Death Penalty Crimes
Sharpjfa
Dennis Reid could receive a second death sentence today. A Memphis jury
has found Reid guilty on all charges in the robbery, kidnapping and
murder case. Reid robbed the Clarksville Baskin-Robbins in 19-97. He
also kidnapped and killed employees Michelle Mace and Angela Holmes.
Earlier this year, Reid was convicted and given the death penalty for
two murders at Captain D's. He faces a third death penalty trial in
connection with three murders at McDonald's.
RetCop1035
>Paul Reid Sentencing Today -
If there was a monster in the mold of Gacy/Dahmer or Bundy, this is the guy.
He should have been executed after his first murder conviction.
chb
Sharpjfa
for a man who admits brutally killing three women and raping a fourth
continues today in Jefferson County. K-M-G-H reports that the sole
survivor of the murder spree testified at the hearing yesterday. The
woman reportedly told the three-judge panel deciding the fate of William
"Cody" Neal how he tricked her into entering a townhouse with him in
July 1998, where he tied her to a mattress and forced her to watch him
kill 28-year-old Angela Fite with an axe. The woman said Neal also
showed her the bodies of the two other women. The victim told the judges
Neal then raped her and held her hostage until he confessed to police.
Sharpjfa
Death Penalty in Tenn. Murder Case
By TOM SHARP
Associated Press Writer
CLARKSVILLE, Tenn. (AP) — A man already facing execution for killing
two fast-food workers in Nashville was sentenced to death again today
for murdering two ice cream shop employees.
Paul Reid's murderous crime spree terrorized fast-food restaurant
workers across Tennessee in spring 1997. Seven murders between
February and April prompted some parents to forbid their children to
work at fast-food restaurants.
Montgomery County Circuit Court Judge John Gasaway set the execution
date for April 23, the third anniversary of the ice cream shop
workers' killings. Sentencing on the non-murder convictions was set
for Nov. 4.
``It's not going to bring them back but it's insurance that he's
never, ever going to do this to anyone else's child again,'' said
Connie Black, mother of 16-year-old victim Michelle Mace.
The jury brought from Memphis because of intense local publicity
about the case deliberated for about four hours over two days.
Reid, 41, showed no emotion when the decision was read.
He was convicted Saturday of premeditated murder, felony murder,
especially aggravated kidnapping and especially aggravated robbery in
the deaths of Mace and Angela Holmes, 21.
The two were kidnapped the night of April 23, 1997, during a robbery
at a Baskin-Robbins ice cream shop in Clarksville, about 60 miles
northwest of Nashville. Their bodies, with throats slashed, were
found the next day at a state park a few miles away.
Reid's attorneys claimed he suffered brain damage as a child and
argued he should be spared execution because of his ``broken brain.''
Prosecutors said he should die because of the cruelty of the murders
and his past crimes.
Reid was convicted in April and sentenced to death for murdering two
Captain D's workers during a robbery in Nashville in February 1997.
Execution in that case was set for Feb. 16, the third anniversary of
those shootings.
He faces a third trial in November on charges he killed three workers
at a Nashville McDonald's in March 1997.
CBofGDALE
damage and they never killed poor minimum wage teen-agers working for a college
education at night just for pocket change.
Peter Morris
CBofGDALE wrote in message <19990924054527...@ng-fd1.aol.com>...
I was unaware that Don Kool and Joe1orbit were personal friends of yours.
You have my sympathies.
Sharpjfa
2nd Supremacist Gets Death Penalty
By C. BRYSON HULL Associated Press Writer
BRYAN, Texas (AP) - White supremacist Lawrence Russell Brewer once told
his prison cohort that a life sentence for a vicious hate killing would
do ``no justice.''
A jury agreed Thursday, sentencing the 32-year-old career criminal to
death for the June 7, 1998, dragging death of James Byrd Jr., 49.
Brewer's former prison pal, John William King, 24, is already on death
row, convicted and condemned in February for murdering the black man,
who was chained by his ankles to a pickup truck and dragged to his death
15 months ago.
A third man, Shawn Allen Berry, also 24, awaits a capital murder trial
next month in his hometown of Jasper, where the killing took place.
Brewer wrote in a jailhouse letter to King that the two of them had
become stars and that he was a ``hero of the day.'' In the same note,
introduced as evidence and written after the two were arrested for
Byrd's murder, Brewer mused that a lethal injection would be a ``little
old sleeping medicine.''
Both met in prison where they joined the Confederate Knights of America,
a racist group, and adorned themselves with racist tattoos.
The death sentence for Brewer came as a relief to prosecutors, who
weathered two days of deliberations and what appeared to be a near-miss
for the punishment they sought.
``I'm not a death penalty fan,'' Jasper County District Attorney Guy
James Gray said. ``But this is a situation where if you don't give the
death penalty to this man, he'll hurt and kill again.''
A life sentence seemed close for Brewer, when the jury sent a note in
their 13th hour of deliberations indicating they were unable to reach a
conclusion for the third and final question they were tasked with
answering: whether there were any mitigating circumstances to spare
Brewer's life.
To reach that point, the jury had already answered affirmatively that
Brewer planned to kill Byrd and was a future danger to society. State
District Judge Monte Lawlis instructed the jurors to continue
deliberating unless they were ``unequivocally'' certain they could not
reach a unanimous decision, which is required to hand down the death
penalty.
Less than an hour later, they had.
``They took their time looking for some mitigating circumstances, but
they weren't going to find it,'' said Byrd's sister, Mary Verrett, as
she hugged police and prosecutors just after the verdict. ``They dug for
it. But there are no mitigating circumstances.''
The jury's answer was not a shock to Brewer, his lead attorney said.
``Russell had resigned himself to this,'' said Doug Barlow.
Brewer's family, speaking before the verdict came down, had also
prepared for the worst.
``My son has been convicted of a horrible, horrible crime. I don't
excuse his actions, though I honestly believe that when he took the
stand he told the truth,'' Lawrence Russell Brewer Sr., Brewer's father,
wrote in a statement. ``If he gets the death penalty, I can accept it. I
know it would be God's will.''
Two hours after the punishment verdict, Brewer, in shackles and wearing
an orange jail jumpsuit, was in the backseat of a silver police car for
the 50-mile trip east to death row in Huntsville.
With a second death penalty secured, Gray said he is looking forward to
trying Berry's case in late October.
``We've got a lot of work to do on Shawn Berry's case. We're not exactly
sure where it's going right now. He doesn't have the racist background
King and Brewer did, none of the tattoos.''
Sharpjfa
jury has been deliberating the case against 24-year old Melvin Douglas
Smith, Junior. He's charged with killing four men in three different
shootings going back to 1994. Two of those could result in the death
penalty.
Sharpjfa
that a man should be put to death for the murder of two women and a
nine-year-old girl. "The Austin American Statesman" reports 37-year-old
Louis Castro Perez showed no expression as the verdict was read on
Saturday. Last Thursday, Perez was found guilty of murdering Michelle
Fulwiler, her roommate, Cinda Barz and Barz's daughter, Staci Mitchell,
in their Barton Hills home on September ninth, 1998.
Rev. Don Kool
Another home run for Justice. No wonder America is the greatest
country on the face of the Earth.
Hope this helps,
Don
--
********************** You a bounty hunter?
* Rev. Don McDonald * Man's gotta earn a living.
* Baltimore, MD * Dying ain't much of a living, boy.
********************** "Outlaw Josey Wales"
http://members.home.net/oldno7
Desmond Coughlan
> > Perez Gets Death Penalty - (AUSTIN) -- A Travis County jury has decided
> > that a man should be put to death for the murder of two women and a
> > nine-year-old girl. "The Austin American Statesman" reports 37-year-old
> > Louis Castro Perez showed no expression as the verdict was read on
> > Saturday. Last Thursday, Perez was found guilty of murdering Michelle
> > Fulwiler, her roommate, Cinda Barz and Barz's daughter, Staci Mitchell,
> > in their Barton Hills home on September ninth, 1998.
> Another home run for Justice. No wonder America is the greatest
> country on the face of the Earth.
We can add geography to the (long, long) list of subjects of which
Drewl is apparently blindly ignorant.
--
Desmond Coughlan |Restez Zen ... UNIX peut le faire
des...@cybercable.fr
http://212.198.67.111/ [under construction]
Sharpjfa
side of the story in the death of a 13-year-old. Joshua Brown says Jesse
Dirkhising died when he left him tied to a bed, with his underwear taped
in his mouth, and went to get a sandwich. Authorities say the boy had
been raped, strapped to the bed face down, tied by his ankles and knees
with pillows stuffed under his stomach. An early autopsy report states
the boy died of suffocation. Prosecutors say they will seek the death
penalty for Brown and his roommate, who was also in the home when the
alleged rape and murder took place. The two are currently being held
without bond.
Sharpjfa
From: "Heike & Bob" GUNPO...@worldnet.att.net
Date: Fri, 24 September 1999 04:03 PM EDT
Message-id: <7sgm41$riq$3...@bgtnsc03.worldnet.att.net>
I was reading my OCT. 1999 issue of American Rifleman and came to the
Standing Guard column by Mr. LaPierre, in it he told of yet another school
massacre.
SCHOOL?? South Coast Early Childhood Learning Center
WHERE?? Costa Mesa, California
BODY COUNT?? DEAD-3yr old Brandon Wiener, 4yr old Sierra Soto, Maimed-4
other children.
PERP.?? Steven Allen Abrams
WEAPON OF CHOICE?? Cadillac
MOTIVE?? Abrams reportedly told police "I was going to execute these
children because
they were innocent"
He intentionally rammed his Cadillac through the playground fence.
CHARGES?? 2 counts of murder,4 counts of assault with a deadly weapon.
WHEN?? May 3, 1999. Didn't hear about it did you? HE DIDN'T USE A GUN so the
network media didn't care.
Bill & Hillary or Janet Reno never spoke of it.Why?? Because he didn't use a
gun, and besides, it would probably upset a lot of their chums to start a
ban on Cadillacs, sue the manufacturer, or sue Triple-A.
I called the local TV News stations in Phoenix AZ. To inform them of this
tragedy, I reached Barbera Washington at KTVK news (602) 207-3333 when I
told her she sort of chuckled and informed me that this was not news worthy,
and put me on elevator music(probably to try to trace the call). The bulk of
the rest of the stations I spoke to told me that something like this was
worth 20 seconds at the most, but thanked me for calling.
I am outraged to the fact that I keep hearing The Clinton's, Janet Reno, and
various other politicians giving speeches about protection/the safety of our
children, banning guns, and wearing school ID's. But no mention of this
tragedy???
I spoke to Cheryl Hawkinson at: South Coast Early Childhood Learning Center
301 Magnolia St.
Costa Mesa, CA. 92627-2303
(949) 646-4334
This tragedy has devastated the school and the families, Cheryl's health has
suffered greatly, they all need our prayers and help. I would urge everyone
to get a copy of OCT 1999 issue of American Rifleman or American Guardian,
so you have it in writing and tell everyone you know so these children will
not be forgotten.
