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Thread: Dennis Morgan Hicks - Alabama Death Row

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    Senior Member CnCP Legend CharlesMartel's Avatar
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    Dennis Morgan Hicks - Alabama Death Row


    Joshua Duncan



    Dennis Morgan Hicks


    Jury recommends death penalty in case of slain mentally challenged man

    The Mobile County District Attorney's office tweeted Wednesday afternoon that the jury in the trial of Dennis Hicks has recommended the death penalty.

    Hicks, 57, was convicted last week of the 2011 murder of Joshua Duncan, a mentally challenged man.

    Duncan had been missing for a month when his remains were found in October 2011 in the former Mobile Police Firing Range on Cody Road. Duncan's body was decapitated and disemboweled.

    Hicks was previously imprisoned for 25 years for a 1979 double-homicide in Wayne County, Mississippi. Hicks stabbed and shot those two victims. The bodies were later found in his vehicle.

    While still a suspect in this investigation, he was arrested for theft of property in Spanish Fort, thus violating his parole. While in jail, he was charged with capital murder in the death of Duncan.

    Lt. Paul Burch of the Mobile Sheriff's Office told AL.com in December 2012 that Hicks befriended Duncan at a church in west Mobile.

    Although the DA's office has released information about their recommendation, it is currently unknown how long the penalty phase of Hicks' sentencing will continue.

    http://www.al.com/news/mobile/index....gests_dea.html

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    Administrator Helen's Avatar
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    If anyone is interested here is a link that describes the previous double murder Hicks committed in Mississippi. One has to wonder why he was ever allowed out of prison.

    http://law.justia.com/cases/mississi...1/52866-0.html
    "I realize this may sound harsh, but as a father and former lawman, I really don't care if it's by lethal injection, by the electric chair, firing squad, hanging, the guillotine or being fed to the lions."
    - Oklahoma Rep. Mike Christian

    "There are some people who just do not deserve to live,"
    - Rev. Richard Hawke

    “There are lots of extremely smug and self-satisfied people in what would be deemed lower down in society, who also deserve to be pulled up. In a proper free society, you should be allowed to make jokes about absolutely anything.”
    - Rowan Atkinson

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    Senior Member CnCP Legend CharlesMartel's Avatar
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    In grisly murder, judge agrees with jury's call for death penalty

    In keeping with a jury's recommendation, Circuit Court Judge Charles Graddick sentenced Dennis Hicks to death Monday for murdering and dismembering a man in the presence of children.

    Wrapping up a two-hour sentencing hearing for Hicks, Graddick ruled that "there can be only one penalty, and that is the penalty of death."

    The case began in October 2011, when human remains were found at a west Mobile site previously used as a law enforcement shooting range. The body was identified as that of 23-year-old Joshua Duncan, a mentally challenged man who had been missing for a month. According to investigators, Duncan's body was decapitated and disemboweled.

    Hicks, then 53, quickly was identified as a person of interest in the case. According to a police investigator, he had befriended Duncan at church, and was the last person seen with him before his disappearance. At the time, Hicks was on parole after serving 25 years for a double murder in Mississippi. In that case, according to an MPD investigator, Hicks had shot and stabbed two victims, then left their bodies in the trunk of a car.

    In November 2011, Hicks was arrested for violating his parole, and eventually was charged with Duncan's murder. He remained incarcerated through his trial; he was convicted of Duncan's murder in late January, and the jury recommended the death penalty in early February.

    Hicks entered Monday's hearing with a list of objections and motions, arguing that the trial should be thrown out on several grounds. His hair now gray, and his voice nervous, he attempted to argue that his alibi hadn't been properly considered, that evidence had been planted and that his attorneys hadn't effectively represented him. "I just don't think they did me right," he said. "I was disinformed and lied to by both my counsel."

    Because Hicks' objections weren't always formulated in language the court understood, Graddick repeatedly asked him to stop the narrative and explain exactly what his motion was. In response to one of them, Graddick said, "Let's see, I've never done this. I'm denying the motion for me to correct myself." He denied all Hicks' motions, except to stipulate that Hicks' attorneys, Glynn Davidson and Deborah McGowin, would not represent him on appeal.

    For his part, Graddick said that Davidson and McGowin had "done an outstanding job for you" and "provided effective assistance," regardless of the outcome. It was a view shared by Assistant District Attorney Jennifer Wright, who said after the hearing that she was familiar with the defenders and that they were "very strong and ethical lawyers" who had done an excellent job under the circumstances.

    Hicks maintained that he had been helping Duncan learn to live independently by renting him a room, letting him work on odd jobs and teaching him to drive. He never would have harmed "Josh," he said.

    "I'm 100 percent innocent," said Hicks, describing the murder and his prosecution as "a double tragedy."

    As he approached his ruling, Graddick said investigators had found that three small children had been present in the residence where Duncan was murdered. Two of them had testified to details confirmed in forensic analysis of his body: That Duncan had been stabbed and disemboweled, and that his head and hands had been cut off.

    "It was very horrific," said Wright afterward. "It was horrific we had to put the children on the stand."

    Given the opportunity to speak to the court and Duncan's family one last time, Hicks remained defiant.

    "Had I been on the jury, I would have found myself guilty, because this is so rigged," he said.

    He disdained any half-measures. "Since all y'all think I killed Josh Duncan, please sentence me to death," he said, adding that he'd rather face true justice in the afterlife. He even asked Graddick to give him the maximum sentence on a theft charge related to the case; the judge declined to oblige, sentencing him to time served.

    Speaking to Duncan's grandmother, Dorothy Duncan, Hicks said, "My Bible tells me to forgive. I forgive. I don't hate y'all."

