[Deathpenalty] death penalty news-----TEXAS, N.H., PENN., GA., FLA.

[Rick Halperin]

Nov. 9




TEXAS----execution

Texas execution of Mexican man draws fire from Mexico's president



A Mexican citizen on death row in Texas was executed Wednesday night for the 
slaying of his 16-year-old cousin who was abducted from her family's apartment 
and fatally beaten.

Ruben Ramirez Cardenas, 47, was given a lethal injection after several federal 
court appeals failed to halt his punishment for the February 1997 killing of 
Mayra Laguna.

Asked by the warden to make a final statement, he replied, "No, sir."

As the lethal dose of pentobarbital began, he took a couple of breaths and then 
began snoring. After less than a minute, all movement stopped.

21 minutes later, at 10:26 p.m. CST, he was pronounced dead, making him the 7th 
convicted killer put to death this year in Texas, which carries out capital 
punishment more than any other state.

Shortly after the execution, Mexican President Enrique Nieto tweeted, "I 
express my firm condemnation of the execution of the Mexican Ruben Cardenas 
Ramirez in Texas, which violates the decision of the International Court of 
Justice. My deepest condolences to the mourners."

Cardenas' attorney, Maurie Levin, contended eyewitness testimony against 
Cardenas was shaky, that little physical evidence tied him to the killing and 
that a confession he gave was obtained after 22 hours of isolation and intense 
police questioning.

She also said that authorities acted improperly when not telling the 
Mexican-born Cardenas that he could get legal help from the Mexican consulate.

Being born in Mexico, which does not have capital punishment, made Cardenas 
eligible for legal help from the Mexican consulate when he was arrested, 
according to provisions of the Vienna Convention of Consular Relations, which 
is a 1963 international agreement. The courts have allowed executions to move 
forward in several previous Texas death row cases in which the agreement was 
said to have been violated.

"For the Mexican government, capital punishment constitutes one of the most 
essential violations of human rights," Jacob Prado Gonzalez, the Mexican 
government's general director for consular protection, said.

Cardenas grew up in the Texas Rio Grande Valley.

In a handwritten statement released afterward, Cardenas thanked his family, 
attorneys and the Mexican consulate for their help.

"Now! I will not and cannot apologize for someone elses crime, but, I will be 
Back for Justice," he wrote. "You can count on that!"

His punishment was delayed for about 4 hours as last-ditch appeals for the 
former security guard focused primarily on efforts to have trial evidence 
undergo new DNA testing. In a filing to the U.S. Supreme Court hours before his 
execution, lawyers argued Texas was violating Cardenas' due process rights and 
a state statute that covers forensic testing. They asked the justices to halt 
the execution for a court review.

They also asked the justices for more time to appeal a lower court's rejection 
of a federal civil rights lawsuit in which they claimed his due process and 
civil rights were being violated because Texas officials wouldn't release 
evidence so it can undergo new DNA testing. Attorneys for the state said the 
lawsuit was improper and that state courts already refused the DNA request 
because Cardenas could not show that more advanced tests would exonerate him. 
DNA results in evidence at Cardenas' trial were not false, state attorneys 
said.

The high court, without comment, rejected both appeals.

Earlier this week, the Texas Court of Criminal Appeals, the state's highest 
criminal court, rejected a similar appeal seeking DNA tests. Cardenas' 
attorneys argued the new testing would be better than the now-obsolete testing 
that left "persistent doubts about his guilt and the integrity of his 
conviction."

Laguna was snatched from a bedroom she shared with a younger sister at her 
family's public housing apartment in McAllen in South Texas. In a confession to 
police, Cardenas said he and a friend drove around with the high school student 
in his mother's car. He said he had sex with the teen and then punched her as 
she fought him after he unbound her arms to let her go.

"I didn't plan on doing this, but I was high on cocaine," he told authorities.

He said after he hit the teen in the neck, she began coughing up blood and 
having difficulty breathing. After trying unsuccessfully to revive her, he said 
he tied her up "and rolled her down a canal bank."

Her body was found in a canal near a lake in the Rio Grande Valley in far South 
Texas.

Laguna's sister, Roxana Jones, said she had waited 21 years for justice to be 
served.

"Words can't begin describe the relief it feels to know that there is true 
peace after so much pain and sorrow," she said in a statement released by 
prison officials. "Mayra can be remembered as loving, caring, funny and dimples 
when she smiled. She will continue to watch over family and friends."

The friend who was with Cardenas during the abduction, Jose Antonio Lopez 
Castillo, now 45, was convicted of aggravated kidnapping and is serving a 
25-year prison term.

(source: CBS News)

***********************

In race against Texas judge Sharon Keller, Republican highlighting infamous 
death row call----Sharon Keller, the longtime presiding judge of Texas' Court 
of Criminal Appeals, has tried to move on from several past ethical 
controversies - including blocking the last-minute appeal of a 2007 execution. 
A primary challenger hopes voters will reconsider them.



It's been more than a decade since Sharon Keller became an international figure 
in the death penalty debate.