1. I spoke t Mrs. Wiener on the phone and she informed me that Abrams has
pled NOT GUILTY by reason of temporary insanity, and is awaiting trial. I
would urge everyone to write to Governor Davis at:
Governor Gray Davis
State Capitol Building
Sacramento, CA. 95814
(916) 445-2841
and Demand JUSTICE, there is no insanity in targeting a school playground,
only COLD- BLOODED EVIL. When the incident happened one of the teachers
thought it was a heart attack or something, went to the car where Abrams was
just sitting, made eye contact wit him, and pleaded "please help me". He
looked her dead in the eye and said "NO" and leaned his head back and closed
his eyes..
2. Mrs. Wiener is putting together a memorial for the children, and starting
an organization called F.O.C.U.S.( For Our Children's Ultimate Safety) She
has to, as it appears that the President of the U.S. or Attorney General don
't seen to care.
F.O.C.U.S. will work to make playgrounds SAFE for the children, so this kind
of tragedy never occurs again. I would ask that WE ALL exhaust all resources
to assist her in her endeavors to promote and publicize F.O.C.U.S.,
something like this can only benefit our children. With all that has
happened in our schools in the last year, let us start with a SAFE
PERIMETER, internal safety, to finally achieve a solid learning environment.
The children are our future. You can contact Mrs. Wiener at the school
through the above address.
AGAIN please help in any way that you can: donations, publicity, power of
the vote, pen and paper, word of mouth. I know after having spoken to the
people at the school and Mrs. Wiener that any help would be greatly
appreciated and is greatly needed!
Our politicians have "talked the talk" I guess it is up to the AMERICAN
PEOPLE to "walk the walk" for them.
YOUR FELLOW COUNTRYMAN
Bob Johnson
Sharpjfa
By JACKIE HALLIFAX
Associated Press
TALLAHASSEE -- While courts wrestle with the question of Thomas
Provenzano's sanity, Mark Parker waits for the execution of the man who
shot him 15 years ago, leaving him paralyzed from the shoulders down.
From his vantage point, the issue seem clear.
``He was sane enough to plan it out for two or three weeks,'' Parker
said, referring to Provenzano's 1984 shooting spree in an Orlando
courthouse. ``He brought a gas mask, I assume to be prepared to deal
with the SWAT team if he got into a barricaded situation. He brought
extra ammo.''
Provenzano was an unemployed electrician when he walked into the Orange
County Courthouse in January 1984 armed with a shotgun, an assault
rifle, a revolver and a knapsack carrying ammunition, all hidden under a
large Army-style jacket.
He muttered threats against two police officers who had charged him with
disorderly conduct five months earlier. When a bailiff approached to
search him, Provenzano shot the bailiff and two colleagues. One of the
victims was Parker, who was 19 at the time.
Provenzano's other victims were William Wilkerson, a 60-year-old who had
retired from the Navy 14 years earlier as a lieutenant commander, and
Harry Dalton, a 53-year-old father of six. Wilkerson died immediately;
Dalton was paralyzed and died seven years later.
Provenzano was clear-headed enough to pick his targets when he opened
fire, Parker said.
``He only went after law enforcement,'' he said. ``He knew what he was
doing. If he's gone insane while in jail, that's his problem.''
Florida law, however, bars execution of an insane person, based on the
constitutional ban on cruel and unusual punishment. The Florida Supreme
Court on Thursday gave Provenzano his fourth stay of execution this
summer, directing a retired judge to hold another hearing into his claim
of insanity.
A Wyoming psychologist has said Provenzano believes he is Jesus Christ
and faces execution because of that.
Earlier this month, a trial judge ruled Provenzano, 50, has the mental
capacity to understand why the state is trying to execute him. But the
judge didn't extend the hearing to allow the Wyoming psychologist to
testify, which Florida's high court said was a mistake big enough to
require another hearing.
Another trial judge ruled last month that the electric chair is
constitutional. The state Supreme Court upheld that decision Friday. But
the question doesn't interest Parker.
``As far as it being cruel and unusual punishment, he was an
electrician, he knows how it feels,'' Parker said after the high court
granted Provenzano his latest stay.
Parker said his reaction to the latest reprieve was ``nothing you can
put in the paper.''
But then he finds some words that can be printed and he repeats one --
``ridiculous'' -- several times as he discusses the reprieve.
``It's definitely becoming monotonous,'' he said. ``I can't understand
what they're holding off on, what's their excuse this time. Fifteen
years ago, he was found guilty of premeditated first-degree murder, he
was sentenced to death by a judge.''
Now 35, Parker said he won't stop making plans to witness Provenzano's
execution -- whenever it happens.
``If they execute him before we all die of old age, I'll plan on going
to it.''
Sharpjfa
the death penalty. A three-judge panel at Jefferson County Court ruled
unanimously that the convicted axe murderer should die.
Forty-two-year-old Neal admitted killing three women and raping another.
He represented himself during the death penalty portion of his trial. On
Monday, Neal informed the judges that he is not the same man he was when
he killed his victims. A date for the execution has not yet been set.
Sharpjfa
September 20, 1999
ABC
(CHICAGO) -- A man convicted of killing his wife with an axe and drowning his
daughter could be released from prison next year. Forty-one-year-old Lee
Robin has been incarcerated at the Elgin Mental Health Center since he admitted
the
murders in 1988."The Chicago Tribune" reports that Cook County Judge James
Flannery apparently sees no reason not to release Robin. But relatives of his
murdered wife Annette are reportedly upset with the plan, saying that Robin is
a "medicated maniac" who should not be released.
***HOW THIS MURDERER ENDED UP IN A HOSPITAL IS A MYSTERY**
------------------------------------------------------------
The following appears courtesy of the 9/15/99 online edition of The Chicago
Sun-Times newspaper:
Man who killed family wants out of hospital
September 15, 1999
BY CHARLES NICODEMUS STAFF REPORTER
A Palatine doctor who killed his wife with an ax and drowned his 2
1/2-month-old daughter would like to have another "romantic interest" if
conditionally released from a state hospital, a prosecutors' psychiatrist
testified Tuesday.
However, psychiatrist Linda Gruenberg said the former physician, Lee
Robin,told her he wouldn't mention his past problems to any new girlfriend
"until the relationship became serious."
Dr. Gruenberg testified at the opening of a Circuit Court hearing in which
Robin, who was found not guilty by reason of insanity in the 1988 murders, is
seeking court approval for unsupervised trips outside Elgin State Hospital and
eventual release, on the condition he continue to get psychiatric treatment and
take medication--lithium--for his severe "bipolar" depression.
As an expert witness for the state's attorney's office, Dr. Gruenberg
said Robin told her during a lengthy interview that he was interested in
meeting a woman, marrying and raising a family.
Assistant State's Attorney Darren O'Brien, who opposes the release on
behalf of the prosecutor's office, asked: "Did he say he'd look for a wife on
the
Jerry Springer show?"
When Robin's attorney, Marc Kadish, objected, O'Brien dropped the
question.
Kadish says psychiatrists at Elgin, and at the Isaac Ray psychiatric
center at Rush-Presbyterian-St. Luke's Medical Center, believe Robin's mental
illness has been in "complete remission" since he began taking lithium in 1990
and
he is ready for a carefully phased-in release.
Robin sought similar release rulings at hearings in 1992 and 1994, but was
rejected. However Judge James Flannery, who is hearing Robin's current
petition, said in 1994 that he didn't believe Robin was "a flight risk."
Robin, who also suffered depression in medical school and during his residency,
married in 1984.
Four years later he killed his wife Annette, 28, with an ax as she slept, then
drowned his daughter in the bathtub.
Dr. Gruenberg agreed Robin appeared ready to make unsupervised trips
from Elgin--by train--to the Isaac Ray center, as "a start." But she opposed
any "conditional release" ruling "at this time."
Annette Robin's sister, Barbara Wronkiewicz, said outside court: "They
shouldn't release him. Who knows whether he'll continue to take his
medication, or whether the same kind of tragedy could happen all over again."
The hearing is expected to run through Thursday.
CBofGDALE
- - - -
Forty-two-year-old Neal admitted killing three women and raping another.
he killed his victims.
- - - -
But the victims are the same; rotting in the ground or ashes sitting in a vase.
CBofGDALE
wall around this school so that this can never happen again. Why this
disgusting crime against little children was considered only a local news item
is puzzling to me.
Sharpjfa
From: "Marcus J. Maunula" marc...@mbox301.swipnet.se
Date: Thu, 30 September 1999 04:07 PM EDT
Message-id: <OhPI3.840$HX....@nntpserver.swip.net>
Masato Yokoyama was sentenced to death today in Japan. He's one of the 5
behind the
death cult responsible for the nerve gas attack in Tokyo subway. 12 dead and
1000's of wounded.
I'm normally against DP but in some cases like this and the Oklahoma bombing
I am more unsure. It could
be viewed as a declaration of war against civilians and maybe treated as
crimes against humanity.
Personally I am not against use of DP in those cases.
Marcus
Sharpjfa
October 2, 1999
Accused killer West in court
Charged in 1970 sex slaying
By JOHN SCHMIED -- Peel Bureau
BRAMPTON -- The former Toronto cop arrested in August for the 1970
murders of two nurses and suspected in a number of other killings
appeared briefly in court yesterday.
Ronald Glenn West, 52, wearing handcuffs and the same Carolina Panthers
football team sweatshirt he wore at a Sept. 3 appearance, sat
impassively next to an OPP detective in the prisoner's box during his
three-minute appearance.
Assistant Crown attorney Brian McGuire told the Ontario Court of
Justice that he and West's lawyer, Dan Scully of Kingston, who was not
in court, agreed to an adjournment until Jan. 14, when a date for a
preliminary hearing or pre-trial is expected to be set.
West, a Metro Police constable from 1968 to '72, is charged with two
counts of non-capital murder (now called first-degree murder) for the
sex slayings of Doreen Moorby, 34, and Helen Ferguson, 38.
Moorby was found by her school teacher husband in their rural Gormley
home on May 6, 1970. She had been shot five times in the back of the
head and twice in the back.
Ferguson was shot once in the back of the head and twice in the back
inside her home in rural Palgrave on May 19, 1970.
West currently is serving a sentence for robberies in Kingston. He was
ordered returned to his Kingston prison cell until his next court
appearance.
West is being investigated for a number of murders in Northern Ontario
and the Ottawa area.
Sharpjfa
10/02/99
By Peggy Fikac / Associated Press
AUSTIN - Nearly eight years after the murder of four teenage girls at a
yogurt shop, a report that arrests are imminent is bringing hope to a
community still horrified by the crime.
