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Thread: Leroy D. Cropper - Arizona Death Row

  1. #1
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    Leroy D. Cropper - Arizona Death Row


    Corrections officer
    Brent Lumley




    Facts of the Crime:

    On the early afternoon of March 7, 1997, corrections officer Brent Lumley was minutes from finishing an overtime shift at the Perryville Prison Complex. As he was wrapping up some reports, several inmates distracted Lumley just enough for another prisoner, Leroy D. Cropper, to sneak up and plunge a knife into the side of Lumley's neck.

    The slaying rocked the state Department of Corrections. There was an uproar about faulty cell locks, a lack of funding and lax safety standards.

    On May 2, 2008, more than 11 years after the killing, Cropper was sentenced to death.

    Another prisoner had to "spin the lock" on Cropper's cell so the killer could sneak out, and still other prisoners distracted Lumley while he was writing reports, giving Cropper the opportunity to kill the five-year veteran corrections officer.

    Eugene Long received a life sentence after he was convicted of first-degree murder for his role in the slaying; Bruce Howell received a 10-year sentence for his role; and Dino Kyzar got 21 years for conspiring in the crime.

    Cropper was sentenced to death on May 2, 2008.

  2. #2
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    May 2, 2008

    A man has been sentenced to death on Friday for the murder of a state corrections officer in Goodyear eleven years ago.

    Leroy D. Cropper, 44, stabbed State Corrections Officer Brent Lumley to death at the Perryville prison on March 7, 1997.

    Cropper was indicted on first-degree murder, assault and prison contraband charges a month later.

    Cropper pled guilty to first-degree murder, assault, and contraband charges in May 1999.

    Judge David Cole sentenced Cropper to death in November 2000, but the Arizona Supreme Court overturned the decision in 2003 in a sweeping ruling that stated juries and not judges must determine whether a defendant received the death penalty.

    Cropper was one of more than a dozen convicts who benefited by what has been referred to as the "Ring Decision."

    Prosecutors went to a jury and requested the death penalty for Cropper in 2006, but the trial ended in a hung jury.

    The matter went back to the court and a jury ruled in favor of the death penalty on May 2, 2008.

    Three co-defendants who helped Cropper in the murder are currently serving their sentences.

    Eugene Edward Long, 40, received a life sentence after being convicted of First Degree Murder in 1999.

    Bruce Howell, 47, is serving a 10-year sentence after pleading guilty to Dangerous or Deadly Assault in 2001.

    (Source: The Associated Press)

  3. #3
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    On October 18, 2010, the US Supreme Court affirmed Cropper's death sentence following a March 16, 2010 Arizona Supreme Court decision. You can read the opinion in State v. Cropper.

    Opinion is here:

    http://www.supreme.state.az.us/opin/...CR080116AP.pdf

  4. #4
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    On November 13, 2019, Cropper filed a habeas petition in Federal District Court.

    https://dockets.justia.com/docket/ar...v05618/1214018

  5. #5
    Moderator Bobsicles's Avatar
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    Distributed for conference June 25, 2020.

    https://www.supremecourt.gov/search....c/19-1100.html
    Thank you for the adventure - Axol

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    Moderator Bobsicles's Avatar
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    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

  7. #7
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    He turned a 6 year sentence into his death penalty. Stupid and evil.

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