On the afternoon of Sept. 25, 2007, when attorneys for death row inmate Michael 
Richard asked if they could file an appeal at the court a few minutes past 
their deadline, Keller, the presiding judge of the state's Court of Criminal 
Appeals since 2000, famously insisted "we close at 5." Richard was executed 
hours later.

The incident earned Keller questions from the state Commission on Judicial 
Conduct and widespread criticism from Texas legislators, ethics experts and the 
impassioned authors of sharonkiller.com, a website sparked by the incident.

Keller says the controversy is behind her. David Bridges disagrees.

Bridges, a justice on Texas' 5th District Court of Appeals, is making Keller's 
past ethical controversies central to his campaign to unseat her in next year's 
Republican primary.

"I have to tell [voters] that she's had a few lapses in judgment," Bridges 
said. "If the voters don't know who we are and what our backgrounds are, then 
how do they make a choice?"

For her part, Keller said she is not approaching this election any differently 
than she did her past races. Elections, she said, are "cleansing" - and voters 
knew her when they elected her the last time around, rendering any past 
controversies moot.

"What you're asking me about are things that happened in the past. In the time 
since then, the voters have decided to keep me on the court," Keller said in an 
interview with The Texas Tribune last month. "What's important now is whether 
I'm qualified - whether I'm the best candidate for the job."

Keller, who has served on the court since 1994, insists that experience is the 
most important consideration in her re-election. Bridges argues that her past 
should disqualify her from a seat whose occupant should be above reproach.

And he has not been shy about bringing that up. On his campaign website, 
Bridges writes, "I ask you to Google her name Sharon Keller ethics," even 
providing a link.

Along with the infamous Richards execution, Bridges also points to criticism 
Keller drew in the late 1990s, when a property she owned in Dallas County 
housed a strip club called the Doll's House. And in 2010 she was fined $100,000 
by the Texas Ethics Commission for failing to disclose nearly $3 million of 
personal real estate holdings. (She later negotiated the sum, which was the 
largest civil penalty ever levied by the Commission, down to $25,000).

Keller's past came up in 2012, when she was last up for re-election. But that 
time around her primary challenger dropped out months before voting began, and 
in a statewide judicial race in deep-red Texas, even a controversial Republican 
incumbent is likely to best a Democratic challenger. No Democrat has won 
statewide office in Texas since 1994, and judicial races rarely draw much 
attention.

"If she faces a Democrat, the only thing important about her will be the 'R' 
after her name," said Craig McDonald, the executive director of a watchdog 
group that filed a complaint against Keller in 2009. "That dynamic may change a 
little bit in a Republican primary. The race becomes a little more 
interesting."

In 2012, Keller won her seat with 55 % of the vote; the other 2 incumbents from 
the Court of Criminal Appeals on the ballot that year, Judges Barbara Parker 
Hervey and Elsa Alcala, each took 78 %. Keith Hampton, the Democrat who ran 
against Keller 6 years ago and drew 41 % of the vote, said he is positive that 
his party affiliation is the only reason he didn't win.

"The reality is that people don't flock to the polls to vote for judges," said 
Hampton, who doesn't plan to pursue the seat again next year. "It didn't matter 
the individual race. They went in, they punched 'R,' they walked out."

(source: Texas Tribime)

************************

' Houston death row inmate denied retrial in 2005 carjacking, rape and murder



A federal judge this week denied a retrial for a condemned Houston man on death 
row for a 2005 rape-murder.

Dexter Johnson was 1 of 5 men who carjacked 23-year-old Maria Aparece and her 
boyfriend Huy Ngo as they sat in their chatting on a summer night more than 10 
years ago.

Prosecutors during his trial alleged Johnson had "fun" when he and his friends 
carjacked the couple and drove them around town demanding money, credit cards 
and ATM access.

Then, they parked near a patch of thick woods and forced Ngo to listen as 
Johnson raped Aparece in the backseat.

Afterward, Johnson shot Ngo in the side of the head execution-style before 
slaughtering Aparece with a shot to the top of the head. At trial, defense 
counsel argued that it was someone else who walked the couple into the woods 
and fired the fatal shot.

During his trial, the then-19-year-old hurled a chair across the courtroom and 
at one point refused to come to his own court dates.

(source: Houston Chronicle)

***************************

Executions under Greg Abbott, Jan. 21, 2015-present----27

Executions in Texas: Dec. 7, 1982----present-----545 Abbott#--------scheduled 
execution date-----name------------Tx. #

28---------Dec. 14-----------------Juan Castillo----------546

29---------Jan. 18-----------------Anthony Shore----------547

30---------Jan. 30-----------------William Rayford--------548

31----------Feb. 1-----------------John Battaglia---------549

32----------Feb. 22----------------Thomas Whitaker--------550

(sources: TDCJ & Rick Halperin)



NEW HAMPSHIRE:

Christian activist to speak Nov. 11 at Brookside church on abolishing the death 
penalty



Christian activist and author Shane Claiborne will speak about abolishing the 
death penalty, and his book, Executing Grace: How the Death Penalty Killed 
Jesus and Why It's Killing Us, at public events in Manchester and Durham on 
Saturday, November 11.