"The whole thing was a nightmare for the community. . . . They were just
fine girls, all of them, just supernice girls, the kind of girls you'd
want your son to date," said Evelyn McNair, church secretary at St.
Louis Catholic Church, where the funeral was held for the slain
teenagers.
She said she thought it was "fantastic" when she heard a news report
that arrests could be made.
"The Police Department has devoted so much time to this over the years .
. . I really do think the community would rejoice with the families if
this was brought to closure," she said. One of the girls was her son's
classmate.
The Austin American-Statesman reported Friday that police are preparing
to arrest four suspects in the murders of the girls - Eliza Hope Thomas,
17; Amy Ayers, 13; Jennifer Harbison, 17; and Sarah Harbison, 15,
Jennifer's sister.
The newspaper said that according to people close to the investigation,
two suspects have given confessions detailing what happened the night of
the murders.
The girls were each shot in the head on Dec. 6, 1991, at the yogurt shop
where Eliza and Jennifer worked. The store then was set on fire.
A high-ranking law enforcement official who spoke on condition of
anonymity said the suspects don't live in Austin, but two live in Texas,
the newspaper reported.
One of the suspects was questioned by investigators soon after the
crime, but detectives moved on to what appeared more promising leads
when the suspect stopped talking, the American-Statesman reported.
Austin Police Department spokeswoman Toni Chovanetz wouldn't confirm the
news report or say when an arrest might be made.
"With all open cases we cannot discuss the details of an ongoing
investigation," she said.
In a joint statement, Austin Police Chief Stanley L. Knee and Travis
County District Attorney Ronnie Earle said the investigation by state,
local and federal offices into the murders is continuing.
"Although there is progress in the investigation, no comments will be
made since it is an open investigation," they said.
The newspaper reported that, according to the law enforcement official,
police believe four males - two adults and two who were juveniles at the
time - drove up to the yogurt shop the night of the killings. Three went
inside.
Police believe robbery was the motive, but some of the girls were
sexually assaulted, the newspaper reported. The girls didn't know the
suspects, it reported.
This isn't the first time police thought they were close to solving the
case.
One man in Mexico reportedly confessed to the killings and was sentenced
to prison for an unrelated murder. But relatives of the victims said
they believe his statement may have been coerced.
Austin officials also speculated that paroled killer Kenneth Allen
McDuff may have been to blame since he was convicted of abducting and
murdering a woman at a carwash. Mr. McDuff was executed in November 1998
without shedding any light on the yogurt shop case.
To honor the memory of their daughters, the victims' families formed We
Will Not Forget SAJE. The initials stand for the girls' first names.
In 1994, the families settled a lawsuit with the owners of the yogurt
shop and the shopping center for $12 million. They used part of the
money to publish a 65-page safety manual, "How to Survive and Thrive at
Work," designed for teenagers, parents and employers.
CBofGDALE
onto the streets after a few years.
Sharpjfa
.c The Associated Press
VARNER, Ark. (AP) - A convicted killer who taunted his victim's family at his
trial last month escaped from prison and is a suspect in a new slaying.
Kenneth D. Williams, sentenced to life without parole for the abduction-slaying
of a college cheerleader, was discovered missing from the maximum security
Cummins Unit about 6 p.m. Sunday, according to prison spokeswoman Dina Tyler.
But Tyler said the last sure sighting of Williams inside the prison was
believed to have several hours earlier. That was before a man was found shot to
death about six miles from the prison and his pickup truck stolen, state police
spokesman Bill Sadler said.
Williams was convicted Sept. 14 of capital murder and sentenced to life in
prison without parole for the slaying of Dominique Hurd, 19, of Fort Worth,
Texas.
The cheerleader at the University of Arkansas at Pine Bluff was abducted along
with a friend, Peter Robinson, outside a restaurant Dec. 13.
The man forced them to drive to an automatic teller machine and withdraw money,
then to drive to a rural area, where he shot them and took their car.
Robertson crawled to a road and waved down drivers. Ms. Hurd died early the
next morning at a hospital.
After jurors decided on a recommendation of life without parole, instead of
execution, Williams turned and gloated to the victim's relatives in the
courtroom at Pine Bluff.
``You thought I was going to die, didn't you?'' Williams said to them.
On Sunday, the body of Cecil Boren, 57, was discovered in some bushes near his
home, dead of an apparent gunshot wound, Sadler said. Investigators believe
Boren may have been surprised inside his home by an intruder, and taken outside
and slain, he said.
Boren's pickup truck was missing, and investigators believed Williams should be
considered a suspect in the slaying, he said.
AP-NY-10-04-99 0813EDT
mart
which is not really surprising, considering you know nothing about your own
country either.
In Canada, the manditory sentence for first degree murder is 25 years
before possability of parole. This is hardly "a few years". If the convict
is convicted of several crimes, the prosecutor can apply to have him
considered a dangerous offender, in which case the sentance becomes
idefinate.
mart
CBofGDALE wrote in message <19991004052218...@ng-fe1.aol.com>...
Sharpjfa
convicted last month of killing a University of Arkansas at Pine Bluff
cheerleader, and chuckling when he avoided the death penalty, has been
re-captured near Urbana, Missouri. Kenneth Williams had been on the run
since Sunday after escaping from the Cummins Maximum Security Unit in
Varner. During his brief time on the run, Williams is suspected of
killing 57-year-old Cecil Boren of Grady. Authorities say he fled the
state in Boren's pick-up truck to Missouri where he was finally arrested
late yesterday morning. Just before his arrest, Williams was allegedly
responsible for a wreck that injured one state trooper and killed the
driver of a third vehicle. He now faces charges in both Arkansas and
Missouri. He will be extradited to Arkansas as soon as officials decide
which charges against him must be answered first. Meanwhile, Cummins
Prison officials have expressed their apologies to the Cecil Boren
family. Department of Corrections authorities say they aren't sure just
how Williams managed his escape early Sunday morning, which went
undetected until late that evening. Officials are currently interviewing
other inmates. He reportedly had given prison officials no problems
since being sent to Cummins and had no visitors before his escape. A
prison spokesperson says the normal increase of activities on Sunday may
have given Williams the chance he needed to leave the area undetected.
CBofGDALE
to have the death penalty. What some states call "maximum security" and what
California calls it are two differnt things though. Here, trying to escape
from a maximum security prison would probably result in solitary confinement or
being killed.
Desmond Coughlan
> If criminals can escape from maximum security prisons that alone may
> be reason to have the death penalty.
Why? Mr Williams was only convicted last month, and therefore, even
if he had been sentenced to death, he would still have been able to
escape. Any claims that he couldn't have escaped from death row will
only incur howls and gales of derisive laughter from those of us on
this newsgroup who recall the escape from death row in Texas a few
months back.
> What some states call "maximum security" and what California calls
> it are two differnt things though. Here, trying to escape from a
> maximum security prison would probably result in solitary confinement
> or being killed.
Whatever. The fact of the matter is that the Mr William's escape from
gaol has absolutely nothing to do with the death penalty in any shape
or form, except that, if he *is* guilty of that recent murder, quite a
few deathies here will probably be glad that he did kill someone, as
he's not likely to escape a death sentence this time.
--
Desmond Coughlan |Restez Zen ... UNIX peut le faire
des...@coughlan.net
http://212.198.62.79/ [under construction]
Rev. Don Kool
> > If criminals can escape from maximum security prisons that alone may
> > be reason to have the death penalty.
> Why?
Because justly executed murderers don't escape from prisons to
murder again, my unwashed and uneducated fatherless european friend.
> Mr Williams was only convicted last month, and therefore, even
> if he had been sentenced to death, he would still have been able to
> escape.
However had he been justly punished by Death, he would not have.
> Any claims that he couldn't have escaped from death row will
> only incur howls and gales of derisive laughter from those of us on
> this newsgroup who recall the escape from death row in Texas a few
> months back.
Justice supporters are not supporting decades on Death Row. We're
supporting the just Death Penalty itself. When you come up with a
justly executed murderer who has "escaped" to murder anew, let us
know.
Obviously it is way over your head to understand Desi but
supporters of Justice aren't clamoring for the just Death Sentence
by itself. The sentencing is no different from a "life" sentence.
It is the actual Penalty of Death itself that is the only
appropriate and morally right punishment for those that choose to
murder. "Life", "LWOP", the just Death Penalty -- it's all the same
until the murderer is released or dies.
Yours in the glory that is our Lord Jesus Christ,
Sharpjfa
Ex-Cop Sentenced for Murder in Md.
WESTMINSTER, Md. (AP) - A former Baltimore police officer who shot his
pregnant mistress before turning the gun on her 5-year-old daughter has
been sentenced to two lifetime prison terms without parole.
Michael E. Thompson, 28, escaped the death penalty by agreeing to plead
guilty to both counts of murder.
Never mentioning Vicky Austin by name, Thompson acknowledged that he
``made a mistake,'' but he said ``that woman'' was also to blame because
she enraged him by constantly calling his home and hanging up,
haranguing him to pay child support and threatening to expose him to his
wife.
Ms. Austin, an exotic dancer, was eight months pregnant with Thompson's
child.
Thompson apologized in court Wednesday for killing Ms. Austin's
daughter, Jessica Morgan.
``I guess she was at the wrong place at the wrong time,'' he said.
``Just because I might not show remorse on the outside, it doesn't mean
I don't have it inside.''
Thompson's mother said during the sentencing hearing that her son was a
veteran of the Gulf War, had graduated near the top of his class from
the Baltimore Police Academy and was named Officer of the Month in
September 1995.
Ms. Austin's mother, Linda Austin of Davie, Fla., also testified and
told Thompson: ``You have given us a life sentence of pain and
suffering. May you suffer in hell 'til your dying day.''
Sharpjfa
>From: "Suzanne Burrows" suz...@moving.target.au
>Date: Thu, 07 October 1999 10:25 AM EDT
>Message-id: <01bf10cf$79467ac0$dc1e...@eburrows.ucc.su.oz.au>
Suzanne is unaware that the murder victim's mother was not a prosecutor or
judge in this case, nor would she have served on the jury in the event od a
trial. So whatever her revenge motive, if any, did not have a direct bearing on
this case.
This case resulted in a life sentence not a death sentence. So, according tio
Suzanne, a life sentence is now her evidence of revenge.
Futhermore, the financial benefit of the death penalty option is addressed
here, exactly as I addressed it in a my responses to Suzanne's incomplete death
penalty cost data.
The presence of the death penalty is the only thing that makes a life plea
bargain possible. A plea bargain to life saves the state huge resources over
trying a life case. Possibly $1-$3 million over time. A cost savings which must
be credited to the death penalty, for all those cases plea bargained to life,
in a death penalty juristiction and added to all life cases that must be tried
where no death penalty exists.
sharpjfa
JUSTICE FOR ALL websites. JFA is a
Texas based criminal justice reform
organization
http://www.jfa.net
http://www.prodeathpenalty.com
http://www.murdervictims.com
>As her comments exemplify, the DP is all about revenge.
