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Thread: Gregory L. Wilson - Kentucky

  1. #11
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    September 9, 2010

    Judge promises quick decision on delaying execution

    A judge considering a request to delay the Sept. 16 execution of convicted murderer Gregory Wilson said Wednesday he’s concerned that state regulations may fail to prevent an insane or mentally retarded person from being put to death.

    “The U.S. Supreme Court has held you cannot execute someone who’s insane,” Franklin Circuit Judge Phillip Shepherd said during a two-hour hearing on the regulations. “The U.S. Supreme Court has said you cannot execute someone who’s mentally retarded. ... These regulations, it seems to me, could be followed to the letter and yet someone who is mentally retarded could still be executed.”

    Shepherd said he will decide before the end of the week on a motion to delay Wilson’s execution until he rules on a challenge — originally brought by other Death Row inmates — to the legality of the regulations that govern the lethal injection process.

    Wilson, 53, was convicted in September 1988 of the abduction, rape, robbery and murder of Debbie Pooley, 36, an assistant manager of a Newport restaurant.

    The Death Row inmates are challenging the way Kentucky put its current method of execution into place, saying the state didn’t comply with the law on adopting administrative regulations and that the protocol is incomplete.

    Kentucky approved the three-drug injection method in May, seven months after the state’s high court ruled that it previously had been adopted improperly and halted all executions.

    Wilson was allowed to join the suit, seeking to stop the state from putting him to death.

    He also has appealed to the Kentucky Supreme Court to grant DNA testing in his case, as well as testing to see if he’s mentally retarded and ineligible for execution.

    A Kenton Circuit judge last week turned away Wilson’s request for mental and DNA testing, saying the issues were either raised too late or wouldn’t make a difference in the outcome of his case.

    Kentucky’s execution protocol covers a variety of issues, including what to do about a pregnant inmate, but doesn’t address if or how the state Department of Corrections should determine whether an inmate is mentally retarded or insane.

    During Wednesday’s hearing, Shepherd repeatedly said he finds it troubling that the regulations don’t include some step to prevent the execution of such individuals.

    But Assistant Attorney General Heather Fryman argued that the regulations are legally sound.

    “And it would be impossible for the Department of Corrections to be expected to anticipate every legal argument that any condemned inmate could possibly make and address that in a comprehensive regulation,” she said.

    Fryman said the issue raised by Shepherd would serve to create “a whole new post-conviction proceeding” in death penalty cases.

    She stressed that Wilson was convicted more than 22 years ago and only recently raised the issue of mental competency.

    “We’ve had 22 years of judicial review. ... I think 22 years of litigation is sufficient protection,” Fryman said.

    But Shepherd said he has studied the Wilson case carefully, “and I have to say I’m not sure the system has worked in Mr. Wilson’s case.”

    One of Wilson’s attorneys, Leo Smith, said a test given to Wilson when he was 14 measured his IQ at 62, well below the legal floor of 70 upheld by Kentucky’s high court and the U.S. Supreme Court.

    Another of his lawyers, Margaret Keane, argued that the question regarding the regulations must be decided before the state “takes the ultimate sanction” against her client.

    “To delay a man’s death, I submit, is not an inequity to the people of the commonwealth,” Keane said.

    http://www.courier-journal.com/artic...9080090/-1/rss

  2. #12
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    September 10, 2010

    Pope seeks clemency in NKY killing

    Pope Benedict XVI and 4 Catholic bishops in Kentucky have asked Gov. Steve Beshear to commute the death sentence of an inmate set to be executed Sept. 16.

    Archbishop Joseph E. Kurtz of Louisville presented Beshear with a letter Thursday written on the Pope's behalf by Archbishop Pietro Sambi, the papal nuncio to the United States. It asks that 53-year-old Gregory L. Wilson not be executed because of questions about Wilson's mental status.

    Diocese of Covington Bishop Roger Foys signed the letter, but diocese spokesman Tim Fitzgerald said via e-mail that Foys had no further comment on the matter.