Claiborne, who worked with Mother Teresa in Calcutta, heads Red Letter 
Christians, a movement of folks who are committed to living "as if Jesus meant 
the things he said." Shane's activism has led him to jail advocating for the 
homeless, and against war and the death penalty. His work has appeared in 
Esquire, SPIN, Christianity Today, and The Wall Street Journal, and he has been 
on Fox News and Al Jazeera to CNN and NPR.

Mr. Claiborne will speak and take questions at 2 public events on Saturday.

2 p.m., Brookside Congregational Church at 2013 Elm Street in Manchester.

7 p.m., The Community Church of Durham at 17 Main Street in Durham.

In a 2010 statement, agreed unanimously by the 10 member churches, the Council 
stated:

Scripture cautions us: "Do not repay anyone evil for evil, but take thought for 
what is noble in the sight of all" (Romans 12:17). From this Christian 
perspective we are led to conclude that the death penalty does not provide 
justice.

The Executive Director of the Council of Churches, Rev. Jason Wells further 
said:

"Shane is an engaging and faith-filled speaker who can help Christians reflect 
on their beliefs more deeply as next year the New Hampshire legislature debates 
a bill to abolish our state???s death penalty."

This event is sponsored by the New Hampshire Council of Churches and the New 
Hampshire Coalition to Abolish the Death Penalty.

(source: Manchester Ink Link)








PENNSYLVANIA:

DA provides exclusive details on Pitt murder, additional rape allegation 
against suspect



The Allegheny County district attorney has provided exclusive new details on 
the murder of Pitt student Alina Sheykhet.

"We believe he went in through the basement," Stephen Zappala told Channel 11's 
Courtney Brennan.

Zappala is talking about Matthew Darby, Sheykhet's ex-boyfriend, who is charged 
in her death. He's in jail in South Carolina awaiting extradition to 
Pennsylvania.

According to Zappala, Darby used a hammer and knife to attack Sheykhet. Both 
murder weapons came from inside her home.

"We believe that the murder weapon was taken from the house, was already in the 
house," he said.

Pittsburgh police say Darby dropped those weapons into a sewer about 2 blocks 
away from Sheykhet's home before fleeing to Myrtle Beach, South Carolina, where 
he was eventually caught.

Channel 11 also has learned Darby now faces a new rape charge in Allegheny 
County, in addition to the rape charge he currently faces in Indiana County.

"A week, approximately, before the homicide took place in Oakland, the juvenile 
accused Darby of raping her," Zappala said. "That matter is being investigated 
by the county police and we authorized charging 2 days ago."

Zappala said the victim told Pittsburgh police she was raped a week before 
Alina's murder in Elizabeth Township, and county police are now investigating 
that case.

"So you have the rape in Indiana, you have the trespass in Allegheny County, 
you've got allegations of rape in Allegheny County and you've got the homicide, 
so this is a bad man," Zappala said.

Channel 11 asked Zappala whether, given the violence involved in that series of 
alleged incidents, if he would seek the death penalty.

???The nature of the conduct merits consideration, but it's a little too early 
to determine whether or not that would be appropriate," he said.

Sources told Channel 11 investigators tracked Darby to West Virginia, where he 
used an ATM after allegedly killing Sheykhet, and have surveillance video of 
him changing the license plates on his car before driving on to Myrtle Beach.

A vigil is planned for Sheykhet on Thursday night, with another planned this 
weekend. A high school friend, Salvatore Desimone, spoke at her funeral 
Wednesday and told Channel 11 Thursday she was a joy to be around.

"She was just too perfect for the world, so God wanted her back," he said.

(source: WPXI news)








GEORGIA:

"Stocking Strangler' Carlton Gary makes final appeal to the Georgia Supreme 
Court



Had jurors in Columbus "Stocking Strangler" Carlton Gary's 1986 trial seen the 
evidence his defense team since has uncovered, they either would have found him 
not guilty in the heinous serial killings of 1977 and '78, or at least not 
sentenced him to death.

That's the argument Atlanta attorneys Jack Martin and Michael McIntyre make in 
their 90-page application to the Georgia Supreme Court as they try to persuade 
the justices to hear what could be Gary's final court appeal.

Though Gary may appeal to the U.S. Supreme Court, it previously has refused to 
review the case. Though all condemned inmates get a last hearing before the 
Georgia Board of Pardons and Paroles, it declined to commute Gary's sentence to 
life in prison in 2009.

In 2009, Gary was hours away from lethal injection when the state Supreme Court 
stayed his execution and sent the case back to Muscogee Superior Court to 
consider DNA-testing any suitable evidence from the 7 rapes and stranglings of 
older Columbus women, most of them residents of the Wynnton area.

That testing produced mixed results, with the most promising semen sample 
tainted and destroyed by the Georgia Bureau of Investigation crime lab.

Attorneys since have battled over the relevance of other evidence that the 
defense says either exonerates Gary outright or casts so much doubt on his 
guilt as to have led to a different verdict or sentencing.

