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Five killers were executed
in November 2002. They had murdered at least
10 people.
Three
killers were given a stay in November 2002.
They have murdered at least 4 people.
| Date of scheduled execution |
State |
Victim name |
Inmate name |
Status |
| November
6, 2002 |
Texas |
Peggy
Murphy, 55 |
James
Colburn |
stayed |
|
James
Blake Colburn of Montgomery County was convicted of the June 26, 1994 stabbing
of Peggy Murphy, 55, after she rebuffed his sexual advances. In his
confession, Colburn admitted that he woke up on the morning of June 26, cooked a
steak for breakfast, and decided to go outside. As he crossed the street in
front of his apartment, he noticed Peggy Murphy hitchhiking. Colburn introduced
himself and invited Murphy into his home. Once inside, Murphy asked for a beer.
Colburn went next door and returned with a beer. He then offered to show Murphy
some of his artwork, but when she entered his bedroom, Colburn grabbed her and
attempted to rape her. When Murphy resisted, Colburn strangled her until she
stopped breathing. Colburn then stabbed her in the neck with a steak knife to
make sure she was dead. After the murder, Colburn went to a neighbor's
apartment and asked them to call the police. Colburn told the police in a
videotaped confession that he killed Peggy because he wanted to go back to
prison. Colburn was previously convicted of burglary of a building on Oct.
19, 1977; attempted burglary of a building on Feb. 23, 1978; unauthorized use of
a motor vehicle on July 16, 1979; aggravated robbery on May 22, 1980; arson on
Jan. 25, 1990; and false statement in acquisition of a firearm on Jan. 2, 1991.
Colburn also assaulted his wife with a motorcycle helmet on Jan. 11, 1990,
fracturing her cheekbone and causing nerve damage. Colburn also kicked her on
another occasion. Colburn had served 6 years of an 18 year sentence for the
aggravated robbery charge. He was sent back to prison for parole
violations as well as a new 5 year sentence for arson but was released less than
a year later. Peggy was murdered about four years after Colburn was
released. "I knew what I was doing when I killed her. When I laid her on
the bed, something snapped,'' Colburn said. When he realized she was dead, he
turned himself in, he said. "I'm not scared,'' Colburn said. ``I'll be free as I
know it. I think this is, in a way, a step in the right direction for me. If I
got out, I'm scared somebody else would be hurt or killed.'' |
| Date of scheduled execution |
State |
Victim name |
Inmate name |
Status |
| November
13, 2002 |
Georgia |
David Hardin
Katie Christine Back Hardin
William Hodges |
William Putman |
executed |
|
William Putman was executed Wednesday for the deaths of a couple sleeping at a
south Georgia rest stop 22 years ago. Putman, 59, was pronounced dead at 7:24
p.m. at the state prison in Jackson, south of Atlanta. Putman declined to make a
final statement. When asked, he said, "No, thank you." Asked if he wanted a
prayer, he said, "No, No." Putman had instructed his attorney to drop his final appeals, and spent his last two days meeting with 29 family
members and friends. Department of Corrections spokeswoman Peggy Chapman
described Putman as having been "resigned to his fate," calm and ready to die.
The Pardons and Paroles Board considered and then denied clemency for Putman on
Tuesday, even though he didn't seek it, said spokeswoman Heather Hedrick.
Witnesses in Putman's trial said he approached a family sleeping at a rest area
off Interstate 75 near Lenox on July 10, 1980. The family was traveling home to
Kentucky from a week-long vacation at Daytona Beach, Florida. They had stopped
at the rest area around 3:00 am to get some sleep. A witness testified
that she saw a semi-truck pulling a flat-bed trailer drive through the parking
lot several times. The truck eventually parked at the end of the parking
lot. The driver got out, reached into the cab of the truck and retrieved
an object before waling toward her car, where she sat on the hood, smoking a
cigarette. The man stopped under a nearby tree, approximately five feet away,
and whistled at the witness. He then walked behind her car and across the
parking lot. He went to the front of the Hardin vehicle and stood there
for a few moments. Another witness arrived around this time and observed
that a dark-colored semi with an empty, yellow flat-bed trailer
was parked at the end of the automobile parking lot and that a man was standing
in front of the blue Dodge, whose occupants were all apparently asleep.
He testified that, just as he lay down in his automobile, he heard a loud
noise that sounded like a firecracker. He looked up and saw a woman in the front
passenger's seat of the Dodge opening the passenger door. The man he had seen
earlier ran around the car to her door. The female witness
testified that the man walked around to the driver's side of the Hardin
automobile. She heard a loud noise and then the man ran to the passenger's side
of the car. David Hardin's niece, who had been asleep
in the back seat of the Dodge with Katie's two older children, testified that
she was awakened by a loud noise. She saw a man standing outside the car, next
to David Hardin, who lay in the driver's seat with his head resting on the back
of the seat, next to the door. The man hurried to the passenger side of the car.
All of the witnesses agreed on what happened next: As Katie Hardin tried
to get out of the car, the man grabbed her and demanded that she go with him.
She refused, and screamed for David, who lay fatally wounded in the driver's
seat. The man shot Katie in the head. He then reached into the car and placed
something into the waist-band of his pants. He ran to his truck and drove off,
headed north. One of the witnesses called the police,
who arrived at the rest area just before 5:30 a.m. Based on information obtained
from the witnesses, a lookout was posted for a white male, proceeding north on
Interstate 75, driving a dark-blue or black truck pulling an empty, yellow
flat-bed trailer. A truck fitting this description was spotted by police just
south of Cordele and followed to a rest area in Dooly County. The truck parked
in the exit lane of the rest area and the driver went to the restroom. Backup
units arrived and the driver, William Howard Putman, was arrested after he
returned to his truck. Officers smelled alcohol on Putman's breath and he was
initially taken to the Dooly County Sheriff's Office for an intoximeter test,
which indicated that Putman's blood alcohol was .13 grams/percent. Putman had
what appeared to be blood on his left pants leg. Officers recovered a .38
caliber revolver from under the driver's seat of Putman's truck. The revolver
had three live rounds and two spent cartridges in its chamber. A gun case and
David Hardin's wallet lay on the passenger's seat. Putman was returned to Cook
County at approximately 7:30 a.m. The female witness
was at the courthouse, having just given a statement to investigators. As she
stood outside smoking a cigarette, Putman arrived in a police car. She
immediately recognized him as the man who had shot David and Katie Hardin. At
approximately 2:30 p.m. of the same day, the body of William Gerald Hodges was
found slumped over the wheel of his automobile in the parking lot of a truck
stop in Valdosta. He had been shot in the head and shoulder. A .38 caliber
bullet was recovered from the interior of his automobile and another was
recovered from inside his skull. After Putman's
arrival in Cook County, his clothing was removed from him and the contents of
his pockets were inventoried. In his shirt pockets were two .38 caliber
cartridges and an insurance card bearing the name William G. Hodges. In the
pockets of his trousers were a gold Timex wristwatch and two gold rings, one
having a red stone and the other a blue stone. The rings and the watch were
identified by friends as having belonged to William Hodges. Serological
examination of the reddish-brown substance on the leg of Putman's trousers and
on the blue-stone ring established that the substance was blood having
characteristics consistent of the blood of William Hodges and inconsistent with
the blood of 98.3 percent of the general population. A
fresh dent was discovered on the right rear corner of Hodges' automobile. The
dent was horizontal, two or three inches long. Yellow paint was present in the
grooves of the dent, and loose flakes of yellow paint surrounded the dent. The
yellow paint was the same color as the trailer of Putman's truck.
