Don Davis was sentenced to death for the 1990 execution-style killing of Jane Daniels of Rogers, Arkansas. Committing a series of burglaries, Don William Davis broke into the Rogers home of Jane Martha Daniel, 62, on Oct. 12, 1990. Using a .44 caliber Magnum revolver he had stolen earlier, he shot her once in the head in a storeroom in her house. Richard Daniel found his wife dead in the basement when he returned home that night from a business trip. Davis was arrested in New Mexico after his roommates went to the police with their suspicions about his involvement. Most of the stolen objects were recovered and traced back to Davis. A jury convicted Davis of capital murder March 6, 1992. Davis had a previous execution date set in November 1999. UPDATE: Federal judge Susan Seber Wright granted Davis a stay to pursue claims that lethal injection is cruel and unusual punishment. 

Terry Melvin Sims killed a Seminole County reserve deputy sheriff more than 20 years ago. Sims was condemned to die for the slaying of Deputy George Pfeil, 55, at the Longwood Village Pharmacy on Dec. 29, 1977. Pfeil was in uniform and on his way home when he entered the pharmacy on State Road 434 to pick up a prescription. Inside, Sims and Curtis Baldree were robbing the store while accomplices B.B. Halsell and Clarence Eugene Robinson waited in a getaway car. Pfeil exchanged gunfire with Sims and was shot twice. He died a short time later. Sims, who was shot in the hip, was not arrested until June 1978, after an attempted armed robbery in California. Baldree and Halsell testified against Sims during his 1979 trial and said he bragged that he "killed a cop with one shot." Sims was convicted of 1st-degree murder and robbery. Baldree and Halsell were both killed after being released from 2-year prison terms. Robinson, who was indicted in absentia for murder in the pharmacy shooting, remained at large until June 1983 when he surrendered after being charged with shooting two FBI agents in Volusia County. There are still appeals pending and this execution is not likely to take place on this date.

Before Andre Miles began serving his life sentence in prison, prosecutors reminded him how close he came to an even worse punishment. If not for 2 sympathetic jurors, they said, he would be on his way to death row for killing 2 Westwood grocers. "This was not a unanimous verdict," assistant county prosecutor Richard Gibson said of the 12 jurors who decided Mr. Miles' case. "At least 10 of them felt death was the appropriate sentence." Mr. Gibson said he spoke to the jurors after the verdict and was told they recommended life in prison only because 2 members of the panel refused to vote for the more severe penalty. Judge Arthur Ney of Hamilton County Common Pleas Court said that under Ohio law, he must follow the jury's recommendation. The judge then ordered Mr. Miles to serve 2 consecutive life sentences without chance for parole. "This court has no other choice," Judge Ney said. Mr. Miles was convicted of being part of an elaborate murder-for-hire plot that led to the shooting deaths of Maher Khrais and Ziad Khrais in 1998. His jury concluded that Mr. Miles was the gunman hired to kill the Jordanian brothers as they walked to their car in a Westwood parking lot. Prosecutors said Mr. Khrais's wife, Linda Khriss, organized the plot because she feared her husband was going to divorce her. They said she asked a friend, Ahmad Fawzi Issa, to act as the middleman between her and Mr. Miles. Although the prosecution's allegations were similar at all 3 trials, each case ended with a different verdict. Mrs. Khriss was exonerated when a jury found her not guilty earlier this year. Mr. Issa was convicted of aggravated murder by a jury that later recommended a death sentence. Mr. Miles also was convicted, but his jury recommended life in prison. At his sentencing, Mr. Miles remained silent as prosecutors told him he narrowly escaped death row. Mr. Gibson said most jurors favored a death sentence but were forced to accept a lesser punishment because 2 jurors would not agree to anything else. "Lest Andre Miles think this verdict is some kind of vindication, several jurors expressed frustration that they could not recommend a death sentence," Mr. Gibson said. There are still appeals pending and this execution is not likely to take place on this date.

