Page 3 of 4 FirstFirst 1234 LastLast
Results 21 to 30 of 34

Thread: Steven Frederick Spears - Georgia Execution - November 16, 2016

  1. #21
    Senior Member Member GASMANDIRTY's Avatar
    Join Date
    Nov 2012
    Posts
    239
    He has made up his mind to go through with this. The lawyers will not let it go. Clemency will be denied and all appeals will be denied and this will be over quickly. Travis Hittson told his lawyers to stop appealing and he was executed.

  2. #22
    Administrator Heidi's Avatar
    Join Date
    Oct 2010
    Posts
    33,217
    Things to Know About the Upcoming Execution in Georgia

    Georgia is preparing to carry out its eighth execution of the year with plans to execute a man who killed his ex-girlfriend 15 years ago.

    Steven Frederick Spears, 54, is scheduled to be put to death Wednesday by injection of the barbiturate pentobarbital at the state prison in Jackson. He was convicted of murder in the August 2001 slaying of his former girlfriend Sherri Holland at her home in Dahlonega, about 65 miles northeast of Atlanta.

    Here are some things to know about the scheduled execution:

    THE CRIME

    Spears told investigators in a 90-minute, tape-recorded confession that he came up with four different plans to kill Holland. According to a summary from the Georgia Supreme Court:

    — He went into the crawl space under her house and attached wires to the drainpipe and cold water pipe of her shower that he planned to attach to her home's circuit board to electrocute her as she showered;

    — He planned to carve a baseball bat from a tree branch, leave it under a canoe at her house and beat her to death with it;

    — He planned to crawl into her house from the crawl space through an air conditioner vent and load her shotgun so he could use it later;

    — He hid duct tape under her canoe so he could choke her, bind her with the tape and suffocate her with a plastic bag.

    He ultimately chose the fourth plan, placing Holland's bag-covered head on a pillow, "so her face wouldn't be smashed on the floor," he told investigators. He left her body in her bedroom and locked the door with a padlock to keep her teenage son from entering when he returned home from his dad's house.

    Spears lived in the woods for 10 days before an officer saw him walking along a highway, asked his name and arrested him.

    ———

    THE MOTIVE

    Spears said he told Holland when they began dating that if he caught her or heard that she was sleeping with someone else he would "choke her ass to death." He told investigators he told her he loved her just before choking her. Toward the end of his confession, Spears told investigators, "I loved her that much. I told her I wasn't letting her go, and I didn't." He added that he'd do it again if he had to.

    ———

    NO POST-CONVICTION APPEALS

    Georgia death sentences are automatically appealed. If a sentence is upheld through the direct appeal process, the case generally winds its way through post-conviction appeals in state and federal courts. Authorities in Georgia typically wait until those appeals are exhausted before setting an execution date.

    But Spears has taken the unusual step of declining to file any post-conviction appeals. His trial attorney, Allyn Stockton, said Spears made it very difficult for his defense team because he threatened to take the stand and torpedo his own case if they presented any mitigating evidence.

    Stockton said Spears has failed to answer letters he's sent in recent months and has refused to see him when he's come to the prison to visit recently.

    Stockton plans to ask the State Board of Pardons and Paroles to spare Spears' life at a clemency hearing set for Tuesday. Enotah Judicial Circuit District Attorney Jeff Langley said he plans to ask the board to allow the execution to proceed. The parole board is the only authority in Georgia with power to commute a death sentence.

    ———

    RECORD NUMBER OF EXECUTIONS

    Spears would be the eighth person put to death by the state of Georgia this year. That's the most in a calendar year in the state since the death penalty was reinstated nationwide in 1976. Georgia executed five inmates last year and five in 1987.

    If his execution is carried out, Georgia will have executed more people this year than any other state. Texas and Georgia are currently tied with seven executions apiece. Three other states — Alabama, Florida and Missouri — have each carried out one execution this year, bringing the total number of executions this year to 17.

    http://abcnews.go.com/US/wireStory/t...orgia-43504572
    An uninformed opponent is a dangerous opponent.

