August 2000 Executions

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Ten killers were executed in the month of August 2000. They had murdered at least 21 people.
Nine killers were issued stays of execution. They have murdered at least 21 people.

Date of scheduled execution	State	Victim name	Inmate name	Status
August 3, 2000	Texas	Bobbie Davis, 45 Nichole Davis, 16 Lea'Erin Davis, 5 Brittany Davis, 6 Jason Davis, 4 Denitra Davis, 9	Anthony Graves	stayed
Anthony Graves and Robert Earl Carter were convicted of capital murder after going into a Somerville home in 1992 where they stabbed or shot 6 people: Bobbie Davis, 45; her daughter Nichole Davis, 16; her grandchildren De'Nitra Davis,9; Lea'Erin Davis, 5; Brittany Davis, 6; and little Jason Davis, 4, who was stabbed to death as he cowered beneath a pillow. With the exception of Nicole, each victim died from multiple stab wounds; Nicole was killed by five gunshots to her head. After the murders, the killers poured gasoline on the bodies and set the house on fire in an effort to conceal the murders. Carter, who had recently been named in a paternity suit filed by Jason's mother, another daughter of Bobbie's, attended funeral services for the family wrapped in bandages for severe burns apparently suffered in the house fire. Graves was upset with Bobbie Davis because he believed she received a promotion at the Brenham State School that Graves' mother deserved. Carter and Graves went to Davis' house to settle their disputes. "The 4 slain children just happened to be in the house," according to an appellate ruling. Carter was executed on May 31, 2000.

Date of scheduled execution	State	Victim name	Inmate name	Status
August 5, 2000	Federal	Thomas Albert Rumbo Gilberto Matos Erasmo de la Fuente	Juan Raul Garza	stayed
The Federal Bureau of Prisons has received an order from the U.S. District Court, Southern District of Texas, to carry out the death sentence of inmate Juan Raul Garza at the United States Penitentiary in Terre Haute, Indiana, on August 5, 2000, at 6 a.m. The inmate has been made aware of the court order. Garza was sentenced to death under Federal law on August 10, 1993, in the Southern District of Texas, and five violations of drug and money laundering laws. At sentencing, the Government introduced aggravating factors evidence of four unadjudicated murders in Mexico, in which Garza was involved. Specifically, Garza was convicted of ordering the murders of Thomas Albert Rumbo, Gilberto Matos, and Erasmo De La Fuente in order to further his control over a major drug trafficking organization. In addition to his death sentence, Garza received a life term for conspiracy to import into the United States a quantity exceeding 1,000 Kilos of marijuana. Juan Raul Garza, 43 years old, is one of six inmates who have been convicted under the CCE statute and who have received a death sentence. Garza has exhausted all direct and collateral appeals for his conviction. In accordance with Federal regulations, the method of execution will be by lethal injection. The last civilian executed by the Federal government was Victor Feguer, hanged in 1963 in Iowa for murder and kidnapping.

Date of scheduled execution	State	Victim name	Inmate name	Status
August 7, 2000	Ohio	male co-worker female co-worker	Roderick Davie	stayed
On 6/27/91, Roderick Davie returned to his former place of employment in Warren, Ohio and ordered three employees, two men and a woman, to lie face down. He shot both men in the head and back. After running out of bullets, Davie chased the escaping woman and killed her. One of the men survived the shooting; Davie tried to kill him by running him down with a truck and then by beating him with a stick. The woman died due to blunt force trauma, the man died of a gunshot to the head.

Date of scheduled execution	State	Victim name	Inmate name	Status
August 7, 2000	Ohio	estranged wife brother-in-law	Abdul Awkal	stayed
On 1/7/92, Abdul Hamin Awkal, armed with a nine-millimeter semi-automatic pistol and 12 rounds of ammunition, shot and killed his estranged wife and his brother-in-law at the Family Conciliation Services Department of the Cuyahoga Domestic Relations Court. Afterwards, Awkal threatened to kill his 17-month-old daughter and held his gun to her head during a standoff with police. Awkal was shot while trying to escape.