The .38 caliber revolver found in Putman's truck was purchased by him at
a Talladega, Alabama, pawn shop on May 9, 1980. Ballistics examination showed
that the bullet removed from the skull of David Hardin, the bullet removed from
the skull of Katie Hardin, the bullet removed from the skull of William Hodges,
and the bullet removed from the interior of Hodges' automobile had all been
fired from the same gun: Putman's .38 caliber revolver. Putman testified that he
was returning from Florida on the 9th and 10th of July. He admitted that he
stopped at the truck stop in Valdosta at approximately 10:00 p.m. on the 9th. He
said he had two beers and three mixed drinks, and then went to sleep in his
truck. When he left a couple of hours later, he took with him a hitchhiker known
only to him as "Jeff." He stopped briefly at the first rest area north of
Valdosta on Interstate 75, near Hahira, to wash his hands, and subsequently let
Jeff out at an exit near Adel. He then proceeded directly to the rest area in
Dooly County where he was arrested. Putman denied having stopped at the Lenox
rest area. He admitted owning the .38 revolver found in his truck, but denied
having shot anyone with it. Before trial in the Hardins's
deaths, Putnam was tried in Lowndes County for
and found guilty of the murder of William Hodges and sentenced to life.
Putman did not close his eyes as the chemicals used for execution went through
his system. He looked straight ahead and muttered something unintelligible. He
appeared to be having trouble breathing before the chemicals shut down his
lungs. The
execution was witnessed by Shannon Blincoe, daughter of the slain couple, who
was in the front seat of the car when her parents were shot. She was eight
months old at the time. Three older children also were in the car when the
shootings took place. No members of Putman's family attended the execution.
Putman's last meal was three eggs over light, toast, bacon, hash browns, vanilla
ice cream and two soft drinks. Bob Ellis, a district attorney who worked on the
case, said the daughter had told him "My mamma and daddy can finally rest in
peace." He said he had stayed in touch with the daughter since the trial. |
| Date
of scheduled execution |
State |
Victim
name |
Inmate
name |
Status |
| November
14, 2002 |
Virginia |
Frank A. Darling, 28
Lansing H. Bennett, 66 |
Mir Aimal Kasi |
executed |
| In
Fairfax, a judge has scheduled a Nov. 7 execution for a Pakistani who opened
fire with an assault rifle outside CIA headquarters in 1993, killing 2 people
and injuring 3. Mir Aimal Kasi's appeals were exhausted last month when the 4th
U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals upheld his death sentence. Only the Supreme Court
or Virginia Gov. Mark R. Warner can intervene. Kasi went on a shooting rampage
outside the CIA headquarters in 1993, killing two and wounding three CIA
employees. Kasi killed Frank A. Darling, 28, an officer in covert operations,
and Lansing H. Bennett, 66, an intelligence analyst, on Jan. 25, 1993. Fairfax
County Commonwealth's Attorney Robert F. Horan said, "If he wasn't a terrorist,
I've got to get a new definition." Four Americans were killed in Pakistan in
apparent response to Kasi's 1997 trial. "I've tried an awful lot of killers in
my life, and I think he's the only one I've run into that is absolutely proud of
what he did. You get a lot of killers who don't feel all that bad about what
they did, but he's proud of it," said Horan. At Kasi's trial, an FBI agent
testified that Kasi confessed he wanted to punish the U.S. government for
bombing Iraq, for what he saw as its involvement in the killing of Palestinians,
and because the CIA was too deeply involved in the internal affairs of Muslim
countries. After the slayings, he fled the country and spent most of the next 4
and a half years traveling in Afghanistan. He was apprehended in a hotel when
visiting Pakistan. The victims were slain with an AK-47 assault rifle as they
sat in their cars waiting at a stoplight outside CIA headquarters in McLean on
Jan. 25, 1993. According to the Web site for Virginians for Alternatives to the
Death Penalty, Kasi is looking for pen pals. In soliciting pen pals, Kasi said
he is interested in a pen-pal friendship, his hobby is reading books, he speaks
English and his native language, Pashto, and that he already is corresponding
with "a few old friends." He said he has no religious preference, but in 1997 he
told the FBI he did not shoot any women because it was against his Muslim
religion. While there was no evidence Kasi had any assistance, the judge ordered
the jury sequestered and Kasi was convicted after a 2-week trial that cost about
$1.5 million and was held amid unprecedented security at Fairfax Court House.
According to the Virginia Supreme Court, in one of his appeals, Kasi contended
he should not be sentenced to death because his was a political crime and that
his death sentence should be commuted "to avoid possible violent acts of
reprisal." On Sept. 11, the day of the terrorist attacks against the World Trade
Tower and Pentagon, a federal magistrate judge in Norfolk recommended that
Kasi's appeal be rejected. One juror spoke to the press after the penalty phase
of the trial. "I was literally shaking," the juror said of the trial's penalty
deliberations. "I found it probably the hardest thing I have ever had to do
because you are practically wielding the sword." The discussion over whether to
convict Kasi was much less emotional, the juror said. And he said the case left
him feeling sorry both for Kasi's victims and his family. "They're not
terrorists," he said of relatives of Kasi who sat through the 2-week trial
in Fairfax County Circuit Court. "They're victims, just like the other side." In
the sentencing deliberations, jurors methodically laid out the evidence for and
against execution. But the 6 men and 6 women discovered that they couldn't vote
right away, the juror said. He then suggested that they talk about their
feelings toward the death penalty. "Everybody opened up," he said. "...A lot of
people had the same emotions as me. They didn't like taking human life. We
didn't want to treat terrorists the same as they treat us." The talk broke the
stalemate, yielding a 10-2 vote for the death penalty instead of a sentence of
life in prison. Eventually, the majority persuaded the 2 holdouts to focus on
the crime, not the defendant, the juror said. "A couple of people said you can't
really think of him as he looks now, pathetic," the juror said. "The defense had
made him look like a lost soul. You can't approach him with those eyes, or you
can't kill him." Prosecutor Robert F. Horan argued that Kasi killed in anger and
showed no remorse for the killings. "He is proud of it. He set out on a mission
to kill people and he accomplished it. It doesn't bother him," Horan said. The
prosecutor added: "It's hard to find a man who is less unhappy about what he did
than this man. He doesn't have an ounce of sorrow for having killed Frank
Darling, not an ounce." Circuit Judge J. Howe Brown Jr.
sequestered the jury 2 days after Kasi was convicted, following the ambush
slayings of 4 American oil company workers in Karachi. None of the jurors knew
of the attack until after the trial ended, the juror told the newspaper. He said
they believed they were sequestered to shield them from media coverage of the
trial. Jurors had asked the judge on the day Kasi was convicted if any threats
had been made, and most were reassured when Brown said no, the juror said.
