The Tennessee Supreme Court has upheld the conviction and death sentence of Steven Ray Thacker. Thacker was found guilty of first-degree murder for the January 2000, stabbing death of tow truck driver Ray Patterson. Thacker also was convicted of killing two others on a three-state crime spree. He murdered Bixby resident Laci Hill in December of 1999, and also killed Forrest Boyd after stealing his car near Springfield, Missouri. The Tennessee court scheduled a September 8th execution date for Thacker, pending state and federal appeals. 

A September 14, 2005 execution date has been set for Frances Newton, 40, who was sentenced to die for the 1987 shooting deaths of her husband, son and daughter. Prosecutors say she killed her family in order to collect $100,000 in insurance. Newton claims a drug dealer was the killer. Her defense attorney says he wants tests run on bloody carpet from the crime scene that may exonerate Newton. Texas governor Rick Perry granted Newton a 120-day reprieve just a few hours before she was to have been executed on Dec. 1, 2004, in order to give her attorneys additional time to investigate questions about the evidence used to convict her, but their efforts failed to clear her. From the Texas Attorney General's web site: On the evening of April 7, 1987, a Harris County sheriff’s deputy was dispatched to an apartment complex at 6126 West Mount Houston in response to a report of a possible shooting. The deputy found the bodies of the three victims inside the apartment. All three had been shot to death. Newton and her cousin were at the location when the deputy arrived. A friend of Newton's testified that earlier in the evening, Newton had taken a blue bag out of her car and put it in an abandoned house which belonged to her parents. A homicide detective later recovered the bag, which containing a .25 automatic pistol. A ballistics expert established that the pistol was the murder weapon. A forensics expert for the State established that nitrites were present on the skirt Newton wore on the day of the shootings. In the expert’s opinion, the nitrites came from gunpowder residue and were consistent with someone shooting a pistol in the lower front area of the skirt. Less than a month prior to the murders, Newton purchased a $50,000 life insurance policy on herself, another on her husband and a third on her daughter. Newton, the primary beneficiary on the latter two policies, made claims on the policies following the killings. Psychologist Charles Covert testified at Newton’s trial that based on a hypothetical scenario paralleling the facts in Newton’s case, there is a probability such a person would commit violent acts constituting a threat to society. From December 2004: Virginia Louis does not want to see her daughter-in-law executed on Wednesday night, but she said there is no question in her mind that Frances Newton murdered her family in 1987. "I know she's guilty; there is no doubt in my mind," said Louis, a 61-year-old retired North Forest school bus driver and mother of the man Newton was convicted of killing. Newton, 39, is scheduled for a lethal injection Wednesday for the April 1987 murders of her husband, Adrian Newton, and her two children, 7-year-old Alton and Farrah Elaine, 21 months. Frances Newton has repeatedly denied killing her family, saying a drug dealer named "Charlie" may have been responsible. She said her husband owed the man money. State and federal courts have dismissed Newton's claims, and for the family of Adrian Newton, the latest round of denials has been frustrating and painful. "My son didn't use drugs. Why does she keep saying this Charlie? Who is Charlie? There ain't no Charlie. She's Charlie," Louis said in an interview Monday. The Texas Criminal Court of Appeals on Monday rejected Newton's 11th-hour appeal, and a similar effort remains pending before the U.S. Fifth Circuit Court of Appeals. Her petition for a 120-day reprieve is also pending before the state Board of Pardons and Paroles. Prosecutors said Newton killed her family to claim $100,000 in life insurance money. Evidence at the 1988 trial showed Newton forged her husband's signature on life insurance policies bought several months before the deaths. Prosecutors said the murder weapon was a .25-caliber automatic pistol that was found in a blue bag in an abandoned house near her apartment. A witness saw Newton hide the bag in the house. Newton said she had found the unfamiliar gun at home and removed it as a safety precaution. Key evidence at Newton's trial included ballistics evidence linking the gun to the murder. Newton's attorneys have raised questions about the reliability of testing by the Houston Police Department crime lab, which have come under scrutiny in recent years for providing inaccurate evidence at criminal trials. Newton has lodged numerous complaints about Ron Mock, her court-appointed defense attorney. Catherine Coulter, the attorney appointed to work with Mock, signed an affidavit last week agreeing with Newton's attorneys that she and Mock provided ineffective legal assistance. Prosecutors say state and federal appeals courts have thoroughly reviewed all of Newton's claims and have no doubt of Newton's guilt. Several of Adrian Newton's cousins may attend the execution, but his immediate family will not. "We're all opposed to the death penalty," Tom Louis of Houston, Adrian Newton's brother, said. "In my opinion, if someone commits a crime, they should have to live with their mistakes." 