His defense team now is appealing Superior Court Judge Frank Jordan Jr.'s Sept. 
1 ruling denying Gary both a new trial and new sentencing. Jordan agreed with 
the defense that much of the evidence cited is new, having come to light since 
Gary was convicted in 3 of the 7 serial killings on Aug. 26, 1986, but he ruled 
it was not so "material" as to have led to a different outcome.

A key point in the defense appeal is this: Prosecutors in 1986 used other 
crimes in which Gary was implicated as "similar transactions" illustrating his 
method of operation, so if any of the evidence in those cases does not fit 
Gary, it must be considered evidence of his innocence, and thus so "material" 
that it could have altered the outcome.

That evidence involves so many cases over so many years that it requires a 
chronological review.

Back to the 1970s

Gary grew up in Columbus before moving to Florida and then New York, where he 
was implicated in the April 14, 1970, rape and strangling of Nellie Farmer, 85, 
in her home in the Wellington Hotel, Albany, N.Y. Gary's fingerprint was found 
at the scene. Gary was convicted only of robbery, claiming another man killed 
Farmer.

Then-District Attorney Bill Smith in 1986 said this case fit Gary's pattern: 
Farmer was raped and strangled and her body left covered, and when arrested, 
Gary blamed someone else. This would become routine, in Gary's murder cases.

Undisclosed to the defense during Gary's trial was a footprint found on a 
bathmat, where the killer apparently cleaned himself after Farmer's rape. The 
imprint was a shoe size 9. Gary wears size 13 1/2.

In August 1977, Gary escaped from prison in New York and moved back to 
Columbus, to a home on Fisk Avenue

That was near the 2703 Hood St. home of Gertrude Miller, 64, who was beaten, 
raped and choked with stockings on Sept. 11, 1977. Miller was a star witness at 
Gary's trial, identifying him in court as the man who assaulted her.

But a DNA test of evidence from Miller's case excluded Gary as the source of 
semen found on her undergarments. So, her identifying him - already problematic 
because she said she recognized him on TV after his arrest, and did not pick 
him from a lineup of lookalikes - must have been mistaken, the defense said.

On Sept. 16, 1977, Mary Willis "Fern" Jackson, 59, of 2505 17th St., was found 
brutally beaten, raped and strangled with a stocking and sash. Her body was 
left covered, and her stolen car later was found on Benner Avenue, near Gary's 
Fisk Avenue home.

After Gary's arrest, police reported they'd matched his fingerprint to one 
found at the crime scene. The defense maintains all the stranglings' 
fingerprint evidence is suspect because investigators had no set standard of 
"points of comparison" to declare a match, and they neglected to photograph 
where at the crime scenes police found the prints.

On Sept. 24, 1977, Jean Dimenstein, 71, was found raped and strangled with a 
stocking in her home that then had the address 3027 21st St. (the street has 
since been renamed). Her body was left covered with sheets and a pillow.

A DNA test matched Gary to evidence found in vaginal washings from her body, 
authorities said. The defense questions whether prosecutors are entitled to 
present their own "newly discovered" evidence on a defense appeal, and whether 
a jury would believe results from a crime lab that tainted and destroyed 
another sample.

Blood evidence and DNA

On Oct. 21, 1977, Florence Scheible, 89, was found raped and strangled with a 
stocking in her 1941 Dimon St. home, which now has a different address. Her 
body was left covered. Police said they found Gary's right thumbprint on a door 
frame leading into Scheible's bedroom.

On Oct. 25, 1977, Martha Thurmond, 70, was found raped and strangled with a 
stocking in her 2614 Marion St. home. Her body was covered by a pillow, 
blankets and sheets. Gary's fingerprint was found on the frame of a rear 
bedroom window.

While again disputing the fingerprints, the defense argues testimony regarding 
blood evidence found at the Scheible and Thurmond crime scenes simply was 
wrong. A prosecution witness testified it showed the killer was a "weak or 
non-secretor," meaning his bodily fluids were missing markers signifying his 
blood type. Gary is a strong secretor.

Secretors make up 80 % of the population; non-secretors 20 %. "This is a 
genetic factor based upon a recessive gene and was an important investigative 
tool in rape cases before the advent of DNA testing," the defense writes.

The prosecution witness at Gary's trial said such secretions may vary over 
time, so a strong secretor may appear to be a weak or non-secretor. During 
hearings on Gary's appeal, a defense expert testified this just isn't true: 
Secretors are always secretors; they don't change.

The Thurmond crime scene produced the best semen sample suitable for DNA 
testing. That was the sample the GBI crime lab tainted and destroyed. "At the 
very minimum, the issues surrounding the egregious destruction of critical 
evidence as occurred in this case merits review by this court on appeal," the 
defense writes the state Supreme Court.

On Dec. 28, 1977, Kathleen Woodruff, 74, was found raped and strangled in her 
1811 Buena Vista Road home, later demolished during an Aflac expansion. Gary's 
right little fingerprint was found on the aluminum window screen where the 
intruder entered, and his palm print was found on the windowsill just inside.

The defense again disputes the validity of such fingerprint evidence.

The 'Night of Terrors'

Feb. 11 and 12, 1978, would become known as the "Night of Terrors," when a 
rapid series of burglaries would coincide with an attempted strangling and 
another murder.