    Beshear met with Kurtz and representatives of the Catholic Conference of Kentucky on Thursday, 1 week before Wilson's scheduled lethal injection at the Kentucky State Penitentiary in Eddyville.

    Wilson was sentenced to death 22 years ago for the kidnapping, rape and murder of 36-year-old Deborah Pooley in northern Kentucky in 1987. A co-defendant in the case, Brenda Humphrey, is serving life in prison.

    Diocese of Owensboro Bishop William Medley, who didn't attend the meeting, said in a statement that Wilson has converted to Catholicism while on death row. The bishop also paid a visit to Wilson last week and said the inmate spoke of his faith and understands he may die soon.

    Beshear issued a statement Thursday afternoon saying he believes capital punishment is appropriate for some crimes and that he found no circumstances for setting aside the sentence after conducting an "exhaustive review" of Wilson's case. Beshear said he pledged to review clemency petitions for Wilson after final court appeals are complete.

    "I am saddened to think of Gregory's death at the hands of the state," said Medley, whose diocese includes the prison.

    Papal intervention in an American execution case is unusual but not unheard of. Pope Benedict XVI sent similar letters earlier this year to the governors of Florida and Georgia, opposing putting inmates there to death.

    Also Thursday, 3 Kentucky lawmakers sent Beshear a letter expressing concerns about the way Wilson's execution was set.

    State Reps. Jim Wayne, Mary Lou Marzian and Tom Burch, all of Louisville, said in the letter that leaving only 21 days between signing Wilson's warrant and the execution date was too little time. The lawmakers also took issue with how the governor chose Wilson's case from among 3 recommended for death warrants by the Attorney General's office.

    Meanwhile, a judge in Frankfort is weighing whether to stop Wilson's execution. Franklin Circuit Judge Phillip Shepherd heard arguments Wednesday that the state's lethal injection protocol wasn't adopted properly and is incomplete because it fails to address several key issues.

    Shepherd said he planned to issue a ruling by week's end.

    Wilson was moved Friday morning from death row to a holding cell in the building where the execution would take place.

    "We wait and we pray and hope," said Robert Castagna, executive director of the Catholic Conference of Kentucky. "We're prayerfully optimistic."

    The letter from the Vatican doesn't mention specifics of Wilson's case. Instead, it asks Beshear to heed the Catholic church's call for the abolition of the death penalty. The family of crime victims suffer, Sambi wrote, so the request isn't made lightly.

    "This request for clemency is a heartfelt call for mercy beyond the strict confines of justice," Sambi wrote.

    The Catholic Conference and the bishops, though, focused on questions about whether Wilson is mentally retarded and the fact that no court has made a determination one way or another. A Kenton Circuit judge recently declined to grant Wilson a hearing on the issue, saying there's insufficient evidence of mental retardation to warrant a hearing.

    The Kentucky Supreme Court is considering an appeal of that ruling filed by Wilson's lawyers.

    Kentucky has a shortage of sodium thiopental, a key drug used in lethal injections.

    Beshear signed the warrant for Wilson because his was the oldest of a trio of cases the Attorney General the attorney requested death warrants for. The state has executed 3 people since 1976, the last one taking place in 2008.

    Executions in Kentucky have come under fire in recent years, with a challenge to lethal injection going to the U.S. Supreme Court, which upheld the 3-drug method in 2007. Inmates have also challenged the way the protocol was adopted in May.

    Castagna said Beshear was "most cordial" during the 25-minute meeting. The group asked Beshear to consider the facts of the case and an ongoing American Bar Association study of the death penalty in Kentucky before deciding Wilson's case.

    "He does not appear to be a current threat to society. Wouldn't it be the prudent thing to do to stay the execution?" Castagna asked. "We pray for the governor. This is not an easy decision to make."

    (Source: The Associated Press)

  3. #13
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    September 10, 2010

    Judge blocks Wilson's execution

    FRANKFORT, Ky. — Franklin Circuit Judge Phillip Shepherd on Friday blocked the scheduled execution next Thursday of death row inmate Gregory Wilson.

