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Six
killers were executed in May 2003. They had
murdered at least 21 people.
Seven
killers were given a stay in May 2003. They
have murdered at least 15 people.
| Date of scheduled execution |
State |
Victim name |
Inmate name |
Status |
| May
2, 2003 |
Indiana |
Gene Rurbrake
Ted Bosler
Antoni Bartkowiak |
Kevin
Hough |
executed |
| A Fort Wayne man is scheduled to be
put to death later this year for killing three people nearly 20 years ago. The
Indiana Supreme Court has set May 2 as the date Kevin Hough, 43, will die by
lethal injection. Officials say Hough exhausted all of his appeals in Indiana's
courts, but has two federal appeals remaining. Hough was convicted in 1985 for
killing Gene Rurbrake and Ted Bosler in the basement of their Fort Wayne home.
He was also convicted of killing a Polish immigrant. On
November 6, 1985, Hough and his younger brother, Duane
Lapp, set out for the home of Ted Bosler and
Gene Rubrake. Once there, Hough approached Gene and
helped him unload groceries from his car; Lapp
accompanied Hough. Hough then followed Gene into the
basement where Ted joined them. Once in the
basement, Hough pulled a .45 caliber pistol from his
shoulder holster and told Ted and Gene to lie down
on the floor. Gene swung at Hough with the
television remote control. Hough responded by shooting
Gene in the chest. Ted, however, dropped to
the floor; Hough then shot Ted while he was lying on the floor. When
Gene appeared to move, Hough shot him in the
face. Hough and Lapp then started up the stairs, but
Hough returned to the basement to retrieve a
beer can and a remote control that, he
believed, might contain his fingerprints. While in the
basement, Hough also removed several rings from the
bodies of his victims. As Hough left the
basement, he stepped on Gene's face. After the
murders, Hough took Lapp back to his (Hough's) home.
There, Hough packed and left for
Indianapolis with his fiancee, Noreen Akers.
Less than a month before the Bosler/Rubrake
murders, Hough had committed another murder. On
October 27, 1985, Hough had told his friend, Juan
Fernandez, that "[t]onight's the night to hit
Greg's house." Then Hough, Fernandez, and another man,
Donald Maley, went to the home of a
man named Greg for the purpose
of evaluating the prospects of robbing
the house. Hough directed Fernandez to park
approximately three to four blocks away on another
street; Hough and Maley left the car and went to the
house. When Antoni Bartkowiak answered
the door, Hough stuck a .45 caliber handgun
into his stomach and backed him into the residence.
Hough made Antoni lie down on the floor, and
Hough and Maley handcuffed Bartkowiak's hands behind
his back. Hough discovered a
semi-automatic weapon and shells in the house, which
he handed to Maley. Hough
then told Maley to hold it against Antoni and use it
if necessary. Hough then searched the
house. After ransacking the house, Hough
questioned Antoni regarding cocaine that he
believed to be in the residence. When Antoni denied
knowledge of the cocaine, Hough used a device to
inflict electric shocks on Antoni.
Hough and Maley then took Antoni to the basement. En route downstairs,
Hough instructed Maley to return to the
main floor to get a cushion from the couch.
Once in the basement, Hough forced
Antoni to lean over a rollaway bed. Hough then
took the cushion, placed it over the back of Antoni's
head and shot Antoni. After the murder, Hough
and Maley returned to the car and left for home.
Hough took two bags of stolen items
to the basement of the house and emptied the
contents. Hough then gave Maley $80
and stated that it came from Antoni's wallet.
He also told Maley that he could have the shotgun, but
Maley declined. After complaining to Hough
that he had not gotten his share, Maley left.
After that, Hough told Fernandez that he had found an
additional $400, but that he did not wish to divide
it with Maley because Maley had not done
his part. A few days later, Hough gave
Fernandez the .25 caliber semi-automatic weapon and told
him to dispose of it; Fernandez did so.
Hough was tried and convicted for the
murder of Antoni Bartkowiak in November
1986. |
| Date of scheduled execution |
State |
Victim name |
Inmate name |
Status |
| May
6, 2003
|
Texas |
Dora Leveille
Watkins, 66 |
Roger
Vaughn |
executed |
| Roger
Vaughn was sentenced to death in the 1991 strangling of Dora Watkins of Vernon
during a robbery. At the time of the attack, Vaughn was an escapee from the
Lubbock County Jail. He had been charged with forgery and robbery.
Dora was at home when Vaughn broke into her residence.
Dora was raped and then strangled with a piece of cloth. Jewelry and bank
checks were stolen and Vaughn's fingerprints were later found on Dora's wallet.
At the time of the murder, Vaughn was an escapee from the Lubbock County jail.
He had escaped after being charged with forgery and robbery in a separate
incident. On the same day of Dora's murder, Vaughn had also burglarized
the home of his own aunt, who lived just a few blocks away from Dora.
Vaughn had previously been convicted of burglary of a habitation for which he
served 2
1/2 years of a 10 year
sentence before being paroled. |
| Date of scheduled execution |
State |
Victim name |
Inmate name |
Status |
| May
6, 2003
|
Georgia |
Jerry Alday
Ned Alday
Jimmy Alday
Mary Alday
Chester Alday
Aubrey Alday |
Carl
Isaacs |
executed |
| Convicted murderer
Carl Isaacs has been scheduled to die by lethal injection, after the U.S.