    "Y'all be makin shit up" ~ Markeith Loyd

  3. #23
    Administrator Aaron's Avatar
    Join Date
    Nov 2015
    Location
    New Jersey, unfortunately
    Posts
    4,382
    Murder victim’s sister doesn’t want revenge, she wants justice

    Alice Loggins feared one day Steven Spears would kill her sister.

    “He had been threatening her. He threatened all of us,” Loggins said of the man who murdered her sister in Lumpkin County in 2001 and is scheduled to die Wednesday.

    “He had a hold on her by threatening us,” Loggins said of the now 54-year-old Spears, who would be the eighth person in Georgia executed by lethal injection this year.

    Loggins wants people to know about her sister, Sherri Holland, who was younger by 14 years. So on Tuesday, she and other relatives will tell the State Board of Pardons and Paroles in Atlanta about Holland to ensure the five board members keep her in mind when they vote on whether to grant Spears clemency.

    Holland was a 34-year-old single mother who loved heavy metal rock ‘n’ roll, shopping and her 14-year-old son.

    Loggins said Holland was the youngest of eight and was “petted rotten.”

    Holland also was the adored aunt who was the glue that kept the huge family together, Loggins said of her baby sister.

    “She was our little light,” Loggins said. “We used to have to dance her to sleep when she was a baby.”

    Spears said all the right things at the beginning of his three-year relationship with Holland, but he quickly became threatening, Loggins said.

    “He was just a cruel man. We tried to keep her away,” Loggins said.

    “He took our joy.”

    Loggins said when her sister finally ended the relationship with Spears, she still rented him a mobile home she owned.

    Loggins said Spears was supposed to pay rent on the trailer, but she doubts he ever did.

    “She had broke up (with him) and he wouldn’t let her go,” Loggins said.

    4 Plans To Kill 1 Woman

    Spears developed four plans for murdering Holland and prepared for each — electrocuting her in the shower, beating her to death, shooting her, or suffocating her.

    Around 10 p.m. on Aug. 24, 2001, Spears hid in the closet of Holland’s son, who was spending the weekend with his father. Around four hours later, he came out and killed her.

    Spears choked Holland until she was unconscious, then smothered her by wrapping duct tape around her face and mouth, placing a plastic bag over her head, and sealing the bag with duct tape.

    Before he left her house in Dahlonega, across the street from what was then North Georgia Military College, he secured her bedroom door with a padlock and turned on the heater, setting it at 90 even though it was late August.

    The next day, Holland was supposed to pick up her son, Derrick, at his father’s house. But she never showed.

    “Derrick was the most important thing in the world for her. She would never be late,” Loggins said.

    They called around and went to her house, but didn’t see her because she was in her bedroom, which was padlocked.

    Once deputies arrived, they sent Derrick outside before they went into the bedroom, where his mother’s body lay, Loggins said.

    Killer Wants To Be Killed

    Once caught, Spears readily confessed to the murder. He told investigators 10 days after killing Holland — 10 days during which he’d hidden in the woods — that he had warned Holland that if he ever found out she was with somebody else, he’d “choke her … to death.”

    He told investigators, “If I had to do it again, I’d do it.”

    Moreover, Spears has thus far refused to fight his death sentence.

    An automatic direct appeal to the Georgia Supreme Court was filed soon after he was tried and sentenced to die in 2007. The Supreme Court denied the appeal in February 2015, and he has not allowed his attorney to bring any of the usual appeals since.

    His attorney, Allyn Stockton, said Spears wouldn’t let his defense team present any evidence that might dissuade the Lumpkin County jury from voting for a death sentence.

    For more than a year, Spears has not responded to any letters from his attorney and has refused to come out when his lawyer visits the prison.