In October 1994, Thomas Lee Royal was sentenced to death for the February 21, 1994 capital murder of police officer Kenneth Wallace. Kenneth was killed as part of a "hit list" of law enforcement officials. Three men and two teenagers were charged with his murder. Kenneth was shot twice in the head while patrolling the Wythe area of Hampton on Feb. 21, 1994. He died four days later. The prosecutor on the alleged hit list had spent the previous 2 1/2 years working with a joint federal-state drug-prosecution task force serving several Virginia cities. She was pursuing state drug trafficking charges against Sammie Lee Royal, 22, the brother of Thomas Lee Royal. Sammie Royal had been arrested four times in Hampton in the four months before the murder, twice on drug charges, but apparently was released on bond each time. Wallace, 29, a seven-year veteran, was shot twice in the head as he sat in his patrol car. Police said that a .22-caliber revolver and a .380-caliber semiautomatic were used in the attack. Wallace died four days later after surgery to remove a bullet that lodged in his skull. Royal said he had planned to kill a police officer in retaliation for his brother being arrested on drug charges. When Royal discovered Wallace in the patrol car instead of the officer he intended to kill, he shot Wallace. Royal's accomplices were Juan Morillo, 33, Willie C. Sanders, 33, and a 15-year-old Newport News resident. Royal and another man not involved in the Wallace shooting were also charged with the 1991 murder of James Smith Jr. in Hampton.

Jessica Oestricker Coplin of Herculaneaum said the May 1982 shooting death of her brother Jerry Oestricker by James Wilson Chambers "should never have happened." Chambers had received a 3-year sentence in July 1972 for the felony of 2nd-degree burglary. Then-Gov. Christopher Bond freed Chambers through commutation about halfway through his sentence. A few weeks later, Chambers was arrested for shooting a man in the stomach outside a bar in Jefferson County. In April 1975, Chambers received a 15-year sentence for felony assault with intent to kill, according to state records provided by Nixon's campaign. 7 years after beginning his second prison sentence, Chambers received a Memorial Day weekend pass and killed Jerry Oestricker while outside prison walls. In September 1982, while awaiting trial for the Oestricker killing, Chambers' sentence for shooting Griffin was commuted by Bond. Chambers is now on death row for the Oestricker slaying. Ms. Coplin said no commutations should have been approved by Bond: "This was senseless and should never have happened." Chambers had been scheduled to be executed on Sept. 29 but received a stay that rescheduled his execution for November 10. 11/9/99 - Condemned inmate James Chambers was already sitting in the cell next to Missouri's execution room Tuesday afternoon, when the U.S. Supreme Court refused the state's request to kill him. Chambers, 47, had been scheduled to die by injection at 12:01 a.m. Wednesday at the maximum-security prison in Potosi. He was condemned for the 1982 killing of Jerry Oestricker outside a bar in Arnold, a St. Louis suburb. "You can't imagine how happy I am," Chambers told The Associated Press. "I knew it was a matter of hours before I was to die." Missouri Attorney General Jay Nixon's office filed the motion Monday to put the execution back on track. It came after the 8th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals granted Chambers an indefinite stay Friday. His attorney, Kent Gipson, had argued that Chambers' appeal was wrongly limited in federal court under the federal Anti-Terrorism and Effective Death Penalty Act of 1996. The law affected appeals filed after April 24, 1996, well after Chambers filed his appeals, but the 8th Circuit retroactively applied it to his case. The Supreme Court has agreed to hear a similar case from Nevada, Slack vs. McDaniel, in which the 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeal's retroactive application of the law is being questioned. The Supreme Court is expected to rule on that case next spring. The 8th Circuit said Friday that until that case is decided, the state shouldn't be allowed to execute Chambers "when there is thus an appreciable chance that he has not received the full review process to which he is entitled." The full Supreme Court agreed Tuesday. "There won't be an execution tonight," Gipson said after learning of the ruling. Gipson said he will wait for the outcome of the Nevada case before plotting his next legal move. Nixon's office also was taking a wait-and-see approach. "At this point now we'll wait to find out the outcome of the case," said Scott Holste, spokesman for Nixon. "We do believe it's important to press on, to try and uphold the verdict three separate juries came back with." Chambers was tried and convicted three times of first-degree murder in the death of Jerry Oestricker. The first two convictions were set aside -- a state and federal appeals court each ordered a new trial. Chambers was tried for a third time in 1991 and appeals of that conviction have so far proved unsuccessful. The case is unusual because Chambers was condemned for a killing that resulted from a barroom brawl. To seek first-degree murder, the state must show there was cool reflection and deliberation in carrying out the killing. No one denied Chambers shot Oestricker once in the heart on May 29, 1982, just outside the door of Country Club Lounge. But what was disputed by attorneys over the years was whether Chambers killed Oestricker, a much bigger man, in self-defense, and what his mental state was at the time. According to testimony, the trouble began before Chambers went to the bar. Oestricker was heading to the bathroom and bumped one of Chambers' friends, Jack Turner. The two argued and both were asked to leave the bar, but Oestricker stayed. Turner returned a short time later with Chambers, who was carrying a .38 caliber revolver, authorities said. Chambers and Oestricker argued, and the bar owner asked them to leave. Chambers testified that he fired the gun after Oestricker stabbed him with a pair of needle-nose pliers. Each jury rejected a lesser charge of second-degree murder and recommended the death penalty based on evidence that Chambers repeatedly hit Oestricker in the face with the gun after the shooting. Chambers continued Tuesday to maintain it was self-defense. "I'm on death row for a barroom killing," he said. "I'm the only one in the whole country on death row for this. They're anxious to kill me to set an example for others." He asked to be moved Tuesday morning to the cell next-door to where condemned inmates are injected with three lethal drugs. It allowed him to visit with his wife and to make telephone calls. Prison officials said he would be returned to his regular prison cell now that his execution is on hold.