>
>
>
>
> -----------== Posted via Newsfeeds.Com, Uncensored Usenet News ==----------
> http://www.newsfeeds.com The Largest Usenet Servers in the World!
>------== Over 73,000 Newsgroups - Including Dedicated Binaries Servers
>==-----
>
>
>
>
>
>
Desmond Coughlan
> Suzanne is unaware
Please explain to us how exactly you are able to define what Suzanne
is 'unaware' of, barring telepathic powers.
Or you could just dodge the question, and post _ad homina_.
Anyone wanna bet which one he goes for ..?
[snip]
Desmond Coughlan
> Desmond Coughlan <des...@coughlan.net> wondered why I can't seem
> to get it into my thick head that his e-mail address has changed.
> Still, from October 1995 to December 1997 when he stopped reading
> and responding to my posts, getting thrashd by Desmond was as
> regular an occurence as being laughed at as I walked down the
> street, so I suppose I should be used to losing. Desmond wrote
> this in the latest post to tear apart what I quaintly call 'my
> arguments':
[snip]
> > Mr Williams was only convicted last month, and therefore, even
> > if he had been sentenced to death, he would still have been able to
> > escape.
> However had he been subjected to an unlawful (according to
> international law) murder at the hands of my savage, mostly
> illiterate, and unthinking fellow Americans, he would still have been
> able to escape. My arguments are thus as empty as my head. Well, not
> quite THAT empty, but ... duh !!
[_ad homina_ snipped]
<sigh>
Not much else to add, is there ..?
Sharpjfa
>Date: Thu, 07 October 1999 11:02 AM EDT
>Message-id: <87k8ozg...@tortue.coughlan.net>
>
>shar...@aol.com (Sharpjfa) writes:
>
>> Suzanne is unaware
>
>Please explain to us how exactly you are able to define what Suzanne
>is 'unaware' of, barring telepathic powers.
I read her posts.
>
>Or you could just dodge the question, and post _ad homina_.
>
not at all.
>Anyone wanna bet which one he goes for ..?
the truth.
sharpjfa
>
>[snip]
Trinity
Burrows <suz...@moving.target.au> wrote:
> > Ms. Austin's mother, Linda Austin of Davie, Fla., also testified and
> > told Thompson: ``You have given us a life sentence of pain and
> > suffering. May you suffer in hell 'til your dying day.''
>
> As her comments exemplify, the DP is all about revenge.
Not really, Suzanne. The guy was given LWOP. So if I were to
over-simplify, as you did, I'd respond with something like "Obviously,
LWOP is all about revenge."
But skipping ahead: It seems wrong tp try and capitalize on a victim's
anger to score points in a newsgroup. None of us have any business
minimizing the pain or anger of a murder victim's family.
I get soooo frustrated in this group because so very few people bother
doing anything more than just typing the first cliche that comes to
mind. There's no correlation at all between Ms. Austin's anger toward
the killer of her daughter/grand daughter and the Death Penalty. You
might as well have said "As her comments exemplify, any sort of
punishment at all is all about revenge".
Suzanne Burrows
>
> Thursday October 7 1:27 AM ET
> Ex-Cop Sentenced for Murder in Md.
>
>
>
> WESTMINSTER, Md. (AP) - A former Baltimore police officer who shot his
> pregnant mistress before turning the gun on her 5-year-old daughter has
> been sentenced to two lifetime prison terms without parole.
>
> Michael E. Thompson, 28, escaped the death penalty by agreeing to plead
> guilty to both counts of murder.
>
> Never mentioning Vicky Austin by name, Thompson acknowledged that he
> ``made a mistake,'' but he said ``that woman'' was also to blame because
> she enraged him by constantly calling his home and hanging up,
> haranguing him to pay child support and threatening to expose him to his
> wife.
>
> Ms. Austin, an exotic dancer, was eight months pregnant with Thompson's
> child.
>
> Thompson apologized in court Wednesday for killing Ms. Austin's
> daughter, Jessica Morgan.
>
> ``I guess she was at the wrong place at the wrong time,'' he said.
> ``Just because I might not show remorse on the outside, it doesn't mean
> I don't have it inside.''
>
> Thompson's mother said during the sentencing hearing that her son was a
> veteran of the Gulf War, had graduated near the top of his class from
> the Baltimore Police Academy and was named Officer of the Month in
> September 1995.
>
> told Thompson: ``You have given us a life sentence of pain and
> suffering. May you suffer in hell 'til your dying day.''
As her comments exemplify, the DP is all about revenge.
Suzanne Burrows
>>From: "Suzanne Burrows" suz...@moving.target.au
> Suzanne is unaware that the murder victim's mother was not a
> prosecutor or judge in this case, nor would she have served on
> the jury in the event od a trial. So whatever her revenge motive,
> if any, did not have a direct bearing on this case.
>
> This case resulted in a life sentence not a death sentence.
> So, according tio Suzanne, a life sentence is now her
> evidence of revenge.
[...]
Yawn. I wonder how Sharp manages to produce these silly strawmen
day in, day out. Must live in a rural area.
"So whatever her revenge motive" - Sharp, her daughter, grand-daughter
and another unborn grand-child were killed...... Enough said.
And at the trial, she said to the killer "May you suffer in hell 'til your
dying day."
This is a explicit indication that she desired retribution.
Some Pros will say "The victims' families want Justice." My point
is that, without the euphemisms, they often simply want revenge.
Just like Linda Austin (the victim's mother) did.
A perfectly natural desire, I admit, but not the most important factor
that the State should be taking into account.
So like I earlier commented, and as exemplified by the comments
of Linda Austin, and as expressed by the US Supreme Court
in Gregg v. Georgia: the DP is all about revenge.
Peter Morris
Sharpjfa wrote in message <19991007131714...@ng-fj1.aol.com>...
>
>>Anyone wanna bet which one he goes for ..?
>
>
>the truth.
theres a first time for everything
Peter Morris
Sharpjfa wrote in message <19991007095934...@ng-fr1.aol.com>...
>Thursday October 7 1:27 AM ET >
>
>pregnant mistress before turning the gun on her 5-year-old daughter has
>been sentenced to two lifetime prison terms without parole.
Er, Sharp, perhaps you'd like to explain why your post was
titled 'Death penalty crimes' when it obviously wasn't ?
of course, 'LWOP crimes' wouldnt have had the same emotional
impact, would it?
Sharpjfa
>Date: Fri, 08 October 1999 02:00 PM EDT
>Message-id: <37fe3...@london.netkonect.net>
>
>
>Sharpjfa wrote in message <19991007095934...@ng-fr1.aol.com>...
>>Thursday October 7 1:27 AM ET >
>>
>>WESTMINSTER, Md. (AP) - A former Baltimore police officer who shot his
>>pregnant mistress before turning the gun on her 5-year-old daughter has
>>been sentenced to two lifetime prison terms without parole.
>
>Er, Sharp, perhaps you'd like to explain why your post was
>titled 'Death penalty crimes' when it obviously wasn't ?
I was a death penalty crime. If it wasn't it couldn't not have been plea
bargained to life.
Had there been no death penalty statute, this life case would have had to have
been tried at great copst to the state, or they would have plea bargained to
less than life, the only plea option when the dp is unavailable.
sharpjfa
Mitchell Holman
}>Subject: Re: Death Penalty Crimes
}>From: "Peter Morris" pmo...@cromwellmedia.co.uk
}>Date: Fri, 08 October 1999 02:00 PM EDT
}>Message-id: <37fe3...@london.netkonect.net>
}>
}>
}>Sharpjfa wrote in message <19991007095934...@ng-fr1.aol.com>...
}>>Thursday October 7 1:27 AM ET >
}>>
}>>WESTMINSTER, Md. (AP) - A former Baltimore police officer who shot his
}>>pregnant mistress before turning the gun on her 5-year-old daughter has
}>>been sentenced to two lifetime prison terms without parole.
}>
}>Er, Sharp, perhaps you'd like to explain why your post was
}>titled 'Death penalty crimes' when it obviously wasn't ?
}
}I was a death penalty crime. If it wasn't it couldn't not have been plea
}bargained to life.
}
}Had there been no death penalty statute, this life case would have had to have
}been tried at great copst to the state, or they would have plea bargained to
}less than life, the only plea option when the dp is unavailable.
}
Really, Sharp, I gave you more credit on legal matters
than this. Since when do life cases have to be tried or
plea bargained in non-DP states?
Read up on the cases of David Berkowitz (Son of Sam)
and Mark David Chapman (killed John Lennon) and how
they drew life sentences on their case, in a non-DP state,
without having a trial or a plea bargain.
Sharpjfa
>Date: Fri, 08 October 1999 04:08 PM EDT
>Message-id:
><3FF9CA76E6E3E102.9663B9D3...@lp.airnews.net>
Context is important. Review and get back to us.
sharpjfa
>
>
>
>
>
>
>
>
>
Mitchell Holman
So are straight answers, despite your aversion to them.
Now tell us how Chapman and Berkowitz got their life
sentences without going to trial.
Suzanne Burrows
> Suzanne Burrows <suz...@moving.target.au> wrote:
>
>>> Ms. Austin's mother, Linda Austin of Davie, Fla., also testified and
>>> told Thompson: ``You have given us a life sentence of pain and
>>> suffering. May you suffer in hell 'til your dying day.''
>>
>> As her comments exemplify, the DP is all about revenge.
>
> over-simplify, as you did, I'd respond with something like "Obviously,
> LWOP is all about revenge."
No. See below.
> But skipping ahead: It seems wrong tp try and capitalize on a victim's
> anger to score points in a newsgroup. None of us have any business
> minimizing the pain or anger of a murder victim's family.
I'm not minimizing it.
> I get soooo frustrated in this group because so very few people bother
> doing anything more than just typing the first cliche that comes to
> mind. There's no correlation at all between Ms. Austin's anger toward
> the killer of her daughter/grand daughter and the Death Penalty. You
> might as well have said "As her comments exemplify, any sort of
> punishment at all is all about revenge".
OK, this is a pretty much a rehash of what I wrote in repsonse
to some comments by Sharp.
} Ms. Austin's mother, Linda Austin of Davie, Fla., also testified and
} told Thompson: ``You have given us a life sentence of pain and
} suffering. May you suffer in hell 'til your dying day.''
Her comments explicitly show a desire for retribution.
Now Pros often justify the DP in the name of the victims and their
families. They say that murder victim's families simply want
"justice". My point was that, when you remove the euphemisms,
they often simply want revenge.
I admit this is a perfectly natural desire, but I don't think it should
be the major factor the State considers.
So I reiterate my earlier comment that - as exemplified by Linda
Austin's comments and as expressed by the US Supreme Court
in Gregg v. Georgia - the DP is all about revenge.
