Prior to kidnapping, torturing and killing ten young women in his search for the perfect sex slave, Gerald Albert Gallego had been charged 27 times and convicted 7 times on felony counts. Gallego was charged in four of the murders. Charges were not filed in the other 6 cases. Gallego's father Gerald Armando Gallego was sentenced to death for the murder of two lawmen in two separate incidents. In 1955, when his son was 9, he became the first man to die in Mississippi's gas chamber. In 1999, skeletal remains of Brenda Judd and Sandra Colley were found by a rancher who was running a tractor on his property and turned up the shallow grave. The girls disappeared from a county fair in Reno in 1979. Lela Lee, mother of Brenda Judd and Jewel Martin, mother of Sandra Colley, were the only families of Gallego's victims who did not have their loved ones remains to bury before the discovery. "Now the mothers will be able to put their daughters to rest," said John Compston, a retired investigator who had spent hours with Charlene Gallego, searching for the bodies. Gallego denied killing the girls but his wife and accomplice, Charlene Gallego, admitted to the abduction and murders in order to keep from going to death row herself. After testifying about 10 murders she helped her husband to commit in order to fulfill his sexual fantasies, Charlene Gallego was sentenced to 16 years and was paroled in 1997. She had given details about luring the young women from malls and other busy places while Gallego waited to subdue them back in the couple's vehicle. College students Mary Beth Sowers and Craig Miller were engaged to be married when they were kidnapped during a fraternity dance in 1980. Craig was shot and his body was dumped and Mary Beth was raped before being killed. UPDATE: Convicted sex-slave killer Gerald Gallego, facing execution the week of Jan. 17, got an expected stay Wednesday from a district court judge.  District Judge John McGroarty of Las Vegas had imposed the death sentence in Lovelock in mid-November. His stay was automatic because all death penalties are automatically appealed in Nevada.  Gallego was sentenced to die in Nevada for two 1980 murders that authorities believe were part of killing spree of as many as 10 people. It marked the 2nd time he has been ordered to be executed. The resentencing was necessary after the Nevada attorney general's office missed a deadline in response to an appeal to the U.S. Supreme Court over jury instructions in the original sentencing. There are still appeals pending and this execution is not likely to take place on this date. UPDATE: In July 2002, Gerald Gallego died of rectal cancer which had spread to his liver and lungs.

Spencer Corey Goodman had been on parole less than 24 hours when he abducted 48-year-old Cecile Ham, the wife of Bill Ham, manager of the rock group ZZ Top. He kidnapped her from the parking lot of a drugstore because he was tired of walking and wanted her red Cadillac.  Goodman appealed his conviction saying that there was insufficient evidence to prove that he intentionally killed Ham and that he posed a future danger - elements that must be proved in a capital murder case.  The court disagreed, and pointed in particular to the confession he made after he was arrested in Eagle County, Colo., where authorities spotted him driving Ham's car more than a month after her disappearance.  In his confession, Goodman told police that rather than reporting to a parole halfway house in Houston when he was released from prison, he walked the streets of Houston for hours. He said he saw his victim leave a drugstore.  "I decided at that point that I wanted to take her car from her," his confession states. "I had been walking for a long time and my feet hurt."  Goodman knocked Ham unconscious by striking her in the back of the head and later "used martial arts and broke the lady's neck," according to court records. He then stuffed the body in the trunk of her car, and drove to Colorado, using the woman's credit cards to buy beer and cigarettes. He dumped the body in a remote area; after his arrest, Goodman led authorities to the body.  The jury deliberated only 3 hours before sentencing Goodman to death.  Cecile's husband Bill and her mother, Louella Autrey of Waxahachie, were present when the sentence was read and released a written statement before leaving the courthouse.  "The goodness that was Cecile will never again touch our lives," the statement read. "The sweetness of her smile and humor in adversity will never strengthen us again except as a memory.  Every good and gracious trait that was Cecile is gone but will never be forgotten."  The statement thanked law enforcement officers and prosecutors and challenged the community to work for a system that "considers the rights of victims to be of supreme importance.  In memory of our beloved Cecile, the charge is to work toward a system dedicated to the freedom to live our lives unharmed and safe."  The trial lasted two weeks and included the testimony of dozens of witnesses.  Goodman's adoptive father, Barnard Goodman Sr., 62, testified that his immediate family fears the defendant -- who, at his own request, remained outside the courtroom during his father's testimony. Under cross-examination by Rosen, the father said he placed the decision of life in prison or death in the jury's hands.  "At this point, he's broken the heart of our family, and we would rather not be any further involved in this than we have to," he said.  In a letter, the elder Goodman told his son the whole family loved him when he was taken in at age 1.  "I tried so hard when you were young to turn you around," the letter read. "We couldn't turn you around and you continued to do things that were against our laws, God's laws and the laws of society."  The father and other family members left the courtroom after his testimony.  Assistant District Attorney Fred Felcman, in closing arguments, called the defendant "society's worst nightmare."  He reminded jurors of Goodman's courtroom conduct when he tried to leave during testimony.  "Even then, for some reason, he feels he has the right to leave whenever he wants to," Felcman said.  Prosecutors reminded jurors that the two-time ex-con received countless chances from his family and from the criminal justice system.  "Time and time again, leniency has been extended to this man through our criminal justice system.  Just as often, this man has spit in the face of society."  

