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Four
killers were executed in September 2003. They
had murdered at least 7 people.
Two
killers were given a stay in September 2003.
They have murdered at least 2 people.
| Date of scheduled execution |
State |
Victim name |
Inmate name |
Status |
| September 3, 2003 |
Florida |
John B. Britton
James H. Barrett |
Paul
Hill |
executed |
|
Florida Governor Jeb Bush signed a death warrant for an anti-abortion
activist who fatally shot a doctor and volunteer escort outside a Pensacola
women's clinic in 1994. Corrections officials set Paul
Hill's execution by lethal injection for September 3rd at Florida State Prison
in Starke in northeastern Florida. The former minister
said two weeks after being sentenced in December 1994 that he did not want his
case appealed and would welcome his execution. He said
he believed it would prevent abortions by inciting more violence against
abortion providers. The 49-year-old Hill used a
shotgun to kill Doctor John B. Britton and retired Air Force Lieutenant Colonel
James H. Barrett on July 29th, 1994 outside what then was known as The Ladies
Center. They were killed after pulling into the
parking lot in Barrett's pickup truck. Barrett's wife, June, was wounded.
The deaths added to Pensacola's reputation as a focal point of
anti-abortion violence, which included a similar shooting outside another
abortion clinic the previous year. Hill's convictions
were upheld by the Florida and US supreme courts in 1997. |
| Date of scheduled execution |
State |
Victim name |
Inmate name |
Status |
| September
8, 2003
|
Texas |
David Karim Kazmouz,
9 |
Perry
Austin |
stayed |
 Perry
Allen Austin was sentenced to death after pleading guilty to
the murder of David Karim Kazmouz. David
Kazmouz disappeared after leaving his neighbor’s yard in the direction of his
home in the 6400 block of Leader on August 19, 1992. Houston police and the FBI
conducted an extensive investigation. Several concerned citizens assisted in
searches for the boy without result. David’s skeletal
remains were found on April 24, 1993, in a wooded area about
six miles from his home. Perry Austin had
befriended David’s teen-age brother. Austin was questioned during the
investigation and made several incriminating statements. He admitted he had
David in his car the day the boy disappeared and claimed he dropped David off at
a convenience store nearby. During the investigation, it was discovered Austin
was having a sexual relationship with a 14-year-old girl. He was charged with
aggravated sexual assault of a child, pleaded guilty to the charge and was
sentenced. In January 2001, a
police officer received a letter from Austin who requested that the
investigator come visit him in regards to the David Kazmouz case.
The officer met with Austin at the Hughes Prison Unit
in Gatesville, TX where Austin was serving a 30-year sentence
for the sexual assault of a child. At that meeting, Austin gave a
recorded confession in David’s abduction and murder. He said
he wanted to receive the death penalty. Prosecutors told a Houston jury that
Austin was trying to punish the child's older brother. Prosecutor Lucy Davidson
told jurors Austin was a drug courier for a Houston street gang in August 1992
when he befriended David Kazmouz's 16-year-old brother, Karrem. The prosecutor
said when some drugs came up missing, Austin thought Karrem Kazmouz had stolen
from him. David Kazmouz was abducted a short time later. In August 1992,
Davidson said, Austin had been on parole for about a year after 1978 rape,
attempted rape and aggravated robbery convictions in Dallas. The victims were
his sisters and mother. In Houston, he was a drug courier for a street gang when
he befriended Karrem Kazmouz. When drugs turned up missing, Davidson said,
Austin thought Kazmouz, 16 at the time, had stolen from him. David Kazmouz was
abducted from his Sharpstown neighborhood Aug. 19, 1992, and an intensive search
and nationwide billboard campaign turned up nothing for eight months. When the
boy's skeletal remains were found in April 1993 in a wooded area about six miles
from his home, Davidson said, the cause of death could not be determined.
However, it was ruled a homicide because the leg bones were tied together.
During the investigation, authorities discovered that Austin's girlfriend was
14, and he pleaded guilty to sexual assault of a child and was sentenced to 30
years in prison. In 1995, he was given an additional 20 years for stabbing an
inmate. But he did not discuss the Kazmouz case until he confessed in a letter
to a Houston homicide detective in January 2001. Davidson said Austin picked up
Kazmouz near his home, injected him with Demerol and slit his throat. The boy's
mother, Fay Kazmouz, testified that her family had been guilt-ridden since the
child's abduction. Her second son, Michael, 13 at the time, blamed himself
because he was watching David that day while she was at work, the mother said.