The Ohio Supreme Court on Wednesday set a Sept. 20 execution date for one of the state's longest-serving, death-row inmates, a man who maintains he's innocent of the 1982 murder of a postal worker. But attorneys for John Spirko, with permission from a federal judge in Toledo, continue to gather facts to support their new claim that the prosecution deceived the jury and the appeals courts about evidence used to convict him. Spirko was sentenced to die in 1984 for the murder of Elgin postmaster Betty Jane Mottinger. He says he didn't do it. Spirko, 58, claims that the state's case against him was weakened when charges against his co-defendant were dropped last year. He also says prosecutors withheld key evidence and presented a false case. The U.S. Supreme Court declined to hear Spirko's appeal in March. The high court was apparently unimpressed by the revelation that the county prosecutor had dismissed the two-decade-old complaint pending against Gibson on the same day last year that the 6th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals upheld Spirko's conviction. Gibson has never been tried for the murder. "I'm glad it is coming to an end, but the main fact is that, even if he is put to death as he should be, it's not going to bring my mother back," said the victim's son, Douglas Mottinger of Coldwater, Mich. His father, Clarence, who died in 2003, once said he moved to Indiana so that his tax dollars would not be used to clothe and feed the man who stabbed his wife 15 times in the chest and stomach. The 6th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals has upheld Spirko's conviction and death sentence. An important element of the Van Wert County prosecutor's case was a witness who said she recognized co-defendant Delaney Gibson, a friend of Spirko, near the Elgin post office the day that Mottinger disappeared. No physical evidence tied Spirko to the murder. He was convicted of the killing based largely on his statements to police and the testimony of the eyewitness who said she had seen Gibson near the post office. Prosecutors had alleged that Spirko participated in the kidnapping and killing of Mottinger with Gibson. Prosecutors never told the jury or defense that they had evidence before the trial that Gibson was with family in North Carolina, hundreds of miles from Elgin, the night before the crime. Recently, Spirko's lawyers said evidence had surfaced that a key investigator told the prosecutor before the 1984 trial that Gibson wasn't involved in the murder, but that the prosecutor used the Gibson allegations against Spirko anyway. The prosecutor has denied this. Earlier this month, U.S. District Judge James Carr of Toledo authorized Spirko's lawyers to investigate that evidence further. Gibson was never tried in the Mottinger case. Capital murder charges against him were dismissed last year. Spirko, born in Toledo, was paroled in Kentucky in 1982 for a separate murder. He returned to Swanton to live with his sister. He was soon jailed there on an unrelated assault charge, a parole violation. Spirko's attorneys argued he is sitting on death row because he lied to investigators about having information about the unsolved Mottinger murder. Spirko has maintained he wanted to trade false information for leniency for himself on the assault charge as well as for his girlfriend, who had been charged with helping him to attempt a prison escape. Although investigators dismissed much of what he told them, they latched onto Spirko's connection with Gibson and several details they said could come only from the killer. These details included: 1) the location of the stab wounds in Ms. Mottinger’s body; 2) a description of Ms. Mottinger’s clothing; 3) knowledge that a stone had been pried from a ring worn by Ms. Mottinger; 4) a description of the ring; 5) the type of shroud and specific method used to enwrap Ms. Mottinger’s body after her death; 6) a description of Ms. Mottinger’s purse into which the perpetrators placed the fruits of the Post Office robbery; and 7) a description of what was stolen in that robbery. On October 28, 2004 and November 16, 2004, Spirko filed an application for DNA testing in the trial court. Spirko requested DNA testing on “blood or other evidence received from the person of the deceased, Betty Mottinger, or from physical evidence recovered from the area where the body was discovered including blood evidence on tarp and boots.” On March 10, 2005, the trial court denied Spirko’s request for DNA testing. In doing so, the trial court noted the following: 1) There was no biological material found at the site of the abduction; 2) At trial it was never claimed that any of the blood found on or in the area of the victim’s remains was the defendant’s; and 3) As to the boots, it was conceded by the prosecution at trial that it could have been Spirko’s blood on the boots. Thus, the trial court concluded that DNA testing could not exonerate Spirko. UPDATE: Gov. Bob Taft today delayed the execution of a condemned killer professing his innocence to allow for a second parole board hearing. Taft ordered the execution of John Spirko, convicted of killing a northwest Ohio postmistress, delayed until Nov. 15 to allow for the hearing. The parole board had requested the delay of the Sept. 20 execution earlier today.

