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Five killers were
executed in March 2010. They had murdered at least 10 people.
Four killers were given a stay in March 2010. They have murdered at least 11 people.
|
Date of scheduled execution |
State |
Victim name |
Inmate name |
Status |
|
March 2, 2010 |
Texas |
Kleber Dos Santos, 27
Lilian Dos Santos, 25 |
Michael
Sigala |
executed |
| On August
22, 2000, Michael Sigala unlawfully entered the home of a young
married couple, Kleber and Lilian Dos Santos. Once inside, Sigala
executed Kleber with a single gunshot to his head. He then
apparently forced Lilian to remove her clothes and wash herself. In
the bedroom, Sigala bound Lilian's hands and neck with telephone
cords, then dripped hot wax from a nearby candle onto her labia,
whipped her buttocks with a belt or something rod shaped, and cut
the inside of her thigh. While torturing his victim, Sigala
masturbated and ejaculated on the floor. Finally, he shot Lilian in
the face and again in the side of the head, causing her death. After
the murders, Sigala tried to remove all evidence of his presence by
wiping his prints off everything and cleaning the carpet where he
had masturbated. He also helped himself to a drink, watched
television, and selectively ransacked the apartment. When he left,
Sigala took the Santos' wedding rings and several other items. The
police apprehended Sigala two months later after several of the
stolen items were recovered from various shops and traced back to
him. Sigala confessed to killing Kleber, ejaculating as Lilian lay
on the bed, and stealing the couple's rings. Testing of the semen
discovered on the floor next to the bed revealed an "exact" DNA
match to Sigala. A firearms expert testified that all of the bullets
recovered from the scene were fired from the same weapon. Although
Sigala attempted to blame Lilian's assault on another, no evidence
connected another perpetrator to the scene. At the punishment stage
of trial, the State presented evidence that Sigala abused drugs,
attended drug rehabilitation without success, had been expelled from
high school, and had a substantial criminal history including
thefts, marijuana possession, robbery, and burglary. Sigala also
admitted to one witness that he belonged to a gang. Finally, a
mental-health expert testified that Sigala had an antisocial
personality disorder and could be described as a "sadistic sexual
predator." Although only twenty-three years of age at the time of
this offense, Sigala already had a long history of criminal conduct
which included thefts, burglaries, robberies, and drug abuse.
|
|
Date of scheduled execution |
State |
Victim name |
Inmate name |
Status |
|
March 11, 2010 |
Texas |
Robbie
Bott
Rudolfo Lopes |
Joshua
Maxwell |
executed |
| On
September 10th, 11th, and 12th of 2000, Joshua Maxwell and his girlfriend,
Tessie McFarland, confined Robby Bott, stole property from Bott’s
residence, forced Bott to buy items for them at a Meijer store, killed Bott
by shooting him in the face and strangling him, put him in the trunk
of his own car, and set Bott and his car on fire. Bott's body was
found in Marion County, Indiana, on September 12, 2000. His badly
charred body was inside the trunk of his Mercury Cougar automobile,
which had been set on fire. He had suffered a fatal gunshot wound to
his chest, and his hands and feet had been bound together behind his
back. The medical examiner did not recover a bullet from Bott's body
during the autopsy. When police arrived at Bott's residence in
Mooresville, Indiana, they discovered that the back door was open
and the house was in disarray. Maxwell's fingerprints matched the
fingerprints on a vodka bottle and a wine bottle in the kitchen.
McFarland's fingerprints matched the fingerprints on the
refrigerator door, a videotape, and a pizza box. A pizza delivery
slip found in Bott's bedroom contained Maxwell's name and the
address of a house in nearby Indianapolis where Maxwell had been
staying with McFarland. Police searched the house in Indianapolis
and found several items belonging to Bott, including his wallet,
various forms of identification, credit cards, and bank statements.
Maxwell's fingerprints matched the fingerprints on a sales receipt
in Bott's wallet. Substances that appeared to be blood and vomit
trailed from the basement to the outside of the Indianapolis
residence. The basement smelled strongly of chemicals and contained
some empty gallon jugs of muriatic acid. A spent cartridge casing
was recovered from an overturned wooden wardrobe cabinet in the
basement. A spent bullet was recovered from a sweater inside the
wardrobe cabinet. A firearms examiner testified that the gun that
fired the spent bullet and spent cartridge casing was the same gun
that was used to kill Lopes in this case. Maxwell, Bott, and a
female were seen shopping at two retail stores in the Indianapolis
area at 11:30 p.m. on September 10 and at 5:00 a.m. on September 11.
Bott used his credit card to purchase approximately $2500 of
merchandise at the first store. When the night manager commented
that they were buying an unusually large amount of merchandise at
that time of night, Maxwell explained that he and the female were
getting married and that Bott was his uncle and was buying them the
merchandise as a wedding gift. Bott made a credit card purchase of
approximately $1100 at the second store, where the threesome were
recorded on the store's security surveillance camera. At
approximately 6:00 a.m. on September 11, a man was recorded on
videotape making withdrawals with Bott's ATM card at a nearby Bank
One ATM terminal. He made two withdrawals, and his attempt to
withdraw more money was declined because it exceeded the daily
limit. The couple fled to Texas after murdering Bott. Rudolfo Lopes,
a sergeant with the Bexar County, Texas Sheriff's Department, was
murdered in San Antonio on or about October 11, 2000. San Antonio
resident Robert Brown encountered Maxwell and Tess McFarland prior
to Lopes's murder. Brown met Maxwell, who went by the name "Mo," and
McFarland, who went by the name "Trina," by responding to their ad
on a "dating telephone line" advertised in a magazine. The first
time Maxwell and McFarland came to Brown's apartment, they talked
for about an hour and Brown gave them money to buy food. Brown
testified that they stole some rings from him at that time. Two or
three days later, Maxwell and McFarland told Brown that they were in
town for a friend's wedding and needed a place to stay overnight.