Richard Becker, Darling's father-in-law, said the family will not involve itself
in the appeals. "It has been five years of hell, and I'm not getting any
younger," said Becker, 63. "For us, as far as we are concerned, this is over.
The decision has been made." Becker's daughter, Judy Becker Darling, also was a
CIA employee and was in the car when her husband was shot. She has not returned
to her job. Nearly five years after she crouched beside her dying husband
outside the CIA, Judy Becker Darling swallowed hard and wiped away a tear when a
jury recommended a Pakistani terrorist die for the killing. Outside the
courthouse, Mrs. Darling cried too, but left the talking to her father and
brother-in-law. "Praise God is all I can say," Rich Becker, Darling's father-in
law, said as his daughter, Judy Becker Darling, wept softly. "We are grateful to
God and elated that after five long years, justice has been finally served."
Frank Darling's father, Russell Darling III said, "Frank loved his job, he loved
his country and he loved God. Although he is no longer with us, we know he is in
the presence of God." Mrs. Darling testified that after her husband's
murder, she was unable to live in the house she shared with him, and that she
couldn't return to her job at the CIA, where she had worked 13 years. Mrs.
Darling was in the car with her husband when he was gunned down, and in tears
she told the jury she couldn't eat, sleep or function normally for almost two
years after he was killed. "I just kept telling (my parents) I could smell blood
and death," she said. "I just didn't want to be here anymore. I wanted to be
with him." Judy sobbed on the stand as she described her husband's gruesome
death in the car seat next to her. Governor Mark Warner, a Democrat, said: "Mr.
Kasi has admitted to the crimes for which he was convicted and shown absolutely
no remorse for his actions. After a thorough review of Mr. Kasi's petition for
clemency and the judicial opinion regarding this case, I have concluded that the
death penalty is appropriate in the instance. I will not intervene." Earlier in
the afternoon, the United States Supreme Court rejected an appeal. |
| Date of scheduled execution |
State |
Victim name |
Inmate name |
Status |
| November
19, 2002 |
Texas |
James
C. "Boz" Boswell, 28 |
Craig
Ogan |
executed |
 A
jury deliberated for five hours before they found Craig Neil Ogan Jr. guilty of
killing a Houston police officer who had rejected his demand for immediate
attention at a street scene. The officer's parents hugged and clasped hands
after hearing the verdict. The many officers in the courtroom, tears in their
eyes, slapped each other on the back and gave the thumbs up sign. "As far as I'm
concerned, the worst is over," said Cecil "Sonny" Boswell, father of the slain
officer, James C. Boswell , 29. "In our eyes, Jim was on trial."
Martha
Boswell, the officer's mother said, "It helps in that his memory is not
besmirched." Whether Ogan received the death penalty was insignificant, the
Boswells said after the verdict. "His death is not going to bring my son back," Sonny Boswell
said. "I'm not going to lose a minute's sleep over it." Officer A.R. Northcutt,
who worked and played golf with Boswell, called the verdict "a big relief. It
lets people know that if you do this, you're not going to get away with it.'
Prosecutors portrayed Ogan as a paranoid, quick-tempered "macho man" who dreamed
of becoming a CIA agent. "He snuffed out one of our beautiful people, a man who
only wanted to serve," prosecutor Rusty Hardin said. After the penalty phase,
the jury deliberated nine hours before sentencing Ogan to death. Boswell's
mother, Martha Boswell of Meridian, Mississippi, voiced mixed feelings about her
son's killer receiving the maximum penalty. "I feel like the evidence was there
for the death penalty, just like it was for the verdict of guilty," she said.
"We could've lived with anything the jury came back with, and killing Mr. Ogan
isn't going to bring our son back, but he needs to be punished for what he did."
The panel's 12:30 a.m. verdict came after they answered "yes" to three key
questions, and the last one - did Ogan shoot Boswell on Dec. 9, 1989, without
provocation by the officer - was important to the slain officer's partner,
Morgan Gainer. "It's not something you can feel good about," Gainer said of
seeing a man sentenced to death, "but at least Boz's name is clear now.' In
convicting Ogan, 35, of capital murder, jurors spurned his lawyers' arguments
that the fatal round was fired into Boswell's temple in self-defense. Ogan
claimed the officer called him "a (f***ing) snitch" and tried to shoot him.
Boswell, 28, was killed Dec. 9 on a South Main parking lot. Gainer said Ogan
walked up to them, wouldn't abide by directions to wait and killed Boswell for
not helping him immediately. Ogan had contended he feared that drug peddlers
were out to kill him and he needed Boswell 's immediate attention. The officer
was writing a traffic ticket, and a woman complainant was waiting to speak to
him. Prosecutor Rusty Hardin said a key question for jurors - whether Ogan, 35,
is likely to continue to commit acts of violence - was clearly established by
his acts from 1981-88. Hardin described Ogan, a St. Louis marijuana peddler
turned U.S. Drug Enforcement Administration professional tipster, as a
violence-prone "peeping tom" voyeur with an explosive temper. In his testimony,
Ogan had tried to downplay his volatile nature, but Hardin countered with
testimony from the informant's former girlfriend, nurse Linda Dunajcik. She said
their six-year, live-in affair was characterized by Ogan's mostly spurning her
efforts to get him therapy for being a window peeper and having continual angry
outbursts. Dunacjik said she doesn't believe in the death penalty, but that Ogan
seems likely to keep losing his temper. "It could've been me," she said quietly.
Hardin rebuked Ogan for carrying a pistol when he approached Boswell Dec. 9 to
ask for help, for claiming an unprovoked officer meant to shoot him with a dozen
witnesses nearby and for saying the officer went berserk on meeting a federal
drug informant. After Ogan testified he was discharged prematurely from the Navy
for having a "passive-aggressive personality defect," Hardin sought to prove he
has a fiery temper. Hardin particularly tried to show Ogan was "angry" when he
killed Boswell, contrary to his testimony he was calmly trying to get help after
a day in which he was menaced with a gun by alleged drug dealers and then
checked into a motel room with no heat. Ogan said he felt uncomfortable dealing
with black drug offenders, and on the day before Boswell's death he had a
dispute with some of them who accused him of being "a narc.' After Ogan had a
pistol-pointing confrontation with them outside a restaurant, the DEA had a
Houston police unit relocate Ogan to a South Main motel across from where
Boswell was killed. But the heat was off in his room, Ogan said. He was cold,
unhappy about an argument with a motel clerk and afraid the black dealers might
have found his new hiding place. So on seeing Boswell's police unit stopped at
the Stop N Go at South Main and Westridge, he said, he crossed the street to get
help. Minutes later, Ogan shot Boswell, then was shot in the back by Boswell's
partner, Morgan Gainer, as he was fleeing. Ogan repeatedly denied being mad when
the fatal shot was fired, but he admitted he can lose his temper if pushed and,
just before Boswell's killing, got angry enough at the motel's desk clerk that
he kicked a door. "Did you feel Officer Boswell wasn't taking you seriously?"