Date of scheduled execution	State	Victim name	Inmate name	Status
August 8 - 15, 2000	Georgia	Brenda Jenkins Palmer, 31 Christine Jenkins, 15	Willie Palmer	stayed
An execution date has been set for a Burke County man sentenced to die for the slayings of his estranged wife and 15-year-old stepdaughter. Superior Court Chief Judge William M. Fleming Jr., who presided over Willie Palmer's trial, signed an order this month that calls for Palmer's execution for sometime between noon Aug. 8 and noon Aug. 15. Palmer, 46, was indicted in Burke County Superior Court in the Sept. 10, 1995, killings of Brenda Jenkins Palmer, 31, and Christine Jenkins, 15. A mistrial was declared in Burke County, and his trial was moved to Washington County Superior Court in November 1997 because of extensive news coverage. The Georgia Supreme Court upheld Palmer's convictions and death sentences in June 1999. Although an execution date has been set, Palmer still can appeal through state and federal habeas corpus petitions, a civil procedure that challenges the legality of punishment. Witnesses testified at Palmer's trial that he abused his wife and often threatened to kill her. Brenda Palmer filed for divorce in May 1995 and obtained a restraining order that Palmer violated 2 months later. He was arrested and jailed for that violation. Palmer remained in jail until Sept. 1, 1995. The day of his release, he told people he intended to kill his estranged wife, who had gone into hiding, according to trial witnesses. But Palmer discovered where Mrs. Palmer, Christine and the couple's baby were living. On Sept. 10, 1995, Palmer kicked in the door to the home, shot Christine in the face and advanced on his wife, killing her also. He and his nephew, Frederico Palmer, left the toddler in the home with the 2 bodies. Frederico Palmer pleaded guilty to 2 counts of murder and received 2 life sentences. He testified against his uncle. There are still appeals pending and the execution is not likely to take place on this date.

Date of scheduled execution	State	Victim name	Inmate name	Status
August 9, 2000	Texas	Kelly Elizabeth Donovan	Oliver Cruz	executed
Oliver Cruz and Jerry Kemplin were convicted in the abduction, rape and murder of 24-year-old Kelly Elizabeth Donovan, a senior airman stationed at Kelly Air Force Base in San Antonio. Donovan was abducted by the pair after she had left the base to take a walk. She was taken to an isolated area in the western part of Bexar county, sexually assaulted and then stabbed to death. Cruz and Kemplin later told police that they decided to kill Donovan so that she couldn't testify against them in her abduction and rape. Kemplin was sentenced to 65 years in prison.

Date of scheduled execution	State	Victim name	Inmate name	Status
August 9, 2000	Texas	James Louis Boots, 79 Lillian Boots	Brian Roberson	executed
Fingerprints linked Brian Roberson to the Aug. 30, 1986, slayings of next-door neighbors James and Lillian Boots. The electrician later confessed to stabbing the Dallas couple to death before stealing jewelry from the home. James Boots, 78, and his 75-year-old wife, Lillian, were stabbed to death in their Oak Cliff home 14 years ago this month. Their bodies were discovered near their security alarm, which was triggered during a horrific attack in which a knife blade was buried in Mr. Boots' brain. Within a day, Dallas homicide investigators arrested a 22-year-old neighbor, Brian Keith Roberson. Roberson had a piece of jewelry that was stolen from the couple's home. One of his bloody fingerprints was found inside the house. He told police and a reporter for The Dallas Morning News that he committed the murders after a night of drinking liquor and smoking a form of PCP mixed with formaldehyde. Bettye Roberson said last week that she remains convinced of her son's innocence. "His fingerprints were not found on either weapon," Ms. Roberson said. State District Judge Janice Warder, one of the prosecutors at the murder trial, said there was no question about Roberson's guilt. "This was a horrible murder of very nice people," Judge Warder said. "They were nothing but kindly neighbors. He killed both of them, stabbed them brutally to death." Roberson's own words hurt him at trial. "I was walking home yesterday, and I went up to the Boots' front door," Roberson said in his initial confession to police. "I knocked on the door, and he came to the door. He opened the door, and I pushed my way in. I started fighting with Mr. Boots. The lady came up from behind him. I started stabbing them. After I stabbed them, I went through the house, and then I went out the front door. I don't remember why I was there," Roberson told the News in 1986. "But I remember some violence coming over me." When he was arrested, Roberson added, "I had a gold necklace on my neck I must have took from them, and my right hand was cut up." Roberson expressed remorse at that time, noting that he had frequently mowed the Boots' lawn. "They were the nicest people on the block," he said the day after the killings. He said the couple and his family exchanged Christmas cards for several years. "I know I did it, but I don't know why," Roberson said. "I was just juiced up. It don't make sense." Last week Judge Warder, the former prosecutor, said: "It appeared that he knew what he was doing." She said Roberson removed a ring from Mr. Boots' finger before leaving the house, adding: "I didn't see any credible evidence of diminished capacity." Judge Warder said opponents of the death penalty should pick another prisoner to promote the cause. "I just remember that the Bootses were a kindly couple who tried to help Brian Roberson," Judge Warder said. "They had invited him into their home before. This shouldn't have happened to them."

