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Three killers were executed in
June 2009. They had murdered at least 13 people.
Six killers were
given a stay in June 2009. They have murdered at least 6 people.ple.
|
Date of scheduled execution |
State |
Victim name |
Inmate name |
Status |
|
June 2, 2009 |
Texas |
Tammy Hankins, 34
Kevin Galley, 12
Ashley Mason, 11
Earnie Hankins, 55
Pearl
Sevenstar, 20 |
Terry Hankins |
executed |
| On August
26, 2001, Terry Lee Hankins killed his estranged wife, Tammy
Hankins, and her two children, Kevin Galley and Ashley Mason.
Hankins was an auto mechanic in Arlington, Texas. He left the naked
bodies of the children and the body of their mother in the trailer
in which they lived in Mansfield. They were found on August 29.
There was also evidence that Hankins engaged in sexual activity with
and around the dead bodies. Hankins's semen was found on the sheet
on Ashley's bed. After his arrest on August 30 in the murders of his
wife and stepchildren, Hankins shocked police by telling them where
to find the decomposing bodies of his father and sister, killed 10
months earlier. Hankins was convicted on overwhelming evidence.
Ashley had defensive wounds "all over her body" according to
prosecutors, and hair later proven to belong to Hankins was found in
her hand. In a note found near Ashley's body, Hankins wrote: "I
guess to sum it all up, I'm guilty of murder, incest, hatred, fraud,
theft, jealousy and envy." Hankins also wrote in a diary Aug. 17
that he was contemplating the murders. In the notebook, Hankins gave
the full address of where he left the bodies of his father, Earnie
Hankins, and his half-sister Pearl Sevenstar and wrote that he did
not know why he killed his wife and her 2 children. "It was all for
the worst excuse. I just didn't like myself. After you hear things,
you start to believe them," he wrote. "People always told me I was
nothing and wouldn't amount to anything. I guess they hit the nail
on the head with that one." The notebook also contained some
thoughts about his childhood, his use of drugs and alcohol, and
graphic descriptions of several sexual encounters with his
stepmothers, girlfriends and wife. Bullets from the murders of his
stepchildren matched a gun found in the apartment of Hankins's
girlfriend, where he was arrested. His wife's car was parked at the
apartment. In the punishment phase of the trial, Hankins confessed
to killing his half-sister, Pearl Sevenstar, with whom he fathered a
son seven years prior. He lied to others about his sister’s
whereabouts, saying that he had sent her to a home for pregnant
mentally-challenged women, when in fact he had stored her dead body
in a plastic container. He also admitted to killing his father,
Earnie Hankins. He told people his father had moved out of state,
when in fact his father’s mummified remains were in his trailer
surrounded by air fresheners. In an interview, Hankins said,
"I'm very sorry. I'm not happy. I'm not proud," he told me. "It was
my family, too. I can't replace what I've taken. I can't justify
what I've done. I know this is not right or normal. The shortest
word for it is ... I'm trying to think of something ... 'evil.' I
still think that's putting it lightly." Prior to his execution,
Hankins said, "I am sorry for what I've done and
for all of the pain and suffering that my actions have caused." |
|
Date of scheduled execution |
State |
Victim name |
Inmate name |
Status |
|
June 3, 2009 |
Ohio |
Unnamed male victim
Carol Lutz, 24 |
Daniel Wilson |
executed |
| On 5/4/91,
Daniel E. Wilson, 21, murdered his 24-year-old acquaintance, Carol
Lutz, in Elyria. Carol had offered Wilson a ride home from a bar.
Wilson locked Carol in the trunk of her car and drove around for
several hours. Wilson later punctured the car's gas tank, stuffed a
rag into the tank and set the car on fire. Carol died of third
degree burns and carbon monoxide poisoning in the car's trunk, which
reached an estimated 550 degrees. Wilson later confessed to police. When
Wilson was 14 years old, he broke into an elderly man's home,
assaulted the man resulting in a broken hip, ripped out the phone
and left the man for dead. The victim was unable to call for help
and died as a result of his injuries. Wilson was found delinquent by
reason of involuntary homicide and served a year in a juvenile
facility before being transferred to a halfway house. |
|
Date of scheduled execution |
State |
Victim name |
Inmate name |
Status |
|
June 3, 2009 |
Tennessee |
Tommy Mayford Griffin |
James
Dellinger |
stayed |
|
On the
afternoon of February 21, 1992, James Henderson Dellinger, Gary
Wayne Sutton, and Tommy Griffin spent several hours at Howie’s
Hideaway Lounge on Highway 321 in Maryville, Tennessee. The three
men drank beer and played pool until approximately 7:00 p.m., when
they left the bar in a dark-blue Camaro. Witnesses testified that
there was no evidence of hostility among the men while they were in
the bar. Around 7:00 p.m. a couple was traveling north on Alcoa
Highway near the Hunt Road exit. They observed three men who
appeared to be fighting in a dark-colored Camaro on the side of the
road. Two of the men were standing outside of the car attempting to
forcibly remove the third man from the back seat. They used a
portable radio to report the incident to the dispatcher for Rural
Metro Blount County Ambulance. A woman who was also driving north on
Alcoa Highway around the same time observed a shirtless and shoeless
man stumbling down the side of the road near the Hunt Road exit.