Supreme Court upheld his death sentence, the Georgia attorney general said. The
state Department of Corrections set Isaacs' execution for May 6 at 7 p.m. at the
Georgia Diagnostic & Classification Prison in Jackson. The Supreme Court denied
his appeal Monday, ending his last chance to escape the death penalty. Isaacs,
convicted as the ringleader of the 1973 Alday family murders in Seminole County,
has been on death row for 30 years. Isaacs, 49, and two other men, George Dungee
and Wayne Coleman, were convicted and sentenced to die in 1974. But a federal
appeals court granted them a new trial on grounds that pretrial publicity and
community outrage prevented them from getting a fair trial. Isaacs was convicted
again and sentenced to die after a 1988 trial in Houston County Superior Court,
but Dungee and Coleman had their sentences reduced to life in prison. Isaacs
appealed again in 2001 to the 11th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals, claiming his
rights were violated 32 times during the retrial. But that court upheld his
death sentence last year. In May of 1973, Carl Isaacs escaped from a Maryland
penal institution and, accompanied by his younger brother Billy Isaacs, his
half-brother Wayne Coleman and a friend, George Dungee, drove to Florida. On the
afternoon of May 14, 1973, they were in Seminole County, Georgia, and their car
was almost out of gas. They thought they saw a gas pump behind the rural mobile
home belonging to Jerry Alday and Mary Alday and stopped to investigate it. They
discovered there was no pump; however, the trailer was empty, and they decided
to burglarize it. Dungee remained in the car while Carl Isaacs and Wayne Coleman
entered the trailer. While they were inside, Billy Isaacs warned them two men
were approaching in a jeep. Jerry Alday and his father Ned Alday pulled in
behind the trailer, unaware that it was being burglarized. Carl Isaacs met them
and ordered them inside at gunpoint. After their pockets were emptied, Jerry
Alday was taken into the south bedroom of the trailer while Ned was taken to the
north bedroom. Carl Isaacs shot and killed Jerry Alday, and then both he and
Coleman shot and killed Ned Alday. Soon afterward, Jerry's brother Jimmy Alday
drove up on a tractor, walked to the back door, and knocked on the door. Coleman
answered the door, “stuck a pistol up in the guy’s face,” and ordered him
inside. He was taken into the living room and forced to lie on the sofa. Carl
Isaacs shot and killed him. After Carl Isaacs went outside to move the tractor,
which was parked in front of their car, Jerry's wife Mary Alday drove up. Carl
Isaacs entered the trailer behind her and accosted her. Meanwhile, Chester and
Aubrey Alday (Jerry’s brother and uncle) drove up in a pickup truck. Leaving
Coleman and Dungee to watch Mary Alday, Carl and Billy Isaacs went outside to
confront the two men, and forced them at gunpoint into the trailer. Once inside,
Aubrey was taken to the south bedroom where Carl Isaacs shot and killed him,
while Chester Alday was taken to the north bedroom and killed by Coleman.
Coleman and Carl Isaacs raped Mary Alday on her kitchen table. Afterward, they
drove to a heavily wooded area several miles away where Mary Alday was raped
again. Dungee killed her. They abandoned their car in the woods and took Mary
Alday’s car, which they later abandoned in Alabama. They stole another car
there, and were arrested a few days later in West Virginia, in possession of
guns later identified as the murder weapons, and property belonging to the
victims. After his original trial, Carl Isaacs was interviewed by a film maker
who was producing a documentary about the case. The defendant admitted shooting
Jerry, Ned, Aubrey and Jimmy Alday, raping Mary Alday, and burglarizing the
trailer. These admissions were introduced in evidence at the retrial.
Prosecutors called the slayings the most gruesome murders in the state's
history. A community left hanging for almost three decades by the legal tap
dance of a convicted killer trying to evade execution will soon close a tragic
chapter of its history. Carl Isaacs, 49, has been on death row since 1974. The
U.S. Supreme Court denied his final appeal and Isaacs, convicted as the
ringleader of the massacre of the Alday family, is now scheduled to die by
lethal injection on May 6. The Gateway Restaurant on U.S. Highway 84 serves as a
gathering place for Donalsonville residents to swap the latest news. A table
known as the "gossip table" lies in the restaurant's front left corner. Local
residents sitting there Wednesday said it was high time justice was served. "I
knew every one of the Aldays and they were good people who tended their own
business," Don Crawford said. "For the judicial system to carry it out as far as
they did -- something's wrong." Roy Ray said, "Carl Isaacs got stabbed a couple
of years ago in jail. They should have let him die then." "This is coming about
29 years too late," Bob Ray said. Isaacs, his stepbrother Wayne Coleman, and
George Dungee were convicted in 1974 for the murder of the Aldays and sentenced
to die. The three received retrials in another Georgia county in 1988. Isaacs
was again sentenced to die, but Coleman and Dungee had their sentences reduced
to life. Isaacs appealed his sentence in 2001, claiming his rights were violated
32 times during the retrial. Isaacs' almost 30-year evasion of his date with
death has long stuck in the craw of residents of this small farming community.
"It ain't nothing but a damn lawyer's scheme," Ray said from his chair at the
Gateway. Other Donalsonville residents also expressed their frustration with the
lengthy appeals process Isaacs has gone through but said they were relieved
justice would soon finally be served. "It's been long in coming, it's going to
finally bring to close a wound that's needed closing for a long, long time,"
said Ashley Register, who sat on a jury that convicted Dungee in 1974. Register
said the 1988 retrial angered local residents, who he said gave Isaacs and his
gang a fair trial. "There's always been a feeling that the murderers should
finally get what's coming to them," Mayor David Fain said. "That's probably not
very Christian-like but it's time to put this behind us." The Isaacs gang gunned
down Ned Alday along with three sons and a brother inside a family mobile home.