They spent the night at Brown's apartment and gave him a ride to a
liquor store the next day. Brown testified that they had a gray
three-door vehicle with Florida license plates. He further testified
that the car was dirty and filthy-smelling, and that there was a
container in the car with a chameleon lizard inside it. Brown let
them use his phone before they left that afternoon. After they left,
a man called asking for "Mo" and "Trina." Lopes's wife testified
that Lopes was scheduled to work at the Bexar County Jail from 10:00
a.m. to 9:00 p.m. on October 11. Lopes left for work that morning in
his gold four-door Chevrolet pickup truck, but he never returned
home that night. Lopes often carried a briefcase and wore a gold
chain necklace with a cross and anchor pendant. Lopes normally
carried a Glock pistol issued by the Sheriff's Department. An
investigations officer with the Security Service Federal Credit
Union testified that Lopes had a checking account, a savings
account, an ATM card, and a Visa card at the credit union. Records
show that shortly after 7:00 p.m. on October 11, someone using
Lopes's ATM card at the credit union's Southwest Military Branch
made two successful withdrawals of $300 and $100. The person using
the card attempted to withdraw more money from Lopes's checking and
savings accounts, but the transactions were denied. A surveillance
camera photographed a woman leaning out of the driver's side of a
vehicle using the ATM. Charles Dudley, the owner of a martial arts
school in a northeast San Antonio strip center, testified that he
left work with his family about 9:00 p.m. on October 11. They
noticed a gold Chevrolet pickup truck driving around to the back of
the strip center, so they got into Dudley's car and drove behind the
strip center to see what was going on. The truck was parked next to
a hole in the privacy fence that separated the strip center from the
field behind it. Dudley observed a woman with long, bushy hair and
glasses sitting in the driver's seat and a man slumped down in the
passenger seat. As Dudley drove by, the man and the woman stared
straight ahead. Dudley thought it odd and slowly drove by them a
second time and put his headlights on the truck. The man and the
woman continued sitting in the truck staring straight ahead. A woman who lived in a residential area behind the strip center
testified that she and her husband were watching the Presidential
Debate on the evening of October 11. She heard one loud gunshot
between 9:00 and 10:00 p.m. Lopes's body was discovered in the field
behind the strip center on October 12. He was blindfolded and was
lying face down with his arms inside his shirt and his hands bound
together. There was a white cotton cord tied around one of his
wrists, and both wrists were tightly bound together with a clear
telephone cord. Police found a spent shell casing on the ground near
Lopes's body. Maxwell and McFarland then fled to California. A
security guard at the Windsor Park Mall in San Antonio first
ticketed a gray Chevrolet Corsica with Florida license plates for
overnight parking at 4:15 a.m. on October 12. The abandoned vehicle
continued to receive parking tickets until it was reported to police
on October 15. Police discovered that the vehicle identification
number and the license plate did not match and that the vehicle was
"flagged" from out of state in reference to another homicide case.
Inside the car were letters containing references to Maxwell and
McFarland, a package of cigarettes, photographs of McFarland and
Maxwell, a "Scotsman Inn" hotel receipt with the name "Trina Dorris,"
and a dead lizard. At 4:40 p.m. on October 17, police officers
Joseph Juarez and Jesus Pena were on duty in downtown San Francisco,
California, when they saw a gold pickup truck speed through an
intersection and almost hit a pedestrian. The officers stopped the
truck, exited their vehicle, approached the truck from the rear, and
asked the male driver to turn off his engine. The driver instead
drove away and led them on a chase through downtown San Francisco.
Halfway through the chase, the driver of the truck shot at them. The
bullet hit the officers' windshield and came within inches of
striking Officer Juarez. Glass from the windshield sprayed the
inside of the police car and scratched Officer Pena's eyes.
Additional police officers became involved in the chase. The driver
continued shooting at police and the police returned fire. Officer
Richard Seidell testified that at one point the driver "reached out
with his left arm and hand and raised his middle finger and flipped
us off." The chase finally ended when the truck became stuck in
traffic. The truck was identified as Lopes's vehicle. The driver and
passenger of the truck were identified as Maxwell and McFarland.
McFarland suffered a neck injury during the chase. Maxwell was
wearing a gold-chain necklace when he was apprehended. The police
searched the truck and found Lopes's badge, Lopes's credit card from
the Security Federal Credit Union, and a State of Indiana
identification card for "Trina Dorris" with McFarland's picture.
Police also found in the truck, Lopes's Glock pistol, a Chinese
9-millimeter pistol, and a briefcase in the truck. The medical
examiner who performed Lopes's autopsy testified that his death was
caused by a single gunshot wound to the top of his head. The
9-millimeter bullet entered the top of Lopes's head, exited his
chin, re-entered his body through his chest, and lodged between his
sternum and his heart. A firearms examiner testified that the
Chinese 9-millimeter pistol found in Lopes's truck was the weapon
that fired the bullet that was recovered from Lopes's chest and the
shell casing that was found near his body. Detention officers Calvin
Robinson and Wendell Busby testified about an incident involving
Maxwell while he was in the Bexar County Jail awaiting trial.
Robinson testified that Maxwell was banging on his cell door at
about 6:10 p.m. on September 1, 2001. Maxwell told Robinson he was
upset about not receiving his account balance earlier that day. When
Robinson told Maxwell he would get his account balance for him
later, Maxwell became more upset and began banging on the door even
harder. Maxwell called Robinson a "black, mother-fucking nigger" and
said that he would "bust [Robinson's] face if he could get out of
his cell." He also said "if he could get out of that cell, he'd kill
[Robinson], just like he had killed [his] home boy, Lopes." Robinson
told Maxwell to calm down and went back into the office where Busby
was located. Maxwell, using a "pleading-type of voice," then
mimicked how Lopes had begged for his life, stating repeatedly,
"Please don't kill me." Maxwell used a stronger, higher, and more
authoritarian voice when he described his response: "Shut up, bitch
. . . I'm going to kill you anyway." Busby's testimony confirmed
Robinson's version of events. Busby added that another inmate yelled
something at Maxwell after Maxwell mimicked Lopes, and Maxwell
replied, "I don't care what I said." Both Robinson and Busby denied
doing anything to provoke Maxwell. Defense witness Sergeant David
Ryker testified that he investigated the incident at the Bexar
County Jail on September 1. Maxwell made no mention of Lopes and
told Ryker that Robinson was harassing him. Defense counsel also
called an evidence technician with the San Antonio Police Department
who testified that there was never a comparison made on a plaster
shoe cast of a footprint taken at the crime scene on October 12,
2000. Finally, Bexar County Deputy Sheriff Daniel Grasser testified
that he could not locate the shoes that Maxwell was wearing when he
was arrested in San Francisco. The Bexar County, Texas jury
convicted Joshua Maxwell, of killing Rudolfo Lopes in the course of
committing a robbery or kidnapping. Pursuant to the jury's answers
to the special issues questions regarding future dangerousness and
mitigation, the trial court sentenced Maxwell to death.
Bott Murder Evidence: On October 17, 2000, police in San
Francisco attempted to conduct a routine traffic stop of Maxwell and
McFarland because their car had run a red light. A vehicle chase
ensued, shots were fired, and Maxwell eventually crashed the car.