Ruth Schwob, 74, of 1800 Carter Ave., was nearly strangled to death by an 
intruder she fought off, pressing a panic alarm by her bed. Police found her 
sitting on the edge of her bed, gasping, a stocking wrapped around her neck.

That same night, the 2021 Brookside Drive home of Abraham Illges was 
burglarized, but the intruder triggered an alarm and fled. Police said Gary 
later told them he ran and hid in Wildwood Park.

The next day, Mildred Borom, 78, 1612 Forest Ave., about two blocks from 
Schwob's home, was found raped and strangled with a cord cut from window 
blinds. Her body was covered with a garment.

Undisclosed to the defense during Gary's trial was a footprint found on the 
air-conditioner outside the window Schwob's assailant crawled through. It was a 
size 10 shoe.

Gary wears a size 13 1/2, the defense again notes. Because prosecutors told 
jurors the same person attacked Schwob, killed Borom and broke into the Illges 
home, the shoe print clears Gary in all 3 cases, his attorneys argue.

On April 20, 1978, Janet Cofer, 61, of 3783 Steam Mill Road, was found raped 
and strangled with a stocking. A pillow covered her face.

Investigators found a bite mark on her left breast, and the coroner had a 
dentist make a mold from it, preserving the teeth marks. The mold was lost 
until Nov. 9, 2005, when then-Coroner James Dunnavant found it in a file drawer 
in his office.

The mold shows a gap in the biter's upper teeth and a crooked lower tooth, 
defects Gary's teeth never had, the defense says, noting he would not have been 
hired as a TV model for "The Movin' Man" clothing store in the 1970s had his 
smile been so flawed.

Prosecutors argued Gary later had dental work in prison. The defense counters 
the work was on his upper teeth only, so that does not account for the crooked 
lower tooth.

On May 3, 1984, authorities arrested Gary in Albany, Ga., and brought him to 
Columbus. That night, from around midnight until 3:30 a.m., he is alleged to 
have taken investigators on a tour of homes he broke into, blaming the 
stranglings on an accomplice, as he did in other cases.

This confession was not recorded, nor did police create a written statement for 
Gary to sign. The defense argues it is invalid, noting that in the Farmer case, 
in 1970, Gary gave a full statement 12 pages long and signed it. So, why would 
he refuse to sign one in 1984?

The jury in 1986 convicted Gary of burglary, rape and murder in the Scheible, 
Thurmond and Woodruff stranglings, with evidence from other cases used as 
"similar transactions."

Had those jurors seen what has since been revealed, that would not have been 
their verdict, the defense concludes:

"There is an even greater probability that at least one juror would not have 
returned a death sentence due to lingering doubts as to guilt in light of this 
powerful and persuasive physical evidence undermining guilt. Simply put, this 
evidence shows that the state's theory that Mr. Gary was a serial killer who 
had committed 7 different rapes-murders was not in fact true."

The defense filed its appeal Nov. 1, leaving prosecutors 10 days to respond. 
District Attorney Julia Slater said the prosecution will respond Monday.

THE CARLTON GARY TIMELINE

This timeline was compiled from Columbus police, court records and 
Ledger-Enquirer archives:

Sept. 24, 1950, Carlton Michael Gary is born in Columbus, Ga., where he lives 
until age 16, when he moves with his mother to Fort Myers, Fla., and later 
Gainesville, Fla.

Sept. 3, 1964, Gary attends Carver High School.

Nov. 18, 1965, Gary attends Spencer High School.

Jan. 31, 1966, Gary returns to Carver High School and later transfers to Dunbar 
High School in Fort Myers, Fla.

Oct. 31, 1967, Gary's charged with breaking into an automobile in Gainesville, 
Fla.

March 17, 1968, Gary's charged with arson in Gainesville, Fla.

Nov. 26, 1969, Gary's charged with assaulting a police officer in Bridgeport, 
Conn.

April 14, 1970, Nellie Farmer, 85, is raped and strangled and her body left 
covered in her home in the Wellington Hotel, Albany, N.Y. Gary's fingerprint is 
found at the scene. Gary claims another man killed Farmer, and is convicted 
only of robbery.

July 15, 1970, Gary's sentenced to 10 years in prison for robbery.

March 31, 1975, Gary is released from prison and moves to Syracuse, NY.

June 27, 1975, the body of Marion Fisher, 40, is found on a road just outside 
Syracuse. She was raped and strangled. Authorities in 2007 say they match 
Gary's DNA to the cold-case evidence.

July 25, 1975, Gary's charged with escape, resisting arrest and violating 
parole.

July 17, 1976, Gary's released on parole.

Sept. 3, 1976, Gary's charged with assault.

Jan. 2, 1977, Jean Frost, 55, is raped and nearly choked to death in her home 
in Syracuse, N.Y. Gary has a watch taken from Frost???s home when police arrest 
him 2 days later. Again he blames another man for the assault. He is charged 
with possessing stolen property, resisting arrest, perjury and assault.

Aug. 23, 1977, Gary escapes from New York's Onandaga County prison by jumping 
from a 3rd-floor window. He goes home to Columbus, where he soon moves to 1027 
Fisk Ave.