    For Sister, Not About Revenge

    “I didn’t think I would see it in my lifetime. I’m 64,” Loggins said. “I kept telling my niece, ‘Y’all make sure this (execution) goes through. He’s wanted this all the time.”

    For years Loggins wanted revenge, but that changed as she got older and her Christian faith deepened.

    “Sherri would not have wanted that,” Loggins said. “When they do this, and Steve faces Sherri and the Lord, I can see Sherri telling God she forgives him. I can see it plain as day.”

    http://www.myajc.com/news/news/local...he-want/ns7mq/
    Don't ask questions, just consume product and then get excited for next products.

    "They will hurt you. They will hurt your grandma, these people. The root cause of this is there's no discipline in the homes, they don't go to school, you know, they live off the government, no personal accountability, and they just beat people up for no reason, and it's disgusting." - Former Hamilton County Prosecutor Joe Deters

  4. #24
    Administrator Aaron's Avatar
    Join Date
    Nov 2015
    Location
    New Jersey, unfortunately
    Posts
    4,382
    Killer’s ex-wife petitions to stop execution set for Wednesday

    A former wife of murderer Steven Spears asked a court on Monday to let her file an appeal on his behalf since he has taken no legal steps to stop his execution for killing his former girlfriend in August 2001.

    Only an automatic appeal was filed on Spears’ behalf soon after he was convicted of murder in Lumpkin County in 2007 and sentenced to death. He has not filed anything else to challenge his conviction or death sentence, which is scheduled to be carried out on Wednesday at 7 p.m.

    Spears readily admitted he smothered Sherri Holland in her Dahlonega home. And he refused to let his trial attorney present any evidence that might persuade the jury to sentence him to life in prison.

    Gwen Thompson — Spears’ third wife and the mother of the youngest of his four daughters — filed a “next friend” petition on Monday in Superior Court in Butts County, where Georgia’s death row is located. An attorney at the Georgia Resource Center, which handles appeals for death row inmates, filed the petition for Thompson.

    In legal parlance, a “next friend” is an individual who acts on behalf of another individual who is determined not to have the legal capacity to act on his own.

    Psychologist Robert Shaffer, who provided a sworn statement, wrote that there was evidence that “mental illness, rather than any rational decision-making, has compelled him (Spears) thus far to forgo available legal remedies. Thus, next friend status ought to be conferred on Ms. Thompson, and this court should … stay the pending execution.”

    Thompson asked the court to stop Spears’ execution to allow time to determine whether mistakes were made in his trial. Thompson’s petition said she was stepping in because Spears is mentally ill and does not grasp the consequences if he does not fight for his life.

    Spears’ lawyer, Allyn Stockton, was unaware of the petition until told about it by a reporter.

    According to the petition, Georgia law says if a person under a death sentence “declines to pursue available post-conviction legal remedies due to a mental disease or defect,” a person who ”has a significant relationship with the death-sentenced person” can pursue an appeal for them.

    Thompson’s petition details Spears’ life growing up and his family’s history of mental illness. According to the petition, Spears suffered “overt cruelty and abuse” from his parents and grandmother. His father abandoned the family when he was 7 or 8 years old, leaving them in poverty, the petition states. Thompson wrote that Spears’ classmates teased and bullied him because of his shabby, ill-fitting clothes.

    Finally, the Thompson petition states, Spears was essentially sentenced to death “because he is poor and male.”

    It is not clear how long Thompson and Spears were married. Their relationship began in 1983. Their daughter was born in 1988, but the filing does not say if they were married at the time. Spears and Holland started dating in 1999, the petition said.

    Spears has steadfastly refused to let Stockton, his lawyer, file an appeal. And he would not speak with the State Board of Pardons and Paroles investigator who came to the Georgia Diagnostic and Classification Prison last week for an interview the agency routinely conducts prior to every execution.

    On Tuesday, the Parole Board will hear from Holland’s family and local authorities who want Spears’ sentence carried out. The board will also meet with those who want to save him, even though Spears did not authorize his lawyer to file a clemency petition.