In April 1993, Andre Stevens was convicted of 1st-degree murder and sentenced to death for murdering his estranged wife, Brenda Jo Stevens, and one of her acquaintances, Michael Love.  They were shot to death as they were leaving the dance floor of a nightclub.  There are still appeals pending and this execution is not likely to take place on this date.

Carey Dean Moore was sentenced to die for the 1979 murders of 2 Omaha taxicab drivers.  Moore devised a plan to rob Omaha cabdrivers. From a telephone booth in downtown Omaha, Moore called a cab and waited to see how quickly the cabdriver responded to that call. If the responding cabdriver was suitable for Moore's plan, that is, "an older man" rather than a young man, Moore planned to shoot the cabdriver and take the driver's money. Pursuant to his plan, Moore shot and killed one cabdriver on August 22, 1979, and another on August 26, 1979.  When he was arrested for the crimes, Moore also told officers that he chose older victims because they would be easier to kill.  He confessed to killing Reuel Eugene Van Ness Jr. on August 22, 1979, and to the murder of Maynard Helegland 5 days later.  

David Hicks had previous convictions for aggravated assault and burglary, kidnapping and fleeing from a police officer.  He had been on parole for just 8 months when he raped and murdered his own grandmother.   Ocolor Hegger was 87 years old and was sexually assaulted and then beaten to death by her grandson, Hicks on April 25, 1988.  The murder occurred at her home near Teague, Texas.  Ocolor was killed by being beaten in the head with 8 to 10 blows with a ball-peen hammer.  A neighbor found Ocolor Hegger sprawled on the kitchen floor of her small frame house in Teague on the morning of April 26, 1988. Her head was crushed, her blood splashed onto the walls.  "It's the most vicious case I've ever tried,'' said Freestone County District Attorney Bob Gage. "It was absolutely sickening.''  On death row, Hicks continued to insist he is innocent.  "I've got to get my name back,'' he said recently.  Hicks was an unemployed 26-year-old in 1988, released from jail and hanging around the rural community where he grew up. There was a highway nearby and not much else.  Hicks and his cousin Lester dropped by his grandmother's house on the night of the murder.  Lester handed Mrs. Hegger some money, settling a debt between the two. Then the cousins took off, leaving their grandmother watching television in her housecoat.  Later that night, prosecutors believe, Hicks returned to Mrs. Hegger's house with plans to steal the money. Instead, he beat the elderly woman unconscious and left her for dead in the bedroom, Gage said.  Hicks spent that evening drinking beer with his cousin and three friends. He left after a few hours, but returned to his grandmother's house on the way home, Gage said.  "She'd dragged herself to the kitchen,'' Gage said. "I think she was laying there injured for two or three hours before he came back to check.''  Hicks then raped the elderly woman, beat her viciously and shattered her skull with a wooden doorstop, Gage said.  DNA tests revealed Hicks' semen in his grandmother's body and smeared on her robe.  Introducing genetic material as courtroom evidence was still a revolutionary technique in 1989, when Hicks was found guilty of the murder.  His conviction set off a flurry of articles in scientific journals. DNA was inconclusive in Hicks' case, some scientists argued, because his hometown was inbred and isolated, and because he shared some genetic patterns with his grandmother.  Those arguments were silenced last year, when a Waco judge agreed to reevaluate the evidence. For the second time, scientists pointed to Hicks. The DNA match was even more conclusive.  "So we're not hearing any more about his innocence,'' Gage said. "They dropped all that.''  However, some supporters still claimed he was innocent and the DNA match was related to voodoo.

In November 1995, Daniel Gwynn, then 24, was convicted of 1st-degree murder and sentenced to death for setting fire to an abandoned building in Philadelphia, killing Marsha Smith, a 38-year-old squatter who was trapped inside.  There are still appeals pending and this execution is not likely to take place on this date.