    Shepherd granted a motion by Wilson's attorneys for a delay until he rules on the legality of the Kentucky Department of Corrections' regulations for carrying out an execution by lethal injection.

    Wilson and three other death row inmates brought that challenge.

    Shepherd found that they raised “at least two substantial questions of law regarding the validity of the administrative regulations.”

    One question, he said, concerns the lack of adequate safeguards in the regulations to prevent the execution of an insane or mentally retarded person.

    Such an execution would violate both state law and the 8th Amendment to the U.S. Constitution, Shepherd ruled.

    “This court grants Wilson's motion for injunctive relief and a stay of any implementation of the death warrant signed in his case by the governor,” Shepherd wrote.

    He ruled that the order would remain in effect until he decides on the challenge to the legality of the execution regulations “or until further orders of the court.”

    Shepherd said he had another concern over the fact that the regulations provide for lethal injection only by a three-drug cocktail and prohibit the use of a single drug, even though state law “explicitly allows” the single-drug option.

    Wilson, 53, was convicted in the September 1988 abduction, rape, robbery and murder of Debbie Pooley, 36, an assistant manager of a Newport restaurant.

    A co-defendant in the case, Brenda Humphrey, is serving a life sentence.

    Last month Gov. Steve Beshear signed a warrant setting Wilson's execution for Sept. 16 at the Kentucky State Penitentiary.

    http://www.courier-journal.com/artic...on+s+execution

  4. #14
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    September 13, 2010

    Execution reprieve enrages family

    A state judge gave Kentucky death row inmate Gregory L. Wilson a reprieve Friday when he blocked his execution scheduled for this week - but it might only be temporary.

    In addition to the Kentucky attorney general appealing the judge's ruling to the state's highest court, Wilson is wanted in Ohio for two rapes and for violating his parole. He is also the only suspect in the killing of a Newport woman in 1987.

    Wilson, now 53, was living in Fairmount when he kidnapped Deborah Pooley, 30, of Covington when she was getting out of her car on May 30, 1987, on Garrard Street. Pooley begged for her life as she was robbed, raped and strangled, according to court records. Her naked and badly decomposed body was found in a wooded area in Indiana 17 days later.

    Pooley's older sister, Bonnie Shinkle, said the judge's ruling was disheartening.

    "We are all very disappointed in that ruling," Shinkle, 62, said from her mother's home in Hamilton. "It just caused further suffering for the family. It is really a shame."

    Shinkle said the family agreed to speak with the press for the first time since Wilson's conviction in October 1988 because they were distraught by what they considered a coordinated effort by anti-death penalty advocates to stop the execution.

    Wilson's public defenders are claiming their client might be mentally retarded and thus not eligible for the death penalty. The lawyers also want DNA tests, unavailable when Wilson was convicted, on bodily fluids found at the crime scene.

    Both the Vatican and Amnesty International asked Kentucky Gov. Steve Beshear last week to commute Wilson's death sentence to life in prison.

    Pope Benedict XVI's plea for mercy was painful to the Pooley family because they were raised Catholic, Shinkle said. Pooley's parents, Walter and Anne, attended St. Peter in Chains in Hamilton for more than 50 years. That is where Pooley volunteered to conduct CCD (Confraternity of Christian Doctrine) classes, a religious teaching program of the Roman Catholic Church.

    "Does anyone who feels sorry for him really want him out on the streets again with the possibility that he could come after one of their loved ones?" Shinkle said. "I don't think so."

    Former Kenton Commonwealth's Attorney Don Buring, who prosecuted Wilson for Pooley's death, said the condemned inmate is a serial rapist and killer who is a danger to society.

    "If there was ever a death penalty case, or somebody who was deserving of the death penalty for who they were, what they did ... it was Gregory Wilson," Buring said.

    Wilson grew up in the Cleveland area but spent the majority of his life locked up, Buring said.

    Wilson was still a juvenile when he was tried in adult court and convicted of two counts of rape in Cuyahoga County. The Ohio Department of Rehabilitation and Correction could not provide the date Wilson was first incarcerated but records show he was transferred to the now-closed Ohio State Reformatory in Mansfield a month after he turned 19 in December 1974.