When she passed the same area about thirty or forty minutes later,
she saw two men standing outside of a dark-colored Camaro on the
side of the road. They appeared to be looking for something. At 7:11
p.m. a dispatcher for Blount County 911 received a complaint about
an altercation involving three men in a dark Camaro at the
intersection of Alcoa Highway and Hunt Road. Officer Steve Brooks
with the Alcoa Police Department was dispatched to the scene. While
making an unrelated traffic stop, Officer Brooks noticed a vehicle
with flashing headlights parked on the side of Hunt Road. The
officer sent his backup, Officer Drew Roberts, to investigate.
Officer Roberts found two men, not Dellinger and Sutton, standing
next to a pickup truck. A shirtless man sitting on the bed of the
truck identified himself as Tommy Griffin. Griffin told the officer
that his friends had put him out of a car. Griffin would not
identify his friends or tell the officer what had happened. Officer
Roberts arrested Griffin for public intoxication. Griffin was booked
at the Blount County jail at 7:40 p.m. Dellinger arrived about
forty-five minutes to an hour later to ask about Griffin’s release.
Sergeant Ray Herron explained to Dellinger that department policy
required a minimum four-hour detention for public intoxication and
advised him to come back at 10:30 or 11:00 p.m. At approximately
9:00 p.m. a resident of Bluff Heights Road, where Dellinger and
Tommy both lived looked out of his trailer window and saw
Dellinger’s white Dodge pickup truck. He saw someone enter the
passenger side of the truck. The truck drove up the road and pulled
into Dellinger’s driveway. He then noticed fire shooting from
Griffin’s trailer down the road. His wife reported the fire to the
911 operator at 9:02 p.m. Arson investigator Gary Clabo concluded
that the fire was set intentionally with the use of a liquid-type
accelerant and an open flame such as a match, candle, or cigarette
lighter. Tommy’s niece Jennifer ran to Dellinger’s trailer when she
learned that Tommy’s trailer was on fire. Just as Dellinger’s wife
was telling Jennifer that Dellinger was not home, Dellinger and
Sutton walked down the hall from the living room. The two men were
still wearing their jackets, and their pants were wet up to the
knees. Jennifer asked them if Tommy was in his burning trailer, and
Sutton told her that Tommy was in Blount County with a girl. When
Jennifer asked the men to accompany her to the trailer, Dellinger
responded that they were already in enough trouble. After returning
home, Jennifer looked out the window and saw Dellinger remove an
object wrapped in a sheet from his truck and place it into the back
of his wife’s Oldsmobile. Jennifer testified that the object
resembled a shotgun. A relative of Jennifer's also observed
Dellinger moving an object from his truck to his wife’s car shortly
after 10:00 p.m. Dellinger and Sutton then left in the Oldsmobile.
At around 11:25 p.m. Dellinger and Sutton returned to the Blount
County jail. Dellinger paid a cash bond for Tommy Griffin. Officers
in the jail lobby overheard one of the defendants tell Griffin that
they needed to get him back to Sevier County. At 11:55 p.m. two
people heard two gunshots fired from an area on the Little River in
Blount County called the Blue Hole, approximately five hundred yards
down the hill from their residence. The next morning, February 22,
Jennifer saw Dellinger leave his trailer, remove the object he had
placed in his wife’s car the night before, and place the object
under his trailer. Around noon on February 22, Connie Branam,
Jennifer’s mother and Tommy Griffin’s sister, informed her daughter
Sandy of her intent to go to Blount County to look for Tommy. At
about 2:00 p.m., Connie went to Jerry Sullivan’s grocery store in
Townsend asking if anyone had seen her brother. Sullivan then saw
Connie speaking with two men in a white Dodge pickup truck in the
grocery store parking lot. Later that afternoon, Connie accompanied
Dellinger and Sutton to Howie’s Hideaway Lounge. Connie told the
afternoon bartender at Howie’s that she was looking for her brother.