Early in the investigation, she said, "I looked him (Austin) straight in the
face and asked him if he knew where my son was. He looked me straight in the
face and said, No." Austin represented himself in the punishment phase of the
trial. He did not testify, but during closing statements he told the jury the
evidence that prosecutors Luci Davidson and Renee Magee presented against him
was correct. "Pretty much everything they said about me is true," Austin told
the panel. "I'm violent, mean . . . Sometimes I have no conscience . . . I've
been like this all my life. I'm not about to change." In deciding whether Austin
should spend his life in prison or be executed, the jury was asked to answer two
special issue questions. The first was whether Austin was a future danger. If
they unanimously agreed he was, the jury could then move to the second question
regarding mitigating circumstances. Austin told the jurors that if they sent him
back to prison he would commit more acts of violence. Then he said there were no
mitigating factors, "no reason for killing him (Kazmouz)." Davidson told the
jury that Austin had spent only three years of his adult life interacting in
society. And in that time he had raped his sister, robbed his sister and mother,
sexually assaulted a 14-year-old girl and killed Kazmouz. "That is what he has
done in the three years we have let him out in this society," Davidson said. "We
certainly can't trust him ever again in the free society. But we can't trust him
in the prison system." Austin had been on parole about a year from the 1978 rape
and robbery convictions when he befriended the Kazmouz brothers in 1992.
Although he was always considered a suspect in Kazmouz's death, it wasn't until
January 2001 that he confessed from prison. During the initial investigation,
police discovered Austin was having sex with a 14-year-old girl. He pleaded
guilty and has been serving a 30-year sentence for sexual assault of a child. In
1995, another 20 years was added to his sentence for stabbing an inmate. He also
has a lengthy disciplinary prison record that includes assaulting guards.
"Society can no longer handle him. We are through," Davidson said. "Because
Karrem took from him, he was going to take from Karrem. He took his little
brother," Davidson told the jury. |
| Date of scheduled execution |
State |
Victim name |
Inmate name |
Status |
| September 10,
2003 |
Texas |
Mary Evelyn Hayes,
47
Rosalyn Ann Robinson, 18 |
Larry Hayes |
executed |
| On July 13, 1999,
Larry Hayes told his stepson that his wife was having
an affair with a co-worker and that he did not think
that he could "forgive her like she forgave me."
The co-worker testified that Hayes
called him about the affair and said: “Don’t you know that people get killed
over these things?” The co-worker and his live-in girlfriend
insisted that no affair took place. The girlfriend requested that the co-worker
take a polygraph examination to prove that no relationship between him and Mrs.
Hayes had existed. The couple both testified at trial that he took the test on
July 15, 1999 and passed with 99.9% accuracy. On July 16, 1999, the day of the
murders, Mary Hayes faced her husband in a confrontation over their mutual
infidelity and told him, "I'd rather be dead than be married to you." Larry
Allen Hayes responded by killing his wife and a convenience-store clerk in a
rampage that ended when he was shot by deputies. Hayes shot his wife, Mary
Evelyn, seven times at close range during an argument in their home. About 30
minutes later he killed Rosalyn Ann Robinson, 18, while trying to abduct her in
her car from the convenience store where she worked. Montgomery County sheriff's
Lt. Ted Pearce said the shooting of Hayes ' 46-year-old wife occurred about
11:30 p.m. during an angry confrontation over the couple's marital infidelity.
"We're told he had been cheating on her and she had done the same to him in
retaliation," Pearce said. "He came home and confronted her. She told him, `I'd
rather be dead than be married to you,' " Pearce recounted. "He then told their
9-year-old daughter to leave the house `because your mom wants me to kill her.'