Sharpjfa
Lawyers Cite Fear in Death Penalty Appeals
TALLAHASSEE, Fla. (APBnews.com) -- Shaken by detailed accounts and
photographs of what happens in the electric chair, the next two men
scheduled to be executed in Florida have asked the state Supreme Court
to declare electrocution unconstitutional.
Terry Melvin Sims is slated to die at 7 a.m. Oct. 26 for killing George
Pfeil, a Central Florida police officer. Anthony Braden Bryan, another
murderer, has his date with death Oct. 27.
Cruel and unusual punishment argued
Sims' appeal, filed Friday by the West Palm Beach Public Defender's
Office, contends electrocution exposes him to "substantial risks of
suffering and degradation through physical violence, disfigurement and
torment," which would be a violation of the Eighth Amendment, which
forbids cruel and unusual punishment.
And on Tuesday, attorneys for Bryan also appealed to the state Supreme
Court, making legal arguments on Bryan's behalf that mirror those made
by Sims.
In a separate motion, Sims' lawyers have asked the court for a stay of
execution and say they intend to take the electric chair case to the
U.S. Supreme Court.
Judge posted photos online
Both appeals came after the condemned men learned explicit details of
the execution of another killer, Allen Lee "Tiny" Davis, who hemorrhaged
blood during his recent electrocution.
They learned those details through the failed appeal of yet another
death row inmate, Thomas Provenzano, whose case inspired a dissenting
judge to post three graphic photos of Davis' death online. Provenzano's
execution was postponed pending a psychological evaluation.
The appeals filed for Sims and Bryan say they are suffering
psychological distress by knowing what happened to Davis, and blame the
court.
In turning down Provenzano by a 4-3 vote just a couple of weeks ago, the
Florida Supreme Court, for the third time this decade, ruled that the
electric chair is not cruel and unusual punishment.
Justice Leander J. Shaw Jr., in his dissenting opinion that was posted
online, included three color photographs of Davis and argued that
electrocution causes unnecessary pain and suffering. The photographs
show Davis, after his execution, bleeding from his nose onto a white
shirt with numerous purple marks around his face.
'Made into a human torch'
Attorneys for Sims and Bryan cite those details in their cases.
"This court has created conditions in which Mr. Sims will suffer severe
psychological torment prior to his execution," reads part of the appeal.
"Members of this court ... have vividly described all the things that
can and do happen to an inmate during a Florida judicial execution, and
have even published color photographs of these effects."
Another part says, "Persons executed by Florida's practice of judicial
electrocution face an unconstitutional risk of being tormented and
dehumanized."
The brief also says that Sims must wait on death row "with these
pictures in mind," knowing what will be done to him.
"Florida's practice of judicial electrocution places Mr. Sims at an
unacceptable risk of being made into a human torch while being burned
and scalded on his forehead and face," the appeal says.
Bryan's appeal is similar. It says: "Mr. Bryan must await his imminent
meeting with Florida's electric chair with these pictures firmly
imprinted in his mind, acutely aware of the evidence of what will be
done to his body, and in legitimate and substantiated fear that what is
typically unseen under the death mask -- the excruciating pain intrinsic
to Florida's use of judicial electrocution -- will happen to him."
Shot during robbery
Court spokesman Craig Waters declined to comment, citing ethics rules.
Department of Corrections spokeswoman Debra Buchanan said the department
does not comment on litigation.
Sims, whose death warrant was signed by Gov. Jeb Bush on Sept. 23, was
sentenced to death for the December 1977 shooting death of Pfeil, an
off-duty sheriff's deputy who walked into a pharmacy that Sims and three
others were robbing.
Sims was wounded in the hip but was able to escape. He was captured six
months later in California and extradited to Florida.
Bryan was convicted and sentenced to death for the Aug. 12, 1983, murder
of a night security man at a wholesale seafood company. The man was
kidnapped from Mississippi and killed with a shotgun blast to the face
in Santa Rosa County.
Controversial executions
Over the past several years, Florida's electric chair has been the
subject of controversy, created by a series of mechanical and electrical
malfunctions.
Jesse Tafero had flames shoot from his headpiece when he was executed in
1990, as did Pedro Medina when he was executed in 1997. Court challenges
followed both cases, with the state's high court upholding the use of
the chair.
Currently, 38 states have capital punishment, with Alabama, Florida,
Georgia and Nebraska using electrocution as the sole method of
execution.
By David Noack, an APBnews.com staff writer
Sharpjfa
sheriff has released the identity of the second suspect being sought for
the murders of five members of a family in that county. Sheriff Tom
Alexander says the suspect is 20-year-old Christopher Wayne Lippard.
Sheriff Alexander says Lippard was picked up in Hickory early Friday
morning by law enforcement officers, where he was charged with public
intoxication and released. He was last seen in Newton at nine that
morning. Sheriff Alexander says Lippard is white with brown hair and
green eyes. He's six-feet tall and weighs 150 to 160 pounds. He was last
seen wearing a white T-shirt and baggy blue jeans. District Attorney
Charlie Hipps says he will seek the death penalty in the massacre of the
Phillips family.
Sharpjfa
>Message-id:
><5B525950980956F8.2710253F...@lp.airnews.net>
My dear Mitchel, did they receive maximum life or less than such?
sharpjfa
>
>
>
>
>
>
>
>
>
>
Sharpjfa
Arrest Made in US Embassy Bombings
By LARRY NEUMEISTER Associated Press Writer
NEW YORK (AP) - A Tanzanian whose house allegedly was used as a bomb
factory in last year's deadly attacks on two U.S. embassies in East
Africa pleaded innocent to conspiracy charges Friday and could face the
death penalty if convicted.
Khalfan Khamis Mohamed, 26, was arrested Thursday in Cape Town, South
Africa and brought to the United States for trial.
Mohamed, who had been living there under an assumed name, was named in
an indictment tracing an alleged conspiracy that resulted in the Aug. 7,
1998 bombings in Kenya and Tanzania.
U.S. District Judge Leonard B. Sand told his lawyer to quickly find
experts in death penalty litigation in the event the government chooses
a death penalty prosecution. A trial is set to start Sept. 5.
Prosecutors said Mohamed played a direct role in the attacks that killed
224 people, including 12 Americans. They allege he bought a white Suzuki
Samurai used by the conspirators two months before the attack and rented
the house in Tanzania for use as a bomb factory.
In the days prior to the attacks, he allegedly made final preparations
for the bombing of the U.S. embassy in Dar es Salaam, Tanzania.
During his arraignment Friday, Mohamed appeared relaxed as he entered
the courtroom in a blue prison uniform. Asked to enter a plea, he
answered, ``Yes, innocent.''
The judge ordered him held without bail under tight security as a flight
risk and a danger to the community.
In Cape Town, South Africa, police spokesman Capt. Rod Beer said the FBI
arrested Mohamed at the city's airport early Thursday as he was about to
be deported for being in the country illegally.
Mohamed entered South Africa a few days after the bombings under the
name of Zahran Nassor Maulid and applied for asylum. He received a
temporary residence permit.
Working in a hamburger joint, he was an unnoticed fugitive until he went
to renew his residency papers this week and was arrested by South
African authorities for entering under false pretenses.
Sipho Ngwema, a spokesman for the South African national prosecutor's
office, said Mohamed chose to go to the United States when he was told
he was being deported.
U.S. Attorney Mary Jo White said U.S. authorities were closing in on
Mohamed after gaining vital information about him from a May 1998
passport application.
Seventeen people have been indicted in the case. Six, including Mohamed,
are in custody in the United States and three overseas.
The rest remain fugitives, including alleged mastermind Osama bin Laden.
Bin Laden is on the FBI's 10 Most Wanted List. A $5 million reward has
been offered for his capture.
White said the investigation continued to be ``quite intensive around
the world,'' and she was confident that ``eventually we'll get them
all.''
Sharpjfa
疋NA Evidence Links Ronald Macon To 3 Murders
彦irst Break In 6 Years Of Killings & Rapes
CHICAGO
Monday, October 11,1999 (CBS) Police have their first significant arrest
for a
series of murders and rapes in and near the poverty-stricken Englewood
area of
Chicago's south side, CBS Radio Station WBBM reports.
Ronald Macon, 35, has confessed to three recent murders and is linked to
the
killings by DNA evidence, according to police.
He has been imprisoned in the Cook County Jail since August for an
unrelated
sex crime.
Of the 16 original murder cases, nine murders and three sexual assaults
dating
back to 1995 remain unsolved.
Macon is to appear in court Tuesday.
Police Commander Frank Trigg said police obtained a videotaped
confession from
Macon.
"Once we had a chance to speak to him, his status escalated to that of a
suspect," Trigg told WBBM.
The three women were killed this year. Angelnetta Peeples, 43, was found
Feb.
20. She had been strangled and hit in head. Linda Soloman, 36, who was
found
April 14 in a stairwell, also had been strangled and hit in the head.
Rosezina
Williams, 50, was found strangled in a dumpster on June 21.
Macon was being held on a $1.25 million bond for the previous rape
charge.
Charged with three counts of murder, he could face the death penalty if
convicted, authorities said. They said they might also charge him with
rape.
Police had been frustrated in finding suspects in the string of killings
despite the DNA evidence. Few in their neighborhoods knew the women or
were
willing to talk to police.
The Associated Press contributed to this report.
sharpjfa
JUSTICE FOR ALL websites. JFA is a Texas based criminal justice reform
organization
http://www.jfa.net
http://prodeathpenalty.com
http://murdervictims.com
Sharpjfa
PRESTON, England (AP) - A doctor charged with murdering 15 women patients using
fatal injections of morphine killed because he enjoyed ``controlling life and
death,'' prosecutors said Monday at the start of his trial.
Dr. Harold Frederick Shipman, 53, sat impassively in the court in this
northwest England city, watched by his wife and son, while prosecutors read the
names of the women who allegedly were victims of one of Britain's worst serial
killers.
Shipman also is charged with forging the will of one of the women, 81-year-old
Kathleen Grundy, who was a former mayor of Hyde, the nearby town where the
doctor practiced. Mrs. Grundy remained involved in civic and voluntary work
until she died suddenly on June 24, 1998, shortly after Shipman visited her at
home.
He has pleaded innocent to all the charges.
The women died between March 1995 and June last year. Most were elderly and
lived alone.
``The defendant killed those 15 patients because, in the submission of the
prosecution, he enjoyed doing so,'' prosecutor Richard Henriques told jurors.
``He was exercising the ultimate power of controlling life and death and
repeated the act so often he must have found the drama of taking life to his
taste.''
Mrs. Grundy's will, leaving her $660,000 estate to Shipman, aroused the
suspicions of her family and led to police investigations into the deaths of
other patients.
Six of the women were cremated. The bodies of the other nine, including Mrs.