Responding to Dellinger’s questioning, the bartender repeatedly told
them that she remembered Dellinger, Sutton, and Tommy Griffin from
the night before. When Dellinger asked if she remembered with whom
Griffin left, she responded that they were still at the bar when her
shift ended. Dellinger told the bartender that they last saw Griffin
with a short, dark-haired, ugly woman. When the bartender’s shift
ended at 5:00 p.m. on February 22, Connie, Dellinger, and Sutton
were still drinking beer in the bar. Another woman worked the next
shift at Howie’s. When she approached Connie, Dellinger, and Sutton
to ask if they needed anything, Dellinger asked her if she
remembered them from the night before. She responded that she
recalled seeing Dellinger and Sutton with another man drinking beer
and playing pool. Connie explained that she was looking for her
brother and asked with whom he had left the bar. The woman became
confused because she knew that Griffin had left with Dellinger and
Sutton. Dellinger asked the woman if she remembered them returning
to Howie’s after they bailed Griffin out of jail, but she knew that
the three had not returned to Howie’s because she had worked until
closing. After unsuccessfully attempting to convince her to join
them in their search for Griffin, Sutton asked her if she was
married. When Newman responded that she was married, Sutton stated,
“Well, your husband is going to be surprised whenever you’re missing
one morning, when he wakes up and you’re missing.” Dellinger,
Sutton, and Connie left Howie’s around 6:30 p.m. About 8:00 p.m.
that night, a couple observed a fire in the woods near the Clear
Fork area of Sevier County. The following morning, the woman watched
a white truck occupied by two men leave the woods and head toward
the main road. She testified that the truck was traveling rapidly
and that it came from the general area where they had observed the
fire the night before. On Monday, February 24, around 3:30 p.m.
Tommy Griffin’s body was discovered lying face-down on a bank at the
Blue Hole. He had been shot in the back of the neck at the base of
the skull with a shotgun. Two 12-gauge shotgun shell casings and
beer cans were found near the body. The shotgun shells were fired
from the same gun that fired shells later found in Dellinger’s yard.
Forensic pathologist Dr. Charles Harlan opined that Griffin had died
between 6:00 p.m. on February 21 and 8:00 a.m. on February 22. Dr.
Eric Ellington with the Blount County Medical Examiner’s Office
conducted the autopsy on Griffin’s body. He concluded that the cause
of death was the destruction of the brain stem from the shotgun
wound. Ellington retrieved two metal pellets and two pieces of
shotgun wadding from Griffin’s brain. The pellets were consistent
with pellets loaded in the 12-gauge “00” buckshot casings found near
Griffin’s body. On Friday, February 28, Connie Branam’s body was
discovered in her burned vehicle in the wooded area where the couple
had observed the fire on February 22. Arson investigator Gary Clabo
determined that the fire had been set by human hands, started by an
outside ignition source with the use of an accelerant. Connie’s body
was so badly burned that forensic anthropologist Dr. William Bass
was unable to determine the cause or time of death. Dental records
were necessary to identify the body. Investigators discovered a
rifle shell in the burned vehicle that had been fired from the .303
rifle later found in Dellinger’s trailer. Based upon the above
evidence, the jury convicted Dellinger and Sutton of the first
degree premeditated murder of Griffin. At the penalty stage, the
State presented evidence that Dellinger and Sutton were previously
convicted of first degree premeditated murder of Connie Branam in
Sevier County in 1993. The State also presented proof that Sutton
was convicted of aggravated assault in Cobb County, Georgia in 1983.
The defense presented mitigation witnesses, including family
members, friends, acquaintances, and clinical psychologists.
Dellinger presented proof that he was raised in a large family with
eight children. His parents were loving but were harsh
disciplinarians, and his family was very poor. Dellinger left school
when he was ten years old and never learned to read or write. He
became a carpenter, and testimony showed that he was a good employee
until 1990 when he sustained a back injury that forced him to quit
working. Dellinger has four children and two stepchildren from his
two marriages. Two of his children had died tragically–an
eighteen-year-old daughter died in a car accident, and a
fifteen-month-old son died when a stove fell on him. Dellinger
presented evidence that he is a non-violent, religious, helpful, and
kind-hearted man. He had been a well-behaved prisoner and had
prevented another prisoner from committing suicide. Clinical
psychologist Dr. Peter Young testified that Dellinger has an IQ
between 72 and 83 and has borderline personality disorder. He
related that due to a lack of family nurturing Dellinger is
distrustful of others. Young testified that although Dellinger is
not violent he is capable of “flaring up” when drunk and angry.