She ran out of the house and heard the shooting start." He said Hayes, still
carrying his .44-caliber revolver, fled in his car to the nearby Grangerland
community, where Rosalyn Ann Robinson was working alone at the Diamond Shamrock
gas station and convenience store on F.M. Road 3083 at Four Corners. Hayes
forced the clerk outside, but as they reached her Ford Mustang, a customer drove
up, Pearce said. The distraction gave Robinson a chance to flee. Pearce said
Hayes first fired a wild shot at the customer, then two shots at Robinson, who
fell fatally wounded in the head. The customer escaped to call for help, and
Hayes took off northward on U.S. 59 toward Cleveland in Robinson's car, Pearce
said. There he stopped, abandoned Robinson's car and stole a Chevrolet Blazer
from the parking lot of a Super 8 motel beside the highway, the detective said.
He then drove farther north on U.S. 59 to Goodrich in southern Polk County. He
left the Blazer and went to the truck stop in the middle of town, apparently to
find another vehicle to steal, Pearce said. The Polk County Sheriff’s Department
received a dispatch at 12:20 a.m. to report to a Dandy Double truck stop in Polk
County, Texas to apprehend a potential suspect from Montgomery County. A couple
reported that a man driving a Chevy Blazer asked them for a jump in the parking
lot. When he turned to the side, the woman saw a large gun tucked into the
waistband of his pants. When the deputy sheriff apprehended Hayes, he was
walking south across the Dandy Double parking lot with his shirt off and tucked
into his waistband. The officers yelled at him to put his hands up, and Hayes
turned and pulled away the white t-shirt to reveal a .44 magnum. Hayes then
started to raise the gun, and one of the officers fired a shot which missed
Hayes. Hayes moved into a “shooter stance” and the officer fired a second shot
into Hayes’s back. Hayes was taken into custody and transported the hospital for
medical attention. At the punishment phase of trial, nurses testified that Hayes
was verbally and physically abusive and threatened to kill one nurse “if he
could get his hands on her.” Two weeks after his arrest, Hayes asked an
attendant why he was placed on suicide watch at the Montgomery Jail infirmary.
The attendant replied that “it should be obvious - he murdered two people and we
were concerned about his state of mind.” The inmate looked directly into the
attendant’s face and replied that “he had nothing to be suicidal about and that
he had no suicidal thoughts whatsoever.” A jury of nine men and three
women deliberated just under four hours before returning a verdict in the
punishment phase of the capital murder trial. Hayes
had been found guilty the week
previous of killing his 47-year-old wife Mary Evelyn Hayes and store
clerk Rosalyn Ann Robinson, a recent Conroe High School graduate who planned to
go to nursing school. Defense attorneys William Hall
and Lydia Clay-Jackson had argued Hayes' life should be spared because he posed
little risk of future danger if sentenced to life in prison; also his diagnosed
manic depression coupled with learning of his wife's affair drove him to
violence, they said. "What does it take to cause a
man, even a healthy man, who loves his wife to be driven over the brink?" Hall
asked jurors. But prosecutors Jim Prewitt and Robert
Bartlett argued Hayes' reaction to any number of life situations was
consistently violent. "After awhile you have to say
maybe he's just violent, maybe he's just mean," Prewitt said. "Do the
circumstances reduce his moral blameworthiness?" he asked.
Prewitt argued that Hayes is a violent man who deserves to die because he has so
little regard for others. "The choice he took every time was violence - the
answer to his problems," Prewitt said. "I submit that it has been the answer to
every problem. He feels a lot better when he has a .44 in his hand," Prewitt
said. "Why else did he kill Rosalyn Robinson?" Prewitt played a tape of the 911
call with Hayes ' daughter, then 9, screaming in the background as a neighbor
spoke to police. Then the daughter can be heard trying to explain to the
operator about her father hitting her mother with a gun, then shooting her in
the child's bedroom. Prewitt described Hayes' attack of his wife in their
daughter's 11 x 11 room, where Mary Hayes tried in vain to hide under a bed and
still was struck seven times by bullets fired from a .44 Magnum. The gun only
holds six rounds, Prewitt said, so Hayes had to reload. Larry Hayes's mother had
come into the room and tried in vain to stop her son from killing Mary. She said
that he reloaded his gun and asked her for a kiss before he drove away. The
police found the body of Mary Hayes in her daughter's bedroom. There was blood
on the wall and the bed and brain matter and skull fragments on the floor. Dr.