Date of scheduled execution	State	Victim name	Inmate name	Status
August 10, 2000	Oklahoma	William Von Eric Domer, 15 Anthony McLaughlin, 14 Jeffrey Lee Foster Thomas Stewart Reed Alonzo Cade, 12	George Wallace	executed
George Kent Wallace, who was convicted of abducting and murdering 2 teenage Arkansas boys and dumping their bodies in Oklahoma, is scheduled to be executed Aug. 10. Wallace, 59, pled guilty to 2 murders in Oklahoma and later confessed to two murders in North Carolina. Charlie Price, a spokesman for Attorney General Drew Edmondson, said that no legal barriers remain between Wallace and his date with the executioner. "No, there are no appeals outstanding," Price said. "We don't see anything to stop this." Wallace was handed a death sentence in 1991 for the murders of William Von Eric Domer, 15, of Fort Smith, Ark., and Mark Anthony McLaughlin, 14, of Van Buren, Ark. The teens' bodies were found 3 years apart in the same pond near Pocola in LeFlore County. Both had been beaten and then shot. Wallace, a former truck driver in Fort Smith, lured his victims by impersonating a police officer before driving them to rural areas and killing them. Wallace plans to meet Thursday with Allen Gentry, an assistant sheriff in Forsyth County, N.C. As a convict in 1996, Wallace confessed to the 1976 murder of Jeffrey Lee Foster and the 1982 murder of Thomas Stewart Reed, Gentry said. Wallace asked Gentry to meet with him on Thursday. Gentry said there were no outstanding cases involving Wallace in North Carolina but that he felt the need to come anyway. "When I talked to him in 1996, he said he might talk to me about a case in Oklahoma involving federal property," Gentry said. Although he said Oklahoma, Wallace could have been referring to the death of 12-year-old Alonzo Cade. Cade's body was found in a gas-well pit in Fort Chaffee -- federal property -- just east of Fort Smith. Gary Grimes, the sheriff of Sebastian County, Ark., at the time of Wallace's arrest, said Wallace was the prime suspect in Cade's death. Cade's body was discovered shortly after Wallace was captured in December 1990. His death remains unsolved. As of Wednesday, Wallace had not requested to speak to Grimes. Current Sebastian County Sheriff Frank Atkinson, who arrested Wallace, plans to attend Thursday's execution. Wallace spent more than 3 decades using the authority of phony badges to pick up unsuspecting teenage boys, who he would then beat with paddles and -- in at least 4 cases -- later kill. While trying to continue that violent streak, Wallace finally met his match in a young man who "played possum," survived 6 stab wounds and then made a daring run to freedom. Wallace had been attempting to do the same when he picked up Ross Alan Ferguson, then 18, on Dec. 9, 1990. According to reports at the time, Ferguson was in the lot of a Van Buren grocery store when Wallace approached him. He identified himself as an officer and told Ferguson he was wanted in connection with a nearby robbery. Wallace shackled Ferguson's hands and ankles and drove him to a remote location in Sebastian County. As they were driving, Ferguson said he tried to ask why he was being taken to such a remote location. Once there, Wallace climbed into the back seat and began beating Ferguson. After the beating, he walked the young man toward a pond. On the way there, he stopped and stabbed Ferguson 5 times in the back and once in the arm. Ferguson said he played possum, pretending to be dead as Wallace dragged him over the rocks to the bank of the pond. There, Wallace took off the shackles and readied to throw the body into the pond. Ferguson jumped up and knocked Wallace to the ground. He then took off running for Wallace's car. He said he fell countless times before he got to the car. He credited God for picking him up and guiding him the last 10 feet to the car. Once there, he locked the doors. Ferguson said he watched as a shocked Wallace stood outside the car panting. To his amazement, the car keys were still in the ignition. Ferguson drove to a nearby house for help. Then Chief Deputy Sheriff Frank Atkinson was one of the officers who responded to the call. Along the way to the home where Ferguson had fled, Atkinson said he found Wallace walking in a ditch that ran along by the highway. Ferguson, who is now a paramedic in Arkansas, and Atkinson, who is now Sebastian County sheriff, are 2 of the people scheduled to view Wallace's execution. 7 members of the families of Domer and McLaughlin are also planning to attend the execution, according to the Oklahoma Attorney General's Office. 8/11/00 - Nine members of the 2 boys' families attended Thursday's execution. Ross Alan Ferguson, whose escape led to Wallace's capture, also witnessed the executions, along with his wife and father. "It has been a long time coming," Ferguson said. "I'm here to honor Eric and Mark. That's why I'm here. "I want him executed for what he did to them -- not me."