    According to the board, those planning to ask for mercy include Spears’ lawyer Stockton, as well as two attorneys and others from the Federal Defender Program.

    Stockton said Spears has refused to see him and has not responded to his many letters. The last time Spears and Stockton spoke was March 2015, a court filing states. Stockton said Spears also has refused to see his family, agreeing to a visit only on the day he is to be executed.

    Even before his trial, Spears would waver on the question of whether he wanted to be executed.

    If Spears, 54, is put to death by lethal injection on Wednesday, he will be the eighth man Georgia has executed since this year, more than any other state in 2016. The last time Georgia carried out as many executions in a year was 1957, when 16 people were put to death.

    Spears told investigators in the hours after his arrest that he had warned Holland at the beginning of their relationship that he would kill her if she replaced him. Several months after Holland ended their relationship, Spears plotted her murder by setting up what he needed to kill her in any of four different ways — electrocution, beating, shooting or suffocation.

    He ultimately chose suffocation.

    He hid in the closet of the bedroom where Holland’s son usually slept. The boy was away that night, spending the weekend with his father.

    Spears sneaked out of the closet in the early-morning hours of Aug. 25, 2001, after he was sure Holland was asleep. He choked the 34-year-old single mother until she was unconscious, then smothered her by wrapping duct tape around her face and mouth, placing a plastic bag over her head, and sealing the bag with duct tape.

    Spears hid in the woods for 10 days and was picked up as he walked to town to turn himself in.

    He willingly told investigators he murdered Holland and said, “If I had to do it again, I’d do it.”

    http://www.myajc.com/news/news/local...-set-fo/ns8Bt/
    Don't ask questions, just consume product and then get excited for next products.

    "They will hurt you. They will hurt your grandma, these people. The root cause of this is there's no discipline in the homes, they don't go to school, you know, they live off the government, no personal accountability, and they just beat people up for no reason, and it's disgusting." - Former Hamilton County Prosecutor Joe Deters

  5. #25
    Moderator mostlyclassics's Avatar
    Join Date
    Apr 2013
    Location
    Wilmette, IL
    Posts
    627
    State: Death row inmate should be asked if he wants appeal
    November 15, 2016 — Associated Press

    ATLANTA – A Georgia death row inmate scheduled for execution this week should be asked whether he wants an appeal filed on his behalf, lawyers for the state argued in a court filing Tuesday.

    Steven Frederick Spears, 54, is scheduled to die Wednesday by injection of the barbiturate pentobarbital. He was convicted of murder in the August 2001 slaying of his ex-girlfriend, Sherri Holland, at her home in Dahlonega, about 65 miles northeast of Atlanta.

    Spears has declined to initiate any post-conviction appeals and has refused to meet or communicate with his lawyers since March 2015.

    The state asked a judge to hold a status conference to determine from Spears whether he wishes to waive or pursue a petition filed on his behalf. The state also asks that an expert evaluate Spears by Wednesday "in an abundance of caution" since his mental competency has been challenged.

    Once those steps are completed, lawyers for the state wrote, a hearing can be held by the end of the week on the state's motion to dismiss the petition filed on Spears' behalf. The seven-day window set by a judge for Spears' execution ends at noon on Nov. 23.

    Attorney Brian Kammer with the Georgia Resource Center, which acts on behalf of death row inmates, filed a petition on Monday saying Spears' constitutional rights were violated during his trial, sentencing and direct appeal and asking a judge to delay his execution to set a hearing on those issues.

    The filing was made on behalf of Gwen Thompson, Spears' ex-wife and mother of his child, as a "next friend" petition. That option is available to someone who has a significant relationship with a death-sentenced person who "declines to pursue available post-conviction legal remedies due to a mental disease or defect."