Parungao, the assistant medical examiner of Harris County, testified that she
was shot seven times, three times in the head, once in the left shoulder blade,
twice in the back, and once in the hand. Two of the wounds were close contact
wounds, fired within six inches of the body. The victim’s head was described as
“shattered” and “crushed.” The police also recovered eight “spent” .44 magnum
cartridge casings at the scene. Twenty minutes after Hayes shot his wife
to death in their Woodloch home he drove to the Diamond Shamrock convenience
store on FM 3083, where he at first demanded the young woman's keys and walked
her outside. Hayes shot her when
she bolted, then followed her towards the front of the store.
Already
shot once in the abdomen by Hayes, she was on her
knees crying when he fired a round into her head.
Mary and Larry Hayes had two children, Nathan, now 16,
and Lauren, now 13. Three children from Mary's
previous marriage had also lived with the couple, and called their stepfather
"Dad" at his insistence. One of those children, now 28-year-old
Larry Lundstrum, gave particularly chilling testimony during the trial,
recounting "years of torment," Bartlett reminded the jury.
While being questioned by Assistant District Attorney Robert Bartlett, Larry
Lundstrom Jr., a Web designer from The Woodlands, at times had trouble keeping
his composure as he recounted abuse his mother suffered during her 15-year
marriage to Hayes. Hayes kept his eyes on the table during Lundstrom's
testimony. At times weeping, Larry recounted one story after another in which
his stepfather Hayes had attacked the young man's mother. Lundstrom, who grew up
in the house where his mother was shot as she tried to hide under the bed,
testified that Hayes would become angry when his meal was not prepared on time
and that "drink had the effect of making him mean." Lundstrum, whose stories
spanned at least 10 years of his mother and stepfather's marriage, said the two
separated many times, often after Hayes beat his wife. He testified to grabbing
his then-toddler brother Nathan from a baby bed and running to a neighbor's home
to call the police during one particularly brutal fight. It was the same night,
Lundstrum said, that he and his sisters saw their father step on Mary Hayes'
neck and hold her down after kicking and punching her. Years later, in 1995, a
neighbor testified Nathan was around 9 years old and ran to her home saying his
dad was trying to kill his mom. Both times police came and arrested Hayes. Three
sheriff's deputies and a constable testified about confrontations with Hayes
over minor complaints, helping in the prosecution's effort to paint Hayes as man
with a history of violent behavior. One of the officers said Larry Hayes
specifically told him on one occasion "There will be violence." Sheriff's Deputy
Jeffery Smith said Hayes made the statement in October 1996, after Smith told
him authorities could not make his wife leave the home. Nancy Harrington, the
executive director of the Montgomery County Women's Center, also testified to
the validity of records kept by staff members of the center Women's Shelter,
where Hayes and two younger children stayed for two weeks in late 1995.
Harrington testified for the prosecution that Mary Hayes was once admitted to a
shelter for battered women run by the center. Mary Hayes told officials at the
shelter that she had been physically and emotionally abused, slapped, choked and
shoved, Harrington testified. She added that the victim also said she had been
confined against her will and that household objects were thrown at her.
Harrington, under questioning by Assistant District Attorney Jim Prewitt, said
Mary Hayes returned to her husband but did not say why. She also did not say
when Mary Hayes was admitted to the shelter. Additionally, the jury was shown a
dramatic video of the shooting of Robinson as Hayes attempted to steal her car
after killing his wife. The color videotape shows Hayes, dressed in a
short-sleeve shirt and brown shorts, stride into the Diamond Shamrock
convenience store at FM 3083 in the Grangerland community. He was later found to
have $4000 in his pocket. He demanded the keys to her car, then grabbed Robinson
by the arm, put a gun to her head and said forcefully, "Get in the car, get in
the car." Hayes took her outside and tried to force her into her Ford Mustang,
just out of camera range. A car arrived and a shot can be heard in the film.
Prosecutors said Hayes shot at Robinson as she tried to escape after the
arriving car distracted him. Seconds later Robinson, nearly on her knees and
cowering in fear, appeared in front of the camera on the sidewalk in front of
the door. She put her hand in front of her face and screamed as Hayes walked up
and shot her in the head at point-blank range. Dr. Parungao testified that the
cause of death was multiple gunshot wounds to the head and abdomen. Robinson was
shot three times, once in the abdomen, once in the right arm, and once in the
face. The jury began deliberating Hayes' fate at 11:30 a.m. and returned
with their verdict at 3:20 p.m. Shortly afterwards, state District Judge K.