Date of scheduled execution	State	Victim name	Inmate name	Status
August 14, 2000	Ohio	69-year-old woman	Jessie Cowans	stayed
On 8/29/96, Jessie Cowans murdered a 69-year-old woman in the course of burglarizing and robbing her home on Lindale-Mt. Holly Street in Amelia. Cowans used the strap of the woman's purse to strangle her. Cowans had been released on parole a second time in May 1996 for committing a prior murder and robbery. There are still appeals pending and the execution is not likely to take place on this date.

Date of scheduled execution	State	Victim name	Inmate name	Status
August 16, 2000	Texas	Mary Francis Davis, 54	John Satterwhite	executed
John Satterwhite a San Antonio-area mechanic, was convicted in the March 12, 1979, robbery-slaying of convenience store clerk Mary Francis Davis. Mary was shot twice after she surrendered cash from the register and a store vault at gunpoint. Satterwhite and a female accomplice, Sharon Bell, were stopped the next day for speeding, and the murder weapon was found in the glove box. Bell was paroled after seven years in prison. Satterwhite was convicted and condemned in two separate trials. Satterwhite appeared worried about his victim's family in the hour before he was executed by injection. "What I want to say is I have remorse and I'm really sorry about what happened to that family," John Satterwhite, 53, said in a telephone call to The Associated Press less than an hour before he was strapped to the Texas death chamber gurney for killing Mary Francis Davis, 54. Satterwhite declined to make a final statement in the death chamber and was pronounced dead at 6:29 p.m. Prison officials generally allow an inmate a few final calls to relatives preceding an execution, but a call to the media from a prisoner is unprecedented. "I wanted them to know that I hope my remorse does them good. But would it help them any? No," Satterwhite said in the phone call. Satterwhite already had been arrested 8 times and had served a prison term for burglary and robbery by assault when he was charged with the murder after walking into the Lone Star Ice and Food Store in San Antonio under the guise of buying a pack of cigarettes and a soft drink -- a 79-cent purchase. Davis was found seated on a toilet, a bullet through each temple. "I wouldn't say I'm totally innocent," Satterwhite said from death row. "I'm guilty of some things." Asked about the shooting, he replied: "There's a possibility I could be the person that did it. ... I can't say I did or didn't."

Date of scheduled execution	State	Victim name	Inmate name	Status
August 17, 2000	Virginia	Mohammad Z. Kayani Darrell Ferguson, 19	Robert Ramdass	stayed until 10/10
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.

