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Thread: Robert Karl Lee Foley - Kentucky Death Row

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    Robert Karl Lee Foley - Kentucky Death Row


    Robert Karl Lee Foley


    Facts of the Crime:

    Was sentenced to death on September 23, 1993 in Laurel County for the murders of two brothers, Rodney and Lynn Vaughn, during an argument at his residence on August 17, 1991 in Madison County. On April 27, 1994 he was given a second death sentence in Madison County for the murders of Kimberly Bowersock, Lillian Contino, Jerry McMillen and Calvin Reynolds. He shot the four victims on October 8, 1989 because he thought one of them had reported him to his parole officer.

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    April 23, 2009

    FRANKFORT, Ky. -- The Kentucky Supreme Court has upheld the convictions of three death row inmates, including the state's only woman sentenced to death.

    The court on Thursday upheld the murder convictions of Virginia Caudill, Jonathan Wayne Goforth and Robert Foley.

    Caudill and Goforth were convicted of the 1998 killing of 73-year-old Lonetta White. The two were convicted of bludgeoning her to death with a hammer. White's body was then put in the trunk of her own car, which was set ablaze.

    Foley is a former FBI informant convicted of six killings in eastern Kentucky. He was sentenced to death in 1993 for killing Rodney and Lynn Vaughn during a dispute at his home.

    http://www.wlky.com/news/19260647/detail.html

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    April 24, 2009

    Bowling sentence upheld in Laurel murders

    FRANKFORT (AP) — The Kentucky Supreme Court upheld the convictions of three death row inmates on Thursday, including the state’s only woman sentenced to death.

    The court upheld the murder convictions of Virginia Caudill, Johnathan Wayne Goforth and Robert Foley.

    Caudill and Goforth were convicted of killing 73-year-old Lonetta White in 1998 by bludgeoning her to death with a hammer. White’s body was then put in the trunk of her own car, which was set ablaze. Foley is a former FBI informant convicted of six killings in eastern Kentucky. He was sentenced to death in 1993 for killing Rodney and Lynn Vaughn during a dispute at his home.

    Both Caudill and Goforth argued they had ineffective attorneys during their trial, which resulted in both being convicted of murder, robbery, burglary, arson and evidence tampering. Both inmates lost a previous appeal before the state supreme court.

    Among other things, Caudill claimed she had an ineffective trial attorney. Caudill claimed an expert witness should have been called in on her behalf to rebut the testimony of a Kentucky State Police forensic examiner who studied blood spatter on her shoes.

    The justices ruled there was no evidence in Caudill’s case that additional expert testimony would have changed the outcome.

    Currently, there are 36 inmates on Kentucky’s death row. Caudill, 48, is the only woman.

    Dennis Burke, one of Caudill’s public defenders, said he intends to ask the court for a rehearing and ask it to reconsider the decision.

    “We are disappointed,” Burke said.

    Goforth had argued, among other things, that his trial attorney made a mistake by not cross-examining Caudill.

    Amy Robinson Staples, who is representing Goforth, declined to comment on the court’s decision because she had not yet reviewed it.

    Allison Martin, a spokeswoman for Attorney General Jack Conway, declined to comment on the cases.

    Foley had argued his trial attorney did not properly present his motion to change the venue of his case. The court disagreed.

    Foley is on Kentucky’s death row for more killings than any other condemned inmate. He was sentenced to death for killing 6 people: brothers Rodney and Lynn Vaughn, Kimberly Bowersock, Lillian Contino, Jerry McMillen and Calvin Reynolds.

    Meanwhile, the court also denied a petition for rehearing filed by Ronnie Lee Bowling.

    The court upheld Bowling’s death sentence last year despite an FBI analysis that “overstated the significance” of some evidence presented at his trial. Bowling was convicted partially on the basis of an FBI bullet analysis that linked him to the murders of two Laurel County men in 1989.

    Sentenced to death December 9, 1992 in Laurel County for the murder of two gas station attendants in two separate robberies. Bowling, from Clay County, Kentucky, shot and killed Ronald Smith, a London, Kentucky service station attendant during the early morning of January 20, 1989. Again, in the early morning of February 22, 1989 Marvin Hensley, a service station manager in London, Kentucky was robbed and killed. Bowling was arrested February 25, 1989.

    http://www.clintonherald.com/thetime...114105719.html

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    May 20, 2010

    Ky. high court upholds Foley's murder convictions

    LOUISVILLE, Ky. (AP) - The Kentucky Supreme Court has turned away an appeal by a former FBI informant on death row for multiple killings.

    The high court rejected two appeals on Thursday from 53-year-old Robert Carl Foley, who was convicted in 1993 of six killings in eastern Kentucky.