Grundy, were exhumed and all showed substantial doses of morphine, although
none had been prescribed the drug, Henriques said. None of the women was
terminally ill, he added.
``All of them died most unexpectedly. All of them had seen Dr. Shipman on the
day of their death,'' said Henriques. ``There is no question in this case of
euthanasia or what is sometimes called mercy killing.''
There were other similarities in the circumstances surrounding the deaths, said
Henriques.
In many cases, Shipman had falsified medical records and persuaded relatives
that an autopsy was unnecessary, the prosecutor claimed.
Shipman told some of the relatives that the patient had asked him to visit her
at home, when telephone and surgery records showed there were no such requests,
Henriques added.
The case may last until February.
AP-NY-10-11-99
---------------------------------------------------------
CBofGDALE
victims of choice for these predators. Their lives are utterly worthless.
Bring back capital punishment to England for the doctor.
Kilfileno
victims of choice for these predators. Their lives are utterly worthless.
Bring back capital punishment to England for the doctor.
------------------
I agree 100%.
Sharpjfa
By KELLY P. KISSEL Associated Press Writer
LITTLE ROCK, Ark. (AP) - A convicted killer is suspected of two more
deaths during a prison escape that began when he crawled into a huge
barrel of hog slop that was later towed away, officials said.
Kenneth D. Williams was back behind bars Wednesday. He is the prime
suspect in two deaths that happened during the day and a half he was
loose.
The 20-year-old convict escaped Sunday morning after climbing through an
18-by-16-inch opening into the 500-gallon barrel in a prison kitchen.
The table scraps were later moved to a prison farm, Corrections
Department spokeswoman Dina Tyler said.
``There was stuff inside. Water, vegetables. You know, hog slop,'' Tyler
said. The tank didn't have a grate then. It does now.
``Our initial indication, from the investigation, is that he apparently
had some help from within,'' Gov. Mike Huckabee said Wednesday night. He
did not elaborate.
Knee prints found in a ditch on the prison farm indicated someone was
trying to keep from being seen, Tyler said. ``By cutting across the
field and following the tree line you can get to the highway without
being noticed that much,'' she said.
Four miles from the prison, farmer Cecil Boren, 57, was shot to death
and robbed Sunday, officials said.
Williams was driving Boren's truck and had several of the man's guns
when he rammed a water truck in southwestern Missouri on Monday,
officials said. The driver, Michael Greenwood, 24, of Springfield, Mo.,
was killed.
Williams was captured shortly after the crash and was returned to
Arkansas on Tuesday after waiving extradition. Charges have not been
filed in either Boren's or Greenwood's death.
Williams was sentenced to life in prison three weeks ago for the 1998
kidnapping of two college students on their first date. The woman was
killed and the man was injured.
Sharpjfa
Stogner of Covington is accused of kidnapping eleven-year-old Lorin
Easterling from her Slidell home a year-and-a-half ago, then raping and
killing her. His trial is set for next summer, but his defense attorneys
are already working to have the case thrown out on a technicality. They
say Stogner's freedom was restricted because F-B-I agents wouldn't let
him use his truck. Investigators say the truck was thought to have been
used in Lorin's abduction and possibly contained evidence.
Sharpjfa
is underway in the federal trial of Ricky Brown in Charleston. Brown,
his wife Barbara and their housemate Janette Ables are charged with
setting their Weston home on fire in 1997, killing five of their
children. Prosecutors allege they started the fire to collect insurance
money on their children and their home. If convicted Brown could face
the federal death penalty. Jury selection continues today and could last
for several days. His wife and Ables will be tried at a later date.
Mitchell Holman
}>Subject: Re: Death Penalty Crimes
}>From: ta2...@aimail.net (Mitchell Holman)
}>Date: Fri, 08 October 1999 04:56 PM EDT
}>Message-id:
}><5B525950980956F8.2710253F...@lp.airnews.net>
}>
}>In article <19991008164016...@ng-bj1.aol.com>, shar...@aol.com
}>(Sharpjfa) wrote:
}>}>Subject: Re: Death Penalty Crimes
}>}>From: ta2...@aimail.net (Mitchell Holman)
}>}>Date: Fri, 08 October 1999 04:08 PM EDT
}>}>Message-id:
}>}><3FF9CA76E6E3E102.9663B9D3...@lp.airnews.net>
}>}>
}>}>In article <19991008143546...@ng-fo1.aol.com>, shar...@aol.com
}>}>(Sharpjfa) wrote:
}>}>}>Subject: Re: Death Penalty Crimes
}>}>}>From: "Peter Morris" pmo...@cromwellmedia.co.uk
}>}>}>Date: Fri, 08 October 1999 02:00 PM EDT
}>}>}>Message-id: <37fe3...@london.netkonect.net>
}>}>}>
}>}>}>
}>}>}>Sharpjfa wrote in message
}><19991007095934...@ng-fr1.aol.com>...
}>}>}>>
}>}>}>>pregnant mistress before turning the gun on her 5-year-old daughter has
}>}>}>>been sentenced to two lifetime prison terms without parole.
}>}>}>
}>}>}>Er, Sharp, perhaps you'd like to explain why your post was
}>}>}>titled 'Death penalty crimes' when it obviously wasn't ?
}>}>}
}>}>}I was a death penalty crime. If it wasn't it couldn't not have been plea
}>}>}bargained to life.
}>}>}
}>}>}Had there been no death penalty statute, this life case would have had to
}>}>have
}>}>}been tried at great copst to the state, or they would have plea bargained
}>to
}>}>}less than life, the only plea option when the dp is unavailable.
}>}>}
}>}>
}>}>
}>}> Really, Sharp, I gave you more credit on legal matters
}>}> than this. Since when do life cases have to be tried or
}>}> plea bargained in non-DP states?
}>}>
}>}> Read up on the cases of David Berkowitz (Son of Sam)
}>}> and Mark David Chapman (killed John Lennon) and how
}>}> they drew life sentences on their case, in a non-DP state,
}>}> without having a trial or a plea bargain.
}>}
}>}Context is important.
}>
}>
}> So are straight answers, despite your aversion to them.
}>
}> Now tell us how Chapman and Berkowitz got their life
}> sentences without going to trial.
}
}My dear Mitchel, did they receive maximum life or less than such?
}
If you don't know the facts of these cases, Sharp, you
should quit making false and misleading statements about
the DP being necessary to get people to plead to life
sentences. For your information, there *are* people who
do not contest their guilt, and who simply plead guilty and
accept whatever the court gives them, regardless of whether
the DP is in place or not.
Besides, the very idea of executing people as a bargaining
chip in other cases is repugnant.
Sharpjfa
>Message-id:
><FD6A2F9022200A99.10B6597E...@lp.airnews.net>
Holman, you don't know, do you? It does make a difference in the context of the
discussion.
Get back to us when you do know.
snip
Sharpjfa
Victims' Grandmother: I Have No Sympathy
Oct. 14, 1999
By Randy Dotinga
VISTA, Calif. (APBnews.com) -- With tears in her eyes and loud sniffles,
a woman who shot her four young sons to death urged a judge to spare her
life Wednesday.
She failed.
A Superior Court judge agreed with a jury's recommendation and sentenced
Susan Eubanks, 35, to death in California's gas chamber.
Outside the courthouse in this San Diego suburb, the grandmother of one
of the boys told reporters that she had no sympathy for Eubanks. "She's
still playing the ultimate victim. She still somehow is clinging to the
hope that the 'ultimate victim' will get her off," Sally Armstrong said.
"It always has. I don't think it's dawned on her that this is it."
Shot herself in stomach
Eubanks, 35, killed her sons in October 1997 at her home in San Marcos,
a suburb north of San Diego. She shot each of her sons in the head then
shot herself in the stomach. She was hospitalized for several weeks; the
children died instantly.
The sons killed were Brandon Armstrong, 14, and Austin, Brigham and
Matthew Eubanks, who were 7, 6 and 4, respectively.
Eubanks blamed the shooting on a number of factors including her
dependency on drugs and bad relations with her family.
In September, a jury recommended that she be sentenced to death. On
Wednesday, Eubanks urged Superior Court Judge Joan Weber to show her
mercy.
'The unthinkable seemed reasonable'
Eubanks said she was a normal person who cracked. "I wasn't any
different than any of you, than anybody else," the former nurse's
assistant told the court. "I worked in a job I loved. I paid taxes. I
had the house, the family, the animals, the minivan."
But then her life fell apart, and she feared separation from her
children. "On that night, in my mind, it was better to be together in
death than be apart in life," she said. "In my fear and despair, the
unthinkable seemed reasonable to me.
Weber was not impressed and called the killings the single worst
criminal act in the history of San Diego County.
Group plants roses for boys
The county, home to 2.6 million people, has been the scene of several
high-profile crimes, including the 1984 massacre of 21 people at a
McDonald's restaurant near the U.S.-Mexico border.
After the court hearing Wednesday, a somber group of people gathered at
the property where the killing occurred to plant roses in memory of the
boys.
Those attending included relatives, friends, the prosecutor in the case
and jurors who recommended that Eubanks be put to death.
Deb Barrand Foisy
Sharpjfa <shar...@aol.com> wrote in message
news:19991013005143...@ng-cm1.aol.com...
> Thursday October 7 1:27 AM ET
>
> By KELLY P. KISSEL Associated Press Writer
>
> LITTLE ROCK, Ark. (AP) - A convicted killer is suspected of two more
> deaths during a prison escape that began when he crawled into a huge
> barrel of hog slop that was later towed away, officials said.
>
> Kenneth D. Williams was back behind bars Wednesday. He is the prime
> suspect in two deaths that happened during the day and a half he was
> loose.
You know, at the risk of stating the obvious and as horrible as more murder
is, has it not for a second come to anyone's mind that maybe if they'd done
their job and not let him escape that would have prevented what he MAY have
done?
D
> The 20-year-old convict escaped Sunday morning after climbing through an
> 18-by-16-inch opening into the 500-gallon barrel in a prison kitchen.
>
> The table scraps were later moved to a prison farm, Corrections
> Department spokeswoman Dina Tyler said.
>
> ``There was stuff inside. Water, vegetables. You know, hog slop,'' Tyler
> said. The tank didn't have a grate then. It does now.
>
> ``Our initial indication, from the investigation, is that he apparently
> had some help from within,'' Gov. Mike Huckabee said Wednesday night. He
> did not elaborate.
>
> Knee prints found in a ditch on the prison farm indicated someone was
> trying to keep from being seen, Tyler said. ``By cutting across the
> field and following the tree line you can get to the highway without
> being noticed that much,'' she said.
>
> Four miles from the prison, farmer Cecil Boren, 57, was shot to death
> and robbed Sunday, officials said.
>
> Williams was driving Boren's truck and had several of the man's guns
> when he rammed a water truck in southwestern Missouri on Monday,
> officials said. The driver, Michael Greenwood, 24, of Springfield, Mo.,
> was killed.