A daughter-in-law was raped and killed by the gang. Just about everyone in
Donalsonville has some connection to the Aldays, and thus to the crime. "There's
3,300 people in this town and 9,000 in the county," Kathy Fox, a distant Alday
relative, said. "When you go downtown you pretty much know everybody." Fox, who
works as a secretary at Commerce State Bank, said she was just 18 when the
killings happened. She said the tragedy changed the small farming community
forever, as people who never worried about locking their doors learned the
meaning of fear. "I was in college in Dothan back then, driving back and forth
every day, and my mother didn't want me to go to school," she said. "We didn't
know where they (the Isaacs gang) were at. People didn't want to let their
children out of the house. J.C. Earnest, a brother-in-law of Ned Alday's said,
"We just didn't think things like that could happen in Seminole County. Things
like that happened in other states." Fain said he hopes the execution of Isaacs
next month will put some of the fear that has lingered since the killings to
rest. He said he's tired of his community being known as the site of some of the
most gruesome murders in state history. "It's created a lot of anguish among
people," he said. "People are ready to see an end to it." Fox said it was a
shame many of the people closest to the Aldays are not alive to see their loved
ones' killer finally brought to justice. Many family members and friends of the
slain family have died in the almost 30 years Isaacs has been on death row. "You
would like to know that they were going to finally be at peace in their hearts
and minds," she said. Over the years surviving, members of the Alday family have
expressed bitterness over the length of time it has taken to get Isaacs into the
Georgia death house. In a letter to the editor of a local newspaper in 1998,
Faye Alday Barber, the daughter of Ned Alday, said there was something wrong
with a legal system. She wrote that her family had become the victims of "legal
plunder" and a justice system that acted like a "predator. For 25 years my
family has pursued justice," Barber wrote. "The only thing that stood between
the Alday family and justice was the law, and it was the law, not Carl Isaacs
that became our ultimate predator. Our courts and legislators are nothing but
vandals at the gates of justice. It took them a quarter of a century, but they
beat us; they won. Like Pontius Pilate, they simply washed their hands of
innocent blood. We lost our family, our farms, and our heritage. We lost hope...
but liberty was not lost; it was stolen." She said the family dog, Tub, saw the
bodies removed from the crime scene and never got over it. "He went out into the
field and laid down, refused to eat or sleep, wouldn't let anyone touch him, and
over a period of time his hair fell out, exposing rib bones that protruded
through his skin," Barber wrote. "He was a pitiful sight. He became so thin that
when it rained, he could have crawled under a honeysuckle vine to keep from
getting wet. A veterinarian said (Tub) grieved himself to death. That dog had
more compassion for my family than our courts." The slain members of the Alday
family are buried in Spring Creek Baptist Church Cemetery in Seminole County.
They are remembered with gray marble headstones. Seminole County Sherriff Jerry
Godby, who knew the Aldays before he became sheriff, said they were a
hardworking family that had raised peanuts,l cotton, corn, wheat and soybeans
and also had raised hogs. Godby said he has asked to witness the execution of
Isaacs. If executed, Isaacs will die eight days from the 30th anniversary of the
slayings. Asked what he thought of the nearly 30-year wait to get Isaacs into
the death house, Godby said: "It's about time." Last year, the Georgia
legislature unanimously passed a bill requiring state officials to contact the
families of victims of criminals on death row twice a year. The proposal was
inspired by the family of Ken Alday, who was killed in Seminole County in 1973.
His killer, Carl Isaacs, is on death row, but Alday's family has complained they
aren't informed of developments in Isaacs' case. |
|
Date of scheduled execution |
State |
Victim name |
Inmate name |
Status |
| May
14, 2003
|
Ohio |
John Henry
Turner,
78 |
Jerome Campbell |
stayed |
| Jerome Campbell
was convicted of murdering his
former neighbor, 78-year-old Henry Turner, in his Cincinnati apartment
two days before Christmas in 1988. A neighbor found
Turner's body, with a knife stuck through the wrist, sprawled on the stairs in
the building. Turner had bled to death. Turner's normally neat apartment was in
disarray. Dresser drawers lay on the floor. Items lay jumbled on the bedroom and
living room floors. The mattress was pulled from Turner's bed frame, and his
television lay face-down on the floor, the court records said. A normally locked
liquor cabinet was open. A Hamilton County coroner's report said Turner suffered
two stab wounds to the chest and the wound through the right wrist. Turner also
had a half-inch-deep cut on the chin and a defense wound on his left thumb.
Police found a set of knives in an open drawer in Turner's kitchen; the murder
weapon was apparently taken from that drawer, the court records said. One of
Campbell's fingerprints was found on the light bulb outside the apartment and
his palm print was found on the outside of the kitchen door at the back of the
apartment. There was blood found on a pair of Campbell's shoes, but DNA
testing showed that it was Campbell's own blood. Campbell admitted the
burglary-murder to his girlfriend and two fellow inmates. Police
arrested Campbell at his sister's apartment seven days after the
murder. After police took him away, his sister allowed them to search
her apartment. Court records show that Campbell now
disputes whether she did so voluntarily.
In a closet, officers found a pair of gym shoes marked with brownish
stains. A forensic serologist later testified the shoes were stained
with human blood. On appeal, Campbell asked to
get the expert testimony about the blood thrown out.