An execution date has been set for a former Quitman resident convicted in the 1986 murder of Wynona Harris, a convenience store clerk stabbed more than 20 times. Michael Lynn Riley, now on death row in Livingston, is set to die Sept. 22. Riley was convicted of capital murder after he confessed to stabbing Ms. Harris 23 times and stealing $970 she was counting in the store. Wood County District Attorney Marcus Taylor said that on Feb. 1, 1986, Riley watched Ms. Harris counting the money from outside the Quitman convenience store, then entered, stabbed her to death, took the money, walked home and discarded the knife and money bags in a field. He later went to the Wood County Sheriff's Department and confessed, signing a written statement. A jury found Riley guilty in 1986 and sentenced him to die, but his conviction was overturned by the Texas Court of Criminal Appeals in 1991 and remanded to Wood County for a new trial because a potential juror had been improperly dismissed. Riley pleaded guilty to capital murder in his second trial in September 1995, and defense attorneys asked for life in prison, but the jury returned with a death sentence. Riley has exhausted all his appeals. The Harris family has said the execution date is long overdue. "I don't know what to think right now," said Kitty Harris, Wynona's sister. "I never dreamed it would continue for this long. Her children were babies when it happened, and now they have babies of their own. That's how long we sat here with no closure on this." Ms. Harris said the family is glad a date has been set, but is wary that Riley may not get executed if he is proven to be mentally retarded. She said Riley's nonchalant nature about the murder at the trials showed that he had no regrets. "I hope this is the end of 20 years of emotional unrest," she said. "It's time to come to an end." Ms. Harris said that even though Riley had not committed violent crimes before, she strongly believed he would murder again. "Yes, this was his first time of violent behavior and taking another human being's life, but by no means do I think it would've been his last," she said. Ms. Harris said she is supporting the death penalty for Riley because her sister's murder tore her family to shreds. She said she doesn't think Riley deserves a place in society, or that tax dollars should go to keep him alive. "His mom gets handwritten letters and my mom gets to stare at a headstone," she said. Ms. Harris said despite her feelings about Riley, she still has empathy for his family, and she said she has raised her sister's children to not hate him or his family. "I sat in court and saw his mom brokenhearted," she said. "I just wanted to hug her ... I didn't want my children ever growing up thinking 'I hate this person.'" Some of the family members will likely witness the execution, Ms. Harris said. "It's been very, very difficult," she said. "There have been times when you have to talk yourself into keeping on believing in the justice system."