Hardin asked. "I felt Officer Boswell got very hostile," Ogan testified. Ogan
steadfastly maintained that Boswell, faced with the defendant's persistent
demands for help and refusal to just wait, jumped from his patrol car and
fumbled for his gun. In several instances, Ogan has maintained Boswell was
having trouble with his holster flap. But Hardin pointed out that Boswell 's
holster had no flap. "All I know is he was fumbling for his gun," Ogan said. "I
don't know if he had a flap. It all happened in seconds.' Ogan said his
life was literally rerouted by reading the book "I Led Three Lives". It concerns
a man who infiltrated Communist organizations, and from his teens that's the spy
status Ogan strived to attain. On the witness stand, Ogan testified he tried for
years to get an undercover job with the CIA. All his 1988-89 efforts for the DEA
were aimed at getting him a job reference. From 1979 to 1985, St. Louis DEA
agent Jerome Hutchinson said, Ogan is known to have sold 100-pound lots of
marijuana from Florida every week in his home town. Hardin said the DEA viewed
the pot dealer as a sort of "godsend." Not only did he have an established St.
Louis import business that gave him a legitimate reason to travel abroad, Ogan
spoke Spanish, French and Portuguese and desperately wanted to inform on his
drug connections to get a CIA referral. Ogan's move to Houston came in October
1989 after a Missouri judge ordered some of his secretly made tape recordings
turned over to attorneys for the targets of his investigations. In Houston, the
DEA told Ogan to get an apartment and "make his face known" at two clubs
frequented by Hispanics. He got into a dispute with three men he had been asking
about buying kilograms of cocaine. They thought he was a "narc" and had a
pistol-pointing confrontation with him outside a restaurant. The DEA told Ogan
not to return to his apartment and got Houston police to take him to a motel.
Ogan ended up at the Astro Motor Inn on South Main. On the night of Dec. 8, Ogan
was unhappy about the heat not working in his motel room and was concerned that
he had been found by some of the dealers he'd clashed with earlier. After a
dispute with the motel's desk clerk, Ogan sat in his Yugo. Then, he said, he saw
Boswell 's car parked across the street at a Stop 'N Go store. Boswell and
Gainer were writing a traffic ticket, and a woman involved in a domestic
disturbance was waiting to see them. Gainer said Boswell walked up to Boswell 's
window and identified himself as a DEA informant. Boswell told Ogan to wait, but
Ogan demanded help. Boswell again told Ogan to step back and wait. When Ogan
kept talking, Boswell got out of his patrol car, gun held out of sight against
his leg and was unlocking the vehicle's back door when the informant fired the
fatal shot. After inexplicably shooting Boswell, Gainer said, Ogan muttered,
"Well, (f***) you then," before fleeing. UPDATE: Defiant to the
end, a former federal drug informant who aspired to be a CIA agent was executed
for killing a Houston police officer 13 years ago. "In killing me, the people
responsible have blood on their hands because I am not guilty," Craig Ogan said
in a deliberate and firm voice. He described the details that preceded the
officer's death and, as he has in the past, essentially blamed slain Officer
James Boswell for the officer's death. Ogan said Boswell was a "police officer
who was out of control." Ogan complained that the courts ignored what he said
was evidence of "police and prosecutorial perjury." Without looking at
relatives of the slain officer, who watched through a window a few feet away, he
alleged that Boswell was angry and was still suffering from an on-the-job injury
months before. As he paused briefly trying to collect his thoughts, the lethal
drugs kicked in and Ogan snorted and coughed. He was pronounced dead at 7:13
p.m. CST, eight minutes after the lethal dose began. Ogan, 47, from St. Louis,
had been in Houston only a few weeks when he fatally shot Boswell the night of
Dec. 9, 1989. "I killed a cop and this is Texas," Ogan said recently from
death row, insisting the shooting was in self-defense but acknowledging he had
little hope of avoiding lethal injection in the nation's most active death
penalty state. Several dozen police officers and police supporters arrived on
motorcycles shortly before Ogan's scheduled execution hour and stood down the
street from the prison entrance. "It's time," said Morgan Gainer, who was
Boswell's partner the night of the fatal shooting. "That's all." "I really don't
don't know how to express my feelings," added Sonny Boswell, the officer's
father. "I want justice, but I don't want it to sound like revenge."
Boswell said he declined to go inside to watch Ogan die and preferred to be with
Gainer and the others, many of them holding pictures of the slain officer. "I
wanted to be outside with his buddies," the father said. "A lot of people say
that in Texas they really use that death penalty a lot," said Larry Standley,
one of the prosecutors at Ogan's trial. "But I truly believe if somebody will do
that to a cop that quick, just think of what they would do to just anybody
else." The execution was delayed for nearly an hour while the U.S. Supreme Court
considered a pair of 11th-hour appeals that questioned Ogan's competency and
mental health. "They're trying to sell me as a nut case," Ogan said of his
attorneys' efforts. "I don't appreciate that." Ogan was fascinated with
espionage, spoke several foreign languages and longed for a job with the CIA. He
said he was building a track record by working as a confidential informant in
St. Louis for the federal Drug Enforcement Administration. He moved to Houston
in late 1989 because he feared his cover had been exposed. The night of Dec. 9,
1989, he got into an argument with a motel clerk, walked outside and spotted a
police car where Boswell and his partner were writing a traffic ticket. Ogan
interrupted the officers repeatedly, citing his DEA connection, and refused
their instructions to wait a few minutes. When he persisted and Boswell got out
of the patrol car to unlock the back door of the car, the officer was shot in
the head. Ogan tried running away but surrendered after he was shot and wounded
in the back by Boswell's partner. Ogan blamed Boswell for the shooting and
contended his reaction was in self-defense. "He went crazy," Ogan said. "This
doesn't make sense. I'm pro-police. If I wanted to kill a cop, I could have
blown them both off." Ogan had an "explosive temper and a short fuse," said
Standley, now a Harris County judge. "He was just a time bomb, and that's what
happened that night." Ogan contended he was calm, polite and feared for
his safety. "He was my son's judge, jury and executioner in a split second,"
Martha Boswell, the officer's mother, said. She noted Ogan had appeals and had
sought a reprieve and a commutation. "As far as mercy -- he showed Jim no mercy.
