Glenda Dyer asks for clemency in husband's murder
E/C Annie
A Post Prison Transfer Board member will hear Glenda Dyer's request for
clemency today and the entire board will make a recommendation by Jan.
18 , an Arkansas Department of Corrections official said.
Glenda Dyer, who was convicted of first-degree murder in September 1999
for the Dec. 4, 1998, death of her husband Bill Dyer, declined an
interview with the Gazette regarding her clemency request.
A member of the Post Prison Transfer Board will interview Glenda Dyer
at the ADC McPherson Unit in Newport , Ark. today, said Rhonda Sharp,
spokesman for the board.
If the board finds her application "with merit," it will then remain up
to Gov. Mike Huckabee to decide whether to grant Dyer clemency.
Bill Dyer, a longtime Horatio, Ark., agriculture teacher was found shot
to death in the driveway of his Horatio home. Glenda Dyer was arrested
the following March.
Investigators believe that Glenda Dyer hired a former co-worker to
shoot her husband.
The co-worker, former De Queen resident Steven Swim, committed suicide
on the same day he was scheduled to take a polygraph test in reference
to the Dyer murder case.
Little Rock resident Carolyn Voss is a lifelong friend of Glenda
Dyer's.
She plans to attend today's hearing and hopefully speak on her friend's
behalf.
Voss said she has always believed Glenda Dyer is innocent.
"She (Glenda) couldn't kill a snake, let alone a human being. She is a
good person. She would help society much more out of prison than in
prison," Voss said.
Voss said that growing up she spent a lot of time at Glenda Dyer's
home.
"We were best friends and I still consider her one of my best friends.
There is no way she would ever take someone's life or hire somebody to
take someone's life," she said.
But family members of Bill Dyer, including the couple's three adult
daughters, hope Glenda Dyer finishes out her prison sentence and told
board members so at a recent victim's input hearing in Little Rock.
"Our mother's actions were wrong. She broke our hearts. There is
nothing we can do to change what has happened, but as our father's
daughters, we cannot sit by and do nothing," Nicki Dyer Litchford told
the board.
Litchford is the Dyers' oldest daughter. She addressed the board and
read a letter signed by herself and her two sisters.
"You as a parole board cannot fix this wrong that has been done to us.
But you can reflect our decision to do the right thing and be the kind
of people our dad taught us to be," Litchford said.
About 20 relatives and friends of Bill Dyer attended the Jan. 5
victim's input hearing in Little Rock.
Both Litchford and Mary Dyer Galloway, Bill Dyer's youngest sister,
spoke to the board.
"We don't know if any of you have lost a parent, but the pain is
horrible," Litchford said. "You never, never, never stop hurting for
them. Their oldest grandson is 7, the only child either of them got to
know, and every time he puts his boots on with his pants stuffed down
in the tops just like his pop pop, we wish he were here,"
Galloway told the board how Bill Dyer's death and Glenda Dyer's
subsequent arrest and conviction have affected the family, including
the health of her 83-year-old mother.
"I live not far from her and have personally witnessed her health
deteriorate more quickly with each travesty that occurs and could have
been prevented. She has had enough pain and suffering from Glenda. I
feel that if Glenda is released that my life would be in danger and my
mother's life would be tormented daily by Glenda's causes," she said.
Litchford said that even if her mother was free, she and her sisters
would not want her in their lives.
"How can you forgive a person who has never asked for your forgiveness?
Do we want her in our lives if she were free? If she could plan out and
execute the murder of our father, what would stop her from planning the
murders of her children or grandchildren? We would be in constant worry
that she could harm us or our family."
http://www.texarkanagazette.com/articles/2005/01/11/local_news/news/news13.txt