McFarland was shot, and Maxwell sustained a one-and-a-half by two
inch abrasion on the side of his forehead. Inside their vehicle,
police discovered a 9 mm firearm. When police searched Lopes's truck
after Maxwell and McFarland were captured in California, they found
a map with a route drawn from Indiana to Florida to Texas to
California. Police also found a videotape that depicted Maxwell
admitting his involvement in a murder. Maxwell explained on the
videotape that he forced a man to take him on a shopping spree,
stole items from his house, killed him, put him in his car, and
burned him. Police took Maxwell to the station. Inspector Kelly
Carroll of the San Francisco Police Department informed Maxwell he
would stay with Maxwell until the other inspectors arrived for an
interview. Carroll offered Maxwell a soda or water. Paramedics
treated the small abrasion on his Maxwell’s face from the crash, and
then they left. During the time
they waited, Inspector Carroll and Maxwell had a short conversation,
but Carroll did not question Maxwell regarding the alleged crimes.
Thereafter, Inspector Tony Camilleri of the San Francisco Police
Department arrived and advised Maxwell of his Miranda rights.
Maxwell did not appear intoxicated, and he appeared to understand
his rights. Maxwell agreed to speak with the officers and gave a
taped interview. In the interview Maxwell admitted purchasing
merchandise with Bott’s credit cards, stealing from Bott, confining
Bott, shooting Bott in the head, killing Bott, and setting Bott’s
body on fire. Less than two hours later, Maxwell gave a second
videotaped confession to Inspector Casillas of the San Francisco
Police Department. This confession was essentially the same as the
first. Then, about two hours after the second confession, Maxwell
discussed the case via speaker phone with Captain Joel Rush of the
Speedway, Indiana, Police Department. Maxwell detailed the crimes he
committed against Bott, and San Francisco police videotaped this
confession as well. The State charged Maxwell with murder,
confinement, arson, and theft. Maxwell filed a motion to suppress
the videotaped confessions, and the trial court denied that motion.
At trial, the State offered as evidence the three videotapes of
Maxwell confessing. Over Maxwell’s objection, the court admitted the
videotapes. The jury found Maxwell guilty as charged. The court
sentenced Maxwell to sixty-five years for murder, three years for
confinement, twenty years for arson, and three years for theft. It
then ordered all those sentences served consecutively. "I think I'll
feel like I have some closure, that I'll know he is no longer around
here living, even though he's locked up," Bott's father, 79-year-old
Alfred Bott told a local reporter. He said he would not be at the
execution, but that his daughter, who works in Saudi Arabia, will
fly 16 hours to attend. |
|
Date of scheduled execution |
State |
Victim name |
Inmate name |
Status |
|
March 16, 2010 |
Ohio |
Loretta Mae Foster, 67 |
Lawrence
Reynolds, Jr. |
executed |
 In early
January 1994, Loretta Mae Foster, 67, complained to her son Michael that a
neighbor, Lawrence Raymond Reynolds, Jr., had been knocking on her door after
dark. Reynolds had recently painted Loretta's basement and claimed
that he needed to put a paint can in the basement. Loretta told her
son that she was scared of Reynolds. On January 11, Loretta's
sister-in-law Norma took her to a doctor's appointment and Loretta
told Norma that a neighbor had been acting "weird"; that is he would
knock on the door, hide, and then jump out at her. Loretta told her
doctor and her doctor's office manager about Reynolds in an effort
to explain why her blood pressure was elevated. After the visit to
the doctor, Loretta stopped at her credit union and withdrew $50.
Norma dropped Loretta off at home around 3 pm. In the late afternoon
or early evening of January 11, 1994, Lawrence Reynolds assaulted,
robbed, and killed his neighbor, Loretta Foster, in her home. He
took $40 in cash and a blank check from her purse, and left her
almost-nude body lying on the living room floor. Around 7:30 that
evening, Reynolds and his brother Jason went to a bowling alley to
shoot pool with some friends. Upon arriving, Reynolds told two
friends, Brian and Jim, that this would be his last night to party
with them because he had killed someone and was leaving town the
next day. Reynolds told them that he had knocked on Loretta's door
and told her that he had a letter to give her from his sister,
showing her an envelope. He
had rope and a tent pole with him. Loretta Foster opened the door
and Reynolds forced his way in and a
struggle began. Reynolds hit Loretta and she fell to the floor. A
clump of hair was ripped from Loretta's head. He began to rummage
through her purse. When he realized she was attempting to reach for
the phone, he cut the phone line, tied her up, and hit her once or
twice with the tent pole. He tried to strangle her with his hands
but was unsuccessful. At some point during the struggle, Reynolds
received a rope burn on his hand, which he showed his listeners.
Reynolds told them he had left Foster lying naked in the living room
and that he had taken $40 in cash and a blank check from her
checkbook before leaving through a back door. The group proceeded to
the Rainbow Bar where Reynolds continued to discuss how he had
killed Loretta. Uncertain whether to believe him, the two friends
left the bar and
went to Loretta’s home, looked through the living-room window, and
saw Loretta's nude body lying on the floor. Reynolds and his brother
Jason also went to Loretta's house after leaving the Rainbow Bar.
Jason was stunned to see Loretta's body. Reynolds picked up a glove
and a tent stake that he had left and attempted to brush off the
purse. A milk jug of water was used to rinse the blood from the area around the
body. Then they returned to their home. Brian and Jim went to a
friend's house because they knew that his father was a police
officer. They told the officer what Reynolds had told them and
described what they had seen at Loretta's house. They later went to
the police station and made a statement. Police officers were
dispatched to investigate. They found Loretta's body in her living
room. She had been beaten about the head and strangled. Her bra was
cut in the front and the bra and her t-shirt were above her breasts.
Her pants and pantyhose were laying near the body, in a rolled down
position. By the rear door of the house, there was a quantity of
blood and a large clump of hair. Broken eye glasses and one earring
were found in the kitchen and the other earring and Loretta's purse
were found in the dining room as was her checkbook which was removed
from her purse. After finding Loretta's body, the police
initiated a homicide investigation and obtained an arrest warrant
for Lawrence Reynolds, Jr. They went to the Reynolds home and
arrested Reynolds. While they were there, Lawrence Reynolds, Sr., Reynold’s father, consented, verbally and in writing, to a search of
the house, and specifically to his son’s bedroom and the basement.
(Reynolds was twenty-seven years old at the time of his acts, and
continued to live at home.) The search revealed several items of
physical evidence later used against Reynolds at trial: (1) gloves
and a camouflage jumpsuit, both smeared with blood of the same type
as Loretta’s and containing fibers matching those from a red jacket
found in her bedroom; (2) a piece of rope identical to that used on
Loretta, stained with blood of her type and containing human hair
matching her own; (3) a section of a tent pole, in keeping with what
Reynolds had told his friends he brought to Loretta’s house; and (4)
a blank check drawn on Loretta’s account. An autopsy concluded that
Loretta had died from strangulation. She had also been subjected to
blunt force trauma. Based on the color of the bruises on her wrists,
the coroner testified that Loretta had been alive when tied up. The
coroner was unable to find any physical evidence of sexual conduct.