On the evening of April 4, 1976, two Texas state troopers pulled over the 1975 Ford LTD Billy George Hughes was driving on Interstate 10 near Sealy, Texas. The troopers were responding to a dispatcher's report that a man driving a similar car had attempted to use a stolen credit card at a nearby motel. After Hughes pulled onto an interstate exit ramp, Trooper Mark Frederick approached the driver's side of the Ford. Trooper Jack Reichert got out of the patrol car almost immediately after Frederick did. Approaching the Ford behind Frederick, Reichert heard a "muffled shot" and saw Frederick "lurch" to the side. Frederick had sustained a fatal wound. As the Ford sped away, Reichert shot several times at the car. An abandoned car with matching description was found several miles away. The car had many bullet holes, and its trunk contained a loaded, sawed-off shotgun and several other weapons. Two days later, a helicopter approached a field where a suspect was reportedly seen. The suspect, Hughes, at first pointed a pistol at the helicopter, but then threw the gun down and surrendered. Ballistics experts identified the pistol as the murder weapon.  The jury took only 47 minutes to sentence Hughes to death.

Sgt. George Sullivan, a 43-year-old father of five, had been with the University of Nevada - Reno Police Department for 19 years when he was murdered by Siaosi Vanisi on January 13, 1998.  George was sitting in his patrol car filling out paperwork when he was attacked with a hatchet by Vanisi.  He suffered over 20 separate wounds and Vanisi then stomped on his face and stole his gun and gun-belt.  Within hours of George's murder, Vanisi used his weapon in two different convenience store robberies.  He was arrested the next day after stealing a car and engaging in a shoot-out with police.  Vanisi, a native of Tonga, had repeatedly told friends that he wanted to kill a white police officer.  He did not like whites or police officers because his wife had left him for a white officer.  He later bragged to a cousin about the murder.  The jury at his trial found him guilty of murder in less than two hours and sentenced him to death within less than 4 hours.  There are still appeals pending and this execution is not likely to take place on this date.

Glen McGinnis was convicted in the robbery and murder of Leta Ann Wilkerson, 30.  Leta was working as a clerk at a dry cleaners in Conroe.  Just five days before the killing, McGinnis was released on probation for auto theft. He said he entered the Conroe laundry to steal cash for his imprisoned mother. "I used to have no respect for people," McGinnis said. "I never had no compassion." McGinnis entered the store and shot her once in the head and three times in the back with a .25 caliber handgun he had stolen from his aunt.  He stole money from the cash register and took Leta's van. His thumb print was found on Leta's wallet.  McGinnis had been placed on probation for an auto theft charge just five days before Leta was murdered. McGinnis had an extensive juvenile record. Karen Newsum hopes the final image her sister's killer sees at his execution Tuesday is the face of his victim. "I want him to know that she still matters," said the older sister of Leta Ann Jones Wilkerson, who was killed Aug. 1, 1990, by 17-year-old Glen McGinnis during a robbery at Wilkerson's dry cleaning store. Newsum and three other family members, including Wilkerson's 21-year-old daughter, will be watching from the death chamber's visiting room when McGinnis, now 26, is executed. She said she is not seeking vengeance. "I forgave him first for my sister, and I knew before I went to his execution I would have to forgive him for myself," she said. "Leta would have been the first to forgive him and would have turned right around and have helped him." From Attorney General's account of case: On the afternoon of August 1, 1990, a customer walked into Wilkins Dry Cleaners in Conroe, Texas, to pick up some cleaning. He waited at the counter, but no one approached to wait on him. He left, then reentered with another customer. Finally, noticing that the cash register was open, the man walked around the corner of the counter toward the back room of the store where he discovered Leta Wilkerson lying face up on the floor, her eyes open and her body covered with blood. He immediately notified the police and called for an ambulance. Wilkerson was transported to a nearby hospital where she was pronounced dead on arrival. She had been shot once in the face and three times in the back. Upon arriving at the scene, investigating officers found spent .25-caliber bullets and bullet casings lying on the floor near where the body was found. Officers also discovered blood on the front counter next to a pile of jeans with the name "McGinnis" written in the pockets. The telephone on the front counter had been left off the hook, objects were in disarray and about $140 was missing from the cash register. Additionally, police were informed that the 1985 silver-gray GMC minivan the victim had driven to work that day was missing. Two individuals picked Glen Charles McGinnis out of a photographic lineup, identifying him as the man they had seen at or near Wilkins Dry Cleaners around the time of the offense. Late that evening, police found Wilkerson's minivan abandoned in the parking lot of a nearby shopping center. Between the two front seats of the van, they discovered Wilkerson's wallet, from which investigators lifted McGinnis's fingerprint. The following morning, three employees of various businesses in the shopping center where the van was found picked McGinnis out of a photographic lineup as the man they had seen the afternoon before requesting assistance because his van was broken down. Early on the morning of August 2, 1990, police were dispatched to Williams Square Apartments, just two blocks from Wilkins Dry Cleaners, where McGinnis was thought to be residing with his aunt. Police arrested McGinnis for the capital murder of Leta Wilkerson and transported him to the police station, where they discovered $105 in his possession. Later that morning, police returned to his aunt's apartment to search for a .25-caliber weapon. The aunt told police that her nephew had been living with her in the apartment since July 27, 1990. She also told police that she owned a .25-caliber semi-automatic pistol; however, when she discovered that the gun was not where she had left it, she agreed to let police search the apartment. Police found a .25-caliber Raven semi-automatic pistol in a laundry hamper in the hall closet. The aunt identified the gun as her own, but stated that she did not know how it had gotten in the laundry hamper. Firearms examiners testified at trial that shell casings recovered from the scene and bullets recovered from both the victim's body and the scene had been fired from the aunt's gun. Almost two months after the offense, McGinnis's aunt contacted police to inform them she had found a set of keys in her apartment. The keys were later identified as the keys of Leta Wilkerson. In addition, when asked at trial about the jeans found at the cleaners, the aunt identified them as hers, but testified that she had not taken the jeans to the cleaners. Rather, the jeans had previously been stored away in a closet in her apartment because she did not wear them anymore.