    He also served time at the Chillicothe Correctional Institution before being paroled on May, 27, 1986. While Wilson was only 29, he had already spent more than 12 years in prison.

    After release, Wilson moved to the Cincinnati area. He was on parole for 12 months before authorities were aware that he committed a crime, Buring said.

    In the first part of May 1987, Wilson raped a woman in Hamilton.

    Later that same month, he raped a female coworker. Wilson appeared depressed and the coworker, who thought he was homosexual, asked if he would feel better if he talked to her about his problems, Buring said. Wilson used to opportunity to abduct the woman, take her to a motel and rape her. He fell asleep and the woman ran into the parking lot in the nude screaming for help.

    "It is one of the most horrendous recitations of sexual activity that you can imagine," Buring said of the details of the crime.

    He said one of the few items he has kept from the 17 years he was commonwealth's attorney was the coworker's written statement of the crime.

    "It ruined this woman's life," Buring said. "It messed up her marriage. It really had a truly lasting effect. Of all the sexual cases that one stuck with me."

    A Butler County grand jury indicted Wilson for the two rapes on July 10, 1987, after he was already in custody of Pooley's killing. He later pleaded guilty to 13 counts of rape for the two incidents.

    If he is ever released from prison in Kentucky, he will be sent back to Ohio to serve 15 to 25 years in prison for the rapes in addition to his parole violation.

    Wilson is the only suspect in a Kenton County rape from the same timeframe, Buring said. Like Pooley, the woman was abducted while getting out of her car in Covington. She was taken to Taylor Mill where she was raped repeatedly. A composite drawing of her abductor looks exactly like Wilson, Buring said, but the woman didn't want authorities to pursue the charges after she learned Wilson was going to death row.

    Some of Wilson's rape victims have been appearing at various court hearings over the past month as public defenders try to stop the execution.

    Buring said he thinks Wilson became concerned that the women he was raping were talking to authorities so he decided to kill the next women he attacked.

    "My thought was, at that point of time, Wilson decided he wanted to have his way with women but could not allow them to tell tales after the act," Buring said. "Wilson looked at murder as a way to shut up witnesses."

    Wilson was described in a June 1987 Enquirer article as the only suspect in the killing of Peggy Goehr, 32, of Newport. While her body wasn't found until June 2, 1987, Buring said the investigation showed Goehr was killed one or two days before Pooley.

    Her decomposing body was found near the floodwall, near where Newport on the Levee now stands, by a city worker cutting the grass. Bottles and clothing were found at the scene. The coroner ruled she was killed by heavy blows to the head.

    Buring said the investigation uncovered that Wilson and co-defendant Brenda Humphrey were staying at the former Gateway hotel in Covington when Goehr was killed. Wilson came into the motel room and told Humphrey that he killed Goehr, she didn't believe him so he took her to the body, Buring said.

    Humphrey is serving a life sentence at the Kentucky Correctional Institute for Women in Pewee Valley for her role in the Pooley killing.

    Wilson has not been charged in Goehr's death.

    Pooley's sister, Shinkle, said it is just time for Wilson's victims to get closure.

    "People don't get over these things," Shinkle said. "It affects them forever. My parents were forever changed by what happened to them with my sister. They were devastated."

    She said her mother, Anne, still has Pooley's clothing in a dresser at the family's home and a box of her belongings in the attic.

    "It was really unbelievably hard on them," said Shinkle, a mother of two grown children and six grandchildren. "I honestly can't image what it would be like to lose a child. She was my sister and that was hard."

    Pooley is remembered by her family as a vivacious person who enjoyed interacting with people. She acted for the Greater Hamilton Civic Theater before moving to Covington and becoming a manager for the now defunct Barleycorn's Yacht Club in Newport.

    She was known for using her acting skills while reading stories to her nieces.

    "My older daughter remembers very vividly Debbie's animated story-telling," Shinkle said. "My daughter always loved to read and I believe that it came from these roots."