None whatsoever," she said. A defense psychologist testified at his trial that
Ogan suffered from functional paranoia, frequently was anxious, agitated and
fearful, and believed the officer was a deadly threat to him. Jurors
didn't buy the self-defense argument, convicting him of capital murder and then
deciding he should be put to death. Ogan had no previous prison record but did
acknowledge involvement in drug dealing. ARTICLE: Craig Ogan claimed he was a
successful informant for the Drug Enforcement
Administration. He also claimed he was a genius. The Harris County District
Attorney's Office and 12 jurors said he is nothing but a cop killer. For that
reason, he was executed Tuesday evening at the Huntsville "Walls" Unit. Defiant
until the end, Ogan claimed the "real crimes" in his case were "the attempted
murder and intimidation of a federal drug informant by Officer James Boswell and
Officer Clay Morgan Gaines." Ogan, who was a DEA informant -- but never hired by
the federal government -- shot Boswell on the night of Dec. 8, 1989 after
Boswell did not respond to his demands for assistance quickly enough. Even
during his final statement, Ogan claimed he was acting in self-defense. "I acted
in self-defense and reflex in the face of a police officer who was out of
control," he said. "The people responsible for killing me will have blood on
their hands for an unprovoked murder." During his final statement, which lasted
several minutes, Ogan repeatedly spoke of "physical evidence" and "possible
motives" Boswell might have had to hurt him. While speaking about Boswell's
dealing's with "enemy agents," Ogan suddenly snorted, gasped twice and was
silent. At 7:05 p.m., the lethal dose of chemicals had been started. "Very
good," commented one unidentified witness. Ogan was pronounced dead at 7:13 p.m.
His execution, which had been scheduled to take place an hour earlier, had been
delayed while 2 final appeals were heard by the U.S. Supreme Court. One of those
appeals claimed Ogan -- who boasted of his high IQ -- could not be executed
because he was mentally retarded. Boswell's mother, 3 brothers and a sister
remained silent during Ogan's final statement, but spoke briefly to reporters
afterward. "He didn't say anything he hadn't already said," Martha Boswell, the
slain officer's mother, said. "It didn't surprise me; I was OK with it." Martha
Boswell called Ogan "Jim's judge, jury and executioner, without a second
thought. This is the night justice was finally served, plain and simple," she
said. "It's way past time." Boswell's father Sonny, confined to a wheelchair,
waited outside the "Walls" Unit with nearly 80 motorcyclists who came to show
their support for the Boswell family. Most of the motorcyclists were members of
the Houston Police Department or Harris County Sheriff's Department and included
Gainer, Boswell's partner. "It's time. It's just time," Gainer said. "I want
justice to be done," Sonny Boswell said as he clutched a picture of his son.
"The State of Texas pronounced sentence on him, and I think it should be carried
out." Originally from Missouri, Ogan was described as a "marginally successful"
DEA informant who had moved to Houston after his cover had been blown. After he
moved to Houston, he ignored warnings from DEA agents to keep a low profile and
became known on the city's drug scene. The night of the murder Ogan was moved
from his apartment to a motel by DEA agents after a drug dealer put a gun to his
head and accused him of being a "DEA snitch." Ogan became enraged when he
discovered the motel lacked heat and long distance telephone service. He went to
the motel's office to complain, yelling at the clerk and kicking a door in
frustration. When he stormed out of the office, he noticed a police cruiser
nearby. The vehicle was driven by Boswell and Gainer. Ogan walked over to the
cruiser and rapped on Boswell's window. When Boswell asked Ogan what he wanted,
he said, "DEA dropped me off here, and I'm cold." Since the officers were in the
middle of a traffic stop, Gainer later testified, Boswell asked Ogan to step
back until they were done. Ogan, making what he describes as a "polite request,"
knocked on the window a 2nd time and continued to ramble about his DEA work.
Boswell told him again to back away, and when he refused, Boswell said, "You
need to get out of here if you're not willing to step out of the way and wait.
You either need to leave or you're going to jail." Boswell then got out of the
squad car and unlocked the back door of the vehicle. Suddenly, Gainer testified,
Ogan grabbed Boswell's gun, shot him once in the head, and fled. Gainer then
shot Ogan in the back and arrested him. Boswell was dead before his body hit the
ground. Ogan claimed Boswell was "in an insane rage" when he got out of the car.
"I saw his gun clear the holster and/or come into view," he wrote. "Reflex took
over ... Then I saw the gun in my hand as the horrible realization crept over
me. I had just shot a policeman in the head." Ogan used claims of self-defense
during his trial and said he feared for his life when he shot Boswell. A Harris
County jury did not buy into Ogan's story, convicting him of capital murder on
June 25, 1990, and sentencing him to death 4 days later. While incarcerated at
the Polunsky Unit in Livingston, Ogan wrote a remarkable, rambling diatribe
about his case -- much of which he repeated in his final statement -- and posted
it on the Internet. In it, he claimed the state of Texas would commit
"premeditated mass murder" by executing him and halting his ability to
procreate. "Those future Ogans ... for anyone knows (may) be blessed with the
intellect of an Albert Einstein or George Washington Carver," Ogan wrote.
"Haven't they a right to life, regardless?" Ogan went on to claim Boswell and
Gainer committed "federal felonies," that Gainer "via his fabrication and
perjury, has thus far avoided imprisonment," and that he was preparing to accept
"an offer of immediate employment" with the CIA when he shot Boswell. In the
end, none of Ogan's claims were able to reverse his sentence. As the execution
witnesses began to filter out of the "Walls" Unit, the motorcyclists wordlessly
turned and drove off into the night. ARTICLE: Tuesday evening, nearly 80 members
of Houston and Harris County law enforcement waited outside the Huntsville
"Walls" Unit as a sign of solidarity with the family of James Boswell, a Houston
police officer murdered by Craig Ogan on Dec. 8, 1989. Ogan, who was sentenced
to death for the crime, was executed Tuesday night. "We are here to support the
family of an officer killed in the line of duty," said a brief statement
released by members of the Los Carnales and La Familia motorcycle clubs. While
their support was by far the most visible, other members of law enforcement --
including those in Walker County -- also had words of sympathy for Boswell's
family. "I just pray for that officer's family and know he was doing his job,"
said Sgt. Steve Fisher of the Walker County Sheriff's Office. "I have feelings
towards all people and I don't want to see anyone killed no matter what. But
when it's a brother officer, it's a special feeling when you hear they were
killed in the line of duty." "You feel pain for the victims. You feel for the
families and what they're going through," said Det. Marvin Hyvl of the
Huntsville Police Department. The officers said there is an added, somewhat
unnerving, feeling when the murderer of a police officer is scheduled for
execution. "It's a brother officer, even if you don't work with him personally,"
Fisher said. "We're all out here together to serve and protect the people of
this county and safe." "It hits you more at home because it was one of the guys
in blue, so to speak," Hyvl said. "If someone is killed and if it's deliberate,
the other person has to pay for that crime. They've got to pay what the law says
they've got to pay. I believe the death penalty is a deterrent." "There's always
a chance that it could happen to you, so you do feel it," said HPD officer
Slavin Richards. "(Ogan's execution) just makes the streets a little bit safer
for all of us. If he'd shoot a cop, he'd shoot anyone."
