Florida Electrocutes Killer
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Florida Electrocutes Killer
By RON WORD
STARKE, Fla. (AP) - Florida's first use of its new electric chair turned
bloody
Thursday with the execution of a 350-pound inmate for the murders of a
woman
and her two daughters 17 years ago.
Blood poured from the mouth and oozed from the chest of Allen Lee
``Tiny''
Davis as he was hit with 2,300 volts at 7:10 a.m.
By the time he was pronounced dead at 7:15 a.m., the blood from his
mouth had
poured out onto the collar of his white shirt, and the blood on his
chest had
spread to about the size of a dinner plate, even oozing through the
buckle
holes on the leather chest strap holding him to the chair.
There was no immediate explanation for the bleeding, believed to be a
first for
the 44 Florida executions since executions resumed in 1979.
The new chair in which he died replaced ``Old Sparky,'' which had been
used to
execute more than 200 people since 1923. Corrections officials said the
old
chair was falling apart; it had also raised concern after a 1997
execution in
which flames up to a foot long shot from the head of the condemned man,
Pedro
Medina.
Lawyers for Davis had appealed unsuccessfully to the Supreme Court,
saying the
voltage in the old chair during four executions last year fell short of
the
amount needed to kill painlessly, especially for a man the size of
Davis. While
the chair itself is new, the electrical equipment is the same equipment
that
was on ``Old Sparky.''
The execution was one of three in the United States in Wednesday and
today.
Davis was brought into the death chamber in a wheelchair. Two prison
officers
helped him into the electric chair shortly after 7 a.m., and he was
strapped
in, his head covered with a thick chin strap and leather flap.
Two muffled screams were heard from Davis just before the executioner
threw the
switch. Davis jolted back into the chair and clinched his fist, a sight
common
to Florida executions. Then he started to bleed.
Davis was condemned for the May 11, 1982, slayings of Nancy Weiler, who
was
three months pregnant, and her two daughters. He battered Mrs. Weiler,
37, with
his pistol until her face was nearly unrecognizable.
Kristina Weiler, one day from her 10th birthday, was shot twice, her
hands tied
behind her back. Five-year-old Katherine was shot in the back as she ran
away,
then savagely beaten.
Earlier today, a man convicted of killing a taxi driver in 1984 during a
robbery was executed by injection in McAlester, Okla.
Norman Lee Newsted, 45, shot Larry Buckley after the cabbie picked him
up at
the Tulsa airport for a trip to his sister's home. Buckley, who had
taken the
second job to support his family, was dumped into a creek.
Newsted claimed he shot Buckley because the cabbie tried to rob him. He
gave no
last statement, but as the drugs entered his veins he turned to Warden
Gary
Gibson and exclaimed, ``I can taste it.''
In Huntsville, Texas, a man who dubbed himself ``Evil'' was executed by
injection Wednesday night for killing a woman during a burglary at her
home.
Tyrone Fuller, 35, was convicted of killing 26-year-old Andrea Lea Duke,
who
was stabbed 44 times, beaten, whipped with an electrical cord and raped.
A pathologist determined she likely lived for several hours after the
1988
attack at her home in Paris, Texas, but couldn't scream for help because
one of
the stab wounds severed her vocal cords.
One of Fuller's accomplices received a life prison term in a plea
bargain.
Charges against a third man were dropped.
``Please do not mourn my death or my life. I hold no bitterness toward
no
one,'' Fuller said in his final statement. ``Just remember the light.
I'm going
to let this light shine.''
AP-NY-07-08-99
------------------------------------------------------------------
The following appears courtesy of today's United Press International
news
wire:
Killer of three executed
July 8, 1999
STARKE, Fla., July 8 (UPI) The state of Florida has executed a man
convicted in
the 1982 murders of three members of a Jacksonville family during a home
robbery.
Shortly after being strapped into the state's electric chair, 54-
year-old
Allen Lee Davis was pronounced dead at 7:15 a.m. EDT in the first
execution
under the watch of first-term Gov. Jeb Bush.
A witness described the execution as a "rough one," saying blood oozed
from the
340-pound man's face and chest. The witness also reported hearing two
muffled
screams from Davis as electricity was sent surging through the chair.
Davis was condemned for the murders of 35-year-old Nancy Weiler and her
daughters, 9-year-old Kristina and 5-year-old Katherine.
Nancy Weiler, who was three months pregnant, was fatally beaten with a
pistol
after Davis forced her to watch him shoot her children.
Prosecutors described the slayings as "simply callous and heinous."
Before the execution, Davis' attorneys expressed concerns that the
voltage that
runs through Florida's new electric chair may not be strong enough to
quickly
kill especially in the case of their client, who had been confined to a
wheelchair because of his excessive weight.
It was not immediately known whether the problems surrounding today's
execution
would delay Friday's scheduled execution of Thomas Provenzano, whose
1984
shooting spree in an Orlando courtroom left one bailiff dead and two
others
paralyzed.
Florida is one of just four states that rely solely on the electric
chair as a
means of execution.
In recent years, fire and smoke erupted twice during executions,
prompting the
Florida Supreme Court to call the chair "a spectacle whose time has
passed."
-------------------------------------------------------
The following appears courtesy of the 7/7/99 online edition of THe
Florida
Times-Union newspaper:
Wednesday, July 7, 1999
Kristy Weiler was murdered along with her mother and sister by Allen
Lee
"Tiny" Davis in 1982.