While in jail, Reynolds told a fellow inmate essentially the same
story as he had told his friends, but with more, at times
conflicting, details. For example, Reynolds stated to the inmate
that he had taken off Loretta's blouse to enable him to see her
hands at all times. The inmate asked him about news reports that the
victim was found with her pants off. Initially, Reynolds claimed
that her pants had come off in the struggle, but he later told the
inmate that he had “tried to stick his meat in her,” and yet when
the inmate questioned Reynolds specifically on the matter, he denied
trying to rape her. During the trial, Jason Reynolds avoided eye
contact with his brother as he told the jury how he went to the
Foster home with his brother about 1:30 a.m. Jan. 12 to check out
the story his brother had told during a night of drinking. "I went
in, me and my brother," Jason Reynolds said. "I saw her lying there.
That's all I needed to see." An Ohio jury needed only an hour and a
half to decide that Reynolds was guilty of aggravated
robbery, aggravated burglary, kidnapping, and attempted rape, as
well as aggravated murder (of the felony-murder type) with four
death penalty specifications attached. He was sentenced to 38-to-90
years’ imprisonment and death. While confined on death row, he sent
a letter threatening sexual violence and murder if his demands for
naked pictures were unmet. A separate obscene letter was sent to the
victim of his prior telephone harassment similarly requesting naked
photographs. Kelly Redfern, Dona Papp, Patty Solomon and Gail Hand,
great-nieces and granddaughters of Loretta Foster, testified at a
clemency hearing for Reynolds. Each shared their memories of Loretta
Foster and the exceptional kindness and generosity she shared with
both family and neighbors. Each was nurtured by Loretta Foster and
attribute to her many positive influences that have shaped their
lives and the lives of their children. Dona Papp said, ''That was 15
years ago. He is still guilty. My aunt is still dead." The parole board declined to
recommend clemency for Reynolds by a vote of 6 to 0. Reynolds
originally had an execution date set for March 9, 2010 however he
attempted to kill himself by overdosing on prescription medication
so the execution was delayed by one week. |
|
Date of scheduled execution |
State |
Victim name |
Inmate name |
Status |
|
March 16, 2010 |
Arkansas |
Lorraine Barrett, 32
Mary Phillips, 34 |
Jack
Jones, Jr. |
stayed |
| On June 1, 1991,
witnesses saw a tourist on vacation from Pennsylvania, 32-year-old
Lorraine Barrett, talking with a man at the Elbo Room on Fort
Lauderdale Beach, Florida. They both spoke to the bartender and a
singer at the bar, then left together around 1:30 pm. They spent
time at the bar at Lorraine's hotel, the Days Inn on Seabreeze
Boulevard. Another witness saw Lorraine and the man board an
elevator at the hotel. Around noon the next day, a hotel maid found
Lorraine's nude body lying face down in the bed. Barrett was
strangled to death, and there was evidence that she had also been
sexually assaulted. In 2005, DNA evidence discovered her murderer:
Jack Harold Jones, by then on death row in Arkansas for a 1995
murder. On the afternoon of June 6, 1995, seventeen-year-old Darla
Phillips dropped her eleven-year-old sister Lacy off at Automated
Tax and Accounting Service in Bald Knob, Arkansas where their
mother, thirty-four-year old Mary Phillips, worked as a bookkeeper.
Mary was planning to take her daughter to a 3:00 p.m. dentist
appointment. Darla and her fifteen-year-old brother Jessie were
expecting their mother and little sister to return to their home in
Bradford around 4:30 p.m. or 5:00 p.m. They never arrived. A
black-haired male entered the business before Lacy and her mother
could leave for the dentist's office. According to Lacy's testimony
at trial, the man had a teardrop tattoo on his face and more tattoos
on his arm. The man had come into the business earlier that day to
borrow some books. When he returned, he complained that he had been
given the wrong book. He then told Lacy and her mother that he was
"sorry," but that he was "going to have to rob" them. He ordered
Mary to lay down on her stomach, and then made Lacy lay down on top
of her mother. After retrieving the cash out of the register, he
took them into a small break room. The man took Lacy into a bathroom
off of the break room, tied her to a chair, then left. When he
returned, Lacy, now crying, asked the man not to hurt her mother, to
which he replied, "I'm not. I'm going to hurt you." He began to
choke Lacy until she passed out. After Lacy lost consciousness,
Jones struck her at least eight times in the head with the barrel of
a BB gun, causing severe lacerations and multiple skull fractures,
with fragments of bone that were driven down into Lacy's brain. When
Lacy woke up, she saw blood and began to vomit. She went back to
sleep and awakened later when police, seeing her bloodied body and
thinking she was dead, were taking photographs of her. Police found
Mary's body nude from the waist down. A cord from a nearby coffee
pot was wrapped around her neck and wire was tied around her hands,
which were positioned behind her back. Bruises on her arms and back
indicated that she had struggled with her attacker prior to her
death. According to autopsy results, Mary died from strangulation
and blunt-force head injuries. Rectal swabs indicated that she had
been anally raped before she was killed. Based on Lacy's description
of the assailant, Arkansas State Police Investigator Jerry Brogdon
went to Jack Harold Jones Jr.'s residence and asked him if he would
accompany him to the White County Sheriff's Office. Once there,
Jones was read his Miranda rights and signed a waiver-of-rights
form. He admitted that he had committed the crimes because he wanted
to get revenge against the police. He reasoned that his wife had
been raped, and that the police had done nothing about it. The jury
took only 30 minutes to return a guilty verdict. After a clemency
hearing for Jones in 2007, Mary's daughter Lacy said it was time for
Jack Jones' execution. "Our family needs this. We have been
through a lot." Jones said he was "very sorry" but Lacy said, "It's
too late." Her sister Darla said, "It doesn't matter. If it makes
him feel better that's fine, but that's no big deal to us." UPDATE:
Despite being denied clemency by the Arkansas parole board, Jack
Jones received a stay of his March 16 execution date from US
District Judge Leon Holmes. |
|
Date of scheduled execution |
State |
Victim name |
Inmate name |
Status |
|
March 16, 2010 |
Pennsylvania |
Marcia
Reyes, 4 |
Angel
Reyes |
stayed |
| Puerto
Rican native Angel Reyes and Julia Martinez moved in together and
had a child, the victim Marcia Reyes. Julia Martinez also had two
sons, Javier and Louis, who were young adults with whom Reyes did
not get along and who were a source of dissention between the
couple. In October of 1990, Reyes had been arrested for threatening
his baby daughter with a knife. The charges were withdrawn after
Reyes underwent treatment for alcohol abuse. In August of 1992,
Reyes and Louis Martinez, 21, had a fight. When the altercation
ended, Reyes grabbed Marcia’s hand and led her to the edge of a body
of water where, upon being confronted by Julia, he remarked that if
she called the police and had him arrested, she would find Marcia in