    In her own turn to speak, Duncan also referred to the afterworld. "A quick death is too good for you. You deserve to live on death row forever," she said. "I pray my father gives you the justice you deserve when you are very old."

    Dorothy Duncan and other family members did not speak to media after the hearing. But in her own remarks to the court, she said that she planned to push for a law that would require people with violent crimes on their record to notify neighbors, as sex offenders are required to do.

    "My Joshua deserves his rights, that he didn't get," she said. "I plan to make a 'Justice for Joshua' law. I'm working on it."

    Wright said she anticipated that appeals in the case would last "for years to come."

    http://www.al.com/news/mobile/index....ge_agrees.html

  4. #4
    Moderator Ryan's Avatar
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    Hicks entered Alabama's death row on April 5, 2016.

    http://www.doc.alabama.gov/DeathRow.aspx

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    Administrator Helen's Avatar
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    Appeal denied in 2016 capital murder conviction in Mobile County

    By Kimber Collins
    WKRG News

    MOBILE, Ala. (WKRG) – A man convicted in 2016 in the murder of Joshua Duncan has been denied an appeal.

    On July 12, the Court of Criminal Appeals affirmed the conviction, the Mobile County District Attorney’s office tweeted.

    Hicks is sentenced to death.

    https://www.wkrg.com/top-stories/app...mobile-county/
    "I realize this may sound harsh, but as a father and former lawman, I really don't care if it's by lethal injection, by the electric chair, firing squad, hanging, the guillotine or being fed to the lions."
    - Oklahoma Rep. Mike Christian

    "There are some people who just do not deserve to live,"
    - Rev. Richard Hawke

    “There are lots of extremely smug and self-satisfied people in what would be deemed lower down in society, who also deserve to be pulled up. In a proper free society, you should be allowed to make jokes about absolutely anything.”
    - Rowan Atkinson

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    Senior Member CnCP Legend Mike's Avatar
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    Mobile County death row inmate to be re-sentenced

    By Brad Gunther
    NBC 15

    The Alabama Court of Criminal appeals has vacated the death sentence of Dennis Morgan Hicks and ordered him to be re-sentenced.

    Hicks was convicted of capital murder in 2016 for the 2011 murder of Joshua Duncan.

    Testimony presented at trial showed that, during an argument that turned physical on the night of September 5, 2011, Hicks hung Duncan “from a chain on a tree in the backyard, decapitated him, and cut off his hands.”

    Duncan’s body, with no hands or head, was discovered over a month after the murder dumped in a trash pile at a firing range once used by the Mobile Police Department.

    While upholding his conviction, the appeals court sent the case back “to clarify its application of the ‘heinous, atrocious, or cruel’ aggravating circumstances” in Hicks’ sentencing.

    The trial court judge who imposed the death sentence was Charles A. Graddick. Graddick has since retired from the bench.

    Presiding Circuit Court Judge John Lockett has Graddick as a Special Judge to “clarify his sentencing order in this case.”

    Hicks is scheduled to be re-sentenced Tuesday, August 6.

    https://mynbc15.com/news/local/mobil...e-re-sentenced
    "There is a point in the history of a society when it becomes so pathologically soft and tender that among other things it sides even with those who harm it, criminals, and does this quite seriously and honestly. Punishing somehow seems unfair to it, and it is certain that imagining ‘punishment’ and ‘being supposed to punish’ hurts it, arouses fear in it." Friedrich Nietzsche

  7. #7
    Administrator Helen's Avatar
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    I can't find an article about this. It must have just happened.

    Dennis Hicks Re-sentenced to Death

    By Mobile DA's Office

    Resentencing held for DENNIS HICKS who was convicted of CAPITAL MURDER in 2016.

    Hicks was SENTENCED to DEATH for the brutal murder of Joshua Duncan.

    This conviction was recently affirmed.

    State represented by Assistant District Attorneys Jennifer Wright and Keith Blackwood.

    https://twitter.com/MobileDAoffice/s...03149634846723
    "I realize this may sound harsh, but as a father and former lawman, I really don't care if it's by lethal injection, by the electric chair, firing squad, hanging, the guillotine or being fed to the lions."
    - Oklahoma Rep. Mike Christian

    "There are some people who just do not deserve to live,"
    - Rev. Richard Hawke

    “There are lots of extremely smug and self-satisfied people in what would be deemed lower down in society, who also deserve to be pulled up. In a proper free society, you should be allowed to make jokes about absolutely anything.”
    - Rowan Atkinson

  8. #8
    Moderator Bobsicles's Avatar
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    Appeal denied by the Alabama Court of Criminal Appeals.

    https://law.justia.com/cases/alabama...r-15-0747.html

    So why was this guy initially remanded twice and had to be tried again?
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    Writ of certiorari quashed by the Alabama Supreme Court November 18, 2022.

    https://law.justia.com/cases/alabama...2/1210013.html
    Thank you for the adventure - Axol

    Tried so hard and got so far, but in the end it doesn’t even matter - Linkin Park

    Hear me, my chiefs! I am tired. My heart is sick and sad. From where the sun now stands, I will fight no more forever. - Hin-mah-too-yah-lat-kekt

    I’m going to the ghost McDonalds - Garcello

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    Moderator Bobsicles's Avatar
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    Distributed for conference 6/22/23.

    https://www.supremecourt.gov/search....c/22-7075.html
    Thank you for the adventure - Axol

    Tried so hard and got so far, but in the end it doesn’t even matter - Linkin Park

    Hear me, my chiefs! I am tired. My heart is sick and sad. From where the sun now stands, I will fight no more forever. - Hin-mah-too-yah-lat-kekt

    I’m going to the ghost McDonalds - Garcello

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