Young opined that Dellinger would do well in a structured prison
environment. Sutton presented evidence showing that he had been a
good employee and a well-behaved prisoner. His parents divorced when
he was a toddler, and he dropped out of school in the eighth grade.
Sutton has one daughter, and witnesses testified that he gets along
well with children. Witnesses also testified that he is a generous
man and a good family man who provided assistance to his
sister-in-law and her son when his sister-in-law had surgery. He
also saved his niece’s life by rescuing her from a fire. Sutton is a
good artist. He draws well and makes woodwork items as gifts and to
earn money. Sutton’s brother testified that the aggravated assault
conviction was based upon an incident in which Sutton was merely
present when his brother fired a gun into a car and the bullet
bounced into a mobile home and struck a woman in the leg. Clinical
psychologist Dr. Eric S. Engum testified that Sutton’s IQ is between
77 and 83. His intellect, social judgment, abstract reasoning, and
vocabulary are limited. Engum related that Sutton had suffered
undiagnosed learning disabilities. Sutton’s father was an alcoholic,
and Sutton began abusing alcohol at the age of twelve. Sutton
suffered mental and physical abuse due to the conflict between his
parents and learned distrust of others at an early age. Engum stated
that Sutton self-anaesthetized through the use of alcohol and
marijuana. Engum diagnosed Sutton with a depressive disorder and a
mixed personality disorder with passive/aggressive and anti-social
features. Engum opined that prison would be a good environment for
Sutton. The jury returned its verdict, finding the aggravating
circumstance, that the defendants were previously convicted of a
felony whose statutory elements involve the use of violence to the
person. The jury found that this aggravating factor outweighed any
mitigating circumstances and sentenced Dellinger and Sutton to
death. |
|
Date of scheduled execution |
State |
Victim name |
Inmate name |
Status |
|
June 11, 2009 |
Alabama |
Aileen Pruitt, 27
Stephanie Alexis Gach, 21
Betty Jo Richards
Virginia Bryant
Michelle Thomas
Susan Hill |
Jack
Trawick |
executed |
 Jack
Harrison Trawick abducted Stephanie Gach from the parking lot of her
apartment complex in Birmingham on October 9, 1992, after following
her home from a local shopping mall. Trawick took Stephanie to an
isolated area, where he beat her with a hammer, strangled her,
stabbed her through the heart, and tossed her body off an
embankment. Her body was found on October 10, 1992. On October 26,
1996, while investigating reports of several attempted abductions of
women, the Jefferson County Sheriff's Department interviewed Trawick
as a suspect in relation to those reports. During a second
interview, the police asked Trawick whether he had had any
involvement with the murder of Stephanie Gach. In a third interview,
conducted on October 29, 1996, Trawick indicated that he knew
something about the murder and, in a fourth interview conducted on
the same day, Trawick confessed to the crime; he was then arrested
for it. The grand jury indicted Trawick for the capital offense of
murder committed during a first-degree kidnapping. After
arraignment, he pleaded not guilty and not guilty by reason of
mental disease or defect. After a trial, the jury found Trawick
guilty of capital murder and by a vote of 10-2 recommended a
sentence of death; the trial court sentenced him to death in
accordance with this recommendation. In 1995 a jury also found him
guilty of killing 27-year-old Aileen Pruitt and sentenced him to
life in prison. |
|
Date of scheduled execution |
State |
Victim name |
Inmate name |
Status |
|
June 17, 2009 |
Missouri |
Julie Kerry, 20
Robin
Kerry, 19 |
Reginald Clemons |
stayed |
 On
the night of April 4, 1991, Marlin Gray, Reginald Clemons, Daniel
Winfrey and Antonio Richardson encountered two sisters, Julie and
Robin Kerry, and their cousin, Thomas Cummins, 19. The two groups
chatted briefly, then parted. After a few minutes, Gray and his
group returned and sexually assaulted the sisters. The sisters and
their cousin were pushed off the bridge. Cummins survived the
70-foot fall and swam ashore; Julie’s body was recovered in
Caruthersville three weeks later. Robin’s body was never found. A
St. Louis Circuit Court jury found Gray guilty of two counts of
first-degree murder and imposed two death sentences on Dec. 9, 1992.