    Shinkle said her father, Walter, died in May, a heartbroken man because of the killing of his youngest daughter.

    "It is sad he didn't get to see the closure," she said.

    http://nky.cincinnati.com/apps/pbcs....WS0103/9130321

  5. #15
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    September 13, 2010

    Attorney General Jack Conway appeals ruling that halted Gregory Wilson execution

    FRANKFORT, Ky. — Attorney General Jack Conway on Monday asked the Kentucky Supreme Court to overturn a stay of execution granted convicted murderer Gregory Wilson.

    Wilson, 53, had been scheduled to be put to death by lethal injection at the Kentucky State Penitentiary on Thursday.

    But last Friday Franklin Circuit Judge Phillip Shepherd stayed the execution and ruled that no executions can take place in Kentucky until “substantial questions” regarding new state regulations governing the execution protocol are resolved.

    Three inmates on Kentucky's death row filed suit challenging the execution regulations, and Wilson later joined it. Shepherd's order blocked executions until he rules in that case.

    But on Monday Conway's office asked the Supreme Court to reverse Shepherd's order and clear the way for the execution to be carried out as scheduled on Thursday. It also asked the court to dismiss the lawsuit challenging the regulations.

    Wilson was convicted in Kenton Circuit Court in 1988 of the abduction, rape, robbery and murder of Deborah Pooley, 36, an assistant manager of a Newport restaurant.

    (Source: The Courier Journal)

  6. #16
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    September 14, 2010

    Murder victim's sister: 'there's a victim here and it's not him'

    Debbie Pooley was a vivacious, outgoing woman.

    She loved kids and taught religion classes for young people at her Catholic church in Ohio. She enjoyed performing in community theater and was always ready to listen to a friend's problems.

    At 36, Pooley had a job helping manage a riverfront restaurant in Northern Kentucky, and she was in a relationship that her sister said might have gone somewhere if Gregory Wilson hadn't kidnapped, raped and murdered Pooley.

    "She was so full of joy and life. She was everybody's friend, and everybody liked her," said Pooley's older sister, Bonnie Shinkle. "The world really lost a wonderful person."

    Wilson was scheduled to be put to death Thursday, but Circuit Judge Phillip Shepherd has halted the execution, citing concerns about the state's lethal-injection protocol and whether Wilson is retarded, which would bar execution.

    Monday, the attorney general's office asked the state Supreme Court to let the execution go forward this week, arguing that several courts have upheld Wilson's sentence and that Shepherd's ruling was wrong.

    As Kentucky contemplates only its fourth execution since the early 1960s, the case has again exposed the raw emotions surrounding the death penalty.

    When an execution nears, defense attorneys ratchet up attempts to save the condemned person's life, and opponents of the death penalty renew their pleas that it is unjust.

    That's been true in Wilson's case. His attorneys have argued he should not be put to death for a number of reasons, including that defense attorneys at his original trial did a poor job. Prosecutors have opposed those arguments.

    In that 11th-hour swirl of legal motions and publicity, Pooley's family and friends say there has been too much focus on Wilson and not enough on the life he took.

    Shinkle gave her first interviews this week to make sure people remember "there's a victim here, and it's not him."

    "The focus seems to be always on the poor guy who did the terrible crime and not the family that's suffered all these years," said Shinkle, 62.

    Advocates for Wilson say they must focus on his potential execution, but there is no intent to diminish the pain of Pooley's family.

    "We are not in any way reducing our sense of compassion for the victim or her family," said Robert J. Castagna, executive director of the Catholic Conference of Kentucky.

    Pooley, the youngest of three children, grew up in Hamilton, Ohio. After high school, she attended college for a time in Tampa, and lived in South Florida for several years with her brother, Mike, who died 10 years ago, and with Shinkle.

    Pooley's lively personality was a natural fit with the hospitality industry, and she tended bar at a restaurant south of Miami called Dalt's, her sister said.

    Kathy Salce, who also worked there, said Pooley and Salce's future husband, Paul, entertained customers with their antics behind the bar.

    Pooley's nickname was "Mom" because she was always ready to listen to people and help with advice, Salce said.