"Having something like that is always a possibility when you're in this
profession. I just keep my faith in the good Lord," Fisher said. "When you've
got a guy who kills an officer like that, he's definitely a danger to the
public." |
| Date of scheduled execution |
State |
Victim name |
Inmate name |
Status |
November
19, 2002
November 21, 2002 |
Georgia |
Brenda Watson |
James
Brown |
stayed |
|
At
approximately 8:30 p.m. of May 12, 1975, James
Brown and Brenda Watson arrived at the Mark Inn lounge in Gwinnett County. They
ate a carryout steak and potato dinner that they had brought with them and spent
several hours drinking and dancing. They left together at approximately 11:00
p.m. Brenda Watson’s body was found the next day near a trash pile close to an
old logging road in a heavily wooded area some 500 feet off Deshon Road in
Gwinnett County. A cord was tied around her left ankle, and she had indentations
on her wrists and her right ankle which could indicate she had been tied there
also. She was nude except for a blue terrycloth blouse which was pulled up over
her breasts. A pair of panties had been forced so far down her throat that they
were not discovered until the autopsy. Warren Tillman of the State Crime Lab
testified that Brenda Watson’s death was caused by suffocation from the panties
in her throat. He discovered seminal fluid and sperm in Brenda’s throat and
vagina. From abrasions and contusions around the victim’s vagina, Tillman
concluded that she had been raped and that this had occurred before her death.
An undigested meal of steak and potatoes was found in the her stomach. Since a
meal is usually digested within 4 hours, Tillman estimated that Brenda died no
later than 4:00 a.m. James
Brown was arrested May 15. Nylon cord found in his car was identical to that
tied around Brenda’s left ankle. A hairbrush found in Brown’s car contained hair
similar in color and medulation to the victim’s hair. Brown was questioned May
16. He initially denied knowing Brenda Watson. Upon being informed that he had
been seen with her the night before her body had been discovered, he admitted
that he and Brenda had gone to the Mark Inn for drinks, but claimed that
afterwards they went to a lounge off Covington Highway, where he left her. Later
he stated that when they left the Mark Inn, Brenda suggested they go to a quiet
place in the country. Brown took her to a secluded spot off Deshon Road. When he
did, she told him that if he didn’t pay her $200 she was going to call the
police and claim he had tried to rape her. Brown’s response was to tie her up
and gag her. Then he decided he might as well have sexual intercourse with her.
So he did. On his way home he discovered that her pocketbook was still in his
car. He stopped at a bridge on Killian Hill Road and threw the pocketbook into
the Yellow River. Brenda was the third woman Brown had attacked, but the other
two were fortunate enough to have escaped with their lives. UPDATE: A
Butts County judge stepped in Tuesday and gave death row inmate James Willie
Brown, 54, at least 2 more days to live. The stay gives Butts County Superior
Court Judge Kevin A. Wangerin time to consider a 1,000-page petition filed by
Brown's attorneys, who argue that Brown is mentally ill and should not be
executed. The judge could decide to overturn Brown's conviction and death
sentence. The state Board of Pardons and Paroles is considering a request for
executive clemency. "Why does James Willie Brown kill people? I can't answer
that, but I don't think it's because he's crazy," Gwinnett County District
Attorney Danny Porter said. Brown, who has a borderline genius IQ, was sentence
to die in 1990 in the May 13, 1975, death of Brenda Sue Watson, 21, near the
Gwinnett-DeKalb county line. Watson, an Atlanta go-go dancer, was bound at the
ankles and wrists and raped while she suffocated on her panties. Brown's new
execution date has been set for 7:01 p.m. Thursday. The request for executive
clemency was filed Monday by Brown's attorneys, Jeffrey L. Ertel and Laura Hill
Patton, of the Federal Defender Program. Brown, who claims he was sexually and
physically abused as a child, began having severe headaches and blackouts at age
14, according to the request for clemency. Brown's attorneys argued that his
illness causes him to hallucinate, to fear others are trying to kill him and to
hear what he believes are voices of God and demons directing his actions. Porter
has said Brown was a suspect in at least 2 other metro slayings, but was not
prosecuted because the bodies in those cases were too decomposed to be
identified. UPDATE: In Atlanta, a judge has issued an indefinite stay on the
planned execution of a man convicted of raping and strangling an Atlanta go-go
dancer. Butts County Superior Court Judge Kevin A. Wangerin stopped the
execution of James Willie Brown on Wednesday, the day before the killer was
scheduled to die by lethal injection. Based on a contention by Brown that
prosecutors knowingly introduced false testimony against him at trial, Judge
Wangerin granted the prisoner's motion for habeas corpus. |
| Date of scheduled execution |
State |
Victim name |
Inmate name |
Status |
| November
20, 2002 |
Texas |
Martha Lindsey, 50
Alexandra Heath, 27
Elbert Sitton, 71 |
William Chappell |
executed |
|
William Wesley Chappell killed his former girlfriend's family in retaliation for
testifying against him in an indecency trial. Chappell of Fort Worth, was
sentenced to death in October 1996 for killing the family of Jane Sitton, his
former girlfriend. On May 3, 1988, Chappell broke into the family's home, robbed
and shot Martha Lindsey, 50, and Elbert Sitton, 71, as they sat watching
television in their bedroom, court records showed. Chappell then shot Alexandra
Heath while she slept, thinking she was Jane Sitton. The evidence illustrates
that Chappell had a strained relationship with Lindsey, Sitton, and their
daughter, Jane Sitton - Alexandra's half sister. Chappell, who was then 43 or 44
years old, and Jane, who was then 14 or 15 years old, began dating in 1981 or
1982 and stopped seeing each other in 1983 or 1984. In May 1984, Chappell was
indicted for molesting Jane's daughter. Martha Lindsey had reported the offense
to police. In May 1987, Chappell was found guilty of one count of indecency with
a child and was sentenced to five years confinement. Chappell was released on
bond pending appeal. After the indecency trial, the Lindsey/Sitton family
congregated outside the courtroom. When Chappell came out, he informed Lindsey
that "it wasn't over yet" and that he "would get her for that." Chappell related
this threat to his then-wife Sally Hayes, denied molesting Jane's daughter and
said that Lindsey and the Sittons were after his money. Chappell stated that he
wanted to "do away" with the Lindsey/Sitton family. In January 1988, Hayes drove
Chappell to Lindsey's home where Elbert and Jane also resided. Chappell had
purchased gasoline and put it in jugs. Hayes let Chappell out near Lindsey's
home and drove around for 15 minutes. When Chappell signaled Hayes with his
flashlight, she picked him up. Chappell no longer had the jugs and said that he
had set fire to Lindsey's house. Chappell became upset when he later learned
that the home suffered relatively little damage and that none of the occupants
were injured. In February 1988, Chappell and Hayes went to a gun show. Hayes
testified that she purchased ammunition, an extra barrel, a spring, and a "small
round thing with holes in it" that fit over the barrel of the gun. Thereafter,
Chappell began working on a silencer for the gun. In March 1988, Chappell and
Hayes purchased two walkie-talkies at Radio Shack. In April 1988, Chappell
settled an unrelated personal-injury suit against a church and received a
cashier's check for $66,000. That same month, Chappell and Hayes went to
Hornbeak, Tennessee, where Hayes owned a house. Chappell brought $60,000 of his
settlement to put into certificates of deposit in hopes of preventing the
Lindsey/Sitton family from getting it. Hayes testified that Chappell planned to
return to Texas and the Lindsey home in order to kill anyone who happened to be
in it. On May 3, 1988, Chappell and Hayes left Tennessee at 10:30 a.m. in a van.
They arrived in Fort Worth around 8:30 p.m. and stopped at a grocery store.