After 15 years on death row, Leroy Joseph "Ricky" Drayton, twice convicted and sentenced to death for the abduction and murder of a 19-year-old Charleston County gas station clerk, is to be executed by lethal injection Friday. The body of Rhonda Darlene Smith was found near an abandoned coal trestle along the Cooper River in February 1984. She had a 5-month-old child and was the sister of former state Rep. Sandi Wofford, who later worked to get passage of a victims' bill of rights and is a victim's advocate for state Attorney General Charlie Condon. Wofford did not want to be interviewed, attorney general's spokesman Robb McBurney said. Several witnesses said they saw Drayton, who now is 44 years old, and Smith drive up to the Kaye gas station where she worked early on Feb. 11, 1984. They said Smith opened the store and helped customers, and neither she nor Drayton appeared nervous or distressed. But prosecutors said Drayton later robbed the store and kidnapped Smith. Drayton told police she was the one who stole more than $300 and offered it to him. He also said she voluntarily went with him to the coal trestle, where he tripped and the .357-caliber pistol he had accidentally fired, hitting Smith between the eyes. The conviction was reversed by the state Supreme Court a year later. The jurors should have been told to decide whether Drayton's statement to police was voluntary, the court said. Drayton was not allowed to see his mother or a lawyer while he was being questioned by police, said one of his lawyers, John Blume. Drayton was convicted again at his retrial and last month the U.S. Supreme Court refused without comment to hear his appeal. "The idea that she would be snatched from her workplace and driven to this desolate area late at night - the terror she must have suffered," said Condon, who was the local prosecutor in Charleston both times Drayton was tried.

The Illinois Supreme Court has upheld the death penalty of a Wayne City, Ill., man convicted of killing his ex-wife and her 13-year-old daughter. Niels Christian Nielsen is now set to die by lethal injection on Nov. 16, pending further appeals. Nielsen is on death row at the Menard Correctional facility at Chester, Ill., for the July 4, 1995, shooting death of his ex-wife, Sue Marshel, and her daughter, Melinda. The Supreme Court rejected Nielsen's contention that the trial court erred in denying his motion to suppress evidence gathered from a burn pile at the home of his mother and stepfather. Nielsen was convicted of shooting both victims in the head, burning their bodies on a trash pile, stuffing their remains in a gym bag, and tossing them in a farm pond. The court also rejected Nielsen's argument that a confession he gave to a Wayne County sheriff's deputy was improperly obtained. During a casual conversation with Wayne County Sheriff's Deputy Blake Adams in the jail exercise yard, Nielsen started talking about the case. Deputy Adams stopped the discussion, and turned Nielsen over to state police, who took a formal statement about the killings. Nielsen's attorneys also argued that he should not have received the death penalty because he was absent from court when Judge Loren Lewis read the sentence. Under Illinois law, a defendant has a right to be present at his sentencing. In Nielsen's case, security officers removed him from the Lawrence County Circuit Courtroom because he shouted obscenities at court officials and overturned tables. Lewis gave Nielsen several opportunities to stop the disruptive behavior and rejoin the sentencing hearing, but he declined.