    After Kathy and Paul Salce married, Pooley went with them on their honeymoon and helped them paint their new house.

    "Whatever you needed, she was there," Salce said. "She just really cared about what was going on in your life."

    Pooley often cared for her two nieces — Shinkle's daughters — when she lived with Shinkle, reading to them and taking them to the restaurant, where she made milkshakes for them while they did their homework in a booth, Shinkle said.

    "She adored my daughters," Shinkle said.

    In the early 1980s, Pooley decided to move closer to her parents.

    The irony is that with South Florida booming, Pooley wanted to go where she thought people were friendlier and there would be less crime, Salce said.

    She moved to Covington and got a job as an assistant manager at a restaurant. She was dating a man, and her sister thinks Pooley would have wanted to marry and have children someday.

    "Who knows what might have happened?" she said.

    But on May 29, 1987, as Pooley returned from visiting a friend and parked her car near her house, Wilson, then 30, and Brenda Humphrey happened to be walking by, said Donald Buring, former commonwealth's attorney in Kenton County.

    Wilson had served time in Ohio for two rapes. Humphrey, who had been a prostitute, later testified the two were looking for someone to rob.

    Wilson forced Pooley into the back seat of her car. While Humphrey drove, Wilson raped Pooley repeatedly, then strangled her despite her pleas to live, Buring said.

    Buring said he thinks that after leaving some previous victims alive — and getting caught — Wilson killed Pooley to make sure she couldn't tell on him.

    Wilson and Humphrey dumped Pooley's body in a field west of Indianapolis. Her body was not found for two weeks.

    Wilson and Humphrey stole necklaces from Pooley and used her credit card for several purchases, Buring said.

    Not long after, Humphrey, apparently bothered by the crime, confessed to a friend, who told police.

    A jury recommended death for Wilson. Humphrey testified against him and is serving life.

    Advocates for Wilson say he has become devoutly religious since going to Death Row and is deeply sorry for killing Pooley.

    That doesn't change the fact that he was sentenced to die, said Shinkle, who has not seen any remorse from Wilson.

    "There's God's laws and there's man's laws, and we have to abide by both," she said. "His death is going to be much more humane than the one he meted out to Debbie."

    Shinkle said she supports having Wilson executed but takes no delight in it. For her, it's a matter of carrying out the sentence he received, and it will help her family to know the case is finally over.

    Shinkle said her parents, Walter and Anne Pooley, never got over their daughter's brutal death.

    They felt guilty celebrating holidays, and never put up a Christmas tree again, Shinkle said.

    Walter Pooley, a retired newspaper press operator, died in May. Anne Pooley has had health problems; Shinkle, who lives in Florida, is staying with her to care for her.

    Wilson's execution would be justice for Debbie Pooley after 23 years, Shinkle said.

    "All of her hopes and dreams were taken away from her."

    http://www.kentucky.com/2010/09/14/1...#ixzz0zVYlb7LE

  7. #17
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    September 15, 2010

    Judge Denies Stay Of September 16 Execution For Gregory Wilson

    COVINGTON, Ky. (AP) - A Kentucky judge has denied two requests to halt the scheduled execution of an inmate convicted of murder and rape, saying the grounds for doing so were too flimsy to support a stay.

    Kenton Circuit Judge Gregory Bartlett on Wednesday ruled that there's "overwhelming evidence" of Gregory L. Wilson's guilt, making any DNA test of two-decade-old evidence useless to prove his innocence.

    Bartlett also found too little evidence to support a claim that the 53-year-old Wilson is mentally retarded and ineligible for execution.

    Wilson is scheduled to die by lethal injection on Sept. 16. He was convicted in 1988 of raping and murdering popular restaurant employee Deborah Pooley. A co-defendant in the case, Brenda Humphrey, is serving a life sentence.

    http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/38962687/

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    September 16, 2010

    Death Penalty Case Lies With Ky Supreme Court

    Gregory Wilson It's hard to tell if the clock is ticking or if it's come to a stop for Kentucky's execution of murderer Gregory Wilson. He's scheduled to die by lethal injection tomorrow for the 1987 rape and murder of Deborah Pooley. A judge blocked the execution last week, but Kentucky's Attorney General appealed that to the State Supreme Court. That's where it now stands... or sits.