Michael Mayes allowed the mothers of both victims to tell Hayes and others in
the courtroom how his acts had affected them and their families.
Robinson's mother Ruby Robinson, whose family had never met the
defendant, spoke first. "I thought I'd never say this
but I want to see your face when you die. You got what you deserved. You could
have had my daughter's car, you didn't have to kill her," Robinson said.
Now, Ruby Robinson told Hayes, there is "just pain, pain.
When I got up every morning, I'd pass by her room and she was there.
Now it's just an empty room. An empty room. An empty room."
For Rosa Faust, 72, the feelings were more mixed toward a man she once
loved because her daughter loved him. She read from a
letter he had written her from jail about two weeks after the killings, in which
Hayes asked for her forgiveness. Rosa Faust said she
forgave Hayes because "Hate destroys." His hate, she said, had destroyed her
daughter and now him. "I forgave you for every hurtful
word you said to my daughter and grandchildren. I forgave you for the pain you
inflicted on their bodies and minds. "You couldn't hide what you were from me. I
knew almost from the beginning," Faust told Hayes. "But I had already forgiven
you before you asked. I forgive you. I feel sorry for you,"
Faust told her son-in-law. "I tell you what: I'd rather be Mary's mother than
your mother." Faust looked at her former son-in-law and told him he'd
robbed his children not only of a mother but a father as well.
Hayes showed no emotion throughout the statements.
Robinson's parents - Lee, 50, a meter technician; and Ruby, a custodian - said
in an interview that their daughter died a day before she was to leave work to
begin nursing school. "Our whole family has been torn apart," her mother said.
"You got what you deserved because you took my baby away from me," Robinson's
mother, Ruby, told Hayes in her victim-impact statement after the verdict was
read. Holding a photograph of her daughter, the girl's mother told an impassive
Hayes, "She was so good. She was a good person, but you said `no' that night and
you destroyed her." Mary's son Larry Lundstrom Jr. said of the verdict, "I feel
it was very appropriate." UPDATE: Hayes said that he dropped his
appeals because he was willing to pay for his crime. He told a reporter that he
was tormented every day by guilt. Hayes also cited the grim conditions on death
row as a reason for waiving his appeals. "I am genuinely sorry for what I
did," Hayes said in his last statement. "I ask you to reach down in your heart
and forgive me. There's no excuse for what I did." Hayes thanked his friends and
family and expressed love to them. He also thanked Sargent Waller, who arrested
him. "He gave me CPR, saved my life, and gave me a chance to get my life right."
|
| Date of scheduled execution |
State |
Victim name |
Inmate name |
Status |
| September
12, 2003 |
North
Carolina |
Jackie Ransom
Larry Jones |
Henry
Hunt |
executed |
| Henry
Hunt, 58, was sentenced to death on December 20, 1985 in Robeson County
Superior Court for the September 1984 murders of Jackie Ransom and Larry Jones.
Hunt also received two 10-year sentences for two counts of conspiracy to commit
murder. Elwell Barnes, who also was convicted in the murders,
died in prison Sept. 19, 1991, of natural causes, according to state Department
of Correction records. According to investigators, Roger Locklear and his wife,
Dorothy Ransom, hired Hunt and Barnes to kill Jackie Ransom so they could
collect on a $25,000 insurance policy. Investigators say Jackie Ransom married
Dorothy Ransom while Locklear was away working. She had not divorced Locklear. A
witness testified that Hunt and Barnes killed Jackie Ransom for $2,000. Ransom's
body was found Sept. 9, 1984, in woods off Elm Street. He was shot in the head,
lawmen said. Hunt and Barnes killed Jones, a police informant, six days later
because he was talking to police about Ransom's death, according to court
records. Jones' body was found in a shallow grave near Fairmont. He was shot
multiple times. Joe Freeman Britt was the district attorney who tried the case.