The courts, including the Supreme Court, refused. Now,
Campbell wants the state to reconsider his sentence based in part on the
fact that DNA evidence from a test last year
shows blood on the shoes to be his own.
His attorney, Pamela Prude-Smithers of the Ohio Public Defenders Office,
said Campbell is not only bringing up the DNA but also raising a
question about whether two jailhouse snitches,
Ronys Clardy and Angelo Roseman, received a deal from
the state to testify against Campbell,
making their testimony suspect. Campbell is noting that they were
released from jail shortly after their
testimony. The Supreme Court dealt with the issue of
the Clardy and Roseman testimony, saying, "The state's
evidence, if believed, would allow a rational trier of
fact to find guilt. Campbell's fellow jail inmates,
Clardy and Roseman, testified that Campbell admitted killing Turner.
Campbell attacks their credibility, but we may not 'substitute our
evaluation of witness credibility for the jury's.'"
Because evidence was destroyed shortly after Campbell's trial, he has
been unable to seek a re-trial, Prude-Smithers said.
"He cannot do anything to prove himself innocent," she said.
Patrick Dinkelacker was the prosecutor who won the guilty verdict and
death sentence against Campbell and is now a
Hamilton County Common Pleas Court judge.
He says Campbell's case should be intensely scrutinized -- but not
because of Campbell's protestations of innocence.
"The injustice in this case was the sentence was set for May 18, 1989,
and it has yet to be carried out," Dinkelacker said.
Campbell's claims of innocence come, Dinkelacker noted, despite the case
going through five state and federal courts in
14 years without a change in the verdict or sentence.
Dinkelacker believed the most compelling
evidence against Campbell was his confession to his
girlfriend and to the jailhouse snitches. Dinkelacker
was stunned when Campbell's girlfriend, Estella "Niecy"
Roe, handed the assistant prosecutor Campbell's letter
in which Campbell asked her
to lie to give Campbell an alibi. The letter described details
of the alibi she was to give Campbell.
She also told authorities that Campbell, in one of her visits to
Campbell behind bars, told her "he did it," a
comment Campbell later recanted, and that he also
asked her to lie for him. Equally important,
Dinkelacker said, was Campbell admitting he
burglarized Henry Turner's apartment but saying he didn't kill him.
The investigation also showed that a rum bottle found in Campbell's
sister's apartment after the killing was sold
in the same shipment of rum as bottles found in the
dead man's apartment. |
| Date of scheduled execution |
State |
Victim name |
Inmate name |
Status |
|
May
14, 2003
|
Missouri |
Brandie Kearnes
Wayne Hoewing |
John
Smith |
stayed |
|
John Clayton Smith and
Brandie Kearnes started dating in 1995. At that time,
Brandie lived with her mother and her step-father, Wayne Hoewing, near Canton,
Missouri. Around June 1, 1997, Brandie broke off the relationship with Smith.
Brandie continued to live at the Hoewing residence with her daughter, mother and
step-father. At 11:05 on the evening of July 4, 1997,
Smith drove to the Hoewing residence and parked his truck some distance from the
house. Smith entered the house through the basement door, took off his shoes,
and went upstairs. Once inside, he went to Brandie's
bedroom, and attacked her with a knife. Brandie got
away from Smith and ran toward the living room area. As she ran, Smith grabbed
the back of her shirt and tried to stab her in the back. In the living room and
kitchen area, Smith scuffled with Brandie, stabbing and cutting her eight times.
Brandie did not die immediately, and as she lay dying, she wrote, "It was Joh_."
on the kitchen floor in her own blood. At some point, Brandie also tried to call
her father, and she left a message that said, "Dad, come to the house and get
Tatum". Smith then went toward Wayne Hoewing's bedroom
and attacked Wayne, who had been awakened by the
sounds of the struggle. Smith pushed Wayne onto the
bed, got on top of him, and started stabbing him. Smith stabbed and cut
Wayne eleven times, but Wayne
did not die immediately. Brandie's mom, who had also
gotten out of bed when she heard the sounds of the struggle, tried to push Smith
off of Wayne, but Smith cut her on the forearm, and
she ran into the bathroom. Smith followed
her to the bathroom door and while he was at the
bathroom door, Wayne was able to pick up a gun that he
kept in the house. As he tried to get into the bathroom, Smith saw
Wayne with the gun, and he said, "Shoot me. Go ahead
and shoot me". Wayne did not fire the gun, however,
and eventually, Smith left the bedroom, went back downstairs, put on his shoes,
and left the house through the basement door. After Smith left the Hoewing
residence, Brandie's mother was able to leave the
bathroom and call for help. When medical first responders reached the scene,
Brandie was already dead. She
had been partially stripped of her clothing during the attack, and she was lying
face up on the kitchen floor. Brandie had been stabbed
or cut eight times in the neck, chest, abdomen, arm, and thigh. Two stab wounds
in her right breast punctured her lung. The first responders treated
Wayne briefly, but while still at the scene, he was
pronounced dead. He had been cut and stabbed eleven times in the chest, arms,
leg, hand, and hip; he died from loss of blood. |
| Date of scheduled execution |
State |
Victim name |
Inmate name |
Status |
|
May
15, 2003
|
Texas |
Conrad Harris, 16 |
Bruce
Jacobs |
executed |
| Bruce Jacobs was
convicted of stabbing to death 16-year-old Conrad Harris in July of 1986.