Date of scheduled execution	State	Victim name	Inmate name	Status
August 22, 2000	Texas	Tammy Livingston, 27	Richard Wayne Jones	executed
Richard Wayne Jones was arrested Feb. 21, 1986 -- two days after Tammy Livingston, 27, was abducted, stabbed and set ablaze -- when he attempted to have his girlfriend cash one of the victim's checks. Jones, who had previous convictions for theft and burglary, had been on parole less than four months for aggravated robbery. Jones confessed to the murder after his girlfriend told police that he had given her the murdered girl's checks to cash. Besides his confession, Jones' fingerprint was found inside the victim's car, an eyewitness in the store parking lot from where Livingston was taken identified Jones as the woman's abductor and clothing worn by Jones that night had blood spots that matched her blood type.

Date of scheduled execution	State	Victim name	Inmate name	Status
August 22, 2000	Florida	Melanie Rodrigues, 21	Dan Patrick Hauser	stayed
A drifter set for execution next month for murdering a Fort Walton Beach stripper on New Year's Day 1995 wants no last-ditch appeal made on his behalf. Dan Patrick Hauser, 29, submitted letters to the Florida Supreme Court in Tallahassee to tell the justices and a state agency that represents death row inmates not to force a lawyer on him for an appeal he opposes. Gov. Jeb Bush on June 29 signed a death warrant ordering Hauser's execution by lethal injection Aug. 22 at Florida State Prison in Starke. Hauser, originally from Dublin, Calif., pleaded no-contest to 1st-degree murder after confessing he had randomly chosen his victim, Melanie Rodrigues, 21, who worked at a convenience store and Sammy's, a topless bar. He said he strangled the woman to satisfy a longtime urge to kill. The victim's body was found 2 days later under a bed in a Fort Walton Beach area motel room less than a mile from Sammy's. Hauser confessed to the killing after he was arrested in Reno, Nev., on Feb. 10, 1995 on a charge of stealing a pickup truck in North Carolina. One of Hauser's letters was addressed to Gregory Smith, a lawyer with the Capital Collateral Counsel-Northern Region. A lawyer from the governor's office in June had asked Smith to determine if his agency should get involved. Smith declined comment on whether such involvement is being considered. "Attempts to represent me against my will only serve to add to the suffering of the victim's family and my family," Hauser wrote. He also asked to the Supreme Court to direct Smith "not to interfere, or try to force representation on me." Hauser has been visited on death row by his adoptive parents, a California college teacher and a copier salesman. Hauser has been appointed an attorney to "stand by" in case he wants legal advice. 8/18/00 - Dan Patrick Hauser, convicted of the heinous torture-murder of a strip club worker in 1995, wants to be executed. Tuesday evening, he has a date with a lethal injection at Florida State Prison in Starke. But first he has to get past his mother. Hauser is a believer in the death penalty who has fought to keep lawyers from appealing on his behalf. But on Thursday, state-funded lawyers who handle death appeals filed an emergency request with the Florida Supreme Court, claiming Hauser's execution is simply suicide and the state has no business helping him. The lawyers filed the request on behalf of his mother, Zainna Fawnn Crawford. "The only question is whether the state of Florida is going to be the means by which Dan Hauser is going to commit suicide," said Tim Schardl, legal coordinator for the Capital Collateral Counsel office in Tallahassee, who filed the emergency appeal. Hauser himself, though, is having none of it. As soon as the unusual petition hit the high court Thursday, Hauser himself fired off a handwritten rebuttal to the justices, basically telling his mother and the lawyers to butt out. Saying he "fully" understands the penalty for his crime, Hauser called their intervention a "last minute, hail-Mary approach to scare this court into backing anti-death-penalty crusaders' attempt to define justice as they see fit." It is unclear whether the death-penalty lawyers' last-minute tactic may work, but it may at least result in the execution being delayed long enough for Hauser to get a new psychological evaluation, said Bruce Winick, a University of Miami criminal law professor who specializes on criminal procedure law. Hauser, 30, a drifter from Washington state with a penchant for stealing cars, burglarizing houses and conning people, was condemned to death for the New Year's Day 1995 strangulation