25 a.m., Jose Alverado and
Carlos Clavell arrived at the pool hall and witnessed two men
fighting behind the bar. Alvarado testified that he saw the shorter
man stab the taller man six or seven times with a silver-colored
weapon. Once the taller man fell to the floor, Alvarado said he saw
the shorter man repeatedly kick him. At the preliminary hearing,
Alvarado could not say he was 100% certain that Lovitt was the
assailant, but he did testify at trial that he was 80% sure.
Lovitt’s cousin lives on the "other side of the woods" from the pool
hall, about a quarter mile away. The cousin testified that Lovitt
arrived at his house between 1:30 and 3:00 on November 18th.
Lovitt's cousin said Lovitt was carrying a large square metal box.
The two cousins opened the box with a screwdriver and split the
money that was inside. The government’s theory at trial was that
Lovitt used the scissors to pry open the cash register but was
caught in the act by Dicks. Thus surprised, Lovitt allegedly stabbed
Dicks several times with the scissors before fleeing with the
cash-register drawer to his cousin’s house, discarding the scissors
along the way. In support of this theory, a forensic scientist
testified that the cash register drawer that had been found at his
cousin’s house did in fact come from the pool hall register, and
that the pry marks on the drawer were made by the same scissors that
were found in the woods. Another scientist testified that the chance
of someone other than Dicks contributing to the DNA sample on the
tip of the scissors found in the woods was 1 in more than 5.5
billion. Another key witness for the prosecution was an inmate at
the Arlington County jail who befriended Lovitt during the two
months they lived together in the same unit. The inmate testified
that Lovitt confided in him about murdering Dicks. According to him,
Lovitt said he waited in the bathroom late at night on November 18
until he knew everyone but Dicks had left the pool hall. Apparently,
Lovitt then attempted to jimmy open the cash register drawer. When
confronted and recognized by Dicks, Lovitt told Lucas he stabbed
Dicks several times and took the cash register drawer to his
cousin’s house before leaving to buy drugs. After hearing all of
this evidence, on September 20, 1999, a jury found Robin Lovitt
guilty of the capital murder of Clayton Dicks during the commission
of a robbery. UDPATE: Virginia Governor Mark Warner granted clemency
to Robin Lovitt, a convicted killer who would have become the 1000th
person executed in the United States since executions resumed in
1977. Lovitt's sentence was commuted to life in prison. Lovitt, 42,
was set to be executed by injection Wednesday night for stabbing a
man to death with a pair of scissors during a pool-hall robbery in
1998. Gov. Mark R. Warner had said he was agonizing over whether to
grant Lovitt clemency on the grounds that a court clerk illegally
destroyed much of the evidence in the case, preventing DNA testing
that Lovitt's lawyers say could exonerate him. "No case has been
more troubling," Warner said Tuesday on WTOP radio in Washington.
"There's no case I've spent more time thinking about, praying
about." Warner, a Democrat, has never granted clemency in the nearly
four years he has been governor. During that time 11 men have been
executed. |
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