Jacobs broke into the teenager's home in Dallas during the early morning hours
and stabbed Conrad repeatedly. Conrad's parents heard his screams and ran
into his room where they found Jacobs standing over the boy with a knife in his
hand. Jacobs pointed the knife at the couple, then fled the house.
Jacobs fingerprints were found on a butter knife in the home and police found a
pair of blood-stained blue jeans at his residence following his arrest.
The family reported that $100 was missing from the home. Mrs. Harris told
police that Jacobs has tried to break into the home on the day before the
murder. He ran off after she managed to close the door and lock it.
Jacobs had previously served time for an assault conviction in the state of
Oregon. UPDATE: Convicted killer Bruce Charles Jacobs was executed tonight for
using a butcher knife to fatally hack a Dallas boy on the victim's 16th birthday
almost 17 years ago. At 6:17 p.m., 6 minutes after the lethal drugs began
flowing, he was pronounced dead. Jacobs, 56, was condemned for the slaying of
Conrad Harris at the teenager's home near Southern Methodist University July 22,
1986. A medical examiner testified Harris had been stabbed at least 24 times in
an "overkill" and lost half of his blood supply in the attack. Part of the knife
blade was broken in the frenzy and was imbedded in the boy's body. "This is one
of those cases, if there was ever a death penalty case, in my mind this is one,"
Day Haygood, one of the prosecutors at Jacobs' trial, recalled this week. "The
most horrific part was his father heard the boy screaming and found Jacobs
cutting him." With Hugh Harris providing the eyewitness identification of Jacobs
as his son's killer, a Dallas County jury convicted Jacobs of capital murder and
decided he should be put to death. "He's a brutal murderer without a
conscience," Harris told The Dallas Morning News in a story published Thursday.
"I'll be satisfied to see the circle closed." Jacobs, who worked mostly as a
dishwasher and had a criminal history of violence with knives and razor blades,
acknowledged he was in the Harris house at 6:30 that morning but said another
intruder in the house at the same time was to blame for the killing. "I'm going
to get executed for something I didn't do," he said recently from death row.
"Somebody jumped me from behind... I left and went home. I didn't know there was
a murder until 3 days later." The victim's stepmother, Holly Kuper, told
authorities a man matching Jacobs' description tried to push his way into her
house the morning before the murder but she managed to get the door locked and
called police. "Our theory was Bruce came back the next night and meant to
assault her but the father was home and he just turned his attention to killing
the boy," Haygood said. Harris and his wife gave police information for a
sketch of the suspect and a taxi driver told authorities the drawing looked like
a customer he had the morning of the killing. Jacobs was remembered for his
beard and a Panama hat that he wore. Jacobs, still wearing the hat but recently
shaven, was arrested inside a convenience store. At his Dallas apartment, police
found a $100 bill identified as missing from Kuper's purse. Jacobs' fingerprints
were found on other knives at the Harris home. No late appeals to the courts
were filed. Jacobs' lawyer said his client was mentally ill but couldn't prove
he was mentally retarded, which would make him ineligible for execution under a
U.S. Supreme Court ruling last year. "He has this fantasy that somehow he had
this relationship with the victim's mother, which is simply not true," James
Volberding said. "We have never been able to get at the bottom of how his mind
works or fails to work. Although I'm convinced he's mentally ill, there's
nothing I can do to prove that that's sufficient to stop his execution." When he
was 14, an intelligence test put Jacobs' IQ at 77 while subsequent testing over
the years put his IQ somewhat higher. Someone with an IQ less than 70 generally
is considered retarded. "People tell me I'm slow," Jacobs, a 10th-grade dropout,
said from death row. At his trial, jurors heard from witnesses who told of
Jacobs at age 16 stabbing a 12-year-old girl with a steak knife during an
assault. While in a juvenile lockup, he beat another person with an ax handle.
In 1967, he was taken into custody after holding a razor blade to a girl's neck
during a robbery. In the early 1970s, he served time in Oregon for assault and
was caught with a razor-tipped broom in his cell. |
| Date of scheduled execution |
State |
Victim name |
Inmate name |
Status |
| May
15, 2003
|
Florida |
Gerald Wood
Peggy Wood
Jennifer Wood, 4
Glendon Wood, 3
unborn son |
Newton Slawson |
executed |
| Gov. Jeb Bush set
an execution date of May 15 for a death row inmate convicted of killing an
entire family and cutting an unborn child from its dying mother's body. The
death warrant for Newton Carlton Slawson becomes effective at noon on May 12 and
is effective for 1 week. Warden Joseph Thompson of Florida State Prison set the
actual execution, by lethal injection, for 6 p.m. on May 15. Slawson was
convicted in 1990 of 4 counts of 1st-degree murder in the 1989 deaths of Gerald
and Peggy Wood; their 4-year-old daughter, Jennifer; 3-year-old son, Glendon. He
also was convicted of manslaughter in the death of an unborn male child carried
by Mrs. Wood, who was 8 1/2 months pregnant. Slawson knew the Woods as casual
acquaintances. On April 11, 1989, Peggy Wood, her husband Gerald, and their two
children, Jennifer (age four) and Glendon (age three) were murdered in their
home. Also lost was the fetus Peggy Wood was carrying, which was eight and
one-half months old. Peggy Wood lived with her family in a garage apartment that
was adjacent to her parents’ home in Hillsborough County. At approximately 10
p.m. on April 11, Peggy Wood was found lying on the back porch of her parents’
home, having been shot once in the abdomen and once in the back, while also
having been cut with a knife from the base of the sternum to the pelvic area.
