Facts of the Crime:
Decay killed Kevin Jones and Kendall Rice in a Fayetteville apartment in April 2007, shooting both in the face with a .40-caliber handgun. Decay killed them because they had shown him disrespect by stealing marijuana and a pistol from him.
Decay was sentenced to death on April 28, 2008.
April 24, 2008
FAYETTEVILLE, Ark. (AP) -- Jurors recommended the death sentence for Gregory Decay, 22, who was convicted Wednesday of the April 2007 murders of Kevin Jones and Kendall Rice in their Fayetteville apartment.
Jurors had a choice between life with no parole or death. They deliberated about three hours before recommending the death penalty for Decay.
"God has answered our prayers. Justice has been served," said Kinlee Share.
Kinlee Share has been waiting for justice in her sister’s death for more than a year.
Today prosecutors made a case for the death penalty.
"The accusers are both dead. Justice is about giving them what's right,” said prosecuting attorney John Threet.
Defense attorneys begged jurors to spare Decay's life.
”No other family in this courtroom needs to bury a child," said defense attorney Julie Tollerson.
Tollerson said they respect the decision and intend to file an appeal.
After the verdict was announced, the Jones and Rice families thanked detectives and prosecutors.
“[This is] some closure. It won’t bring Kendall and Kevin back. It won't bring my baby girl back, but it will show what we've been here -- what all of these families have been here for, and that's justice for my girl,” said Vicki Rice.
Judge William Storey scheduled formal sentencing for Monday morning.
Decay killed Kevin Jones and Kendall Rice in a Fayetteville apartment in April 2007, shooting both in the face with a .40-caliber handgun.
Decay killed them because they disrespected him by stealing marijuana and a pistol from him, prosecutor John Threet said during the trial.
Jessie Westeen is charged as an accomplice to capital murder in this case. His trial date has not yet been set.
April 28, 2008
FAYETTEVILLE, Ark. (AP) -- A judge has accepted the recommended death sentence for Gregory Decay who was convicted last week of the April 2007 murders of a Fayetteville couple.
Formal sentencing was held Monday in the Gregory Decay trial.
On Friday, a jury recommended the death penalty, and Monday Judge William Story accepted the decision.
Story set an execution date of July 28, but defense attorneys plan to appeal.
Monday, family members of Kevin Jones and Kendall Rice – Decay’s victims -- said they were satisfied with the judge’s decision.
August 30, 2010
AR judge denies murder conviction appeal
FAYETTEVILLE, AR (AP) - A Washington County Circuit judge has denied the post-conviction appeal of a man sentenced to die for the killings of two Fayetteville residents.
Judge William Storey on Friday rejected Gregory Christopher Decay's argument that the Washington County Public Defender's Office was ineffective in representing him.
Decay was convicted of capital murder in the April 3, 2007, shooting deaths of Kevin Jones and Kendall Rice.
Prosecuting Attorney John Threet says Decay can appeal to the Arkansas Supreme Court. After that, he says the appeals move to the federal level.
Defense attorneys say Decay's statements to police and his refusal to consider a plea bargain stymied their efforts to eliminate the death penalty as a punishment.
Prosecutors offered a plea bargain of life without parole
http://www.kait8.com/global/story.asp?s=13064746
Personal Inmate Information
DOB: 07/11/1985
Race: Black
Gender: Male
Crime and Trial Information
* County of conviction: Washington
* Number of counts: Two
* Race of Victims: White/White
* Gender of Victims: Male/Female
* Date of crime: April 2007
* Date of Sentencing: 04/24/2008
Legal Status
Current Proceedings:
Post‐conviction proceedings
Attorney
Julie Tollerson
Court Opinions
Decay v. State, 2009 WL 3785695 (Ark. Nov. 12, 2009).
Legal Issues
On direct appeal:
(1) whether the trial court erred in failing to suppress defendant's statements to law enforcement and suppress his telephone calls made from detention center;
(2) whether the circuit court improperly excused four jurors for cause;
(3) whether the circuit court erred by refusing to submit a jury instruction regarding Decay's good character;
(4) whether the circuit court erred in prohibiting testimony and evidence of the victims' lives during the guilt phase of trial (e.g. drug users);
(5) whether the circuit court erred by allowing the State to present a photograph of Decay holding an assault rifle;
(6) whether the circuit court erred by allowing the State to obtain two separate sentences of death for the same aggravating circumstance (only aggravator was multipe homicides);
(7) whether the trial court erred in in rejecting Decay's proffered jury instruction regarding victim‐impact testimony; and
(8) whether the circuit court failed to limit victim‐impact testimony presented by the State.
GREGORY CHRISTOPHER DECAY V STATE OF ARKANSAS
The Arkansas Supreme Court is sending a death row inmate's case back to a circuit court because it says the lower court failed to make specific findings of written fact and conclusions of law.
The court on Thursday sent Gregory Decay's case back to Washington County Circuit Court, citing issues with an order in the case.
A Washington County jury convicted Decay of 2 counts of capital murder and sentenced him to execution.
The high court says the lower court must complete a new order in the case soon.
An uninformed opponent is a dangerous opponent.
"Y'all be makin shit up" ~ Markeith Loyd
September 25, 2014
Court upholds convictions of 2 on death row
LITTLE ROCK, Ark. (AP) - The Arkansas Supreme Court has upheld the convictions of two men sitting on death row in separate rulings.