"It was a vicious sort of murder," he said. He declined to comment further. In
an affidavit filed in December 2002, Hunt said he had nothing to do with either
murder. He said he was with his girlfriend, drinking beer and relaxing after a
hard week of work. Hunt worked as a roofer. During the appeals process, Hunt's
lawyers argued that Hunt's counsel "did little or nothing to prepare for the
trial." They argued that Hunt's lawyers failed to present mitigating evidence
during the sentencing phase. The evidence included Hunt's impoverished and
violent childhood and that he is emotionally and mentally disturbed. There was
just one witness to the killing, and accounts of the crime have been
inconsistent, McIntosh said. According to records from the 4th U.S. Circuit
Court of Appeals, Hunt's lawyers thought "the risk of revealing more about
Hunt's criminal background outweighed the benefit that could be obtained from
the evidence." Hunt had an extensive criminal record and was a suspect in
another murder case, the court record stated. Hunt was involved in several armed
robberies and was sent to prison for blowing up his mother's house. Garth
Locklear was the chief investigator for the Robeson County Sheriff's Office. He
was investigating Hunt's involvement in another murder case before learning
about the killings of Jones and Ransom, he said. "Hunt is the most dangerous man
I have ever known in Robeson County," he said. "I was up against the wall trying
to develop a case against the man for murder because of his reputation. I could
not get people to talk about him. It was power that he had. People lived in
fear. Henry Hunt held the power of life and death over a segment of people."
Locklear said lawmen had a strong case against Hunt. "Mr. Britt would not take a
capital murder case unless we definitely have the person," he said. "When the
case goes before the jury the evidence would be overwhelming. The only question
the jury has to answer is whether to sentence the person to life or death."
Rosie Jones won't be a witness to the execution of a man convicted of killing
her son. She wants it all behind her. "It is now between him and judgment," she
said. "I am not going to say, 'Kill him.' The family is over that now, and it is
in God's hands. That's the way I am going to leave it. We have been through
enough with the murder trial. God has freed me from this." |
| Date of scheduled execution |
State |
Victim name |
Inmate name |
Status |
| September
24, 2003
|
Tennessee |
Ronald Oliver, 43 |
Phillip Workman |
stayed |
 Police
Lieutenant Ronald Oliver, 43, was killed on the
night of Aug. 5, 1981 while responding to a holdup alarm at a Wendy's restaurant
in Frayser. Ronald
Oliver approached the robber as he was leaving the restaurant. Testimony
indicated Workman broke away from Oliver, who ordered him to stop. Oliver and
Officer Aubrey Stoddard then grabbed Workman, who broke free again, shot Oliver
once in the chest and Stoddard in the arm.
Workman was found hiding in bushes nearby with the .45 caliber murder
weapon. Workman admitted during his trial that he
fired the shot that killed Oliver. Workman, who
wounded another officer and was shot himself, said he had been using cocaine
that day and that he did not intend to kill Oliver. The
robbery netted about $1,170. Workman was
convicted of first-degree murder in the perpetration of a robbery and sentenced
to death. Workman's attorneys argue that Oliver
could have been shot by another policeman during the shootout in the Memphis
restaurant's parking lot. "It's
weighed heavily on my mother, but she's a strong one and she's coped over the
years,'' said Oliver's stepson, Capt. Vic Finger of the Bartlett Police
Department. "We haven't really said it, but I think an
execution would be sort of a closure for us." Finger
and his mother, Sandra Noblin, plan to attend Workman's execution.
One of two police officers who struggled with Phillip Workman 18 years ago said
he had no doubt Workman fatally shot the other officer, Lt. Ronnie Oliver. "I
think that it's clear that Workman did it. He admitted he did it. Over the
years, he's just trying everything he can to get out of it, changing his story,"
said retired police officer Aubrey K. Stoddard. Stoddard was referring to a
witness who saw the two officers fighting with Workman after Workman robbed the
restaurant. The witness, Harold Davis, testified at Workman's trial that he saw
Workman shoot Oliver. He now claims he saw the officers fighting Workman, but
didn't see Workman shoot Oliver. Workman, who was captured minutes later in the
neighborhood behind the restaurant, was convicted of first-degree murder in
March 1982 and sentenced to death by a Memphis jury. Workman's attorneys say
they found Davis recently and videotaped his statement at a motel in Phoenix. In
the statement, Davis said he had been drinking and smoking marijuana while
sitting in his car near the restaurant. Davis is now claiming that he saw Oliver
and Workman scuffling as he looked in his rearview mirror, but did not see
Workman shoot Oliver. "He saw it. You know he saw it," Stoddard said as he
talked with a reporter at his Frayser home, less than 2 miles from the scene of
the shooting. "Now I think Workman's attorneys have finally somehow gotten to
this other guy and convinced him to change his story," Stoddard said. Workman's
attorneys also say they have affidavits from a Georgia medical examiner and a
ballistics expert that indicate the bullet that killed Oliver may not have come
from the .45-caliber pistol Workman admits he was carrying at the time and fired
at least once. "Where else would it come from?" Stoddard asked. Oliver was
holding Workman from behind, Stoddard said, as he and Workman were wrestling for
control of the gun Workman had pulled. "I had him hugged up next to me. The gun
was between my belly and his belly. And he squeezed it up into my arm. That's
what pulled me loose of him. When it did, his gun hand was free," Stoddard said.
