GA: Judge sentences confessed killer to death by injection
Mark Fenster
By HENRY FARBER
Atlanta Journal-Constitution Staff Writer
Confessed murderer Keith D. Henry, 45, received today what he
apparently wanted -- a death sentence for strangling a Clayton County
woman in her home in 1999.
Henry admitted killing Regina Dates and instructing his wife to kill
Dates' mother. The mother, Sheila Dates, survived the strangulation
attempt by Belinda Henry, who committed suicide five weeks later.
Keith Henry had instructed his attorneys not to defend him except for
a brief closing argument. Death penalty experts said it's the only
time a metro Atlantan has waived jury proceedings in a capital case
and received a death sentence.
Clayton Superior Court Judge Al Collier ordered Henry to die by lethal
injection.
Henry's strange path toward a death sentence began when he confessed.
After giving Clayton County police a taped statement, describing how
he'd strangled Dates with electrical cords, Henry added a request:
Would they ask the district attorney to go for the death penalty
rather than life in prison?
The Clayton District Attorney's Office was more than happy to oblige.
"He's demonstrated time and again he's willing to kill to get what he
wants, and anybody who gets in his way is at risk," Senior Assistant
District Attorney Todd Naugle argued Monday at the end of a six-hour
sentencing hearing.
Potential victims include prison guards or other inmates, Naugle said.
Two defense lawyers pleaded for mercy on Henry's behalf, but the
defendant did not give them much to work with.
Henry would not take the stand. He asked relatives to stay away so
they couldn't testify for him. He even refused to tell defense lawyers
about his childhood so they could build a case for deprivation, said
defense attorney Steve Frey.
Henry never specifically told his attorneys he wants to be executed.
But every instruction he has given the lawyers -- and all the advice
he has rejected -- have been consistent with his 1999 request, his
defenders said.
Sheila Dates of Griffin, who was nearly killed by Henry's wife and
whose daughter was strangled by Henry, said after court that he should
die. "I'm more concerned about divine justice than man's justice," she
said.
But Shawn Morales, a best friend of Regina Dates, said life in prison
might be more severe punishment. "I don't think he should get what he
wants, and he wants to die," said Morales.
In two gripping prosecution presentations, Sheila Dates and Henry
(speaking on audiotape) traced a three-month period beginning with
Henry's intricate robbery plan and ending with Henry's wife's suicide.
Henry wanted to rob a check-cashing store with the help of his wife,
Belinda. They picked Sheila Dates, then manager of Ace Check Cashing
in Marietta, because she was single, had no dogs and lived in a fairly
secluded house.
The Henrys called her, pretending to raise money for a police
benevolent group, to get information. Then they staked out her house
for three days.
At 6 a.m. on Aug. 31, 1999, they entered the house, pretending to be
FBI agents investigating supposed embezzlement. Keith Henry meant to
get instructions on how to defeat the store's alarm system, then kill
the mother and daughter.
But the security system was so elaborate that the Henrys split up.
Belinda Henry forced Sheila Dates to go with her to the store, and
Keith Henry held the daughter hostage at home.
The plan to eliminate both witnesses failed when Belinda Henry called
her husband from the store. "She told me she tried to kill her [with a
cord around the neck] but she wouldn't die," Keith Henry said on the
tape. "I told her to take the money and leave."
Belinda Henry shot herself five weeks later when FBI agents closed in
on the couple's hotel room in New Jersey.
"He loved her to death," Frey said. "I think he's still distraught."
Death penalty experts say no metro Atlanta murder defendant has
received a death sentence without first pleading before a jury. Henry
waived his right to a jury trial.