the river with her throat slashed. Later, Reyes threatened to harm
Marcia if Julia even had contact with her son Louis or if she
attempted to leave the city. On May 25, 1993, Julia Martinez had a
reunion with her son Louis at the home of her sister who lived in
Chester, Pennsylvania, in order to avoid Reyes. Reyes, however, saw
a photograph of Louis that Marcia had and she told her father that
it was "my new best friend." Reyes confronted Julia about whether
Louis was in Chester. When Julia indicated Louis had been in
Chester, Reyes placed 4-year-old Marcia in his car and drove off
with her. He returned approximately twenty to twenty-five minutes
later without her. Upon returning, he stated, “I did it, it’s all
finished.” Later that night, Reyes appeared at the Chester Police
Station and admitted to both Sergeant Lawrence Platt and Detective
Walter Loveland that he killed his daughter Marcia. Following
Miranda warnings, Reyes waited 14 hours but later told authorities
that he drowned his daughter by dropping her into Ridley Creek off a
bridge located in Eddystone, Pennsylvania. The girl’s body was
recovered the next day from the Delaware River. An autopsy revealed
that she drowned and that the manner of death was homicide. Reyes
was arrested and charged with first-degree murder, aggravated
assault, and endangering the welfare of children. He was tried in
November of 1993 by the Honorable Frank T. Hazel, sitting without a
jury. At the conclusion of the trial, Judge Hazel found Reyes guilty
of all charges. In January of 1994, a jury was empanelled for a
penalty hearing. On January 13, 1994, the jury returned a verdict of
death, finding one aggravating circumstance, namely, that the victim
was a child under twelve years of age, and no mitigating
circumstances. The sentence was later overturned by an appeals court
who found that the jury should have been presented with evidence of
Reyes's impoverished and abusive upbringing in Puerto Rico. In March
2007, a second jury sentenced Reyes to death. |
|
Date of scheduled execution |
State |
Victim name |
Inmate name |
Status |
|
March 18, 2010 |
Pennsylvania |
Anita Gordon
Anil
Thakur
Ji-Ye Sun
Thao Pak Pham
Garry Lee |
Richard
Baumhammers |
stayed |
| Richard
Scott Baumhammers murdered five people during a hate-crime rampage
throughout the Pittsburgh area in 2000, specifically targeting
victims who were Jewish, Indian, Vietnamese, Chinese and
African-American. On April 28, 2000, during a crime spree lasting
approximately two hours, Richard Baumhammers, shot and killed Anita
Gordon, Anil Thakur, Ji-Ye Sun, Thao Pak Pham, and Garry Lee. He
also seriously wounded Sandip Patel, pointed his loaded pistol at
George Thomas II, set fire to Mrs. Gordon’s house by using an
incendiary device, desecrated one synagogue by defacing it with red
spray paint and shooting bullets into it, [J-25-2008] - 2 and
desecrated a second synagogue by shooting bullets into it.
Baumhammers was arrested on the day of the crime spree and was found
to have in his possession a .357 caliber handgun, spent .357 caliber
shell casings, live .357 caliber ammunition, two Molotov cocktails,
a can of red spray paint, and a roadmap. Baumhammers was charged
with five counts of homicide, one count of attempted homicide, one
count of aggravated assault, one count of simple assault, one count
of recklessly endangering another person, eight counts of ethnic
intimidation, two counts of institutional vandalism, two counts of
criminal mischief, three counts of arson, and one count of carrying
a firearm without a license. At the time of the filings of the
criminal informations, the Commonwealth gave Baumhammers notice of
its intention to seek the death penalty and of the aggravating
circumstances supporting the death penalty on which it intended to
rely. Following a competency hearing held on May 9, 2000, the trial
court determined that Baumhammers was mentally incompetent and
ordered his transfer to a state hospital for treatment. Following a
subsequent competency hearing held on September 15, 2000, the trial
court determined that treatment had rendered Baumhammers competent
to stand trial. A jury trial on the charges was thereafter held from
April 27 to May 9, 2001. During trial, Baumhammers did not dispute
that he had shot the victims; rather, he presented evidence that he
had done so while suffering from a mental disease. The jury rejected
Baumhammers’s insanity defense and returned a verdict of
guilty on the five counts of first-degree murder and on all of the
remaining charges. From May 10 to May 11, 2001, the penalty phase of
the trial was held. The Commonwealth presented two aggravating
circumstances as follows: “In the commission of the offense the
defendant knowingly created a grave risk of death to another person
in addition to the victim of the offense;” and “The defendant has
been convicted of another murder." The
jury found that the Commonwealth had proven the two aggravating
circumstances, and that Baumhammers had proven three of the five
mitigating circumstances. However, the jury also determined that the
aggravating circumstances outweighed the mitigating circumstances
and returned sentences of death as mandated by law. |
|
Date of scheduled execution |
State |
Victim name |
Inmate name |
Status |
|
March 18, 2010 |
Virginia |
Stacey Lynn Reed, 16 |
Paul
Powell |
executed |
 In
January 1999, Robert Culver and his fiancée, Lorraine Reed, lived
together in a small brick home on McLean Street in Manassas,
Virginia, with Reed's two daughters, Stacey Lynn Reed and Kristie
Erin Reed. On January 29, 1999, Paul Warner Powell, then 20, went to
visit the Reeds' home. Powell was carrying two knives and a 9 mm
handgun. Stacey, then 16 years old, left home to go to work, and
Powell remained there alone with Kristie, who was 14. That
afternoon, Kristie called her mother by telephone and informed her
that Powell refused to leave the home. Kristie's mother told Kristie
to order Powell to leave. Kristie was concerned because Powell "kept
walking back and forth down the hallway looking in the rooms." On
the afternoon of January 29, 1999, Kristie arrived home from school
and was startled to find Powell in her house. She asked Powell
"where Stacey was." He replied, "she was in her room." Kristie
walked to Stacey's room, but Stacey was not there. Then, Kristie
turned to enter her own room and saw Stacey's body lying on the
floor. Powell, who had followed Kristie to the bedroom, ordered
Kristie to go downstairs to the basement. Kristie knew that Powell
customarily armed himself with a knife. She had previously observed
Powell with a butterfly knife and "another long knife that was in a
brown pouch type thing." Powell forced Kristie to accompany him to
the basement, where he ordered her to remove her clothes. She took
her clothes off because she "didn't want to die." Powell told
Kristie to lay on the floor, and then he raped her. After Powell
raped Kristie, he dressed himself, and he used shoelaces taken from
Kristie's shoes to tie her feet together. He also used shoelaces to
tie her arms behind her back. Someone knocked on the door to the
house, and Powell went upstairs, leaving Kristie naked and bound on
the basement floor. While Powell was upstairs, Kristie was able to
free her hands, and she tried to "scoot" across the floor and hide
beneath the basement steps. Powell returned to the basement, removed
Kristie's eyeglasses, and strangled her until she was unconscious.