At that point Stoddard was shot. He slid across the pavement backward 10 to 15
feet with a gunshot wound to the right arm. He never pulled his gun. "Mine was
never removed from the holster. In fact, it shaved the grip off where I slid
across the blacktop. It shaved it down flat," Stoddard said. "What happened when
he fired that first shot, it tore me loose. So, I don't know that split second
what might have happened. I just spun around. He just kept shooting, that's what
it sounded like." Stoddard said the other gunshots followed so closely that
Workman must have fired the shots. "The shooting never stopped. It was over
probably in a matter of 10 to 15 seconds. All of them shots were just all at one
time," Stoddard said. Oliver's gun was empty. Police said they believed that
Oliver had fired as a reflex and that none of the shots hit anyone. Stoddard
retired from the police department in 1986. During his trial, Workman claimed
his memory was clouded because he had injected cocaine in his arm earlier in the
day. "I pulled out the gun to give to them and I was hit and grabbed. The gun
went off," Workman testified. "The next thing I knew, I heard a noise, gunfire.
I guess I shot again." UPDATE: Gov. Phil Bredesen this morning granted a
4-month reprieve in the execution of Phillip Workman, citing a federal criminal
investigation that might be related to the case. Although Attorney General Paul
Summers said he is confident that the facts of the case continue to support
Workman's execution, he recommended to the governor, in the interest of
fairness, that the reprieve be granted. Bredesen's announcement came today about
10:30 a.m. Workman's execution had been set for Sept. 24. Neither Summers nor
Bredesen would give any details about the nature of the federal investigation.
Summers, however, did say it is being conducted in the Western District of
Tennessee. Asked on the record if the probe is related to agencies in Memphis
that have been involved in Workman's case, such as the Shelby County medical
examiner's office, the Shelby County district attorney's office or the Memphis
Police Department, neither the governor or Summers would elaborate. |
| Date of scheduled execution |
State |
Victim name |
Inmate name |
Status |
| September
26, 2003 |
North
Carolina |
Charles Edwin Jenkins |
Joseph Bates |
executed |
|
Joseph Bates, 35, was first sentenced to death on March 2, 1991 in Yadkin
County Superior Court for the August 1990 murder of Charles Edwin Jenkins. On
appeal, the North Carolina Supreme Court awarded Bates a new trial. After a
second trial, Bates received the death sentence on November 9, 1994. He also
received a 40-year sentence for one count of kidnapping. On August 25,
1990, two fishermen discovered Charles Jenkins’ body
floating in the Yadkin River, in Yadkin County, North Carolina.
Charles’s ankles and wrists were bound by rope,
his legs and arms were hog-tied, and a rope was tied
around his neck. While investigating the murder, two
police officers went to Bates’ house to speak with
him. At that time, the officers obtained a piece of paper
and some molding from Bates’ home having what
appeared to be bloodstains on it. The following day,
Bates gave a thirteen-page confession, in which
he admitted to beating, hog-tying, kidnapping, and then shooting the
victim in the neck. Bates was indicted for kidnapping and murder.
The facts surrounding the crime are undisputed. Sometime in late
July or early August 1990, someone broke into and fired gunshots
into Bates’ home, causing Bates to set up a temporary campsite on his
employer Hal Eddleman’s property. Around this same time Bates told
his friend, Gary Shaver, that he could kill someone.