She also had several cuts on her right thigh. She managed to crawl next door to
her mother's home and told her mother "Newt did it" before dying. Peggy told her mother that Slawson had “killed Gerry and the kids.” Gerald Wood and
the two children died as a result of gunshot wounds. Gerald had also been
stabbed in the back. The Woods’ unborn baby was found lying near Gerald’s body,
having sustained two gunshot wounds and multiple lacerations that resulted from
Slawson’s attack on Peggy. Slawson claimed that he cut the unborn fetus
out of Peggy’s body, in an attempt to save it, after determining that both
Gerald and Peggy were dead, even though the child was found in the house and
Peggy crawled away. The facts from the direct appeal also described the
events preceding the murders: After his arrest [on the night of the killings], Slawson told detectives that he went to the Woods' residence on the day of the
murders. He took a six inch knife and a .357 revolver. At Gerald's request,
Slawson put the gun in the bathroom so the children would not get it. He gave
the knife to Gerald Wood to use to cut rock cocaine. Gerald Wood offered to sell
Slawson some of the cocaine but Slawson refused the offer. When Peggy said
Slawson might be the police, Slawson went to the bathroom to get his gun so he
could leave. When Slawson returned, Gerald Wood got up with the knife in his
hand. According to his statement, Slawson shot Gerald and may have shot Peggy at
that time. As Slawson proceeded to the children's bedroom and shot them, Peggy
Wood was screaming. After shooting the children he returned to the living room
and shot Peggy again. Slawson then inserted his knife into Peggy Wood's abdomen
and cut upward, causing the fetus to be expelled. Slawson also testified at trial that he believed Gerald had placed drugs in his
beer, which caused him to feel odd and to believe he was locked in the
apartment. Slawson was found guilty of four counts of first-degree murder and
one count of killing an unborn child by injury to the mother. He received death
sentences for each of the first-degree murders, along with a thirty-year
sentence for manslaughter of the unborn child. |
| Date of scheduled execution |
State |
Victim name |
Inmate name |
Status |
| May
21, 2003
|
Texas |
Helen Elizabeth
Ayers |
Eric Moore |
stayed |
| A
federal court has granted a stay of execution to a Collin County man who was
scheduled to die next week for killing a Prosper woman more than a decade ago.
On Wednesday, the Texas attorney general appealed the ruling by the U.S.
District Court for the Eastern Division in Tyler, arguing that Eric Lynn Moore
was intelligent enough to lead 3 others in the December 1990 robbery and murder
of the 54-year-old woman. Mr. Moore and three friends killed Helen Elizabeth
Ayers and shot her husband, Richard, paralyzing him from the waist down. Moore
declined to be interviewed this week. After his wife's death, Richard Ayers
formed a support group for victims of violent crimes. He could not be located
Thursday. Last year, the U.S. Supreme Court ruled that states could not execute
the mentally retarded. Since then, states that allow executions of mentally
retarded criminals have been scrambling because the ruling provided few
guidelines. "My position is, if the man is retarded, we need to find that out
and have his day in court," said Moore's attorney, T. Scott Smith of Sherman,
whose motion led to the court's ruling. The state argues that Moore's "IQ scores
of 76 and 74, low average
intelligence, and at-times mediocre academic performance" do not qualify him as
mentally retarded, according to documents filed this week. On the night of the
shootings, two of the men went to the Ayerses' front door and said they were
having car trouble. Richard Ayers searched for jumper cables and couldn't find
them. He then turned on the heater, and when he turned around, four men were in
the house and one was pointing a gun at him, police said. During an interview
with Collin County sheriff's investigators after his arrest, Moore "coherently
admitted to shooting Richard Ayers because he knew he 'was going to be an
accessory' and to avoid identification. However, Moore repeatedly shifted the
blame for Helen Ayers's death on to his accomplice ...," says the state's motion
to dismiss the stay. "Moore noted, however, that the victims were compliant with
the
perpetrators demands. ... Mr. Ayers later testified that Moore was the leader of
the four men. In keeping with his ringleader status, Moore disposed of the guns
and stolen property several telephones, jewelry boxes and Mr. Ayers' wallet."
Moore had talked his friends out of breaking into a business because it had an
alarm just before robbing the Ayerses, according to a transcript of his
interview with Collin County sheriff's investigators. Moore played spades and
dominos after the slaying, court records show. Court records show that Moore had
a 74 IQ at age 7 and was achieving at the third-grade level in the 5th grade.
Testing later showed his IQ to be 76. Borderline mental retardation is defined
as an IQ of 71 to 84. Mild retardation is defined as an IQ of 50 to 70. A
psychologist who examined Moore said the defendant might have suffered brain
damage from being hit on the head with a baseball bat at age 20 and in a car
accident about 10 years earlier. Last year's Supreme Court decision did not set
up guidelines for deciding who is mentally retarded or for what happens if an
inmate on death row is found to be mentally retarded, said David Dow, a law
professor at the University of Houston. "74 is pretty much at the margins," Mr.