Powell stabbed Kristie in the stomach, and the knife stopped within
a centimeter of her aorta. He slashed her in her neck numerous
times, and the repair of the knife wounds required 61 sutures. She
had multiple stab wounds to her neck and abdomen. She also had
wounds on her wrists. Robert Culver arrived at the home at 4:15 p.m.
on January 29, 1999. He could not locate Kristie or Stacey. He went
to the girls' bedrooms and saw that Stacey's room was in disarray.
He entered Kristie's room, turned on the lights, and found Stacey's
body on the floor. He observed blood on her body and saw that she
was not breathing. When Culver went to the basement in search of a
telephone, he discovered Kristie lying naked and bound on the floor,
bleeding from her neck and stomach. He saw that she had been stabbed
in the stomach and her "throat was slit pretty severely, many
times." Culver found a telephone, dialed 911, and spoke to emergency
response personnel. In a recent interview, Robert Culver said the
worst part for him are the regrets of that day. He says he had a
cold and that his boss told him he could leave early on that day. He
almost took him up on the offer, but didn't want the girls to think
he came home early because he didn't trust them to be alone. "Little
things like that," he said. "I should have been home." Although
Kristie was experiencing life-threatening injuries, she was able to
tell police officers and paramedics that Paul Powell was her
assailant. Stacey's death was caused by a stab wound to her chest.
The wound pattern indicated that the blade of the knife pierced her
heart and was twisted upon withdrawal. The blade of Powell's knife
was consistent with the stab wounds. There were numerous bruises on
Stacey's head, neck, chest, abdomen, back, arms, and legs. She
suffered stab wounds in her back and arm. She also had abrasions on
her left hand and wrist that were characterized as defensive wounds.
Stacey's body contained bruises on her lower neck that were
consistent with someone stepping or stomping on her face and neck.
Police officers arrested Powell on January 30, 1999 at the home of a
friend. The police officers also located a blue sports bag that
belonged to Powell. A nine-millimeter semiautomatic pistol with a
full magazine containing 10 Winchester nine- millimeter cartridges
was in the bag. The bag also contained a survival knife with a five
and one-half inch blade inside a black sheath and a butterfly knife
with a five inch blade. The survival knife sheath contained a dark
reddish-brown stain. The DNA profile obtained from the stain on the
sheath was consistent with the DNA profile of Stacey Reed and
different from the DNA profile of Kristie Reed and Paul Powell. The
probability of selecting an unrelated individual with a matching DNA
profile is approximately one in 1.1 billion in the Caucasian
population. After his arrest, Powell consented to several interviews
with police officers. During one interview, he stated that he had
been at the Reeds' home on January 29, 1999 and that Stacey was dead
because "she was stupid." Powell told the police officers that he
and Stacey had an argument because she had a black boyfriend, and
Powell "didn't agree with interracial dating." Powell claimed that
during the argument, Stacey attacked him and scratched his face, and
then he pushed her to the floor. He claimed that Stacey attacked him
again, and that she "got stuck" on his knife. Powell also initially
denied raping Kristie. In a second statement to police officers,
Powell admitted that he raped Kristie. The detective who interviewed
Powell testified that Powell stated that he had to kill Kristie
because "she was the only witness and he would have to go to jail."
Powell was sentenced to death in August, 2000. In 2001, the Virginia
Supreme Court overturned his death sentence, saying that prosecutors
had failed to prove that Powell had raped Stacey which was part of
the reason for defining the case as a capital murder. A murder that
is committed in conjunction with another felony is one of the
requirements for a death sentence and the appeals court felt that
the rape of Stacey's sister Kristie was a separate act. Under the
erroneous assumption that this meant he could no longer face the
death penalty, Powell wrote two letters to the Commonwealth's
Attorney of Prince William County, Paul Ebert. Below is the content
of a letter that Powell wrote, dated October 21, 2001. "Mr. Ebert,
Since I have already been indicted on first degree murder and the
Va. Supreme Court said that I can't be charged with capital murder
again, I figured I would tell you the rest of what happened on Jan.
29, 1999, to show you how stupid all of y'all mother f*ckers are.
Y'all should have known that there is more to the story than what I
told by what I said. You had it in writing that I planned to kill
the whole family. Since I planned to kill the whole family, why
would I have fought with Stacie before killing her? She had no idea
I was planning to kill everybody and talked and carried on like
usual, so I could've stabbed her up at any time because she was
unsuspecting. I had other plans for her before she died. You know I
came back to the house after Bobby's lunch break was over and he had
went back to work. When I got back, she was on the phone so I went
inside and I laid down on the couch. When the cab came to bring me
my pager, I ran out of the house and she jumped and got off the
phone and came off the porch to see why I ran out of the house like
I did. When the cab left we went in the house. I laid on the couch
again and she went to her room and got her clothes and went
downstairs to do her laundry. When she went downstairs, I got up and
shut and locked the back door and went downstairs. We talked while
she put her clothes in the wash. We continued talking when she had
everything in the wash and I reached over and touched her ti+ and
asked if she wanted to f*ck. She said no, because she had a
boyfriend. I started arguing with her because she had never turned
anybody down because of having a boyfriend. We started walking
upstairs, arguing the whole time. When we got upstairs we went to
her room and she turned the radio off. After she turned the radio
off I pushed her onto her bed and grabbed her wrists and pinned her
hands down by her head and sat on top of her. I told her that all I
wanted to do was f*ck her and then I would leave and that we could
do it the easy way or the hard way. She said she would f*ck me so I
got up. After I got up, she got up and started fighting with me and
clawed me face. We wrestled around a little and then I slammed her
to the floor. When she hit the floor I sat on top of her and pinned
her hands down again. She said she would f*ck me and I told her that
if she tried fighting with me again, I would kill her. When I got up
she stood up and kept asking me why I was doing this and all I kept
saying is take your clothes off. Finally she undid her pants and
pulled them down to her ankles. She was getting ready to take them
the rest of the way off and the phone rang. When she heard the phone
she pulled her pants back up and said she had to answer the phone. I
pushed her back and said no. She said that she wouldn't say anything
about me being there and I told her no and to take her clothes off.
She tried to get out of the room again and I pushed her back and
pulled out my knife. I guess she thought I was just trying to scare
her and that I wouldn't really stab her because she tried to leave
again. When she got to me and tried to squeeze between me and the
door jam I stabbed her. When I stabbed her, she fell back against
the door jam and just looked at me with a shocked look on her face.
When I pulled the knife out she stumbled a couple steps and fell in
her sister's room. I walked over and looked at her. I saw that she
was still breathing so I stepped over her body and into the bedroom.