Desmond Jennings was sentenced to be executed for the shooting deaths of 44-year-old Sylvester Walton and 27-year-old Wonda Matthews. Both victims were shot in the head in a Ft. Worth home, two days after Christmas, in 1993. Walton was killed by a bullet that hit him in the nose and traveled through his brain. Matthews was shot twice in the face and once in the back of the head. Jennings took a pouch containing a small amount of drugs and money from Walton's pocket before he and his companion left the house, records show. Jennings was 22 years old at the time of the murders. Jennings was tied to a spree of crack house robberies and killings but was sentenced to death for the double murder that netted him 13 cents and some empty drug capsules. Jennings, 28, was described by prosecutors as a drug-using thrill killer and may be responsible for as many as 20 murders at Fort Worth drug houses. Authorities believe they have positively linked him to 5 slayings, including the two in 1993 that sent him to death row. The victims in the other cases were Dino Beasley, 29, and Charlotte Dickerson, 31, found fatally shot Christmas Eve 1993 inside a drug house on Sunshine Drive; and Larry Eugene Wilson, killed by a shotgun blast Oct. 23, 1993, at a marijuana house. Testimony indicated that Dickerson nearly survived the Sunshine Drive bloodbath when she hid under the bed as Jennings riddled Beasley with bullets. But witnesses said Jennings, after leaving, went back into the house and shot Dickerson when he learned of her presence. These other murders remain on the books as unsolved. All occurred in drug houses and nearly all the victims were prostitutes or junkies. Witnesses said Jennings tossed the 13 cents and capsules out the window of a car as he drove away from where Sylvester Walton, 44, and Wonda Matthews, 27, both had been fatally shot in the head Dec. 27, 1993. Jennings is a former nurse's aide who dropped out of school after the 9th grade. Evidence at Jennings' trial showed he was the triggerman in a small gang of men who robbed Fort Worth crack houses. "They would literally bust down the doors, rob the house and kill everyone there," Joetta Keene, a former Tarrant County assistant district attorney who prosecuted Jennings said. "We proved the double homicide for grounds for capital (murder). What we proved is 3 more bodies in the punishment (phase) with no question of the feeling there were more out there. We knew there were up to 20 but we figured 5 would be enough and we proved 5 bodies." A 2nd man was convicted of murder and is serving a 30-year prison term. A friend testified Jennings was unfazed by the killings but was most upset that blood had splattered on his Chuck Taylor All-Star basketball shoes and his pants. "I messed my Chucks up," Jennings told him. "I got blood all over my Chucks and my khakis." He was arrested about a week later when police pulled over his car for having only one working headlight. A loaded .32-caliber pistol was found in the car and ballistics tests on the weapon tied it to the killings. Ms. Keene recalled this week how Jennings sat at the defense table in court and whistled "Battle Hymn of the Republic." "It's one of those things where you can have a hundred trials but don't forget that," she said. "I'm evaluating the death penalty in my heart and my mind and he's over there whistling."

A California drifter headed to the Texas death chamber Wednesday night for a fatal shooting and robbery committed only hours after he was freed from an Arkansas jail 17 years ago. John Michael Lamb, 42, a handyman who drifted to Texas from San Jose, California, was sentenced to die for the Nov. 6, 1982, robbery-slaying in Greenville of Jerry Harrison Chafin, 30, a Castlewood, Va., businessman in a Greenville motel room. Lamb was released from an Arkansas prison the day before the fatal shooting and was arrested 5 days later in Florida driving Jerry's car.  "I don't like needles," Lamb said in a death row interview in which he admitted being scared. One of the 2 needles to be inserted in his arms will be a few inches from a tattoo on his left arm that says: "Dead." "It's too late now," he added. "I can sit here and cry until the moon turns blue but it's not going to do any good." Lamb, with arrests from coast to coast, was condemned for fatally shooting Jerry Chafin, 30, of Castlewood, Va., at a Ramada Inn in Greenville, about 50 miles east of Dallas. Chafin's body was found on the morning of Nov. 6, 1982, by a cleaning woman. Five days later, Lamb was arrested near Greenville, Fla., after being chased by a Florida state trooper following a robbery at a convenience store where he shot and wounded a clerk and stole two cases of beer. When apprehended, he was driving Chafin's car and was carrying the Virginia man's wallet, credit cards and driver's license. In his confession, Lamb said he had been freed from a Searcy, Ark., jail after serving 100 days for receiving stolen property and was walking and hitchhiking to Dallas. He stole a couple of guns from a trailer home in Arkansas after leaving jail and was picked up by Chafin, who took him to the motel where the fatal shooting occurred. "I don't remember taking the gun out," Lamb said in an interview. "He died. I took his car. He didn't need it any more." Lamb, who dropped out of school in the 11th grade, had drug, burglary and forgery arrests in California and the armed robbery and attempted murder arrests in Florida, where he faced three life prison terms. Court records show he thanked Florida authorities for capturing him "before I killed somebody else." "I think he's exactly the type of case for which the death penalty is designed," Hunt County District Attorney Duncan Thomas, who prosecuted Lamb in Texas, said this week. "He's someone who kills someone, steals all their belongings and then tries to kill someone else." Lamb's final appeals were rejected this week by the U.S. Supreme Court, which also refused to halt the execution. It was the last step in a circuitous series of appeals Lamb has had in the state and federal courts since his conviction in March 1983. "I certainly think this is long overdue," Thomas said. In 1992, Lamb suffered superficial stab wounds to the hands in a clash with another death row inmate. A third inmate was seriously stabbed.