Sept. 11, 1977, Gertrude Miller, 64, is beaten with a board and raped in her 
2703 Hood St. home, about 2 blocks from Fisk Avenue. Her assailant leaves 
behind knotted stockings he took from her dresser. She in 1986 identifies Gary 
as the rapist.

Sept. 16, 1977, Mary Willis "Fern" Jackson, 59, of 2505 17th St., is found 
brutally beaten, raped and strangled with a stocking and sash. Her body is left 
covered. Her stolen car is later found on Benner Avenue near Fisk Avenue.

Sept. 24, 1977, Jean Dimenstein, 71, is found raped and strangled with a 
stocking in her home that then had the address 3027 21st St. (the street has 
since been renamed). Her body was left covered with sheets and a pillow Later 
tests match Gary's DNA to crime-scene evidence.

Oct. 4, 1977, Gary moves to 3231 Old Buena Vista Road.

Oct. 8, 1977, the 1427 Eberhart Avenue home of sisters Callye East, 75, and 
Nellie Sanderson, 78, is burglarized. Sanderson's son Henry is visiting. The 
intruder steals his Toyota, which has a .22-caliber Ruger pistol under the 
seat. The car's left on Buena Vista Road.

Oct. 21, 1977, Florence Scheible, 89, is found raped and strangled with a 
stocking in her 1941 Dimon St. home, which today has a different address. Her 
body was left covered. Gary's right thumbprint was found on a door frame 
leading into Scheible's bedroom.

Oct. 25, 1977, Martha Thurmond, 70, is found raped and strangled with a 
stocking in her 2614 Marion St. home. Her body was covered by a pillow, 
blankets and sheets. Gary's fingerprint is found on the frame of a rear bedroom 
window.

Nov. 11, 1977, Gary moves to 2829 Ninth St. and gets a job working the late 
shift at Golden's Foundry.

Dec. 16, 1977, Gary leaves the foundry job.

Dec. 20, 1977, the 1710 Buena Vista Road home of William Swift is burglarized 
while the residents are away. Swift later discovers the burglar removed bars 
from a kitchen window to get in, then set the bars back on the windowsill. 
Detectives later say Swift never told police this; Gary did.

Dec. 28, 1977, Kathleen Woodruff, 74, is found raped and strangled in her 1811 
Buena Vista Road home, which later was demolished during an Aflac expansion. 
Gary's right little fingerprint is found on the aluminum window screen where 
the intruder entered, and his palm print is found on the windowsill just 
inside.

Jan. 1, 1978, the 2021 Brookside Drive home of Abraham Illges, who is 85 and 
whose wife is 75, is burglarized and a Cadillac stolen. The car's left at a 
restaurant on Victory Drive. Police say Gary later refers to this home as "the 
castle."

Feb. 11, 1978, Ruth Schwob, 74, of 1800 Carter Ave., is nearly strangled to 
death by an intruder she fights off, pressing a panic alarm by her bed. Police 
find her sitting on the edge of her bed, gasping, a stocking wrapped around her 
neck.

Feb. 11, 1978, the Illges home is burglarized again, but the intruder triggers 
an alarm and flees. Police said Gary later told them he ran and hid in Wildwood 
Park.

Feb. 12, 1978, Mildred Borom, 78, 1612 Forest Ave., about 2 blocks from 
Schwob's home on the west side of Wildwood Park, is found raped and strangled 
with a cord cut from window blinds. Her body's covered with a garment. This 
series of rapid events becomes known as "The Night of Terrors."

April 20, 1978, Janet Cofer, 61, of 3783 Steam Mill Road, is found raped and 
strangled with a stocking. A pillow covers her face. Police find Cofer's stolen 
car on Mill Road.

April 20, 1978, Gary robs the Burger King at 3520 Macon Road.

May 14, 1978, Gary robs the Hungry Hunter restaurant at 1834 Midtown Drive.

Sept. 4, 1978, Gary robs the Western Sizzlin restaurant at 4385 Victory Drive.

Sept. 22, 1978, Gary robs the Talk of the Town restaurant in Greenville, S.C.

Oct. 8, 1978, Gary robs the Ryan's Steakhouse in Greenville.

Oct. 19, 1978, Gary robs the Western Sizzlin steakhouse in Greenville.

Nov. 5, 1978, Gary robs the Po' Folks restaurant in Greenville.

Dec. 7, 1978, Gary robs Jack's Steak House in Greenville.

Feb. 15, 1979, having earned the nickname "Steakhouse Bandit," Gary robs a Po' 
Folks restaurant in Gafney, S.C., and is arrested the next day.

Feb. 22, 1979, Gary is convicted of armed robbery in Greenville County, S.C.

March 29, 1979, Gary is convicted of armed robbery in Cherokee County, S.C.

March 15, 1984, he escapes from a prison in Columbia, S.C., and returns to 
Columbus.

April 3, 1984, Gary robs a Po' Folks restaurant on the 280 Bypass in Phenix 
City and rapes a woman who works there.