Dow said. "Nobody knows what the options are. All it says is that the states
can't execute anyone who is retarded. It doesn't say what the guidelines are ...
it just doesn't address it." Bills are pending in the Legislature regarding
execution of the mentally retarded. In 2001, Gov. Rick Perry vetoed a bill to
ban execution of the mentally retarded, saying the state had safeguards. State
law considers whether a defendant can aid in his defense and whether that person
was unable to discern right and wrong at the time of the crime. |
| Date of scheduled execution |
State |
Victim name |
Inmate name |
Status |
| May
27, 2003
|
Pennsylvania |
Damon Banks
Gregory Banks |
Roderick Johnson |
stayed |
|
Roderick Johnson, 27, was convicted and sentenced to die in November 1997
for the drug-related revenge shooting of 2 cousins, Damon and Gregory Banks, in
Berks County. The execution was stayed 3 times as Johnson pursued an appeal; the
latest stay was lifted Feb. 21, when the state Supreme Court refused to
reconsider the appeal. *There are still
appeals pending in this case and the execution is not expected to take place on
this date. |
| Date of scheduled execution |
State |
Victim name |
Inmate name |
Status |
| May
27, 2003 |
Oklahoma |
Richard Denney, 62
Virginia Denney, 64
Frankie T.
Merrifield
Roy E. Donahue
unnamed victim |
Robert Knighton |
executed |
| The Oklahoma Court of
Criminal Appeals today set May 27 as the execution
date for Noble County death row inmate Robert Wesley
Knighton. Attorney General Drew Edmondson requested the date March 24 after the
United States Supreme Court denied Knighton's final appeal.
Knighton, 62, was convicted and sentenced to
death for the Jan. 8, 1990, murders of Richard and Virginia Denney during a
three-day crime spree in which Knighton also killed
two people in Missouri. Before Knighton was sentenced to
death for the Denney killings, he served 17 years in a Missouri prison for
manslaughter, kidnapping and robbery. He was later transferred to a halfway
house in Kansas City, Mo., where he hooked up with Lawrence Brittain, a teenager
on probation for auto theft. They escaped, picked up Knighton's girlfriend, Ruth
Renee Williams, and embarked on a murderous crime spree. In Clinton, Mo.,
Knighton shot Frankie T. Merrifield and his stepson, Roy E. Donahue, after the
group had been drinking together. Knighton, Brittain and Williams drove on in a
stolen van until they ran out of gas in front of the Denneys' house in Noble
County, Okla. Norton said her father walked out to the gate to meet them and
offered to give them directions. Knighton then went into the house and robbed
Denney of $61 and a pocketknife before shooting the 62-year-old man and his
64-year-old wife. UPDATE: A family tree splintered by the
death penalty was put on display Tuesday at the execution of a double-murderer
from Missouri. "Me, I'm happy," said Maggie Lange of Enid, the oldest daughter
of Virginia Denney, one of killer Robert Wesley Knighton's victims. "He took my
mother's life while she was drinking a cup of coffee. Is that a way to die? I
don't think so." Asked if justice was served by Knighton's execution, Lange
didn't
hesitate. "You betcha. You betcha," she said. "He got 13 more years than they
did." Knighton was put to death for the Jan. 8, 1990, slayings of Virginia
Denney, 64, and her husband, Richard Denney, 62, at their Noble County
farmhouse. Lethal drugs were injected in to Knighton at 6:25 p.m., and he was
pronounced dead 7 minutes later. The adopted daughter of Richard Denney, Sue
Norton, witnessed the execution in a separate viewing room from other relatives
of the victims. "He just went to heaven," Norton said shortly after Knighton
seemed to take his last breath. "And we all just became murderers." Knighton,
62, turned toward Norton before receiving the lethal injection, thanked his
attorneys and told Norton he was "really sorry for everything I've done. I'll
see you again someday. God bless you." Norton gave him the thumbs-up sign. As
the toxic drugs flowed into his bloodstream, Knighton's chest rattled dozens of
times before his face turned red and his body went limp. Norton forgave Knighton
for the killings 12 years ago, and the pair became friends, to the chagrin of
Norton's kin, including Maudie Nichols, Richard Denney's biological daughter.
"It's been rough not having my dad," Nichols said. "It's been rough trying to
learn to deal with all her forgiveness. I no longer have to wake up to the
nightmares I've had. I'm hoping it gets easier with each day. I'll see if I
sleep tonight."
At her motel Monday night, Nichols mistakenly received a call from Knighton that
was intended for Norton. Nichols, who briefly spoke to the inmate, said she
forgave him years ago but still doesn't feel like he is truly sorry for his
actions. "I wasn't willing to take the chance of letting him stay in the
population so he could do it again," Nichols said. "I would feel somewhat
responsible if I had let him off the death row." An inmate who spent roughly 30
years in prison before the slayings, Knighton had been convicted of
manslaughter, robbery and kidnapping in Missouri. He walked away from a Kansas
City, Mo., halfway house and met up with Lawrence Brittain, a teenager who was
on probation for auto theft. The pair, along with co-defendant Ruth Renee
Williams, stole a van in Kansas City and drove to Clinton, Mo., where they shot
Frankie T. Merrifield and his stepson. The 3 made their way to the Denney
residence, where Richard Denney greeted them as they pulled into his driveway
and asked for directions. After they forced Richard Denney into the house at
gunpoint, Knighton shot him once in the chest as he pleaded for his life.