    The petition cites a sworn statement from clinical psychologist Robert D. Shaffer, who wasn't able to personally interview Spears but who evaluated him by reviewing letters Spears had sent, statements from people who had previously evaluated Spears and court records.

    "It is my opinion that his capacity to appreciate his position and make a rational choice with respect to continuing or abandoning further litigation is substantially affected by his mental disease," Shaffer wrote.

    Lawyers for the state oppose delaying the execution to give a judge a chance to consider the petition. Thompson has failed to demonstrate that her relationship with Spears is significant enough to warrant a "next friend" petition, they argue, noting that she is not on the list of people approved to visit Spears and has never visited him in prison.

    The state's lawyers also take issue with the assertion that Spears isn't competent, noting that the expert cited in the petition has never met nor evaluated Spears.

    "There is no evidence that any expert who has met Spears and evaluated him has found him to be incompetent or to have a mental illness that affects his competence," they argue.

    Spears is competent and could make the decision to pursue post-conviction appeals if that's what he wanted to do, the state's lawyers argue.

    Attorneys for Spears also planned to ask the State Board of Pardons and Paroles to spare his life during a clemency hearing set for Tuesday. The parole board is the only authority with the power to commute a death sentence in Georgia.

    Source

  6. #26
    Administrator Aaron's Avatar
    Join Date
    Nov 2015
    Location
    New Jersey, unfortunately
    Posts
    4,382
    State board considers clemency for condemned Georgia killer

    Georgia's Board of Pardons and Paroles today weighs clemency for convicted killer Steven Spears, although Spears has not asked for it.

    The Atlanta Journal-Constitution reports Spears refused to meet with an investigator the board sent for an interview routinely scheduled before each execution.

    Spears' former wife asks a court to allow her to appeal on his behalf, because he has made no effort to stop his execution tomorrow night.

    Gwen Thompson argues in her petition that Spears is mentally ill and unable to make a rational decision or recognize the consequences of his inaction.

    Spears is set to die by lethal injection Wednesday for the 2001 murder of his former girlfriend in Dahlonega.

    Members of Sherri Holland's family are expected to address the board today. Spears' attorney, Allyn Stockton, intends to appeal to the board on his client's behalf.

    "I wish he would talk to me," Stockton tells WSB. "I wish he would give me an opportunity to explain the rights available to him."

    If Spears dies tomorrow night, he will be the eighth death row inmate executed this year in Georgia, more than any other state in 2016.

    http://m.wsbradio.com/news/news/stat...orgia-k/ns8R7/
    Don't ask questions, just consume product and then get excited for next products.

    "They will hurt you. They will hurt your grandma, these people. The root cause of this is there's no discipline in the homes, they don't go to school, you know, they live off the government, no personal accountability, and they just beat people up for no reason, and it's disgusting." - Former Hamilton County Prosecutor Joe Deters

  7. #27
    Administrator Aaron's Avatar
    Join Date
    Nov 2015
    Location
    New Jersey, unfortunately
    Posts
    4,382
    Parole Board to decide tomorrow if it will stop Spears’ execution

    The state Board of Pardons and Paroles has decided wait until Wednesday to decide if it will stop the scheduled execution of Steven Spears for the 2001 murder of his ex-girlfriend.

    He is scheduled to be executed at 7 p.m. Wednesday.

    Though Spears did not authorize his lawyer to filed a petition for clemency, the attorney and others still met with the board for about three hours Tuesday to ask for mercy. In the afternoon, the five-member board heard from the Lumpkin County district attorney and some of Sherri Holland’s relatives who want to see him put to death for her murder.

    An automatic appeal, which comes with every death sentence, was filed after he was convicted in 2007, and the Georgia Supreme Court rejected it in February 2015. Since then, Spears has not taken any steps to challenge his conviction or his sentence. The last time he was in contact with his lawyer was March 2015 and he has since refused to meet with attorneys or respond to their letters.

