On May 1, 2001, 18 years after Lisa Lea DeCarr was strangled, her killer is scheduled to be executed.  Wayne Tompkins was 26 at the time of the murder.  He was convicted in 1986 of killing Lisa, the 15-year-old daughter of his girlfriend, in Tampa. In the 1980's, Gov. Bob Martinez twice signed death warrants for Tompkins. But Tompkins, now 43, appealed his conviction and his sentence several times, delaying his execution. But the U.S. Supreme Court denied his final appeal on Oct. 2, the Governor's Office said.  Lisa's mother reported her missing in March 24, 1983, after Tompkins told her the girl ran away. On that day, Lisa’s mother and Tompkins were at the home of Tompkins' mother, assisting her in packing to move.  Tompkins went home several times during the day to obtain newspapers to use in packing. Tompkins returned later in the day, after going home, and reported that Lisa had “run away.”  But Tompkins had been alone with Lisa DeCarr girl most of the day, and a friend of Lisa's, who went to visit her that day, stated she observed Tompkins on top of Lisa. She claimed Lisa was struggling and screaming for help, and Tompkins was fondling her and pulling at her bathrobe.  The friend, however, did not report the incident to the police until the investigation was underway. Tompkins admitted to his cellmate, in 1985, that he tried to rape Lisa, who resisted by kicking him in the groin and fought him. Tompkins claimed that due to Lisa’s resistance, and her kicking him in the groin, he strangled her and then buried her under the house. Medical testimony indicated that the cause of death was asphyxiation by strangulation. Lisa's body wasn't found until June 5, 1984, buried in a shallow grave under her house. Her mother still lived there at the time.  On April 7, 1984, Tompkins went into a convenience store and robbed the female clerk, abducted her at knifepoint and sexually assaulted her.  On May 30, 1984, Tompkins robbed a convenience store clerk at knifepoint and sexually assaulted her.  Lisa De Carr would now be 33 years old.

Marilyn Plantz was sentenced to death for the 1988 murder of her husband, James Plantz, 33.  In June of 2000, William Clifford Bryson, 29, was executed by injection for his part in the murder.  Thirteen relatives and friends of Jim Plantz, including his two sisters, father and brother, were at the prison for the execution. After a tour of the penitentiary, Karen Lowery, Jim's sister, said Bryson's death does not mean a victory for her family.  "It's a no-win situation. Nobody is going to win in the end," Lowery said. Sharon Cotton, Jim's other sister, said before the execution that his death would only provide partial closure for the family. "Marilyn Plantz and Clifford Bryson (have) lived almost 12 years since Jim was murdered; that is 12 years longer than my brother lived." She said executing Bryson would provide her family the justice they have sought since the killing.  "He didn't think twice about taking my brother's life," she said of Bryson. "He didn't think about the children or my brother's family and how that would affect us for the rest of our lives."  State Attorney General Drew Edmondson said Jim Plantz "suffered a horrible, cruel, painful death.  Prosecutors said Bryson and Marilyn Plantz planned to collect an insurance policy of about $319,000 for James' accidental death. Marilyn Plantz was the beneficiary.  On Aug. 26, 1988, after Jim Plantz returned home from working the night shift as a pressroom supervisor at The Oklahoman, Bryson, then 18, and friend Clinton McKimble ambushed him and beat him with 2 baseball bats provided from their son's room by his wife, who also was present.  McKimble, who received a life sentence for testifying against Bryson, said they left him on the floor bloody and hurt, then Marilyn Plantz looked at her husband's head injuries from the beating and remarked that it didn't look like an accident. "She told us to burn him," McKimble testified. Plantz was still alive when he was loaded into a pickup truck and driven to a remote area, where he and the vehicle were doused with gasoline and set ablaze. The medical evidence showed that he was alive at the time because of smoke that was inhaled into his lungs.  Bryson told police he and Marilyn Plantz planned to move out of state and get married. Bryson said Marilyn Plantz told him her husband had threatened to kill himself and her if she divorced him. Plantz denied being involved in the killing.  Marilyn Plantz was a homemaker and Sunday school teacher, and they raised their 2 children in a quiet, Midwest City neighborhood. Their two children were asleep in a bedroom when the attack occurred.  Lowery said she was stunned when she received the call that her brother had been the victim of a homicide, and then learned his wife and her lover were accused. "It's like when you hear people talk about the perfect marriage -- they never argued, never fought, no cross words," Lowery said. Jim was the third of four children and grew up in the Shawnee and Pink areas of Pottawatomie County. He was remembered as fun-loving, a punctual and dependable employee and a devoted father to Trina, 9, and Christopher, 6. "His kids were his No. 1 priority. He was rarely seen without the two kids," Cotton said.  