Knighton also shot Virginia Denney in the chest. The Denneys were robbed of $61
and a battered pickup. After being spotted driving the Denneys' truck, Knighton,
Williams and Brittain were arrested in Canadian, Texas, later that day. Brittain
was convicted of 2 counts of murder and received 2 life sentences. Williams was
charged with 2 counts of accessory to murder after the fact and received two
15-year terms. |
| Date of scheduled execution |
State |
Victim name |
Inmate name |
Status |
|
May
28, 2003 |
Virginia |
Jessie Kendrick, 81
Elizabeth Kendrick,
82
Archie Moore, 33 |
Percy Walton |
stayed |
|
A Danville Circuit Court
judge has set a May 28 execution date for a Danville man who killed 3 neighbors
in 1996. Percy Levar Walton, 24, pleaded guilty in
1997 to robbery and capital murder in the fatal shootings of Jessie Kendrick,
81, his wife, Elizabeth, 82, and another neighbor, Archie Moore, 33. The 3, who
lived within a mile of each other and of Walton, were killed in November 1996.
Walton has exhausted his appeals, and only the U.S. Supreme Court or
Virginia Gov. Mark R. Warner (D) can intervene. |
| Date of scheduled execution |
State |
Victim name |
Inmate name |
Status |
|
May
29, 2003
|
Alabama |
Larry Thomas, Jr.
David Robinson
Rebecca Ledbetter Holladay |
Glenn
Holladay |
stayed |
|
In August 1986, Rebecca Ledbetter
Holladay was living in a mobile home in Gadsden, Alabama. On the night of the
24th, her son Shea Ledbetter, her sister Katrina Ledbetter, her boyfriend David
Robinson, and her son's friend Larry Thomas, Jr., were all at the mobile home.
Thomas left to get something to eat at his own home. As he walked outside, he
was shot and his body was later discovered outside of the trailer. Immediately
after Thomas was shot, Glenn Holladay burst into the trailer, shoving aside
Katrina Ledbetter as she yelled a warning to her sister, who was back in the
bedroom. Holladay proceeded down the hallway, stopping at Shea's bedroom and
attempting to turn on the light. After Holladay left Shea's bedroom, Shea and
Katrina left the trailer and ran to Thomas's parents' home. Holladay found his
ex-wife and her boyfriend in the back bedroom; he shot Robinson in the arm and
chest and shot Rebecca in the back of the head. All three shooting victims died
of their injuries. Glenn Holladay had told an
acquaintance in Nashville that his ex-wife had a new boyfriend and that if she
did not stop seeing him, he would kill her. After the shootings, Holladay called
a neighbor of his father and told her that he had done a bad thing. He told her
that he had not intended to kill Larry Thomas; he thought that Thomas was his
ex-wife's boyfriend. After being shot by the police on October 9, 1986, Holladay
was apprehended in Gainesville, Florida. At trial
Holladay testified that he was in Nashville at the time of the killings and
denied killing any of the victims. He was convicted of capital murder and
sentenced to death on July 27, 1987. During his
criminal career, he escaped from prison at least two times, including once while
awaiting trial for the three murders. Glenn Holladay's former
mother-in-law, Barbara Ledbetter, said her daughter was terrorized during her
marriage. In one incident, Holladay took her to a cemetery and tied her to a
tree, leaving her there overnight. UPDATE: A federal appeals court halted the
scheduled Thursday execution of Alabama
death row inmate Glenn W. Holladay, giving the convicted killer another chance
to prove he is mentally retarded. Holladay, sentenced to die for a 1986 triple
murder in Gadsden, appealed his sentence based on a June 2002 ruling by the U.S.
Supreme Court that said executing the mentally retarded is unconstitutionally
cruel. A 3-judge panel of the 11th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals, in a ruling
released Monday, said IQ tests and statements during Holladay's trial indicate
that he might be retarded and that he should have a chance to prove so. The
decision to block the execution gives Holladay permission to ask a U.S. district
judge to consider whether he is retarded. "It's a tremendously significant
victory," Holladay's attorney, Bryan A. Stevenson, said Tuesday. "If the court
finds that Mr. Holladay is mentally retarded, as virtually every professional
has in the past, then he cannot be executed, period." Prosecutors had argued
that Holladay is not retarded and that he waited too long to revive the mental
retardation issue. Clay Crenshaw, who works on death penalty cases for the
attorney general's office, repeated that stance Tuesday. "What happened (Monday)
doesn't change our procedural defense or our belief the evidence demonstrates
that Holladay is not mentally retarded," Crenshaw said. Holladay was scheduled
to die by lethal injection at 6 p.m. Thursday for the shooting deaths of ex-wife
Rebecca Ledbetter Holladay, her boyfriend David Robinson, and Larry Thomas Jr.,
a 16-year-old friend of Mrs. Holladay's son. Holladay also received a stay in
2001 while the Supreme Court considered the case that led to last year's ruling
against executing the mentally retarded. Stevenson said there is ample evidence
to show Holladay is retarded. Holladay scored 65 on his last IQ test, but has
had scores as low as 49 in testing dating back to 1958. A score below 70 is
considered mentally retarded. "The most reliable evidence of mental retardation
is what exists before age 18," Stevenson said. "He was tested three times as a
youth, and each time showed he was someone with mental retardation." Prosecutors
claim Holladay also has scored above 70 on the IQ test. |
| Date of scheduled execution |
State |
Victim name |
Inmate name |
Status |
|
May
29, 2003
|
Pennsylvania |
Alan Winfield
Felicia Hubert
Jacqueline Jones |
Gilbert Jones |
stayed |
|
Gilbert Jones received 3 death sentences in 1993 for the 1990 murders of Alan
Winfield, Felicia Hubert and Jacqueline Jones, who was not related to him. *There are still
appeals pending in this case and the execution is not expected to take place on
this date. |
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