While Hayes went into the store, Chappell changed into dark clothing, makeup and
a wig. Chappell also had a black ski mask, brown gloves and a nylon tote bag
containing a walkie-talkie, the 9-mm gun, a pistol, the silencer, clips for the
guns, a crowbar, and wire cutters. Sometime after 9:00 p.m. Hayes let Chappell
out of the van near Lindsey's home. Hayes then drove around the neighborhood
waiting for Chappell to contact her by walkie-talkie. Fifteen to 20 minutes
later, Chappell contacted Hayes, and she picked him up. When he got into the
van, Chappell stated that he had "shot Jane, her mother, and her daddy." He also
said that he had taken some money to make it look like a robbery. The pair then
drove back to Tennessee, where they disposed of as much evidence as possible.
Chappell was shocked when he learned that it was not Jane, but her half sister,
Alexandra Heath, whom he had killed. Heath was shot in the face 4 times and in
the right arm twice, while lying in bed and died at the scene. Sitton, who was
wounded six times but survived for two months in the hospital, was able to tell
the emergency room physician that he believed the intruder was the same man who
raped his daughter or granddaughter. [The physician could not remember whether
Sitton said "daughter" or "granddaughter."] Before his death, Sitton told a Fort
Worth police officer that an intruder wearing a ski mask had confronted Sitton
and Lindsey in their bedroom. After Lindsey complied with the intruder's demand
for money, the intruder shot the couple several times. Lindsey died two days
later. Article: William Wesley Chappell molested her daughter. He vandalized her
family's house and cars. He killed her parents and sister. Today, Jane Sitton
plans to watch him die. It was May 1987. William Wesley Chappell had just been
sentenced to five years in prison for molesting his ex-girlfriend's 4-year-old
daughter. Furious that the child's mother, Jane Sitton, and her family had
testified against him, Chappell vowed to get even. The following year -- free on
an appeal bond -- Chappell did. According to court testimony, Chappell embarked
on a terror campaign against the Sitton family, vandalizing their property and
firebombing their home. When they escaped the fire uninjured, Chappell began
preparing for a nighttime assault that, in the end, left 3 people dead and
secured him a place on Texas' death row. This evening, barring any last-minute
intervention, Chappell will be executed for the May 3, 1988, fatal shooting of
Sitton's sister, Alexandra Heath, 27, and their parents, Martha Lindsey, 50, and
Elbert Sitton, 71. Sitton, who authorities believe was one of the intended
targets that night, will travel to Huntsville to watch Chappell take his final
breath. "I think putting him to death is more of a protection to society than
anything else," Sitton said. "If anyone should be put to death, I guess it
should be him." Sitton's brother, Geoffrey Lindsey, said he will be there, too
-- "for the off-chance the guy might show some kind of remorse. If he did," he
said, "it would be closure." This week, the Texas Court of Criminal Appeals and
a federal judge denied Chappell's request for a stay of execution. David Sergi
of San Marcos, Chappell's appellate attorney, said he would ask the 5th U.S.
Circuit Court of Appeals and Supreme Court to stop the execution. "He is hoping
that God gives him a miracle," Sergi said. Steven Conder, chief of
post-conviction writs for the Tarrant County District Attorney's Office, said it
is not uncommon to see a flurry of activity in the days before an execution.
"They are trying to find last-minute things to catch the attention of a court or
a judge," Condor said. "But by this point, all of the significant issues have
already been fleshed out. I would think, at this point, his chances are not very
good." Sitting outside her Fort Worth home one night last week, 38-year-old
Sitton spoke publicly for the first time about her relationship with Chappell,
the molestation of her daughter and the brutal slayings of her sister and
parents. In an emotional and raw interview, Sitton said she has nothing to hide
anymore. But to understand her feelings now, she said, one must first understand
her life back then. Sitton was 15 when she met Chappell, the summer before her
sophomore year in high school. She was already a single mother raising an
18-month-old daughter. Chappell owned a boat shop in north Fort Worth, across
the street from the restaurant where Sitton was a waitress, and he often came in
for lunch. He was more than twice her age, but he was charming and flashy,
driving motorcycles and wearing gold chains. "He started flirting with me and
leaving very big tips," Sitton recalled. "It didn't occur to me to ask him how
old he was. He was like 32 or 33. He was two years older than my mom." Sitton
was smitten with Chappell. Her parents, however, were not. "Oh, my mother hated
him when she first met him," Sitton said. "She said he gave her the willies."
Still, Sitton continued the relationship, which, she said, was wonderful until
her junior year in high school. "I started fooling around with someone else, and
I gave Bill a social [venereal] disease," Sitton said. "And for that, he beat
the hell out of me. It didn't get any better from there." The abuse escalated,
Sitton said, and eventually her young daughter fell victim to it, too. "He
threatened to kill me, burn my bones and cast my dust to the wind," Sitton said.
"You get yourself into something and now you can't get out. And somehow, he
convinces me that I should allow him to molest my daughter. Basically, I have to
give her to him." Sitton removed her glasses and began to sob. "And that's why
the first trial [on the molestation charge] was the hardest, because I had to
get up and tell everyone that." Sitton's younger brother, Geoffrey Lindsey, was
the first in her family to learn what was going on. A few days before Christmas,
he and his little niece were watching the TV show Magnum P.I. "It was a kissing
scene, and she blurted out, 'That's what me and Bill do,'" Geoffrey Lindsey said
recently at his sister's house. "I went 'huh?' and went and told my mom. I was
13 or 14 at the time." Geoffrey Lindsey's mother, Martha Lindsey, contacted
authorities and Chappell was tried in May 1987 for molesting the child. "From
there," Sitton said, "the wheels of justice took over." Sitton, her brother, her
mother and other family members all testified against Chappell, and he was
sentenced to five years in prison. After the trial, Sitton said, Chappell
pointed his finger at Sitton's mother and said, "This is not over yet." Chappell
was later released from jail on an appeal bond. Afterward, Sitton said, the
family's house and cars were occasionally vandalized. And in January 1988, their
home was set on fire with a Molotov cocktail, but everyone escaped uninjured.
"That's when I said, 'He's getting serious now,'" Sitton said. "I moved out of
the house, and my sister moved into my old bedroom." According to court
testimony, interviews, prison records and Star-Telegram articles, on May 3,
1988, Chappell equipped himself with walkie-talkies, two guns and a silencer;
blackened his face; dressed in dark clothing; and broke into Sitton's parents
home. Her parents were shot multiple times as they lay in bed watching
television. Her sister was slain while reading a book in Sitton's old bedroom.
After the massacre, according to court testimony, Chappell radioed to his wife,
Sally Hayes, that he was "coming home" -- the code for her to come and get him.
Hayes, now divorced from Chappell, testified during his capital murder trial
that when he got into the van, he told her that he shot the child's mother and
her parents -- not realizing that Sitton had moved out. Heath, a pharmacy
technician at John Peter Smith Hospital, died instantly. Sitton's mother, a
nurse, died at a hospital 36 hours after the shooting. Her father, a retired
Star-Telegram linotype operator, held on for 2 months and gave investigators a
description of the gunman. Sitton said she also knew who was responsible. "The
police asked me, 'Do you have any idea who did this?' Sitton said. "I
immediately gave his name." Hayes was the 1st one arrested in the case and
received 10 years' probation in exchange for her testimony against Chappell.