April 10, 1984, Henry Sanderson calls Columbus police to ask about the Ruger 
pistol taken from his Toyota in the 1977 Eberhart Avenue burglary. A detective 
sends out a nationwide alert for the gun, which turns up in Michigan and is 
traced back to Gary.

April 16, 1984, Gary robs a Wendy's restaurant in Gainesville, Fla.

April 22, 1984, Gary robs a McDonald's restaurant in Montgomery, Ala.

April 28, 1984, Gary robs the County Seat Store in the Oaks Mall of 
Gainesville, Fla.

April 30, 1984, prompted by Sanderson's call and the gun trace, copies of 
Gary's fingerprints arrive at the Columbus Police Department, where 1 is 
matched to a print found on the frame of a screen removed from Woodruff's home.

May 3, 1984, authorities arrest Gary in Albany, Ga.

May 4, 1984, from around midnight until 3:30 a.m., Gary takes investigators on 
a tour of homes he tells them he broke into. He blames the stranglings on 
another man.

May 8, 1984, Gary attempts suicide in jail.

May 9, 1984, then Superior Court Judge John Land appoints attorneys William 
Kirby and Stephen Hyles to represent Gary.

Aug. 28, 1984, attorney August "Bud" Siemon becomes Gary's lead defense 
counsel.

Oct. 11, 1984, attorney Bruce Harvey becomes Gary's co-counsel. Attorney Gary 
Parker joins the defense team the following December.

Feb. 8, 1985, Siemon files a motion asking Judge Land to recuse himself because 
he has personal knowledge of the case. Land recuses himself.

May 13, 1985, Judge E. Mullins Whisnant is assigned the case.

May 22, 1985, Siemon files a motion asking Whisnant to recuse himself because 
he was the district attorney during the stranglings.

May 20, 1985, Whisnant recuses himself and the case is assigned to Judge 
Kenneth Followill.

Dec. 18, 1985, Parker withdraws as co-counsel after Followill refuses to grant 
the defense team funds for an investigator.

Dec. 29, 1985, Gary tries to escape from jail.

March 10, 1986, on the day Gary's trial is to start, he refuses to get dressed 
and come to court. Harvey files a motion questioning Gary's competency to stand 
trial, saying the defendant's mental health is in decline. Followill orders a 
psychological evaluation.

March 24, 1986, Gary goes to Georgia Central State Hospital in Milledgeville 
for his evaluation, but refuses to cooperate with doctors.

April 21, 1986, Followill holds a trial to determine Gary's mental competency.

April 28, 1986, the jury finds Gary competent for trial.

June 9, 1986, Gary's trial is set to begin, but Siemon files for a change of 
venue.

July 2, 1986, Followill decides that instead of moving the trial, the court 
will bring jurors from Griffin, Ga., to hear the case.

July 7, 1986, Harvey withdraws, leaving Siemon as Gary's only lawyer.

Aug. 11, 1986, Gary's trial begins.

Aug. 26, 1986, the jury finds Gary guilty in 3 of the 7 stranglings, though 
then-District Attorney Bill Smith maintains one perpetrator committed all seven 
along with the attack on Miller and Schwob. Smith used evidence from the other 
cases to illustrate a pattern of criminal behavior.

Aug. 27, 1986, the jury sentences Gary to death.

Sept. 25, 1986, Gary moves for a new trial. His motion's denied the following 
Oct. 18, and he appeals to the Georgia Supreme Court.

June 26, 1987, the Georgia Supreme Court sends the case back to Columbus, 
instructing the court here to determine whether Gary had ineffective counsel.

Nov. 4, 1987, Followill holds hearings to determine the effectiveness of 
Gary???s defense.

June 12, 1989, Followill rules Gary failed to show his counsel was ineffective.

March 6, 1990, the Georgia Supreme court upholds Followill's ruling and 
reaffirms Gary's conviction and death sentence.

Jan. 27, 1995, the superior court of Butts County, Ga., where Gary is 
imprisoned, rejects one of his habeas corpus appeals.

Nov. 13, 1995, the court rejects another of Gary's habeas corpus appeals.

Nov. 18, 1997, Gary files a habeas corpus appeal in U.S. District Court for the 
Middle District of Georgia.

Sept. 28, 2004, the federal court rejects Gary's appeal, and he appeals to the 
11th Circuit Court of Appeals.

Nov. 9, 2005, then-Coroner James Dunnavant finds a bite-cast mold made from 
teeth marks on Janet Cofer's body. It has been missing since Dunnavant's 
predecessor Don Kilgore died.

Nov. 23, 2005, the appeals court sends the case back to U.S. District Court to 
consider the bite-mark evidence.

Feb. 14, 2007, the district court holds a hearing and decides the bite cast 
would not have bolstered Gary's defense and again rejects his appeal. Gary 
again appeals to the 11th Circuit.

Feb. 12, 2009, the 11th Circuit rejects Gary's appeal. He appeals to the U.S. 
Supreme Court.

Dec. 1, 2009, the U.S. Supreme Court refuses to hear Gary's appeal. His 
execution is set for the following Dec. 16.