>
> Williams was captured shortly after the crash and was returned to
> Arkansas on Tuesday after waiving extradition. Charges have not been
> filed in either Boren's or Greenwood's death.
>
> Williams was sentenced to life in prison three weeks ago for the 1998
> kidnapping of two college students on their first date. The woman was
> killed and the man was injured.
Terry C. Shannon
Deb Barrand Foisy <debbi...@sprint.ca> wrote in message
news:%hKO3.6049$K95.2...@newscontent-01.sprint.ca...
>
> Sharpjfa <shar...@aol.com> wrote in message
> news:19991013005143...@ng-cm1.aol.com...
> > Thursday October 7 1:27 AM ET
> > Prisoner Escaped in Vat of Hog Slop
> >
> > By KELLY P. KISSEL Associated Press Writer
> >
> > LITTLE ROCK, Ark. (AP) - A convicted killer is suspected of two more
> > deaths during a prison escape that began when he crawled into a huge
> > barrel of hog slop that was later towed away, officials said.
> >
> > Kenneth D. Williams was back behind bars Wednesday. He is the prime
> > suspect in two deaths that happened during the day and a half he was
> > loose.
>
> You know, at the risk of stating the obvious and as horrible as more
murder
> is, has it not for a second come to anyone's mind that maybe if they'd
done
> their job and not let him escape that would have prevented what he MAY
have
> done?
They didn't, he did, so let's get rid of him already. Hell, the food and
other resources he'll consume over the remainder of his useless and forfeit
life could be better used to succor innocent Dogs.
Natsam
Deb Barrand Foisy wrote:
> Sharpjfa <shar...@aol.com> wrote in message
> news:19991013005143...@ng-cm1.aol.com...
> > Thursday October 7 1:27 AM ET
> > Prisoner Escaped in Vat of Hog Slop
> >
> > By KELLY P. KISSEL Associated Press Writer
> >
> > LITTLE ROCK, Ark. (AP) - A convicted killer is suspected of two more
> > deaths during a prison escape that began when he crawled into a huge
> > barrel of hog slop that was later towed away, officials said.
> >
> > Kenneth D. Williams was back behind bars Wednesday. He is the prime
> > suspect in two deaths that happened during the day and a half he was
> > loose.
>
> You know, at the risk of stating the obvious and as horrible as more murder
> is, has it not for a second come to anyone's mind that maybe if they'd done
> their job and not let him escape that would have prevented what he MAY have
> done?
> D
If an innocent person is ever executed in the modern
era, will you dismiss it by saying, "has it not for a
second come to anyone's mind that maybe if
they'd done their job and not [have] let him" been
executed then "that would have prevented" an
innocent from being executed?
Sharpjfa
A former attorney in Ledyard has pleaded guilty to killing his wife and
two children. Scott Pickles admits he murdered his wife Susan and their
two children, Elizabeth and Alex, back in June of 1997. Prosecutors now
must decide if they should pursue the death penalty or send Pickles to
prison without parole.
Man Convicted In Grisly Murder (ABC NewsWire)
A jury in San Antonio has convicted a 23-year-old man in the brutal
kidnapping, rape, and murder of a 15-year-old boy. The boy was kidnapped
from a local mall. Jason Rouchon was immediately sentenced to life in
prison. Prosecutors were not asking for the death penalty.
Sharpjfa
The Louisiana Supreme Court has unanimously upheld Henri Broadway's
first-degree murder conviction and death sentence for killing a Baton
Rouge police woman and the person she was trying to protect. That
person, Kimin Lee, was trying to make a night deposit for the
supermarket where she worked in January, 1993 when she and the officer
were ambushed by Broadway and Kevan Brumfield. Brumfield is also on
death row. Broadway's attorney appealed to the justices because Lee's
identification of Broadway was taken under hypnosis. No date has been
set for Broadway's execution.
Sharpjfa
A motel handyman already accused of beheading a young woman in Yosemite
National Park was formally charged with killing a mother, her teen-age
daughter and a family friend who disappeared from the park in February.
The Mariposa County District Attorney's office charged Cary Stayner with
three counts of homicide for the brutal deaths of Carole Sund, her
daughter Juli, and Silvina Pelosso, a friend visiting from Argentina.
Conviction on the charges, which include special circumstances for the
alleged rape of the two teen-age victims, could bring the death penalty.
Stayner is currently being held in a Fresno jail on charges of murdering
Joie Armstrong, a naturalist at Yosemite who was decapitated near her
residence on July 21st. He entered a not guilty plea in that case.
- Oct 20 6:50 PM EDT
Jury Recommends Death In Triple Murder (ABC NewsWire)
A Riverside County superior court jury recommends the death penalty for
a triple murder. Richard Lonnie Booker reportedly told at least three
police officer at the time of his arrest that he deserved to die for
killing two girls and a young woman. He set fire to their Riverside
apartment to cover up a sexual assault of one of the girls. The jury
deliberated just over an hour before returning the death penalty
recommendation. Booker's sentencing is set for November 22nd.
- Oct 20 6:50 PM EDT
Sharpjfa
A federal grand jury in Kansas City has indicted Keith Nelson for
allegedly kidnapping ten-year-old Pamela Butler in front of her Kansas
City, Kansas home. Nelson is also accused of taking the girl across
state lines, where he allegedly sexually abused and then murdered her.
The girl's body was later found in Grain Valley. U-S Attorney Steve Hill
says he will ask Attorney General Janet Reno for permission to pursue
the death penalty on both charges.
Sharpjfa
: 10/20/99
: The suspect in a Tulsa boy's death will live in North Carolina.
: WINSTON-SALEM, N.C. (AP) -- A man who killed two children in Oklahoma and is
a
: suspect in the brutal death of a third child from Tulsa will be released from
: prison this week after serving time for drugging an 11-year- old Cabarrus
: County boy.
: Wayne Henry Garrison, 40, is scheduled to be released Friday, said Melita
: Grooms of the state Parole Commission. He plans to live in Greensboro and
will
: be required to register as a sex offender with the Guilford County Sheriff's
: Department.
: Garrison remains a suspect in the death of Justin Wiles, 13, whose
dismembered
: body was found in a lake in Bixby in 1989. The boy had been reported missing
: after failing to return home from mowing lawns in his Tulsa neighborhood. One
: of Wiles' neighbors at the time was Garrison.
: In 1973, Garrison was ordered confined to a mental hospital after his 4-
: year-old cousin was found strangled under a house in Tulsa.
: Art Fleak, Garrison's friend and attorney, said Garrison didn't realize what
he
: was doing when he swung the girl around with an electrical cord.
: Garrison faced a juvenile murder petition, but the charge was reduced to a
: "child in need of supervision," and he was placed in the hospital for
: psychiatric treatment.
: In 1974, while on a pass from the hospital, he killed 3-year-old Craig Neal,
: whose mutilated body was found underneath the home of Garrison's mother.
: Fleak said Garrison again swung the child around and accidentally killed him,
: panicked, and hid the body under the house.
: Garrison pleaded guilty to a reduced charge of involuntary manslaughter and
was
: sentenced to four years in prison. He was released in 1977 at age 17 after
: spending more than a year in the Oklahoma State Reformatory.
: In 1997, Garrison was sentenced to 3-1/2 years in prison after pleading
guilty
: in Cabarrus County to two counts of giving prescription painkillers to a
minor
: and one count of abduction of a minor. At the time, investigators said they
: feared the boy might have been killed if deputies had not gone to Garrison's
: mobile home looking for him. The boy was a friend of Garrison's son, John.
: Fleak said the boy had stolen the painkillers from Garrison's wife to get
high
: and that deputies coerced the boy into implicating Garrison.
: There also is no evidence that Garrison was involved in Justin's killing,
Fleak
: said.
: Garrison was questioned, but not charged, after Wiles' death. He moved to
North
: Carolina after the killing. The case has remained open, but police have
: intensified the investigation in the past year.
: Justin's body was exhumed in August, and Fleak said police will try to use
: impressions of the boy's teeth to match scars on Garrison's arms.
: "He's a mechanic. He could have gotten scars on his arms from anywhere,"
Fleak
: said.
: Meanwhile, Guilford County authorities said they have not been contacted by
the
: Department of Corrections about Garrison's release.
: As soon as it is confirmed that Garrison will be living in Greensboro, police
: will begin a notification process, said Greensboro police Detective Bobby
: Edwards.
Mobutu Sese Seko
shar...@aol.com wrote on 10/7/1999 9:59 AM:
> Thursday October 7 1:27 AM ET
> Ex-Cop Sentenced for Murder in Md.
>
>
>
> WESTMINSTER, Md. (AP) - A former Baltimore police officer who shot his
> pregnant mistress before turning the gun on her 5-year-old daughter has
> been sentenced to two lifetime prison terms without parole.
>
> Michael E. Thompson, 28, escaped the death penalty by agreeing to plead
> guilty to both counts of murder.
>
> Never mentioning Vicky Austin by name, Thompson acknowledged that he
> ``made a mistake,'' but he said ``that woman'' was also to blame because
> she enraged him by constantly calling his home and hanging up,
> haranguing him to pay child support and threatening to expose him to his
> wife.
>
> Ms. Austin, an exotic dancer, was eight months pregnant with Thompson's
> child.
>
> Thompson apologized in court Wednesday for killing Ms. Austin's
> daughter, Jessica Morgan.
>
> ``I guess she was at the wrong place at the wrong time,'' he said.
> ``Just because I might not show remorse on the outside, it doesn't mean
> I don't have it inside.''
>
> Thompson's mother said during the sentencing hearing that her son was a
> veteran of the Gulf War, had graduated near the top of his class from
> the Baltimore Police Academy and was named Officer of the Month in
> September 1995.
>
> Ms. Austin's mother, Linda Austin of Davie, Fla., also testified and
> told Thompson: ``You have given us a life sentence of pain and
> suffering. May you suffer in hell 'til your dying day.''
I hadn't heard about this crime 'till you started this string. I don't see
what you're making a fuss about. Assuming he is guilty, justice has been
served. This murderer will spend the rest of his life confined to a prison
cell. He has not been aquitted. Never again will he be able to walk the
streets of America. Never again will he be able to take another life.
Forever will he be haunted by what he has done. Perhaps today he doesn't
show remorse, but in a week, a month, a year, a decade, this may change. I
can think of no worse punishment than to wake up every morning for the rest
of my life and see the consequences of my heinous crime. Killing him before
he starts to even understand what he has done. Does that teach him a lesson?
I don't think so.
Sharpjfa
HOUSTON (AP) -- A quarter-century has not erased the stain on Halloween left by
the ``Candy Man.''
Ronald Clark O'Bryan earned his sweet-sounding nickname most distastefully: He
killed his 8-year-old son with cyanide-laced candy after a night of
trick-or-treating, for $20,000 in insurance money.