While Chappell was in jail on capital murder charges, he was unable to make bail
but had heard that his wife was planning to testify against him. Chappell got
someone to post bail for a fellow Tarrant County Jail inmate and hired him to
kill Hayes, according to court testimony. Instead of carrying out the plan,
however, the inmate reported the plot to prosecutors. Meanwhile, Sitton -- who
had since graduated as salutatorian from North Side High School and had attended
college for 3 years -- was in anguish over her sister's and parents' deaths. "I
took my inheritance, and I shoved it up my nose," Sitton said. "Anything and
everything. I hung out with the wrong crowd and got really heavy into the punk
scene." Sitton said her mother's best friend eventually helped her straighten
out her drug problem. She is now an account clerk at RadioShack and lives with
her longtime boyfriend, with whom she has a 6-year-old son and a 10-year-old
daughter. The child who was molested is now 23 and living in Abilene -- and
plans to be at the execution. The course to justice for Sitton and her family
has been long and difficult. Chappell's capital murder case went to trial 3
times. He was 1st sent to death row in 1989, but that verdict was overturned on
a technicality in 1993. Later that year, Chappell's retrial was abruptly aborted
during jury selection because another Death Row inmate, Ricky Lee Green, had
confessed to the slayings. Prosecutors contend that the confession was a ruse
thought up by Chappell and Green when they were on death row together. Green has
since been executed for the sexual mutilation death of Steven Fefferman, an
advertising executive with KXAS/Channel 5. In 1996, Chappell's case went to
trial again and jurors once again sentenced him to death -- a sentence that
Sitton and others hope will finally be carried out today. Greg Miller, who was
the prosecutor in Chappell's second and third trials with Sharon Johnson, said
the world will be much safer without Chappell. "He is such a schemer and such a
plotter," Miller said. "If he somehow got out or escaped, there would be some
people's lives in jeopardy. There is no doubt in my mind that he would kill some
people." Sitton said she has no expectations about his execution. Even now, more
than 14 years after the killings, she is consumed with grief, guilt and anger --
feelings she isn't sure will die along with Bill Chappell. "One thing I've
really wondered over the years is why on earth was I spared?" Sitton said. "My
sister basically took my place. I've had tremendous feelings of guilt. I think,
'If only I had obeyed my mom, none of this would have happened.' And every once
in a while, I'm angry that my parents let me go out with him in the 1st place.
But now, I know, it's not anyone's fault but Bill's." |
| Date of scheduled execution |
State |
Victim name |
Inmate name |
Status |
| November
20, 2002 |
Missouri |
Stanley Albert
|
William Jones
|
executed |
| William R. Jones
was convicted of the January
1986 shooting death of Stanley Albert. Albert's body was found wrapped in a
blanket in a wooded area near Independence in early March of 1986. He had been
shot five times in the neck and chest.
Jones was a bisexual person who was sometimes
employed as a male stripper. He became acquainted with Stanley Albert, with whom
he had a homosexual relationship, in late 1985. Jones was 21 and Albert was in
his fifties. In November of 1985 Albert purchased a white 1985 Camaro Z28.
Beginning in December of 1985, Jones told several people that his father was
going to help him acquire a white Camaro. On January 16, 1986 at 4:30 p.m.
Albert pulled up in front of Jones’ apartment in his Camaro, apparently to keep
a prior engagement. Jones borrowed a blanket from his roommate and left with
Albert in the car. He told his roommate that his new car had arrived. He said he
was going to pick up some new tires and didn’t want to get the car dirty.
That same evening Jones offered his roommate a ride in the Camaro, which
was accepted. During the ride he crushed a pair of sunglasses, remarking that
the owner would not need them anymore. He confirmed a tentative arrangement with
a female acquaintance to drive her to Indianapolis in his "new car" the
following Sunday. He left the apartment early the next morning, purchased a
shovel with his roommates credit card, and returned in the afternoon. He had the
license plates which had previously been on Albert’s Camaro, explaining that he
had to give them back to the man who sold him the car and that his father was
getting him new plates. He complained to his roommate, saying, "well, it gets
pretty tiring when you drag a dead man through the woods." On
January 19, Jones picked up his female acquaintance in Topeka, Kansas and they
set out on the projected trip to Indianapolis. He was accosted by the Missouri
Highway Patrol for speeding and successfully outran the police in a high speed
chase through Lafayette and Saline counties, during which he compared his
companion and himself to Bonnie and Clyde. He abandoned the car at a farmhouse
near Malta Bend and was apprehended about three and a half hours later. The car
bore Johnson County, Kansas, license plates stolen from another car. Albert did
not report to work on January 17, and was not seen again. His body was found in
a wooded area near Independence on March 2, 1986. The medical examiner estimated
that he had been dead between two weeks and several months. The body was wrapped
in a blanket identical in appearance to the one Jones has borrowed from his
roommate. Albert had been shot five times in the neck and chest. Three of the
bullets had been fired from the same weapon and the other two could have been.
No murder weapon was ever found. |
| Date of scheduled execution |
State |
Victim name |
Inmate name |
Status |
| November
21, 2002 |
Texas |
Cari Crews,
16
Jesus Garza, 17 |
James
Clark |
stayed |
|
In
the early morning of June 7, 1993, James Lee Clark and James Brown arrived at a
Texaco store in Denton, Texas, and asked the store clerk to call an ambulance
for Brown who had suffered a gunshot wound. Subsequent investigation revealed
that Brown accidentally shot himself in the leg at point blank range with a
shotgun while he and Clark were assaulting Shari Catherine "Cari" Crews, 16 and
Jesus Garza, 17, at Clear Creek. Police recovered both bodies from the creek and
determined that Crews had been sexually assaulted by Clark, as verified by DNA
evidence, and then killed with a single shotgun wound (a contact wound) to the
back of the head. Garza also died from a single shotgun wound, but it was to the
left side of his chin or jaw. Powder residue revealed a short muzzle-to-wound
distance, but it was not a contact wound. Police also recovered a 12 gauge
double barrel shotgun and a .22 caliber rifle from the crime scene. Further
investigation revealed that Clark and Brown, both parolees, stole the shotgun
and rifle in car burglaries on June 4, 1993. The stock of the rifle had been
shortened and police found the sawed off portion while searching Clark's
residence; the stock of the shotgun was cracked. The search of Clark's residence
also produced tennis shoes splattered with the blood of Brown, Crews, and Garza.
During interrogation, Clark stated that Brown instigated the incident; shot
himself while using the shotgun as a bludgeon to strike Garza in the head; and,
after suffering the severe gunshot wound to the leg, shot and killed both
victims. Brown contended that Clark killed both victims. Clark was indicted on
the charge of capital murder arising out of the June 7, 1993, robbery, sexual
assault, and death of Crews. Clark was convicted of the capital murder on April
29, 1994, and he was sentenced to death on May 3, 1994. |
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