    All the while, Spears’ third ex-wife, Gwen Thompson, filed a “next friend” petition to stop his lethal injection set for 7 p.m. Wednesday to allow time for a court to review his case. The petition, brought with the help of the Georgia Resource Center which represents Death Row inmates, said Thompson can bring it as a person “who has a significant relationship with the death sentenced person” who has declined to pursue all possible legal remedies. The state’s lawyers wrote in opposition to the petition that there was no evidence Thompson had a relationship at all with Spears, noting that she had not visited since he has been in prison.

    That court issue is also pending.

    Spears has said since before his trial that he wanted the death penalty. He would not let his lawyers present any evidence that might push his jury to choose a sentence of life in prison rather than death. He has refused to authorize any appeals.

    Spears readily admitted that he suffocated Holland, a 34-year-old single mother, during the early morning hours of Aug. 25, 2001, the weekend she was planning to go on her first date since she ended her relationship with Spears.

    Spears told investigators he had warned her when they started dating in 1999 that he would kill her if she ever left him for another.

    A few months after they broke up, Spears hid in a closet in her son’s bedroom for about four hours, until he was sure Holland was asleep. He woke her and then choked her unconscious. Spears killed her by wrapping her face with duct tape, putting a plastic bag over her head and securing the end with more tape.

    Spears hid in the woods for 10 days after he murdered Holland. A Lumpkin County deputy picked up Spears as walking to town to surrender.

    He confessed right away.

    “If I had to do it again, I’d do it,” Spears told investigators.

    If he is executed, Spears, 54, will be the eighth person Georgia has put to death since Jan. 1, more than any other state. It also will be most the state has executed in a year since 1957, when 16 people were electrocuted.

    http://www.ajc.com/news/local/parole...DlR8MNqjP4uOM/
    Don't ask questions, just consume product and then get excited for next products.

    "They will hurt you. They will hurt your grandma, these people. The root cause of this is there's no discipline in the homes, they don't go to school, you know, they live off the government, no personal accountability, and they just beat people up for no reason, and it's disgusting." - Former Hamilton County Prosecutor Joe Deters

  8. #28
    Junior Member Stranger Don Sterk's Avatar
    Join Date
    Oct 2016
    Posts
    23
    Hmm I'm starting to get the feeling his execution might get stayed because of this ex of his. Only time will tell though.

  9. #29
    Senior Member Member GASMANDIRTY's Avatar
    Join Date
    Nov 2012
    Posts
    239
    She doesn't have a legal leg to stand on. In Georgia if you're divorced the other do not have any control or binding legal matters. This is a attempt by his attorney's to have contact with him. He's refused to meet with her and her associate's. This is the only way she can contact him. This is a go for tomorrow.

  10. #30
    Moderator Ryan's Avatar
    Join Date
    Oct 2013
    Location
    Newport, United Kingdom
    Posts
    2,454
    Georgia set to execute man who killed his ex-girlfriend

    ATLANTA (AP) — Georgia plans to execute a man who killed his ex-girlfriend in August 2001.

    Steven Frederick Spears is to be put to death Wednesday evening by injection of the barbiturate pentobarbital. The 54-year-old was convicted in the slaying of Sherri Holland at her home in Dahlonega.

    A Georgia Supreme Court summary of the case says Spears killed Holland because he suspected she’d become romantically involved with someone else. It says Spears choked her, wrapped tape around her mouth and face and put a plastic bag over her head.

    Spears would be the eighth inmate executed in Georgia this year, the most in a calendar year in the state since the death penalty was reinstated in 1976. If the execution happens, Georgia will have executed more inmates this year than any other state.

    http://www.seattletimes.com/nation-w...ex-girlfriend/

Page 3 of 4 FirstFirst 1234 LastLast

Thread Information

Users Browsing this Thread

There are currently 1 users browsing this thread. (0 members and 1 guests)

Posting Permissions

  • You may not post new threads
  • You may not post replies
  • You may not post attachments
  • You may not edit your posts
  •