Dorothy was a clerk at the Texas Coin Exchange and was murdered when Jose Gutierrez and his accomplice, his brother Jessie, robbed the store in College Station, Texas. The pair entered the store around 10 am and when Dorothy saw one of them pull a handgun from under his coat, she ran to hide in an office but was shot in the head. The brothers stole approximately half a million dollars worth of gems and jewelry, about 3/4 of which was recovered when they were arrested a short time later. Jessie Gutierrez was executed for this murder in 1994. Jose Gutierrez had been mandatory-released from prison in 1987 after serving four years on an aggravated rape conviction.

David Junior Brown, who has since changed his name to Dawud Muhammad, stabbed a Moore County, NC woman and her daughter to death in 1980. Brown was convicted of killing Shelly Diane Chalflinch, who was 26, and her 9-year-old daughter, Christine. They were found stabbed hundreds of times in their apartment in the old employees' quarters of the Pinehurst Hotel on Aug. 24, 1980. The evidence against Brown was overwhelming; his bloody palm print on Diane Chalflinch's bedroom wall, the trail of bloody foot prints leading from the Chalflinch's apartment to his, and his silver signet ring being found underneath Diane Chalflinch's liver. Brown said he may have run into Chalflinch, a secretary at the Pinehurst Resort and Country Club -- site of this year's U.S. Open -- in the community laundry room at the apartment house shortly before she was murdered. "I could have in passing, I'm not sure," he said. "That question was put to me by Pinehurst police." Also, according to prosecutors, the murder weapon was a distinctive R.H. Forschner culinary knife similar to those Muhammad used in the hotel kitchen. A Union County jury convicted Brown of the murders and sentenced him to die in December 1980. Wes and Swannie Frye, the father and mother of Diane and grandparents of Christina, said they believe that Brown murdered their loved ones and they plan to witness the execution. "You can't feel good about a death but I feel like it's fair in this case," Wes Frye said. Frye said he thinks Brown was infatuated with his daughter -- a suggestion that was never developed during the trial. In a clemency hearing, prosecutors with the state Attorney General's Office showed the governor pieces of evidence, including photos of the crime scene and the victims who had been mutilated, a section of wall with blood on it, a partial bloody palm print later identified as Brown's and a ring belonging to Brown, which was discovered inside Diane Chalflinch's body, apparently slipping off his finger as he stabbed her. The print shows the faint partial whorls of a hand in blood. Muhammad's lawyers have argued that the print could have been placed on the wall before the blood. Nothing could have prepared James Wise for what he would encounter the morning he walked into the blood-soaked apartment where the murders occurred. He was the Pinehurst police chief and was supposed to be on vacation that week. He remembers getting the call from his investigator. "He told me this was a bad one," Wise said. "It was the most horrible crime scene I have ever seen in my 40 years of law enforcement. I will never forget it." The building where the murders occurred is now an apartment complex. Wise remembers tracing the trail of bloody, bare foot prints from Chalflinch's apartment to Brown's ground floor apartment at the opposite end of the building. He saw blood on the door frame of Brown's apartment. He said that large amounts of blood had been cleaned up in Brown's apartment, although investigators never proved it was the victim's blood. The next day, a medical examiner found a silver ring under Chalflinch's liver while doing an autopsy. Wise said several witnesses identified it as Brown's ring. A neighbor in the apartment building where Brown and the victims lived said he saw Brown wearing the ring hours before police said the killings occurred. Investigators found Brown's bloody palm print on the wall in Christine's bedroom. "I just don't see how anyone, after looking at all of the evidence, can say that he is not guilty," Wise said, lowering his head, his voice dropping. "I know he did it. He knew what he was doing. He should pay the price for what he did. It is time for this to end."