On August 10, Bates called Eddleman and told Eddleman to meet
him at the bridge later that evening because something was "going
down." Eddleman went to the bridge as instructed, but Bates never
came to meet him. The next evening Bates and Shaver went to a night
club. At approximately 1:45 a.m., Bates instructed a waitress to ask Billy
Grimes, another friend, to telephone Eddleman. Bates told her that Grimes and
Eddleman would know what was going on. At approximately 2:00 a.m., Jenkins asked
Bates and Shaver for a ride home. During the ride, Bates asked Jenkins if he
knew Bates’ ex-wife and her new boyfriend, and Jenkins replied that he did.
Bates stopped twice during the ride. During the second stop, Bates struck
Jenkins three times on the back of the head with a shovel, appearing to knock
him unconscious. When Jenkins began to moan, Bates struck him again, hog-tied
him, and then placed him in the vehicle. On the way back to his campsite, Bates
stopped at Eddleman’s house and told Eddleman that he "got one of the MF’s." He
then told Grimes, "I’ve got one of the guys that’s been messing with me. Do you
want to watch or help?" Grimes declined to help, as did Shaver and Eddleman.
Bates drove Jenkins back to his campsite around 4:00 a.m. At the campsite, Bates
loosened the ropes on Jenkins and began asking Jenkins who had shot into his
home. Jenkins mentioned two people who were involved, but did not say anything
else. Unsatisfied with Jenkins’ response, Bates then tied Jenkins to a tree and
went to his tent to retrieve a gun that he had borrowed from Eddleman. Bates put
the gun up to Jenkins throat, but Jenkins repeated that he did not know for sure
who had shot into Bates’ home. Bates then untied Jenkins, took him to the back
of the truck, and shot him in the neck. Jenkins was lying face-up near the back
of the truck when Bates shot him. In his confession, Bates said he "shot him . .
. because he acted like he knew who had shot into my house, he spit on me and
told me to go to hell, and this made me mad and I shot him." After rummaging
through Jenkins’ pockets, Bates retied Jenkins’ hands and feet and loaded him
into the jeep. Bates drove back to Eddleman’s house, returned Eddleman’s gun,
and asked, "what do you think I should do with the body." Bates then left and
threw the body into the Yadkin River. Later that day Bates discussed the murder
with both Eddleman and Grimes. Bates told Eddleman, "Well, it don’t bother me
all that bad." Bates told Grimes that he killed the victim because he would get
no more time for murder than for kidnapping. Bates was indicted for kidnapping
and murder. The State sought the death penalty. A jury found Bates guilty of one
count of first degree murder and one count of first degree kidnapping. He was
sentenced to death for the first degree murder conviction. On appeal, the North
Carolina Supreme Court awarded Bates a new trial based on an improper denial of
Bates’ motion for an ex parte hearing regarding his request for funds to employ
a forensic psychologist. Bates was retried, and a second jury found Bates guilty
of one count of first degree kidnapping and one count of first degree murder on
the basis of both the felony murder rule and premeditation and deliberation. The
jury recommended the death sentence on the basis of the kidnapping and the
especially heinous, atrocious, or cruel nature of the crime. On November 9,
1994, Judge Julius Rousseau sentenced Bates to death for the first degree murder
conviction and to an additional forty years in prison for the kidnapping
conviction. UPDATE: A man who offered a fellow bar patron a ride, then shot him
and dumped his body in a river in 1990 was executed early Friday by injection.
Joseph Earl Bates, 35, had blamed the crime on brain damage he suffered from a
car wreck three years earlier. Bates was pronounced dead at 2:14 a.m. at Central
Prison in Raleigh, said Department of Correction spokeswoman Pam Walker. He had
confessed to killing Charles Edward Jenkins after agreeing to give him a ride
home from a bar. Bates was convicted of first-degree murder and kidnapping in
1991 but his conviction and death sentence were overturned because he didn't
receive funds for a mental health expert. Bates was convicted and re-sentenced to
death for the 1990 slaying, though the expert in his second trial in 1994 didn't
know about his brain injury. His defense had appealed to the U.S. Supreme Court
while Bates visited relatives hours before the execution was scheduled. They
also sought clemency from North Carolina Gov. Mike Easley. Both requests were
denied Thursday. The North Carolina Supreme Court also denied an appeal
Wednesday. Bates' family and friends said he was coerced into the killing by two
other men, one of whom received a suspended sentence for aiding in the
kidnapping. |
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