Then I put my foot on her throat and stepped up so she couldn't
breath. Then I stepped down and started stomping on her throat. Then
I stepped back onto her throat and moved up and down putting more
pressure to make it harder to breathe. When I didn't see her
breathing anymore, I left the room and got some iced tea and sat on
the couch and smoked a cigarette. You know the rest of what happened
after that point. I would like to thank you for saving my life. I
know you're probably wondering how you saved my life, so I'll tell
you. You saved my life by f*cking up. There were 2 main f*ck-ups you
made that saved me. The first was the way you worded my capital
murder indictment. The second was the comment you made in your
closing argument when you said we won't know because he won't tell
us. One more time, thank you! Now y'all know everything that
happened in that house at 8023 McLean St. on Jan. 29, 1999. I guess
I forgot to mention these events when I was being questioned. Ha Ha!
Sike! I knew what y'all would be able to prove in court, so I told
you what you already knew. Stacey was dead and no one else was in
the house so I knew ya'll would never know everything she went
through unless she came back to life. Since the Supreme Court said I
can't be charged with capital murder again, I can tell you what I
just told you because I no longer have to worry about the death
penalty. And y'all are supposed to be so goddamn smart. I can't
believe that y'all thought I told you everything. Well, it's too
late now. Nothing you can do about it now so f*ck you you fat, c*cksucking,
c*m guzzling, gutter slu+. I guess I'll see your bi+ch a$$ on Dec.
18 at trial because I'm not pleading to shi+. Tell the family to be
ready to testify and relive it all again because if I have to suffer
for the next 50 or 60 years or however long then they can suffer the
torment of reliving what happened for a couple of days. I'm gone.
F*ck you and anyone like you or that associates with people like
you. I almost forgot, f*ck your god, too. Jesus knows how to suck a
d*ck real good. Did you teach him? Well, die a slow, painful,
miserable death. See ya punk. Do you just hate yourself for being so
stupid and for f*ckin' up and saving me? Sincerely, Paul Powell." In
a statement to a police officer on November 2, 2001, Powell gave the
following description of Stacey's murder: "She walked over to and uh
I pushed her back. And then she walked over to me again I think and
then I pulled my knife out and you know, and she looked at me you
know. I guess she thought I wouldn't stab her or whatever. So she
tried to leave and go to answer the phone. That's that. . . . .
After she got stabbed, she just looked at me for a minute you know
and then you know, she . . .she was surprised and them um, I pulled
the knife out, you know she stumbled a few steps, fell down in
Christy's doorway. I just walked over and looked at her. And I
stepped over top of her and stepped on her throat and then stood on
her throat and then stomped on her throat . . . then I stood on her
throat until I didn't see her breathing no more. . . . .What I'm
saying I was stepping on her. I'm saying I put all my weight on her.
I'm saying that I put my foot there you know and then I lifted
myself up to where I was standing on top of her. Started stomping on
her throat. And then man, I just stood on her throat again until I
didn't see her breathe no more." Before he raped Kristie, Powell
knew that he intended to kill her. In response to a police officer's
question: "Before you raped Kristie, you knew you were going to kill
her; didn't you?", Powell responded: "I really didn't have a choice;
did I?" While incarcerated in jail awaiting his capital murder
trial, Powell sent a letter to Lorraine Reed, the mother of Stacey
and Kristie. Powell enclosed a photograph of a partially nude woman.
Powell wrote: "Lorraine, I was wondering if you might be able to
help me think of something. I found this picture in a magazine and
it kinda looks like someone I know or used to know, but I can't
think of the persons name. I think you know the person too, so I was
wondering if you could tell me the name of the person this picture
resembles so I can quit racking my brain trying to think of it? I
would appreciate it. If you don't know the person I'm talking about,
ask Kristie or Kelly Welch because I know they know who I'm thinking
of. If you talk to the person I'm talking about, please give her my
address and tell her to write me." The partially nude woman shown in
the photograph resembled Lorraine Reed's daughter, Stacey. Powell
wrote a letter to a friend while he was incarcerated. He stated:
"About when you asked me why I wouldn't do to you what I did to
Stacie, I couldn't ever hurt you because you mean to much to me. See
Stacie didn't mean anything to me. She was a ni**er lover and some
of her wannabe skin head friends were supposed to kill me. That's
part of the reason why she died. Almost everything that happened in
that house was planned. The only thing that wasn't planned was
trying to f*ck Kristie. What was supposed to happen was, Stacie was
supposed to die, and did, Kristie was supposed to die and then I was
going to wait for their mom and stepdad to get home and I was going
to kill them and then I was going to take their moms truck and then
I was gonna go to North Carolina and knock this dude off that stole
all of my clothes and everything else I owned. I had been thinking
about doing it for along time but I could never bring myself to do
it. I don't know what happened to make me finally do it. I feel bad
for doing it. Stacie was a good kid." Powell wrote, in another
letter: "Hey babe, what's happening? Not too much here. I writing
you to see if you could get one of your guy friends to do me a
favor. You know that Kristie is telling the cops things and that she
is going to testify against me in court. I was wondering if you
could get somebody to go to a pay phone and call Kristie and tell
her she better tell the cops that she lied to them and tell her she
better not testify against me or she's gonna die." Powell sent the
following letter to the Commonwealth's Attorney of Prince William
County: "Fat Ebert, "What's up you fat head f*cker? I'm just writing
to tell you, since you want to kill me so Goddamn bad for killing
your ni**er loving whore, set up a court date closer than Oct. 25 so
I can go ahead and get this bullshi+ over with and plead guilty so
you can kill me and get it over with, unless you want to let me out
so I can kill the rest of the ni**er lovers and all the ni**ers,
Jews, Sp*cs and everybody else in this f*cked up country that's not
white. That includes you because you are a ni**er loving Jewish f*cking
fa**ot. I will see you in hell bi+ch. your buddy, Paul Powell - P.S.
Watch your back!" The jury viewed writings and drawings taken
from Powell's jail cell that demonstrated his hatred of people who
were not Caucasian. Additionally, the jury heard evidence that
Powell told police officers that he was a racist and described his
violent racial views. He stated, "everybody that ain't white
shouldn't – he needs to die." Powell had told a police officer that
he wanted to purchase a gun to "kill somebody. Kill a lot of
somebodies . . . just for something to do." The jury was aware of
Powell's criminal record, including three convictions for
contributing to the delinquency of a minor, two larceny convictions,
and three felony convictions for abduction, rape, and attempted
capital murder of Kristie. In supporting the jury's finding that
Powell's conduct was "outrageously or wantonly vile, horrible or
inhuman in that it involved . . . depravity of mind and. . .
aggravated battery to the victim beyond the minimum necessary to
accomplish the act of murder, the criminal appeals court in Virginia
commented, "The day before Powell committed these gruesome crimes,
he went to the victims' home and surveyed the interior of the house.