murder of Melanie Rodrigues, 21, in Fort Walton Beach. He confessed almost immediately after he was arrested near Reno, Nev., in February 1995. He pleaded guilty and, just before his sentencing hearing, wrote out a detailed, gruesome description of how he brutally killed Rodrigues, who worked selling champagne in a strip club not far from the motel where her body was found. But Schardl, the death-appeals lawyer, says Hauser made up the details to deliberately draw a death sentence from the judge. "Mr. Hauser's death sentence is based entirely and exclusively on information that is provided by Mr. Hauser that is false," Schardl wrote. The problem, Schardl said, is that most of the worst stuff was made up and inconsistent with the evidence that crime scene experts and the medical examiner found. "The basis for his death sentence is invalid, based on falsehoods deliberately perpetrated by Mr. Hauser, in an effort to subvert the course of justice . . . and in order to enlist the state in his grandiose attempt at suicide," Schardl wrote in his 32-page motion to the high court. In a phone interview Thursday, Schardl added: "We know he made up evidence to make it a death penalty case." In his written description of the crime, Hauser wrote that he had been planning to kill someone and picked Rodrigues because she was "weak and naive." He said after he and Rodrigues had sex, he asked her for a hug, then began a slow game of torture, choking her until she passed out, then letting her revive before doing it again. Finally, he wrote, he told her, "Well, this is it," and pressed down on her throat until she died. "I wanted to watch the fear in her eyes," he wrote. He said he pressed so hard his hands were sore for 6 days. Yet in an earlier confession that was not part of the court record, Schardl said, Hauser told police that the death happened quickly and that he didn't know why he killed the woman. Schardl said the physical evidence, such as bruises and a broken bone in Rodrigues' throat, was highly inconsistent with Hauser's description. Hauser lied about not having been treated for mental illness, Schardl said. The lawyer is attacking a March 1999 psychological examination of Hauser that judged he was competent to be executed. In his emergency request Thursday, Schardl submitted the opinion of a psychiatrist who said her review of the case leads her to believe Hauser is not competent to abandon his appeals. Hauser's response to the court Thursday said the lawyers were trying to "subvert" his constitutional right to represent himself and are relying on the opinions of people who have never met him. Hauser said he has subjected himself to every examination, every line of questioning possible to determine that he is competent to represent himself and to choose not to postpone his execution. Shortly after Hauser's arrest, he told Stan Griggs, the lead Okaloosa County Sheriff's detective in the case, that he believed in the death penalty. He said the same thing to Jim Tongue, his public defender in Fort Walton Beach. "He admitted what he had done and said that he basically believes in the system and he should take his punishment," Tongue said. "He did not want to spend the rest of his life in prison." When Gov. Jeb Bush signed Hauser's death warrant earlier this year, he asked the Capital Collateral Counsel office to investigate whether representation by the agency was warranted. Schardl said he has met with Hauser several times and feels the intervention is warranted. But that can only happen if the Florida Supreme Court allows it. Winick, the University of Miami lawyer, said the Supreme Court will probably order another psychological evaluation. "If he is competent, he can make the decision, because it is his life," Winick said. "But when a life is at stake, the state should examine him." UPDATE: This motion was dismissed by a 4-3 vote of the Supreme Court for lack of standing. This means the execution can proceed, however, Hauser could halt it at anytime. 8/18/00 UPDATE: Despite the dismissal, the Capital Collateral Counsel office has filed a petition asking for a rehearing of this issue. http://www.flcourts.org/pubinfo/deathwarrants/HauserHabeasPetition.pdf 8/22/00 UPDATE: A US District Court has issued a stay of execution based on the petition filed against Hauser's wishes. Judge Stephan Mickle has granted a stay to allow himself enough time for a "meaningful review". http://www.flcourts.org/pubinfo/deathwarrants/HauserFederalOrder.pdf 8/24/00 UPDATE: This stay was lifted by a federal court and the execution has been rescheduled for August 25.