``It profoundly affected the whole community, every child of trick-or-treating
age,'' said Mike Hinton, then a Harris County prosecutor who sent O'Bryan to
death row. ``There's no question it had a national effect on Halloween.''
Before Oct. 31, 1974, the idea of carefully examining children's Halloween
booty might have seemed like a paranoid waste of time. O'Bryan, a suburban
Houston optician, shocked the city and the nation when it was discovered he
replaced some of the sugary powder inside five Giant Pixy Stix with enough
cyanide to kill two or three grown men each.
Only Timothy Marc O'Bryan ate the deadly confection and died shortly afterward.
Four other children, including Timothy's younger sister, received the straws
but did not ingest their contents.
Halloween changed forever once word of the slaying spread.
``It sure brought it into sharp focus that the potential is certainly there,''
said Mike Ellis, director of the Southeast Texas Poison Center.
Ellis still frowns on random trick-or-treating, instead encouraging children to
attend controlled activities. He suggests that the parents of children who go
door to door either purchase candy to replace gathered sweets or ensure their
kids visit trusted homes.
Experts recommend that parents closely inspect all candy collected. Hard,
individually wrapped treats tend to be the safest from molestation. Hospitals
and other agencies often provide free X-ray examinations of fruits and other
sweets that might contain foreign objects.
In the notorious Houston case, O'Bryan clipped off one end of the package and
crudely stapled the straw back together, a method that ironically might have
saved one neighbor boy.
``When police got to Whitney Parker's house, his parents almost died on the
spot because they couldn't find the Pixy Stix,'' said Hinton, now a lawyer in
private practice. ``They found him holding it asleep. His little fingers were
not strong enough to get the staples out.''
Authorities said O'Bryan distributed the extra sticks to Whitney and two other
neighborhood children to hide his motive.
``That was what was horrible, his willingness to sacrifice other kids to cover
it up. That really shook us,'' said Bill Lanier, then a detective with the
Pasadena police force. ``We got lucky getting that candy back.''
O'Bryan never admitted to killing his son. He testified at his trial that he
let Timothy eat the Pixy Stix before bedtime, giving him Kool-Aid when the boy
said the candy tasted bitter.
Timothy soon complained of searing stomach pains, threw up twice and collapsed,
O'Bryan said. He died before arriving at the hospital.
O'Bryan - dubbed ``Candy Man'' by his death row mates - was executed on March
31, 1984. He made no mention of Timothy in his final written statement, but did
write this vague passage: ``Also, to anyone I have offended in anyway during my
39 years, I pray and ask your forgiveness, just as I forgive anyone whose
offended me in anyway.''
Longtime Pasadena-area resident Chris Berryhill said O'Bryan's legacy still
lingers this time of year. Worse, he blames the local murder for spawning
copycats.
``It took all the fun out of Halloween. It really has,'' Berryhill said. ``If I
had a little child now, I would not allow them to pick up candy from someone
and put it in their mouth. The fear it caused almost makes Halloween not
worthwhile.''
David
Sharpjfa <shar...@aol.com> in article
> >>
> >> WESTMINSTER, Md. (AP) - A former Baltimore police officer who shot his
> >> pregnant mistress before turning the gun on her 5-year-old daughter has
> >> been sentenced to two lifetime prison terms without parole.
> >>
> >> Michael E. Thompson, 28, escaped the death penalty by agreeing to plead
> >> guilty to both counts of murder.
> >>
> >> Never mentioning Vicky Austin by name, Thompson acknowledged that he
> >> ``made a mistake,'' but he said ``that woman'' was also to blame
because
> >> she enraged him by constantly calling his home and hanging up,
> >> haranguing him to pay child support and threatening to expose him to
his
> >> wife.
A police officer- hmm. I shall not say anything, but interesting
nevertheless. Quite a malicious crime - I just can't believe he escaped the
death penalty considering the aggravating circumstances. A police officer
you say, hmm...
David (Anti Death Penalty until I die - Which may not be that far away if
you guys get your way, and they execute for driving 3 miles over the speed
limit)
Mobutu Sese Seko
shar...@aol.com wrote on 10/31/1999 7:26 AM:
>> Subject: Re: Death Penalty Crimes
>> From: Mobutu Sese Seko mob...@mobutu.za
>> Date: Sun, 31 October 1999 12:02 AM EDT
>> Message-id: <B4413786.1872%mob...@mobutu.za>
>>
>> in article 19991007095934...@ng-fr1.aol.com, Sharpjfa at
>> shar...@aol.com wrote on 10/7/1999 9:59 AM:
>>
>>> Thursday October 7 1:27 AM ET
>>> Ex-Cop Sentenced for Murder in Md.
>>>
>>>
>>>
>>> WESTMINSTER, Md. (AP) - A former Baltimore police officer who shot his
>>> pregnant mistress before turning the gun on her 5-year-old daughter has
>>> been sentenced to two lifetime prison terms without parole.
>>>
>>> Michael E. Thompson, 28, escaped the death penalty by agreeing to plead
>>> guilty to both counts of murder.
>>>
>>> Never mentioning Vicky Austin by name, Thompson acknowledged that he
>>> ``made a mistake,'' but he said ``that woman'' was also to blame because
>>> she enraged him by constantly calling his home and hanging up,
>>> haranguing him to pay child support and threatening to expose him to his
>>> wife.
>>>
> I made no fuss and I wouldn't expect you to think so.
>
> sharpjfa
Why did you bother to post it?
Mobutu Sese-Seko
Rev. Don Kool
Sharpjfa wrote:
You mean he never confessed! Quick... let's start a fund for
Ronald "Blackmen" O'Bryan and clear his name! It is clearly a
miscarraige of justice on the order of O'Dell, Bundy, Adams and
Gacy. Why isn't the international community up in arms?
Hope this helps,
Don
--
********************** You a bounty hunter?
* Rev. Don McDonald * Man's gotta earn a living.
* Baltimore, MD * Dying ain't much of a living, boy.
********************** "Outlaw Josey Wales"
http://members.home.net/oldno7
Sharpjfa
>Message-id: <B441BA04.1892%mob...@mobutu.za>
RetCop1035
>cell.
Maybe in Siberia or a dungeon in an old YOU'RE A PEEAN city
or the jungles of Africia but not in the US, you see sensible penology is
overreun
by touchy feely do goers and special interest groups
.>Never again will he be able to walk the streets of America.
When prisoners get LWOP, they
1) decide who will organize their next basketball game
2) hurt/ murder others while in prison or after escape
3) sue the state when they don't get the ice cream they want
4) file endless appeals based on the cruel and unusual nature of LWOP
5) help spread their hatred to others.
For example, IMO, those 3 white dudes that drug thar black to death were able
to sit
around with other Aryan fools and conspire, to hone there criminal skills OR
the murdered that escaped and killed an elderly couple for their pick up.
FINALLY, the parole system is a fallacy, it is in shambles.
Instead of paroling when appropriate it has become a political tool.
chb
james anderson
"Rev. Don Kool" wrote:
>
> Sharpjfa wrote:
>
> > A Quarter-Century Later, Killer's Poisoned Treats Still Haunt Halloween
> snip
> You mean he never confessed! Quick... let's start a fund for
> Ronald "Blackmen" O'Bryan and clear his name! It is clearly a
> miscarraige of justice on the order of O'Dell, Bundy, Adams and
> Gacy. Why isn't the international community up in arms?
He was not an award winning radio journalist and part time cabby....
Hope this helps,
James
Sharpjfa
Times newspaper:
November 1, 1999
In the Chaos of Colombia, the Makings of a Mass Killer
By LARRY ROHTER
BOGOTA, Colombia -- Now that Luis Alfredo Garavito is finally in custody,
Colombian police and news reports are describing him as a cunning serial
killer, a glib predator and a "solitary sadist." But it is also clear that,
whatever his personality traits, Colombia's deepening social disintegration
provided him with the perfect environment in which to operate.
On Friday, Garavito, a 42-year-old drifter, confessed to the slayings of at
least 140 boys between ages 8 to 16 during a five-year killing spree that ended
only because he was recently jailed on an unrelated rape charge. Police say
that Garavito would befriend the children and take them on long walks until
they were tired. Then he would tie them up with nylon rope, slit their throats
or behead them and then bury their bodies.
Many, if not most, of Garavito's victims appear to have been street children,
from poor families or separated from their parents by poverty or the political
violence that has displaced 1.5 million Colombians in little more than a
decade. Such children -- grimy, hungry, morose and poorly dressed -- have
become a familiar sight on the corners of Colombia's large cities and towns,
where they beg, sell newspapers or chewing gum, or shine shoes.
"Kids disappear all the time in Colombia, especially those from the poorer
strata," said Timothy Ross, a former journalist who now works with juvenile
prostitutes and youthful drug users on behalf of a private social services
agency here. "They tend to come from unstable homes anyway, but the deep social
instability produced by military, political and economic displacement has
fragmented families even further."
Authorities said it was because there was no one to notice that the children
were missing or to inquire about their whereabouts that Garavito was able to go
on killing for so long without being detected. But his arrest has brought an
avalanche of criticism from poor people, who say that they find police
officials indifferent, abusive or corrupt.
"These were poor kids that nobody cares about, and that is why this went on for
so long before they did anything about it," Norma Garzon Duque, a street vendor
here, said Sunday. "If it had been rich kids disappearing like that, the cops
would have been on top of the case from the beginning."
By his own account, Garavito seized on the social convulsions Colombia is
experiencing as a result of three decades of armed conflict and turned them to
his own advantage. He often passed himself off as a priest, social worker,
teacher or representative of charitable foundations. At other times, he posed
as a handicapped or displaced person himself to gain sympathy. He kept a list
of his victims, but not by name, and some of the remains are so badly
decomposed that it will be difficult if not impossible to identify them.
The Guinness Book of World Records lists another Colombian, Pedro Armando
Lopez, known here as the "Monster of the Andes," as the largest-scale serial
killer of modern times. He is believed to have killed more than 300 girls and
young women in Colombia, Ecuador and Peru before being captured in Ecuador and
convicted of 57 counts of murder there in 1980.
Lopez served 16 years in an Ecuadorean prison, but because that country does
not have a law that permits consecutive sentences, he was released and deported
back to Colombia. His present whereabouts are not known, but it is presumed he
is living under an assumed identity.
The announcement of Garavito's arrest has generated disgust, indignation and
fear throughout this South American nation of 40 million people. Colombia does
not have the death penalty for murder, but the enormity of the crimes of which
Garavito is accused has led Gen. Rosso Jose Serrano, chief of the national
police, and many others to call for an exception.
LogicalPike
qualifications concerning this matter about brain damage, are you
willing to consider the opinions of those with the "qualifications"
that you desire? More that likely, there are psychologists that can
make strong philosophical arguments for the imposition of the death
penalty on the brain damaged persons in question.
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