He returned the next day and tried to rape Stacey, who struggled
with him. He stabbed her in the heart, twisted the knife, and
reinserted the knife in her heart. He stomped upon her throat and he
placed the entire weight of his body on her throat until she died.
Next, he drank a glass of iced tea, smoked a cigarette, and waited
for Stacey's younger 14-year-old sister to return home. When Kristie
arrived, Powell directed her to her sister's body, forced her
downstairs into the basement, and raped her on the floor. He then
tied her hands and feet while she was naked, choked her until she
was unconscious, stabbed her in the stomach, and slashed her neck
numerous times in an attempt to kill her." After the vicious
attacks, Powell had snuck out the back door, leaving Kristie for
dead. He drove with a friend to Washington and bought some drugs,
then returned to the friend's girlfriend's house where the drank
beer and ordered a pizza. They were still waiting for it to be
delivered when police knocked on the door. Powell did not know his
younger victim had survived and identified her attacker. |
|
Date of scheduled execution |
State |
Victim name |
Inmate name |
Status |
|
March 24, 2010 |
Texas |
Twila Busby
Randy
Busby
Elwin Caler |
Hank Skinner |
stayed |
|
Henry
Watkins Skinner lived with Twila Busby and her two adult sons, Randy
Busby and Elwin Caler, both of whom had mental retardation. Between
10:15 and 10:30 p.m., on December 31, 1993, Howard Mitchell came to
the residence to take Skinner and Twila to a New Year's Eve party.
Howard found Skinner asleep on the couch and was unable to wake him.
Skinner had apparently been drinking. Leaving Skinner on the couch,
Twila and Howard went to the party, but Twila soon asked to be taken
home because her uncle, Robert Donnell, was drunk and was following
her around, making rude sexual advances, and generally agitating
her. Howard drove Twila home between 11:00 and 11:15 p.m., and left.
At around midnight, Elwin showed up on a neighbor's porch with stab
wounds, from which he subsequently died. Twila was found dead on the
living room floor of her home, and Randy's dead body was found lying
face down on the top bunk bed in the sons' bedroom. Skinner was
found by police at Andrea Reed's house, located three-and-a-half to
four blocks away, at around 3:00 a.m. When the police found him,
Skinner was standing in a closet and wearing clothing that was
heavily stained in blood on both the front and back. At trial,
Andrea testified that Skinner arrived at her house at around
midnight and that they conversed for three hours. She did not know
how he entered her trailer, but when she saw him, he took his shirt
off and laid it on a chair. Skinner had a bleeding cut in his right
hand. He heated up sewing needles and attempted to bend them to sew
up his hand, and then he asked her to sew it, and she agreed. At
some point, he went to the bathroom by himself. During their
conversation, Andrea attempted to leave the room and call the
police, but Skinner stopped her and threatened to kill her. Skinner
told Andrea multiple stories about what happened at his home. He
claimed that a Mexican came to the door and pulled a knife, that
Twila was in bed with her ex-husband with whom Skinner got into a
fist-fight, that Skinner thought he had killed Twila by trying to
kick her to death, that Ricky Palmer broke into the house, and that
cocaine dealers were looking for Twila and wanted her really bad.
The medical examiner found that Twila had been strangled into
unconsciousness and subsequently beaten at least fourteen times
about the face and head with a club. DNA testing matched the blood
on Skinner's clothing to Twila and Elwin. Three bloody handprints
matching Skinner's were found in the house: one in the sons' bedroom
and two on doorknobs leading out the back door. A toxicological test
of Skinner's blood, conducted at 5:48 a.m., showed that Skinner had
0.11 milligrams of codeine per liter of blood and a blood alcohol
level of 0.11. Defense counsel presented three defenses at trial.
First, defense counsel focused on the State's failure to test some
of the DNA evidence to show that the State engaged in a sloppy
investigation. Second, defense counsel painted Robert Donnell as an
alternate suspect who could have committed the murders. Finally,
defense counsel presented evidence that Skinner was too
incapacitated by his intoxication to have committed the murders. Dr.
William Lowry, the defense toxicologist, testified that most people
at Skinner's level of intoxication would be comatose or asleep, and
in any event, between 12:00 and 3:30 a.m., Skinner would have been
in a stupor, with impaired consciousness, general apathy, and an
inability to stand or walk. Dr. Lowry believed that Skinner was too
incapacitated to travel to different rooms to kill the victims.
However, Dr. Lowry was surprised that Skinner could locate Andrea's
house at midnight and that he asked her to sew up his hand. Skinner
was convicted of capital murder and sentenced to death. UPDATE:
The clemency request filed to the Texas Board of Pardons and Paroles
by Hank Skinner was denied by a vote of 7-0. |
|
Date of scheduled execution |
State |
Victim name |
Inmate name |
Status |
|
March 30, 2010 |
Texas |
Eric Bridgeford
Gregorio Ramirez, 41
Selamawi Tewolde
Christopher Thomas, 34 |
Franklin
Alix |
executed |
| Franklin
Dewayne Alix engaged in a six-month-long violent crime spree in the
late 90s. In the early morning hours of January 3, 1998, Alix shot
and killed Eric Bridgeford while in the course of committing
aggravated sexual assault, robbery and burglary against Eric's
sister, Karyl Bridgeford. Alix admitted to approaching Karyl, then
robbing her and forcing her into the trunk of his car and forced her
to take him to Eric's room to steal items. There Alix culminated
this episode by murdering Eric Bridgeford, taking items from his
room and stealing a car that belonged to one of Eric's friends. Alix
claimed that the sexual intercourse was consensual, the items taken
were gifts, and the homicide was in self-defense. Alix also claimed
to have been coerced into robbing Karyl by Kevin Smith, a man who
allegedly threatened to kill Alix if he did not pay a drug debt.
During the sentencing phase of the trial, the State produced
evidence of Alix’s lengthy and violent criminal history, including
three other capital murders, two attempted capital murders, eight
aggravated robberies, one robbery, and two aggravated sexual
assaults accompanied by four aggravated kidnappings. The State also
introduced testimony from the widow of one of Alix’s victims,
Gregorio Ramirez, who identified Alix as the shooter in her
husband’s homicide on August 8, 1997. Alix is also suspected
in the shooting death of Selamawi Tewolde on Oct. 5, 1997. In the
last crime of the spree, Christopher Thomas, 34, was killed in his
driveway. Alix was convicted of capital murder on
September 2, 1998 and sentenced to death. UPDATE: Prior to his
execution, Alix spoke to his family and the victim's family. "I am
not the monster they made me out to be. I made lots of mistakes that
took your son. I'll take it to my grave. I will be at peace." |
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