A day of retribution: Man to die for triple murder
By Margie Mason
Times-Union staff writer
John Weiler's memories of Jacksonville are a stew of emotions. A mixture
of two
laughing daughters, a beautiful wife, a dream home and one apocalyptic
day.
The call came May 12, 1982, while he was in Pittsburgh working as a
division
manager for Westinghouse Corp. He took the first flight home to his
quiet
upscale neighborhood off San Pablo Road where his pregnant wife, Nancy,
and
their daughters Kristy, 9, and Kathy, 5, had been murdered.
The three were found a day after being shot and blugendoned to death in
the
master bedroom on what would have been Kristy's 10th birthday. Later
that week,
Allen ''Tiny'' Davis, a son of the Weilers' next-door neighbor, was
arrested on
three first-degree murder charges.
Davis, 54, is scheduled to die tomorrow in the electric chair. Weiler
declined
to discuss the execution, and officials would not reveal whether he was
scheduled to witness it.
For him, it's more about a family stolen from him and from life.
''The world lost three very important people,'' Weiler said last week,
his
voice shaking with emotion. ''All three had so much to contribute, and
we
didn't get to benefit from it. That's probably the worst part of it all
in the
long run.''
Kristy was a fifth-grader in Seabreeze Elementary School's gifted
program. As
part of a school project, she wrote a detailed essay on her dream to
become a
nuclear engineer.
She was the competitive little girl on the block who loved to fish and
draw and
collect sea shells.
''Kristy could be sort of described as a tomboy,'' Weiler said. ''She
was very
competitive, and she challenged all the boys. She won a lot. She never
liked to
be second place on anything.''
Her younger sister, Kathy, also had tremendous potential, Weiler said.
The
kindergartner could steal anyone's heart.
''Just one look at her face - once you looked - you couldn't help but
pick her
up and play with her,'' he said. ''Those are fond memories.''
Weiler had a buyer for the house he and Nancy designed and built at 2303
Shipwreck Drive in Holiday Harbor. Their new house was under under
construction
in Pittsburgh, and Weiler had planned to fly home and begin packing up
the
weekend of the murders. They were scheduled to all be in Pennsylvania
two weeks
later.
''I was coming back [to Jacksonville] every second weekend,'' he said.
''We
talked on the phone every night. We worked as a team as we always did to
meet
our goals, and she [Nancy] did her part.''
They were married for 13 years. At the time of her death, Nancy Weiler,
37, had
taken time off from teaching to operate a craft business out of her home
and
spend more time with the children.
Weiler has since remarried and has four children. He said he lives in
Florida
but he did not wish to reveal the city.
Neighbors who remember his first wife say he lost a jewel. Always a
visible
face in the neighborhood who car-pooled and worked as the corresponding
secretary of the PTA.
''I lived diagonally across the street,'' said Dottie Olson, who still
lives in
the subdivision off the Intercoastal Waterway between Beach and Atlantic
boulevards. ''They were just precious little children. Nancy and the
children
were just lovely.''
Olson said justice will not be served until Davis dies for the lives the
took.
In the years since Davis' 1983 sentencing, a death warrant has been
signed
three times. Two were delayed by appeals.
''I'm not out for killing people, but when someone does that, I don't
see
putting them on Death Row for 17 years,'' Olson said. ''We're paying for
him to
be fed and clothed and for his medical bills.''
Davis had been in prison before. In 1973, he was sentenced to 15 years
for
armed robbery and other crimes - but was paroled six years later.
Olson said there's a dynamic element to the murders that has kept the
neighborhood silenced all these years. Donald and Pam Davis, Allen
Davis'
parents, still live next door to the house where the murders took place.
Donald
Davis declined comment, but neighbors say that the family has endured a
suffering similar to Weiler's.
''They're super nice people. Don has been like a dad to us,'' said
Landra
Draper, who now lives in the Weiler house. ''People just don't talk
about it.
They like them [Donald and Pam Davis], and they wouldn't want to do or
say
anthing to hurt them.''
Draper said she didn't find out about the history of her house until the
real
estate agent told her the day before they moved in. At first, she said
the idea
of living in a house where a triple murder occurred was a little
disturbing.
But now she said she's glad they bought the house.
''It really doesn't seem like it happened in my house. It wasn't my
house,''
she said. ''It really hasn't bothered me.''
One thing that does bother Draper is the tug-of-war between her personal
beliefs on capital punishment and her deep feelings toward the friends
who live
next door.
''I've always been for the death penalty, but it's kind of easy right
now not
to see him as a monster that killed these people,'' she said. ''I have a
lot of
compassion for Don and Pam, and I hate that for them. I've got three
boys of my
own, and I don't think they could ever do anything to make me not love
them.''
But for those who knew the Weilers and have no connection to the Davis
family,
there's little sympathy.
''If that's his punishment, that's what he should get. It should have
come
across a long time ago,'' said Vanessa Andrew, who babysat two years for
the
Weilers as a teenager and was initally scheduled to be there the night
the
murders occurred. Nancy Weiler changed the plans that afternoon to stay
home
and prepare for Kristy's disco birthday party planned for the next
evening.
''I've just never got over it,'' Andrew said, crying. ''They were
beautiful
people . . . they were really going to be great adults someday. It just
breaks
your heart.''
kkramer
Kramer
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