Committing a series of burglaries, Don William Davis broke into the Rogers home of Jane Martha Daniel, 62, on Oct. 12, 1990. Using a .44 caliber Magnum revolver he had stolen earlier, he shot her once in the head in a storeroom in her house. Richard Daniel found his wife dead in the basement when he returned home that night from a business trip. Davis was arrested in New Mexico after his roommates went to the police with their suspicions about his involvement. Most of the stolen objects were recovered and traced back to Davis. A jury convicted Davis of capital murder March 6, 1992. Davis appealed his conviction to the U.S. Supreme Court but the court refused to hear the appeal. There are still appeals pending and this execution is not likely to take place on this date.

A man convicted of killing his wife as she lay in her hospital bed now sits on death row, after a judge rejected the defense's plea over a juror who fell ill during sentencing. Cahill was convicted of poisoning his estranged wife with cyanide in her hospital room after beating her with a baseball bat during a fight in their home April 21, 1998.

On 1/16/97, Group shot and killed the owner of a bar located near Youngstown State University. The victim's wife was also shot but survived. Group harassed the wife by threatening her with rape, the desecration of her husband's grave, and threatening to kill her son. She was in hiding for two years before testifying. There are still appeals pending and this execution is not likely to take place on this date.

Robert Ramdass was given a death sentence in 1993 for the robbery / murder of a convenience store clerk, Mohammad Kayani on September 2, 1992. Ramdass said he jumped the counter and pointed a .38-caliber snub-nose pistol at Kayani's head. "I told the dude to open the safe," Ramdass recalled. "He didn't say nothing. He was just pushing buttons and looking at me. ... I told him to stop looking at me. He was scared. I felt he was scared by the way he was looking at me." A witness testified at his trial that Ramdass looked at Kayani lying on the floor after he had been shot and remarked: "That's for taking too long."  3 days before that killing, Ramdass shot an Arlington cab driver in the back of the head and left him for dead after robbing him. In addition, he gunned down 19-year-old Darrell Ferguson in an alley on July 15, 1992. Ferguson was dealing drugs, Ramdass said. Drug dealers carry a lot of cash. Ramdass wanted it. But Ferguson had the audacity to try to run, Ramdass said during a prison interview, so he pumped 2 bullets into the man. In an 8-day crime spree that year, Ramdass was linked to 6 armed robberies, including an incident in which he pistol-whipped a clerk at Bragg Towers.

William "Skip" Moyer, a 37-year-old delivery driver, was the first FexEx courier to be murdered. He was shot in the face at point-blank range with a shotgun as he was making a delivery in Philadelphia. His killer, Frederick Thomas, had a lengthy rap sheet, including aggravated robbery, burglary and Voluntary Manslaughter. There are still appeals pending and this execution is not likely to take place on this date.