Justices on Thursday upheld the capital murder convictions of Derek Sales and Gregory Decay, both of whom were sentenced to death. Sales was convicted in the April 16, 2005, slaying of Willie York of Bradley County. Decay was convicted in the April 3, 2007, shooting deaths of Kevin Jones and Kendall Rice of Fayetteville.
Sales had argued his counsel was ineffective for telling jurors that he might be pardoned by the governor if sentenced to life, and for referring during opening statements that Sales had escaped jail while awaiting trial.
Decay had also argued that his counsel had been ineffective during his trial.
http://littlerock.thv11.com/news/new...ns-2-death-row
"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
"Men have called me mad; but the question is not yet settled, whether madness is or is not the loftiest intelligence"
- Edgar Allan Poe
Decay claims jury selection flawed, seeks new trial
FAYETTEVILLE — Attorneys for condemned double-murderer Gregory Decay are taking one more crack at getting his convictions overturned by the Arkansas Supreme Court, arguing jury selection in the death penalty case was flawed.
Decay, 29, gunned down Kevin Barkley Jones and Kendall Rachell Rice in their Fayetteville apartment April 3, 2007. Both were 24. Decay was convicted and given two death sentences in April 2008. Decay must exhaust all state court remedies before beginning the federal appeals process.
Death penalty convictions in Arkansas automatically are appealed to the Arkansas Supreme Court for mandatory review. The court upheld the capital convictions in November 2009. A subsequent appeal that claimed ineffective counsel was rejected.
The high court has agreed to at least listen to the latest argument. Decay’s attorneys at the Federal Public Defender’s Office in Little Rock this week filed motions that ask the court to recall its mandate in the case, vacate the convictions and remand the case to settle the record or, if the record in the case cannot be reconstructed, a new trial.
They contend the record was not sufficient for the court to fully review the case. They argue the high court did not receive a full record of the proceedings on appeal, specifically information about juror questionnaires and the striking of some potential jurors before trial.
The motion, by Assistant Federal Public Defender Scott Braden, contends critical parts of the jury selection were done off the record, outside the courtroom and out of Decay’s presence.
“Thirty jurors were excluded before trial began with no record of these exclusions or strikes. At least one of the jurors stricken by the prosecution prior to trial was African American,” according to the motion, “Mr. Decay, a black man charged with killing two white victims, was tried, convicted and sentenced to death by an all-white jury.”
The other African American in the jury pool was never called during jury selection process.
The motion says extensive questionnaires sent to potential jurors before trial were destroyed, preventing them from being made part of the appeal record, and there was no record from the lower court about how they were used in the jury selection process.
“What this court did not know, because the trial court abused its discretion in not making the necessary record, was how this ‘lengthy questionnaire’ was created,” according to the motion. “On April 17, 2008, thirty jurors were peremptorily stricken before trial based solely on this questionnaire and at least one African American juror was excluded in this process. Conducting or allowing this off-the-record proceeding was an abuse of the trial court’s discretion in jury selection.”
The abuse of discretion directly prevented the Supreme Court’s mandatory review, causing a breakdown in the appellate procedure and deprived Decay of his fundamental constitutional rights, according to the motion.
Lawyers from the Arkansas Attorney General’s Office have filed a response saying there are no grounds to recall the mandate because Decay did not ask for the jury selection process to be made a part of the appeal record and his trial attorneys agreed to the jury selection format.
“There is no affidavit indicating that these materials were not available in defense counsel’s files for inclusion on direct review via a motion to settle the record or to supplement the record,” according to the response. “Accordingly, the appellant does not demonstrate that the record was incomplete or that the trial court improperly destroyed the juror’s questionnaires.”
The response, by Assistant Attorney General Karen Wallace, also contends Decay has not demonstrated how the court’s review of the material would have changed the result of his appeal.
Decay walked into the apartment on Sycamore Street and shot Jones in the face with a .40-caliber pistol from less than two feet away. Then he turned and shot Rice in the face. During an interview with police, Decay said he killed Jones and Rice because he believed they had broken into his apartment and stolen marijuana and a gun.
Jesse Westeen, 28, was convicted of being an accomplice. He pleaded guilty to driving Decay to the apartment. He was sentenced to 50 years.
Decay was the first person to be given a death sentence in Washington County since 1981. A convict from Washington County hasn’t been executed since 1920. Several others were sentenced to death in the interim, but their sentences were either commuted to life in prison when the U.S. Supreme Court declared the death penalty unconstitutional in 1972 or their sentences were overturned on appeal. The death penalty was reinstated in 1976.
Benton County last had a murderer executed in August 1996 when Frankie Parker was put to death for killing his former in-laws and holding his ex-wife hostage in 1984 in Rogers.
Benton County has three men on Arkansas’ death row. Zachary Holly, 30, was sentenced to death earlier this week for the murder, kidnapping and rape of 6-year-old Jersey Bridgeman. Don Davis was sentenced to die in 1992 for the execution-style killing of Jane Daniel of Rogers. Brandon Lacy was sentenced to die in 2009 for the murder of Randy Walker. Circuit Judge Robin Green ruled that Lacy is entitled to another sentencing hearing, which is on appeal. Washington County has two men on death row: Decay and Zachariah Marcyniuk. Both men were sentenced to death in 2008. Marcyniuk, 36, stabbed University of Arkansas student Katie Wood to death after breaking into her apartment and laying in wait for her.
http://www.arkansasonline.com/news/2...s-arkansas-nwa
On June 19, 2015, Decay filed a habeas petition in Federal District Court.
https://dockets.justia.com/docket/ar...cv00203/100454
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