Date of scheduled execution	State	Victim name	Inmate name	Status
August 23, 2000	Texas	Marietta Bryant, 29 Carol Ackland, 46	David Gibbs	executed
David Earl Gibbs is on death row for the July 1, 1985, slayings of Marietta Bryant, 29, and Carol Ackland, 46, in Conroe. The women's throats were cut by a butcher knife. Fingerprints linked Gibbs, a maintenance worker at the women's apartment complex, to the crime. Gibbs later pleaded guilty to killing black death row inmate Calvin Williams, 30, whom Gibbs said he strangled in a recreation yard as an "initiation hit" into a racist prison gang. These murders were committed a year and a half after Gibbs was paroled after serving only nine months of a five year sentence for robbery and theft.

Date of scheduled execution	State	Victim name	Inmate name	Status
August 23, 2000	Ohio	ex-girlfriend her son, 12	Juan Kinley	stayed
On 1/10/89, Kinley hacked to death his ex-girlfriend and her 12-year-old son while the girlfriend was cleaning a house on North River Road in Clark County. The woman's appendages had been severed from her body and cut wounds were found all over both bodies. Several hundred dollars were taken from the home and from the woman. A machete was found in an alley behind Kinley's house. Kinley had a history of physically beating his ex-girlfriend and threatening to kill her and her two sons. There are still appeals pending and the execution is not likely to take place on this date.

Date of scheduled execution	State	Victim name	Inmate name	Status
August 24, 2000	Georgia	Aleta Carol Bunch, 16	Alexander Williams	stayed
Georgia death row inmate Alexander Williams is scheduled to be executed in less than 2 weeks for the rape and murder of a 16-year-old Augusta girl in 1986. If carried out on schedule, the execution would be the 1st in Georgia in nearly 2 1/2 years. After Richmond County Superior Court Judge William Fleming signed the death warrant, Department of Corrections Commissioner Jim Wetherington set the time for Williams's execution at 7 p.m. Aug. 24, 4 days shy of the 16th anniversary of his conviction. Williams would become the 24th person executed in Georgia since the state re-established the death penalty in 1973. The state constitution prohibits the governor from having a role in executions. Gov. Roy Barnes' office had no comment on Williams' death warrant. According to state and court records, Williams has exhausted his appeals, but the Georgia Supreme Court is considering two cases heard last month that challenged the constitutionality of the electric chair, which is used in Georgia and only 2 other states. Legal experts say that challenge could delay Williams' execution, but the other issues he has challenged already have been decided by state and federal courts. Williams was one month shy of his 18th birthday when he kidnapped Aleta Carol Bunch on March 4, 1986, from an Augusta mall. The teenage girl was carrying her parents' credit cards while shopping for a birthday present for her mother. The next day, Williams and his friends used those stolen credit cards at several Augusta stores, and Williams bragged about abducting the girl and killing her. Eventually, police were tipped off and Williams was arrested March 12, 1986. The girl's body was found 2 days later in a wooded area. She had been raped before being shot several times. Because Williams admitted to the crime, guilt is not an issue in this case. Williams' attorneys argued in court documents that it's wrong to execute people for crimes they commit as children, even though Georgia law allows the death penalty to be used if the defendant is at least 17 years old. Lawyers for Williams, now 32, also noted that international human rights treaties prohibit executing anyone for crimes committed before their 18th birthday. The U.S. Supreme Court has rejected a similar argument in a Kentucky case. Last June, the high court refused to hear Williams' argument. Williams' lawyers also argue that since he has been diagnosed as schizophrenic, he is not competent to be executed. The courts also rejected that claim. Officials say Williams' mental illness is under control.

Date of scheduled execution	State	Victim name	Inmate name	Status
August 25, 2000	Florida	Melanie Rodrigues, 21	Dan Patrick Hauser	executed
Dan Patrick Hauser, 30, a drifter originally from Dublin, Calif., pleaded no-contest to 1st-degree murder after confessing he had randomly chosen his victim, Melanie Rodrigues, 21, who worked at a convenience store and Sammy's, a topless bar in Ft. Walton Beach. He said he strangled the woman to satisfy a longtime urge to kill. The victim's body was found 2 days later under a bed in a Fort Walton Beach area motel room less than a mile from Sammy's. Hauser confessed to the killing after he was arrested in Reno, Nev., on Feb. 10, 1995 on a charge of stealing a pickup truck in North Carolina. He pleaded guilty and, just before his sentencing hearing, wrote out a detailed, gruesome description of how he brutally killed Rodrigues, who worked selling champagne in a strip club not far from the motel where her body was found. Hauser says he believes in the death penalty and he has fought to keep lawyers from appealing on his behalf. Hauser had a long history of stealing cars, burglarizing houses and conning people. (see August 22)