On 9/10/96, Ashworth murdered 40-year-old Daniel Baker outside the Wagon Wheel bar in Newark. After having a few drinks at the Wagon Wheel and Legend Bars with Mr. Baker, Ashworth beat Daniel with a board and kicked him several times. He then stole Daniel's wallet. Ashworth later confessed and pled guilty to the charges. Ashworth says he has always believed in capital punishment, and his eight years on death row haven't changed his opinion. Ashworth admits that he beat Daniel Baker to death and robbed him of $40 and deserves to be executed. Except for a brief time early in the case, Ashworth has refused to put on a defense or to let attorneys do it for him. He pled guilty in 1997 to aggravated murder and aggravated robbery. In May of 2005, he dropped his lawyers because they were trying to keep him alive, and no other appeals were planned. "The Baker family deserves to have their justice," Ashworth told a psychologist who evaluated him to determine if he was competent to volunteer for execution. "What's it going to hurt to have them have their day of justice? A needle isn't all that bad and I'm going to go to sleep." UDPATE: A man who said he deserved to die was executed by lethal injection Tuesday for luring a man into an alley in 1996 and beating him to death for $40. Herman Dale Ashworth, 32, was the fourth Ohio death row inmate since 1999 to drop his appeals to speed his execution. He was pronounced dead at 10:19 a.m. at the Southern Ohio Correctional Facility. Ashworth pleaded guilty in 1997 to the slaying of Daniel Baker, 40, of Newark, who was beaten so badly a deputy coroner said his injuries were consistent with a high-speed traffic accident or plane crash. "A life for a life, let it be done and justice will be served," Ashworth said in his final statement after taking a couple of labored breaths. He breathed calmly as the execution started, then shook before his breaths became more rapid. Soon the 6-foot-4 Ashworth was motionless, his white Adidas hightops hanging off the gurney's edge. Before he walked into the death chamber, prison medical technicians in a neighboring room had trouble inserting the shunt into Ashworth's right arm where the lethal drugs were administered. Workers ran their hands up Baker's right arm looking for an another location for the second shunt after the one in his left arm went in easily. Within 10 minutes, they had inserted the shunt. Ashworth stayed calm throughout, talking with workers in the room. "I can't lie and say that I'm sorry that this conclusion happened because I'm not," said Baker's niece, Tangee Overly, whose husband, Samuel, witnessed the execution while she waited in the prison. "Dan was very brutally murdered." About 100 protesters set up sandwich boards outside the prison fence Tuesday morning with lists of those executed in Ohio and their pictures. Meanwhile, inmates at the prison remained locked in their cells early Tuesday after an inmate was attacked and killed Monday. Ashworth and Baker, who had never met before, had a few drinks and were walking to a bar when Ashworth called Baker over to an alley and beat him with his fists and a 6-foot board and kicked him, according to court documents and Ashworth's interview with police.  After beating Baker, Ashworth took about $40 from him and went back to a bar in Newark, about 30 miles east of Columbus. Ashworth told police that Baker, a divorced father of a then-12-year-old girl, came onto him and he freaked out. His girlfriend at the time, Tanna Brett, testified that Ashworth told her about the beating and said he had to go back to the alley to kill him to prevent Baker from identifying him. Brett said she thought she persuaded Ashworth to leave Baker alone. However, when she went looking for him later she heard a metal sound coming from the alley and found Baker in a different position near a metal loading dock door. Ashworth's adoptive parents, James Ashworth and Anna Mae Dalton, who live near DeQuincy in southwest Louisiana, had planned to visit with their son before the execution but were unable to make after the area was ravaged by Hurricane Rita. Ashworth stayed up Monday night in an unsuccessful attempt to call the couple, now divorced, before the execution, a prisons spokeswoman said. 

Pennsylvania Gov. Edward G. Rendell today signed a warrant for the execution by lethal injection of Antyane Robinson, a Fort Washington, Maryland man who was convicted of a slaying in Cumberland County. Robinson's execution is scheduled for Thursday, Sept. 29. In March 1997, Robinson was convicted and sentenced to die for shooting his former girlfriend's boyfriend, 23-year-old Rashawn Bass, in Carlisle. Robinson was formally sentenced to death on April 1, 1997. UPDATE: A federal judge halted the scheduled Sept. 29 execution of a man convicted of killing his ex-girlfriend's boyfriend in Carlisle in 1996. Antyane Robinson, formerly of Fort Washington, Md., will have more time to pursue an appeal under an order issued Monday by U.S. District Judge Yvette Kane. Robinson was sentenced to death in 1997 for killing Rashawn Bass, 23. He also critically wounded his ex-girlfriend, Tara Hodge. Robinson, 36, is an inmate at the state prison in Greene County.