He was executed on October 26, 2005. Winfrey, who was 15 at the
time, received a 30-year sentence. Clemons was sentenced to death on
April 9, 1993. Richardson, who was also sentenced to death, had his
sentence overturned on appeal to life in prison.
|
|
Date of scheduled execution |
State |
Victim name |
Inmate name |
Status |
|
June 18, 2009 |
Pennsylvania |
Lucille Horner, 88
Minnie Warrick, 86
Sarah Knutz, 85 |
Roland Steele |
stayed |
| Roland William Steele was
convicted in January 1986 of three counts of first-degree murder in
the karate-style killings of 88-year-old Lucille Horner, 86-year-old
Minnie Warrick and 85-year-old Sarah Knutz. The women, all of East
Washington, were leaving a charity luncheon when Steele conned them
into letting him drive their car. Their bodies were found on the
morning of June 22, 1985, in a secluded, wooded area off a dirt road
in Cecil Township. During the investigation, the police learned that
the three victims had attended a luncheon together on Friday, June
21 at 1:00 p.m. at the former Club International in the Millcraft
Shopping Center in Washington and that they had driven to this event
together in Lucille Horner’s car, a
beige four-door Dodge Dart. A woman testified that on June 21, 1985,
she observed, from her apartment window overlooking the shopping
center parking lot, an elderly woman standing with a bald,
well-dressed, African-American man, identified as Steele, next to a
car. She noticed Steele pointing to the rear of the car as if
something was wrong with the tire. The two got into the car, with
Steele in the driver’s seat, and drove away, apparently to pick up
the other two victims who were waiting for the car at another
location in the shopping center. Another witness testified that on
June 21, 1985, she was at the Millcraft Shopping Center at
approximately 2:15, and, as she was parking her car, she observed
Steele holding open the rear door of a vehicle (later determined to
be Lucille Horner’s car) as two elderly women entered the rear seat.
A third witness testified that he was personally acquainted with
Lucille Horner, who was his friend’s mother-in-law. The witness
owned a shop across the street from the shopping center, and
observed Lucille Horner in the passenger seat of her car, with two
elderly women in the back seat and Steele driving, as the vehicle
left the shopping center at about 2:30 p.m. The owner of a gas
station and convenience store 1.5 miles, or a four minute drive from
where the bodies were found testified that he observed a cream
colored Dodge or Plymouth four-door sedan drive into his station
between 3:00 and 3:30 p.m. on the day of the murders, June 21, 1985.
Steele got out of the car, and there were no other occupants in the
vehicle. Witnesses inside the store, who identified Steele from a
photographic array, stated that he purchased some soda, and handed a
child a gold-chain necklace. He left the store and drove away,
heading north. Shortly thereafter, the owner observed Steele driving
the same vehicle heading south past the station. Steele appeared a
third time, between 4:00 and 4:30, when he coasted into the station
with the motor off. An employee assisted Steele in restarting the
car, and he drove away. The station owner identified Lucille
Horner’s vehicle as the car he had seen Steele driving during his
multiple stops at the service station throughout the day of the
murders. Other witnesses identified the necklace Steele gave to the
child as belonging to Minnie Warrick. Evidence was also introduced
at trial concerning a burglary that occurred that day at a home
which was located three-tenths of a mile, about a thirty second
drive, from the service station. A witness testified that her
residence was broken into between 3:25 and 4:50 p.m. on June 21,
1985. She identified evidence introduced at trial as items stolen
from her home, and further identified the bottom portion of a dress
that she had found in her home while cleaning up after the burglary,
which Minnie Warrick’s relative identified as the dress Minnie
Warrick wore to the luncheon. In fact, the top portion of Minnie
Warrick’s dress was on her body when it was discovered June 22,
1985. At this time, Steele resided with his girlfriend, Joan
Whitlock, approximately thirty minutes from the service station. Ms.
Whitlock’s neighbors testified that on the evening of June 21, 1985,
they observed Steele driving a beige four-door sedan, and saw him
unloading from this car items later identified as belonging to the
burglary victims. When Steele was arrested on June 23, 1985,
numerous items identified as from the burglary were discovered in
his possession. A white vinyl purse, identified as the property of
one of the victims and containing credit cards in the name of two
victims, Lucille Horner and Sarah Kuntz, was found on the grounds
outside a housing project in McKees Rocks, approximately one mile
from Ms. Whitlocks’ residence. Ms. Whitlock’s brother resided there,
and testified that Steele visited him the night of June 21, 1985. A
man testified that he grew up with Steele, and that at one time
Steele had lived approximately 600-800 yards from where the victims’
bodies were found. Testimony also established that Steele had been
an instructor in martial arts, and held a black belt in karate. At
autopsy, Dr. Earnest L. Abernathy of Washington County determined
that the victims were killed the previous day between 12:30 p.m. and
9:30 p.m. At Steele’s trial, Dr. Abernathy testified that Lucille
Horner’s injuries included significant bruising on her chin, chest,
and back, damage to her heart, numerous fractures of her ribs, a
fracture of her backbone, damage to her liver, and a torn larynx.