Gregory Mills was convicted of fatally shooting an elderly man, James Wright during a home burglary in Sanford, Florida on May 25, 1979. Mills was 22 at the time of the murder.  His accomplice, Vincent Ashley, received immunity in exchange for testifying against Mills.  James was fatally shot after he confronted Mills and Ashley in after they broke into his home during the night.  They escaped on stolen 10-speed bicycles and were picked up a couple of blocks away.  The jury recommended a life sentence but the judge overruled them and sentenced Mills to death.  James was killed at the end of a crime spree: on May 8, Mills stole a shotgun during a burglary.  He robbed someone of $190 the next day, committed another robbery the day after that, shot and wounded a man during the robbery of a convenience store on May 24, leaving with no money, and then killed James the next day.

Anthony Fletcher was convicted ofthe March 2, 1992 robbery and murder of Christopher Vaughn.  At the time of the murder, Fletcher was a 36-year-old drug-dealer and former professional boxer.  He shot Christopher once in the thigh and twice in the back.  He had previous convictions for robbery, drug dealing and cocaine possession.  In the 1989 robbery, the victim was a 14-year-old.

A May 8 execution date was set for a man convicted of killing his girlfriend, her cousin and three children. Gov. Mike Huckabee set the date for Clay King Smith, who was convicted in the March 25, 1998, slayings at a home near Pine Bluff. A judge ruled in November 1999 that Smith was competent enough to waive his appeal rights. At the hearing, Smith told the court he was sorry for the pain he had caused and added, "I don't want to do any more harm." Jefferson County Circuit Judge H.A. Taylor said Smith had knowingly waived his appeal and understood the implications. Smith was convicted in the shootings of his girlfriend, Misty Erwin, 20; her cousin, Shelly Sorg, 24; and her two children, Sean Michael, 5, and Taylor, 3; and a family friend, Samantha Rhodes, 12. The state Supreme Court, in a routine review of death-row cases, affirmed Smith's convictions last month. The justices allow inmates to drop their appeals if they demonstrate that they know what might happen. Smith said he made the decision because he didn't want to put his family or the victims' families through a lengthy appeal process. Smith was arrested the day after the bodies were discovered. His capture followed a shootout with authorities near Star City in Lincoln County. Smith fled into a wooded area when police tracked him down at a house. He was shot in an arm after he refused to put down the rifle.  During the stand-off, he yelled at the police, "I sent three of them to Heaven; I don't know where the other two went." (Picture is of Samantha Rhodes)

On 5/6/83, Jay Scott participated in an attempted armed robbery of the V & E Delicatessen on Cleveland's East Side. Scott and an accomplice entered the delicatessen and placed an order for food from the eldery female owner, Vinnie M. Price. After the owner had prepared their food she was shot in the chest from a distance of less than 12 inches. Scott was also sentenced to death for the murder of security guard Alexander Jones the day after Vinnie's murder. Alexander was a security guard at another restaurant that Scott was robbing, The Shrimp Boat. That sentence was reversed and later reduced to life when the 8th District Ohio Court of Appeals ruled that the jurors' decision may have been tainted because some of them learned of Scott's other death sentence when they saw a newspaper headline.  Jay D. Scott had bragged he was the "baddest man in town," according to Cleveland homicide detectives who arrested him in Philadelphia after he fled. Vinnie had worked at the V&E Confectionery for 30 years and she became co-owner in 1963. Two co-defendants identified Scott as the triggerman. A Cleveland jury convicted Scott after deliberating 20 minutes, and he was sent to death row in April 1984. Since then, the case has been tied up in appeals. Scott has racked up over 40 major conduct infractions in prison, including stabbing another inmate, abducting a death row guard and setting fire to his cell.  UPDATE: 5/12/01 - The Ohio Supreme Court ruled that Scott is competent to be executed for the 1983 murder of a Cleveland delicatessen owner. Scott's attorneys say he is incompetent to be executed because he suffers from schizophrenia, and that putting him to death would be cruel and unusual punishment under the U.S. Constitution. The state argued that no court has ruled that executing an inmate with Scott's condition violates the law and that two lower courts found no reason to spare Scott's life. The 6-1 court ruling, with Justice Paul Pfeifer dissenting, upheld a Cuyahoga County Common Pleas judge's decision that Scott is competent to face execution. The majority acknowledged that schizophrenia is a mental illness but said the lower court correctly ruled that the illness did not prevent Scott from understanding the proceedings against him. The trial court fully considered defense medical testimony of Scott's illness, the majority said in an unsigned opinion. Ohio law says an inmate is competent to be executed if he knows of the proceedings against him, why he is being executed and that he will die as a result of the sentence. A Cuyahoga County Common Pleas judge ruled April 16 that Scott is competent to face execution. The next day, the Ohio Supreme Court postponed his execution -- 65 minutes before it was to take place -- so the 8th Ohio District Court of Appeals could have time to consider the case. The appeals court on April 20 upheld the lower court, and the Supreme Court set the new execution date on April 25. The only prisoner put to death in Ohio since 1963 was Wilford Berry, who was executed in 1999 after he gave up his appeals. 