Dec. 16, 2009, Gary is hours away from execution when the Georgia Supreme Court 
issues a stay and sends the case back to Muscogee Superior Court to consider 
DNA-testing evidence.

Feb. 19, 2010, prosecutors and defense attorneys agree to DNA-test suitable 
evidence samples, four items from 3 cases: Dimenstein, Scheible and Woodruff.

Dec. 14, 2010, attorneys say the initial DNA test results match Gary to the 
murder of Jean Dimenstein but not Martha Thurmond. The defense seeks testing on 
clothes from Gertrude Miller the morning after she was raped and beaten.

March 6, 2012, tests of the Miller evidence yield a DNA profile that does not 
match Gary. The prosecution says the defense can't prove Miller was wearing the 
garments when raped.

Nov. 21, 2013, District Attorney Julia Slater announces the Thurmond DNA test 
was tainted at the state crime lab and thus invalid.

February 24-28, 2014, Judge Frank Jordan Jr. holds evidentiary hearings on 
Gary's new trial motion.

Jan. 11, 2016, Doug Grubbs, son-in-law of sheriff's investigator Don Miller, in 
the attic finds a briefcase containing files on the strangling. He turns it 
over to the sheriff's office.

Jan. 27, the defense is told of the briefcase.

Feb. 3, both sides meet to inspect the documents. They find a composite sketch 
believed to have been drawn as Gertrude Miller described her assailant under 
hypnosis in October 1977.

Jan. 12-12, 2017, Jordan holds a final set of hearings on the new evidence in 
Gary's motion for a new trial.

June 27, the prosecution files a motion asking Jordan to issue a ruling.

Sept. 1, Jordan denies Gary's motion for a new trial in a 50-page ruling.

Sept. 20, Gary's attorneys file for an extension of the deadline to appeal to 
the Georgia Supreme Court.

Nov. 1, the defense files a 90-page application for appeal to the Georgia 
Supreme Court. The prosecution has 10 days to respond.

(source: ledger-enquirer.com)








FLORIDA----execution

Florida executes man for pair of killings dating to 1991



A man convicted of killing 2 people in 1991 on Wednesday became the 3rd inmate 
executed in Florida since the state resumed carrying out the death penalty 
after a hiatus.

Fifty-three-year-old Patrick Hannon received a lethal injection and was 
pronounced dead at 8:50 p.m. at Florida State Prison in Starke, the office of 
the governor said.

Hannon was strapped to a gurney as witnesses watched on the other side of a 
glass window. While he expressed regret over the killings, he said it was two 
accomplices that killed the victims, Robert Carter and Brandon Snider. Carter 
was fatally shot and Snider had his throat slashed.

"I hope the execution gives the Carter family some peace. I wish I could have 
done more to save Robert. I didn't kill anybody, but I was there," he said.

As he spoke, one of the victim's female family members cursed.

"Robby was a good man and a good friend, and I let him down when he needed me 
most," Hannon continued. "As far as Brandon Snider, I think that everybody 
knows what he did to get this ball rolling. I'm sorry things worked out like 
this the way it did."

The same woman, who authorities declined to identify later, cursed again in a 
whisper.

Then as the execution began at 8:38 p.m., the woman made eye contact with 
Hannon and raised her hand as if to wave "bye, bye."

Hannon's body moved during the execution procedure. His lips twitched, his 
chest heaved and his arms, legs and body appeared to convulse a bit. Then, 12 
minutes after the execution began, he was pronounced dead.

Florida resumed executions in August after making changes to its death penalty 
sentencing law. The law now requires a unanimous jury vote for a death 
sentence.

The U.S. Supreme Court had previously found that Florida's old sentencing law, 
which did not require unanimity, to be unconstitutional. However, the new 
sentencing law did not affect Hannon's case because the state's high court 
ruled that those decided before 2002 were not eligible for relief.

Hannon was convicted in 1991 of 2 counts of 1st-degree murder in the slayings 
of Snider and Carter.

It was in January 1991 when Hannon and 2 other men went to Snider's apartment 
in Tampa.

Hannon's friend, Jim Acker, initially attacked Snider with a knife, according 
to authorities. Prosecutors said the attacks were motivated by Snider's 
vandalizing of Acker's sister's apartment. Snider was "eviscerated" by the 
initial stabbing, according to court documents, and Hannon sliced his throat, 
nearly cutting off the victim's head.

Carter, who was Snider's roommate, also was home and fled the violence to an 
upstairs bedroom, where Hannon dragged him out from under a bed and shot him 6 
times, the jury found.

Hannon's jury recommended death unanimously after finding him guilty of both 
killings.

Hannon's lawyers had earlier requested a halt to the execution plan before the 
Florida Supreme Court, but that was denied. Hannon had asked for a new 
sentencing phase, citing recent changes to Florida's death sentencing system. 
Florida Supreme Court Justice Barbara Pariente, who dissented from the rest of 
the court, wrote that the jury was not given enough information to make an 
informed decision in Hannon's sentencing phase.

Without explanation Wednesday evening, the U.S. Supreme Court denied 2 
last-hour requests by Hannon's lawyer sto block the execution.

(source: Associated Press)