    Local 12's Joe Webb has been following the story.

    In the last hour I've spoken with the Attorney General's Office, the Department of Corrections and the Governor's Office... none of them have heard a peep from the Kentucky Supreme Court.

    There was some thought the court would allow parties to argue their case, but so far nothing has been scheduled. At this point, the execution appears to be on hold. Ddeborah Pooley's family says 23 years of appeals has been long enough. 23 years after the crime and nearly 22 years after getting a death sentence, Greg Wilson lives on.

    Deborah Pooley's family wants everyone to step back and refocus on what really matters.

    Bonnie Shinkle, Deborah Pooley's Sister: "They forget there was a victim in all of this and it was my sister, and the crime was heinous and it was deliberate. And this man has a history of these types of crimes, so the focus should be on the victim and it usually isn't."

    Wilson was convicted of killing and raping the 36-year-old waitress in May of 1987. He and co-defendant Brenda Humphrey grabbed Pooley off a Covington street. They dumped her body in an Indiana farm field. Wilson's I-Q of 62 is one issue the judge cited in stopping the execution. The state wants to see the full 1988 psych report on Wilson that said he was competent. The defense is not giving it up. The prosecutor in the case said it shouldn't be an issue.

    Don Burning, Former Commonwealth's Atty: "I was around Mr. Wilson for a year... arrested, indicted and with him in court and hearing him represent himself on occasion during those proceedings. There was never any indication to me that he was mentally challenged."

    Despite his mental state, Pooley's family says very simply... it's time.

    "It's about justice. And we have a justice system in this country and he certainly had a fair trial and he's had 22 years of appeals, so it's time for justice to be served."

    Burning says if Wilson's IQ was really an issue, the defense would have brought it up as mitigation before the death sentence was handed down. They didn't.

    Kentucky currently has 33 men and one woman on death row. The state has executed three people since 1976. The most recent execution was Marco Allen Chapman. He was executed two years ago for a multiple murder in Gallatin County in 2002.

    http://www.local12.com/news/local/st...Funs5q_Tg.cspx

  9. #19
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    Murder, rape victim’s father never to see ‘justice’

    Walter Pooley: ‘I live to see him die'

    EDDYVILLE, Ky. - Every year in May Deborah Pooley is remembered. This May, however, her father died before seeing the man who kidnapped, raped and murdered his daughter “get what [he] deserved.”

    In 1988 after hearing Gregory Wilson’s conviction and sentence to death, Deborah’s father Walter Pooley told The Post that he was relieved that those responsible for the death of his daughter were convicted.

    And in January 2008 when KyPost.com talked to Walter he said, “I think about her every day as far as that goes – every day.”

    On May 29, 1987, Deborah, an assistant manger for Barleycorn’s Yacht Club in Newport, Ky., left her friend’s house in Union Township, Ohio. But she never made it home. When she didn’t show up for work the next morning, a missing persons report was filed. A few weeks later she was found.

    According to police, Wilson and his girlfriend at the time, Brenda Humphrey, forced Deborah into the back seat of her car just outside her apartment in Covington, Ky. Wilson raped her, then strangled her while Humphrey drove them to Indiana.

    On the border of Illinois and Indiana, just outside Indianapolis, the couple dumped Deborah’s body in a blueberry patch in Pittsboro, Ind., just off the Interstate 74. A man discovered her body in the field on June 15, 1987.

    Wilson, who previously served a prison sentence in Ohio on two counts of rape in Cuyahoga County; was charged with two counts of rape, one count of kidnapping and one count of aggravated robbery in union Township; and charged with one count of rape in Hamilton, Ohio, Deborah’s hometown—was arrested on June 18, 1987.

    He was sentenced to death Oct. 31, 1988. At that time, Walter, now deceased, said, “[He] got what [he] deserved.”