John Wayne was convicted of murder in the first degree and criminal conspiracy to kill Kenneth Rankine. The evidence presented at trial revealed the following details concerning the shooting of Kenneth Rankine on the night of August 12, 1994. Jacqueline Brown testified that on the evening in question, she was standing on the sidewalk outside her home in Philadelphia at 11:30 p.m. Jacqueline Brown was with her cousins, Kenneth Rankine and Neville Bobby Hill, and her boyfriend Paul Green. While this group was assembled, three individuals approached them simultaneously. Two unidentified men approached together from the direction of 52nd Street as John Wayne approached from 53rd Street and Warrington Avenue. Wayne engaged Bobby Hill in conversation for about fifteen minutes. This was a private conversation between Wayne and Bobby Hill and did not involve the other persons present. Jacqueline Brown did not observe any interaction between Wayne and the two unknown individuals. Jacqueline Brown spoke to one of the unknown men, commenting on his boots. When the unknown man acknowledged Jacqueline's compliment by modeling his boots, he turned his body and Jacqueline observed that he possessed a gun. Jacqueline advised her boyfriend, Paul Green, of the gun. Paul directed Jacqueline to go into her house. Jacqueline retreated to the enclosed porch of her house from where she continued to observe the persons on the street. Kenneth came onto the porch and Jacqueline advised him that one of the men was carrying a gun. Kenneth walked through Jacqueline's house out the back door to the street, then retraced his steps and returned to the group on the sidewalk. When Kenneth returned to the street, Jacqueline observed Wayne "grip up" Bobby Hill and walk him across the street. At that same time, the two unknown men began shooting at Kenneth. Kenneth fell to the ground. Bobby Hill ran away from Wayne and the two unknown men shot at him as he was running. The two unknown men and Wayne all ran from the scene in the same direction. Immediately following the shooting, Jacqueline identified a photograph of Wayne at the police station. Jacqueline also made a positive identification of Wayne at trial. Jacqueline Brown testified that on the night of the shooting Wayne had a distinctive gold tooth. Jacqueline acknowledged that at the time of trial Wayne did not have a gold tooth, however she remained positive in her identification of Wayne as the man she observed on the night of August 12, 1994. Bobby Hill testified that when Wayne first approached, he recognized him from a previous meeting. Wayne's conversation with Bobby was casual; they discussed a nearby party. Bobby Hill observed Kenneth go to his car. When Kenneth came back to the group, Bobby overheard Kenneth and the two unknown men exchange bitter words. Kenneth and the two unknown men were standing behind Bobby Hill and John Wayne. Bobby heard sounds indicative of wrestling. He turned and observed one of the unknown men pointing a gun at Kenneth. At that point Wayne grabbed Bobby and held a gun to his head, forcing him across the street towards Bobby's car. Bobby did not see the gun but he felt the muzzle against his head. Bobby heard a click, which he believed was the gun firing, but realized the gun had not fired at the same time he heard the gunfire behind him from the direction of Kenneth and the two unknown men. Bobby fled; hearing shots being fired in his direction as he ran. Officer Napoli of the Philadelphia Police Department was the first officer to arrive at the scene of the shooting. Officer Napoli observed a gun in Kenneth's right hand. The officer identified the gun as a .380 semi-automatic handgun. A short time after the arrival of Officer Napoli, a criminal evidence specialist for the mobile crime unit of the Philadelphia Police Department arrived at the scene and retrieved two nine-millimeter cartridge cases and four .380 cartridge cases from the scene. Doctor McDonald the assistant medical examiner for the City of Philadelphia performed the autopsy on Kenneth. The cause of death was multiple gunshot wounds. Dr. McDonald identified six distinct gunshot wounds: 1) in the back of the head, 2) the back of the neck, 3) the left upper back, 4) the left middle back and traveling through the aorta, 5) the left lower back and traveling into the aorta and the liver, and 6) the right lower back traveling through the intestines and the abdomen. Dr. McDonald testified that three of the six wounds were fatal as they struck a vital part of the body. Officer O'Hara of the Philadelphia Police Department testified as a firearms expert. Officer O'Hara testified that the gun found in Mr. Rankine's hand had not been fired. Officer O'Hara testified that the .380 cartridges found at the scene did not come from Mr. Rankine's gun. The evidence presented was sufficient to establish beyond a reasonable doubt that Wayne entered into a conspiracy with two unidentified men on the night of August 12, 1994 to kill Kenneth Rankine. Although Wayne and the two unknown men approached Bobby Hill and Kenneth from different directions, the fact that they all arrived simultaneously leads to the logical inference that their joint appearance was planned. While Wayne engaged Bobby Hill in conversation, the two unknown men did not interact with any of the other persons present. Jacqueline Brown testified that she attempted a conversation with one of the men by commenting on his boots, but the two men made no attempt at further conversation. In fact, Jacqueline walked away from the group on the sidewalk when the gun one of the men was carrying aroused her suspicions. The sequence of events leads to the logical inference that Wayne engaged Bobby Hill in a meaningless conversation to distract him from the intentions of the two unidentified men. When the two unidentified men began shooting at Kenneth, Wayne forcibly removed Bobby from the center of the melee. Wayne held a gun to Bobby's head and attempted to use that gun on Bobby, however, the gun malfunctioned and Bobby was able to escape, even though his flight was followed with a hail of bullets from the two unknown men. Wayne was observed fleeing the scene of the shooting in the same direction as the two unidentified men. The record presents sufficient information from which the jury could reasonably infer that Wayne was a co-conspirator of the two unidentified men who actually inflicted the fatal wounds on Kenneth. There are still appeals pending and this execution is not likely to take place on this date.