Anzel Keon Jones (no relation to his victims) was sentenced to die for the May 1995 murder of Sherry Kay Jones in Paris Texas. There are still appeals pending and this execution is not likely to take place on this date. Sherry and her mother heard dogs barking and when Sherry went to investigate, Jones appeared at the back door. Sherry offered Jones the keys to two vehicles that were parked in the garage and also gave him $125 in cash if he would not harm the women. He took the cash and then attacked them both with a kitchen knife. Sherry was stabbed eight times and he tried to slit the mother's throat. He left her bleeding in her bed and then set the house on fire but neighbors saw the smoke and the mother was rescued. Sherry died from her wounds at the scene. Jones, a neighbor's son, was arrested 10 days after the attack. UDPATE: Jones had another execution date set for April 29, 2004, but again received a stay. In March of 2005, a divided Supreme Court ruled that persons who were under 18 years of age at the time of their crime could not be executed. On June 24, 2005, Jones's death sentence was commuted to life in prison with a mandatory 40 years before parole eligibility. He is serving his sentence at the Telford Unit and will be eligible for parole in June of 2036, when he is 57 years old. 

On October 9, 1982 James Moreland stabbed to death two men, 53-year-old Clinton Corbet and 41-year-old John Royce Cravey during a robbery.  The men were stabbed multiple times in their backs.  The 39-year-old Indiana native never denied killing Clinton Corbet Abbott and John Royce Cravey. The 2 friends were stabbed repeatedly in the back, robbed and left to die in a Eustace trailer home after a day of beer drinking on Oct. 9, 1982.  Instead, Moreland maintained he acted out of fear after Cravey, a 41-year-old iron worker, allegedly made homosexual advances toward him. The claim is similar to the "gay panic" defense used last year in the trial of one of the men accused of fatally beating Matthew Shepard, a gay Wyoming college student. A judge disallowed the strategy. Relatives of Moreland's victims rankle at the suggestion. "My brother was by no means a homosexual. I know this for a fact," said Robert Cravey. "Neither was Clint. He'd have fought you if you even mentioned it to him." Jurors also rejected the idea, convicting Moreland of capital murder for Abbott's death on June 15, 1983. He was indicted but never tried for Cravey's killing.  Meanwhile, the victims' relatives remained steadfast in their determination to see Moreland receive a lethal injection.   "I look at his picture in the paper, and he looks like a mad dog to me," said Fane Abbott Morton, Abbott's 72-year-old sister. "He needs to be put out of his misery."  Abbott, a retired soldier, was 53 when he and Cravey were murdered in Eustace, a town of about 660 people 40 miles southeast of Dallas.  In a written confession and on the witness stand at his trial, Moreland said he had been drinking heavily and was hitchhiking to buy beer when the men offered him a ride and invited him back to Cravey's trailer.  Moreland said after about an hour and a half of drinking, he was left alone with Cravey, who began rubbing Moreland's leg and then attacked him. Moreland said he feared being raped or injured, so he grabbed a knife from the kitchen table and stabbed Cravey. He also stabbed Abbott when the older man confronted him.  Prosecutors told a different story, though, producing evidence to suggest Moreland stabbed the 2 drunken men as they slept.  A medical examiner testified that, at the time of their deaths, Cravey had a blood-alcohol level of .19 %, more than twice the legal standard of intoxication in Texas, while Abbott's blood tested at .24 %. The victims each had 7 stab wounds to the back in a pattern consistent with an attack from above while they slept on their stomachs, he testified.  And prosecutors said that other than shallow cuts on the victims' hands, there was little evidence of a struggle in the trailer.  Two bloody kitchen knives were found on a dresser. Moreland, whose previous criminal history included burglaries in Texas and Florida, was arrested in Bedford, Ind., three days after the murders. Warrants were based on information a cousin provided.  Authorities searched his sister's home in Bedford and found a shredded pair of boots belonging to Cravey in a trash can. Moreland's father gave authorities a medicine bottle he found with Cravey's name on it.