    During the trial Walter said that he would “never put it behind me.” It was the first thing he thought of in the morning and the last thing he thing he thought about at night. Walter died just four months before the execution of his daughter’s murderer.

    Two years ago the U.S. Supreme Court heard arguments pertaining to the death penalty to determine whether or not the lethal injection is cruel and unusual punishment. This delayed all death penalty cases at that time.

    That delay weighed heavily on Walter, adding to the family’s grief he said to KyPost.com in 2008.

    "This guy that killed our daughter has been on death row in Kentucky since 1988. He's had several reviews. Like I told you before I would take care of it myself if I could get to him," said Walter.

    While the U.S. Supreme Court deliberated, Walter wondered if Wilson's execution would happen in his lifetime.

    "Do you think my daughter didn't have cruelty being raped and strangled? I live to see him die. The sooner the better."

    Gov. Steve Beshear signed Wilson’s death warrant last month for Sept. 16; however, a judge halted the execution siting that Wilson may be mentally retarded. Attorney General Jack Conway appealed that decision this week.

    The Kentucky Supreme Court is the determining factor on whether Wilson will be executed or if the stay in place will stand.

    http://www.kypost.com/dpp/news/state...stice%E2%80%99

  10. #20
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    September 16, 2010

    Execution on hold awaiting court ruling

    Condemned inmate Gregory L. Wilson has been moved back to death row at the Kentucky State Penitentiary as prison officials wait to see if the state Supreme Court lifts a stay of execution.

    Wilson, 53, was set to die of lethal injection at 7 p.m. CDT Thursday at the Kentucky State Penitentiary in Eddyville until a Franklin Circuit Court judge stopped it.

    Wilson, a native of Cleveland, was living in Fairmount when he kidnapped, raped and killed Deborah Pooley, 36, of Covington in May 1987. Wilson's codefendant, Brenda Humphrey, is serving a life sentence at the Kentucky Correctional Institute for Women in Pewee Valley.

    Judge Philip Shepherd said he had substantial questions about the newly adopted lethal injection protocol. He said, among other things, that it lacked safeguards against the unconstitutional execution of a "mentally retarded or insane person."

    The legal debate about Wilson's competency prompted three dozen Kentucky defense attorneys to call on Gov. Steve Beshear Wednesday to impose a moratorium on the death penalty and drop the state's appeal of the stay of execution. Both the Vatican and Amnesty International have also asked Beshear to cancel the execution.

    Corrections officials said late Wednesday that if a stay is lifted, they would resume preparations for the execution immediately. Authorities appear to be trying to carry out the execution before one of the three lethal injection drugs expires on Oct. 1. A national shortage of the drug means Kentucky isn't expected to receive a new shipment until at least March 2011.

    The Kentucky Attorney General's Office called Wilson's "eleventh hour revelation" that he is legally retarded a delaying tactic in its motion asking the Kentucky Supreme Court to lift the stay. In 22 years worth of appeals - including to the 6th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals in Cincinnati and the Kentucky Supreme Court - a series of lawyers for Wilson has never brought up his mental capacity.

    Wilson's currently public defenders only evidence that their client is mentally disabled is a notation in a Cuyahoga County school record from April 1971 when Wilson was 14 that said he had an IQ of 62. Kentucky law states someone is legally mentally retarded if they score 70 or below on an IQ test.

    The attorney general's office has also asked the state's high court to unseal a full mental evaluation of Wilson conducted by the Kentucky Correctional Psychiatric Center in 1988 while he was awaiting trial. That mental evaluation should have included an IQ test.

    There have been three executions in Kentucky since the death penalty was restored in 1976. All three have been carried out since 1997.

    The last person executed in Kentucky was Marco Allen Chapman, who volunteered for death. He died by lethal injection in 2008 for the 2002 murders in Warsaw of 6-year-old Cody Sharon and 7-year-old Chelbi Sharon, the sexual assault of their mother Carolyn Marksberry, a family friend, and the stabbing of her other child, who survived.

    http://www.timesleader.net/articles/...SSbb_news.html

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