Allen Bridgers, originally from Virginia, was sentenced to die for the May 25, 1997 murder of 53-year-old Mary Amie in Smith County, Texas.  Bridgers had been living with Mary, and shot her in the throat with a .38-caliber revolver, then stole her 1985 Lincoln Town Car and drove to the bus terminal in Dallas.  He was arrested in Ft. Lauderdale, Florida three days after the murder.  

Robert Bacon, now 41, was a 27-year-old vacuum salesman in 1987 when he fatally stabbed Glennie Clark of Jacksonville, North Carolina.  Glennie was the estranged husband of Bacon's girlfriend, Bonnie Sue Clark. Clark and Bacon presumably hoped to collect on $130,000 in life insurance benefits.  Clark was a staff sergeant in the Marines and was in the car talking to Clark when Bacon hopped in the car and stabbed Glennie 16 times. Clark received a life sentence for her part in the murder.  UPDATE: The state Supreme Court postponed the execution of Robert Bacon Jr. so it could consider barring Gov. Mike Easley from deciding clemency for Bacon and possibly more than 100 other murderers whose appeals he opposed as attorney general. The court stayed Bacon's execution at 1:45 p.m., about 12 hours before he was to die by lethal injection at Raleigh's Central Prison. It scheduled a hearing June 7 to consider Easley's alleged conflict. If the Supreme Court agrees with Bacon, its decision could force a revamping of North Carolina's clemency process for condemned killers, perhaps putting the decision in the hands of the lieutenant governor. It also could guide courts in other states where inmates challenge the neutrality of clemency decisions by attorneys general who become governor. Easley and Attorney General Roy Cooper said little about the court's rulings Thursday. "With the stay in effect for the indefinite future, the governor has the opportunity to give the clemency request further consideration, and he will continue to do so," Easley spokesman Fred Hartman said. Lawyers for the state maintain that under the state Constitution, only the governor may decide clemency. And they've said the governor's only legal obligation is to consider clemency by the book. All Attorney General Roy Cooper would say Thursday about the pending case was, "We're sure that the court will give this issue its full consideration."

Mark Robertson was convicted in the August 19, 1989 murders of Edna Brau, 81, and her grandson, Sean Jason Hill, 19, during a home robbery in Dallas.  Both victims were shot in the head with a .38-caliber handgun; Edna's body was found in her home and Sean was dumped in a creek where he had been fishing behind the house.  Robertson stole Edna's 1985 Cadillac, her watch and her purse.  Robertson, then 21, was arrested in Las Vegas several days later, driving Edna's car.  He then confessed and was sentenced to death for Edna's murder and also received a life sentence for Sean's murder.  Robertson also confessed to the August 9, 1989 murder of Jeffery Saunders, a 19-year-old convenience store clerk who was killed after being robbed of $55.  

The Oklahoma Court of Criminal Appeals set a May 22 execution date for Terrance A. James, who was convicted of strangling a man in a Federal jail in Muskogee in 1983. James, 41, was sentenced to death by a jury for killing Mark Allen Berry, 25, on Feb. 6, 1983 when James was 22.  Terrence James and Sammy Van Woudenberg were convicted of first-degree murder in Berry's death, Attorney General Drew Edmondson said. Van Woudenberg was in the Muskogee jail on a federal kidnapping charge. He also was sentenced to death in Berry's slaying. James had been serving a five-year sentence after pleading guilty to theft, but he and another inmate, Dennis Earl Brown, blamed Berry, 25, for their arrests, and thought he was a "snitch".  Berry was in the jail awaiting trial on a charge of stealing government property and was killed while he and Brown played cards around 4:30 in the morning. After Van Woudenberg put a piece of paper over the camera, James approached Berry from behind, wrapped a wire from a broom around his neck and strangled him.  Brown held Berry's feet and put his hand over Berry's mouth. James, Brown and Van Woudenberg then hanged Berry in a shower stall to make it appear that he had committed suicide, prosecutors said.  Brown pleaded guilty to second-degree murder and received 35 years in prison for testifying against James and Van Woudenberg, prosecutors said.