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.

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.

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.

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."

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."

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.