Dr. Abernathy concluded that the cause of death was traumatic
rupture of the heart. The autopsy of Sarah Kuntz revealed similar
injuries, including bruises on her face, chest, and legs,
lacerations to the scalp, fractured ribs, and damage to her heart
and liver. Dr. Abernathy concluded that the cause of death was
asphyxia due to a fracture of the larynx. With regard to Minnie
Warrick, Dr. Abernathy testified that she also sustained bruising to
the face and chest, fractured ribs, and heart damage, as well as a
partially collapsed lung and blowout of the stomach wall. The cause
of death for Minnie Warrick was traumatic rupture of the heart, with
numerous companion injuries. Dr. Abernathy testified that the
pattern of bruising was similar in all three cases, caused by
substantial blunt force blows, which, in his opinion, were most
likely delivered by human hands. Further, the Commonwealth
submitted expert testimony from an FBI Special Agent who testified
that he examined samples of a hair found on Steele’s clothing, and
determined that the hair had characteristics similar to that of
Minnie Warrick’s, and in his expert opinion, the hair was Minnie
Warrick’s. The Commonwealth’s last witness at trial was Sarah Hair.
Ms. Hair testified that on June 18, 1985, three days before the
murders, at approximately 6:15 p.m., she was sitting in her car in
the parking lot of Chartiers Valley Shopping Center in Bridgeville
when she was approached by a bald African-American man whom she
identified as Steele. Steele told her that her car had a flat tire.
Ms. Hair inspected the tire, but could see nothing out of the
ordinary. Steele was persistent, she stated, saying that he observed
someone “fooling” with the tire. Steele attempted to extract a nail
from the tire, and after several minutes offered to drive Ms. Hair
to a service station to have the tire repaired. She refused his
offer, and attempted to drive away. Steele, however, blocked her
from driving away, then bent down and stood up holding a pair of
scissors, claiming to have found them under the tire. Ms. Hair took
the scissors, saying she would take them to the police. Steele took
them back, and stated that he would take them there. As a result of
this incident, Ms. Hair made a complaint with the Collier Township
Police. Steele testified on his own behalf, denying his involvement
in the homicides and the burglary. He admitted that he was in the
area on June 21, 1985, to see an attorney, but that he left,
returning by car to Pittsburgh at about 12:45 or 1:00 p.m. with a
man known to him only as “P.I.” Steele further testified that he
came to be in possession of the burglary victim’s belongings after
meeting with P.I. on the night of the 21st in the Hill District of
Pittsburgh. Other defense evidence included defense experts who
offered their opinions that the blows sustained by the victims were
not the result of a karate-style attack, karate blows, or a human
hand. Finally, although other witnesses testified as to Steele’s
whereabouts on June 21, 1985, none were able to account for the time
between 12:00 noon and 7:00 p.m. Dr. Richard Berkey conducted a
psychiatric evaluation of Steele in connection with the guilt phase.
Dr. Berkey concluded that Steele evidenced some grandiose and
paranoid tendencies; his thinking was highly organized; there was no
indication of bizarre of delusional ideation; and Steele did not
seem psychotic or incompetent. Following the guilt phase, trial
counsel presented the testimony of two individuals at the penalty
phase in support of the “catch-all mitigator: Lamont Stephens and
Steele’s mother. Mr. Stephens testified that when Steele was
seventeen, he saved Mr. Stephens, then two years old, from being
killed by a train. For this heroic act, Steele received the Carnegie
Hero Award. Steele’s mother likewise testified about this award and
stated that her son had always been nonviolent. Following the
conclusion of the penalty phase, the jury found three aggravating
circumstances with respect to Lucille Horner and Minnie Warrick,
and, with respect to Sarah Kuntz, the jury found two aggravating
circumstances. In each instance the jury found that the aggravating
circumstances outweighed the catch-all mitigator apparently accepted
by the jury. |
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Page last updated
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