Date of scheduled execution	State	Victim name	Inmate name	Status
August 30, 2000	Texas	Henry Caldwell Gwendolyn Caldwell Kimberly Caldwell	Jeffrey Caldwell	executed
Jeffery Henry Caldwell, a convicted burglar and sex offender originally from Chicago, confessed a day after stabbing and beating his parents, Henry and Gwendolyn Caldwell, and sister, Kimberly, in their Dallas home. All three victims were stabbed in the chest area and beaten in the head with a hammer. Their bodies were concealed inside the family's motorhome, parked in the driveway. The Caldwell's other son, who was not at home at the time of the murders, found the bodies of his family. Caldwell was arrested the next day, driving his mother's car, and gave a voluntary statement to police.

Date of scheduled execution	State	Victim name	Inmate name	Status
August 30, 2000	Virginia	Katherine Tafelski Ashley Tafelski, 5	Russel Burket	executed
Russel W. Burket was convicted of killing his neighbor and her 5-year-old daughter. Burket, 32, was convicted of using a rusty crowbar to beat and crush the skulls of Katherine Tafelski and her daughter, Ashley, in their Virginia Beach home in 1993. He also sexually assaulted the mother with the tool. Burket also wounded Andrew Tafelski Jr., 3, and Chelsea Brothers, 3, who had been spending the night at the Tafelski home. Burket was a neighbor. Tafelski's husband, Andy Tafelski, a Navy SEAL, was away from home when the slayings occurred. Spermatazoa on a washcloth found at the scene showed it was consistent with Burket's DNA profile, shared with only 7.8 % of the Caucasian population.

Date of scheduled execution	State	Victim name	Inmate name	Status
August 30, 2000	Missouri	Sherry Scheper, 47 Randy Scheper, 17 Curtis Scheper, 22	Gary Roll	executed
The Missouri Supreme Court set an execution date of Aug. 30 for Gary Lee Roll, convicted of killing three members of a Cape Girardeau family in 1992. Gary Lee Roll, David Rhodes, and John Browne went to the Scheper family home at about 4:00 am on Aug. 9, 1992, with the intent to commit robbery. Roll knocked on the door and Sherry Scheper, 47, answered. Displaying a badge, Roll identified himself as a police officer and ordered her to open the door. When she did, Roll and Rhodes entered. Browne, who knew the family, remained outside, fearing he would be recognized. Inside the house, Roll ordered Randy and Sherry Scheper to lie face-down on the carpet. Fearing the family could identify him, Roll fatally shot Randy, 17, in the head and beat Sherry to death with his gun. Roll or one of the accomplices fatally stabbed Randy’s 22-year-old brother Curtis with a hunting knife. Roll, Rhodes, and Browne then left with 12 plastic sandwich-sized bags full of marijuana and $214 in cash. Returning home, Roll cleaned blood and hair from his gun and blood off his knife and clothing. He wrapped the murder weapons and a box of ammunition in a package, which his son buried in the woods behind Roll’s house. The murder went unsolved for several weeks, however, Browne began to fear for his safety. To protect himself, Brown wore a tape recorder during a conversation with Roll about the murders. On the tape, Roll admitted committing the murders and getting rid of the murder weapons. Roll also said that he killed the Schepers because "they knew everybody...and I figured then they know me, because of something that was said in there..." Browne gave the tape to a friend for safekeeping, who in turn gave it to the police. Roll pled guilty to three counts of first-degree murder and other charges. Roll and the teens were arrested in November 1992. Roll later pleaded guilty to all 3 murders. Roll said he hoped the victims' family could forgive him because he didn't believe they could find peace until they did. "If I thought there was something I could say, I would say anything. But I don't think there is," he said.

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