    The court's rulings come five months after the Kentucky Attorney General's office sought an execution date for Foley - a request stopped when the high court halted executions while Kentucky re-enacts its lethal injection protocol.

    Foley, on death row for more killings than any other condemned inmate, faces execution for killing Rodney and Lynn Vaughn during a dispute at his Laurel County home and the slayings of Kimberly Bowersock, Lillian Contino, Jerry McMillen, and Calvin Reynolds in Madison County.

    http://www.wkyt.com/news/headlines/88510112.html

    Opinion here:

    http://opinions.kycourts.net/sc/2009-SC-000428-TG.pdf

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    July 24, 2010

    Murder victim's daughter wants convicted killer executed

    Sharon Vaughn McGeorge's father and uncle were murdered 19 years ago in Laurel County. McGeorge wants to know why Gov. Beshear hasn't signed his death warrant yet.

    Robert Foley has stayed on death row for nearly two decades….serving two death sentences.

    “I resent the system. All together he has 6 counts of the death penalty,” says Sharon Vaughn McGeorge, who was only a teenager when her father, Rodney Vaughn, and uncle Lynn Vaughn were murdered in Laurel County.

    Robert Foley was convicted in their deaths…and 6 months later he was sentenced to die for the 1989 murders of 4 others in Madison County.

    “I don’t think I will ever have peace in my life….. until Robert Foley is executed,” said Vaughn from her Somerset home.

    McGeorge wants to know why Governor Beshear hasn’t signed 's death warrant. A spokesperson for Beshear says that case requires research and other work dealing with attorneys and legal issues.

    “There’s always going to be another appeal. If they want to sign the warrants, they can sign them warrants,” said McGeorge.

    The Vaughns were killed in 1991 in Laurel County. Foley was convicted in September 1993. His second death sentence was handed down in 1994.

    “It makes me wonder…he’s had 19 years of life my dad hasn’t had. He’s got to see his kids grow up. He’s got to see his family, whether it’s behind a glass window or whatever it is,” said McGeorge.

    In both murder cases, Foley hid his victims, and in the Madison County case, they were found covered with lime and cement in a septic tank.

    http://www.wkyt.com/home/headlines/99128264.html

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    Death row hip demand a quandary

    Condemned six-time murderer Robert Foley's bid to receive surgery for agonising hip pain sparked an uncomfortable debate between officials over security, politics and even the possibility of inviting scorn from Fox News pundits.

    Emails and memos obtained by The Associated Press show corrections officials struggling to reconcile their duty to provide medical care with the political ramifications of spending tens of thousands of dollars for surgery on a man they plan to execute. A key problem would turn out to be security issues that led several hospitals to balk at treating inmate Foley.

    "Hip replacement for an inmate who has exhausted all appeals and will soon be executed?" Kentucky State Penitentiary warden Phil Parker wrote in an email on Nov. 22, 2010.

    "I can see this making Fox News on a slow news day, maybe even on a busy news day. In fact, I bet (Fox News host Bill O'Reilly) would love to put this in his 'Pinheads' commentary. Just a thought to consider before it goes too much further."

    Prison officials also made contingency plans to call off the surgery if Kentucky Governor Steve Beshear set an execution date, and they considered whether to consult with him about the procedure.

    "I think it is that important and all this may have political consequences," Mr Parker wrote a year before Mr Beshear's re-election. Mr Beshear's spokeswoman said he wasn't contacted about the issue.

    Foley, 55, was convicted of killing six people in eastern Kentucky in 1989 and 1991, making him the most prolific killer on the state's death row. His status as an extremely dangerous prisoner was a key factor in the state's difficulty finding a surgeon and hospital, according to the documents obtained through a public records request and a lawsuit filed by Foley.

    Foley still hasn't had the surgery, with Parker lamenting in an email they had no options after an exhaustive search.

    State officials deny that politics played a role, and there's no evidence in the documents that political considerations prevented the surgery.

    A spokeswoman for the Kentucky Justice Cabinet - which oversees corrections and law enforcement - declined to comment because of the pending lawsuit.

    Foley's attorney, Jamesa Drake, said the state needs a way to care for condemned inmates, even those with complex needs. Foley, who has been on death row since 1993, is unable to get around without help because he's at risk of a dangerous fall, Drake said.

    "If you're on death row, it's just like anybody else," Drake said. "If you need a new hip, you need a new hip. It hurts."

    The Department of Corrections acknowledged his degenerative hip in a response to the lawsuit, but also said he has been receiving adequate care. The federal lawsuit filed in March is pending.

    Kentucky Assistant Attorney General Brenn Combs wrote to Ms Drake that the Department of Corrections couldn't enter into a legal agreement about the hip surgery because it would impose requirements exceeding "our legal duty regarding inmate health care."

    "The Department is not interested in doing that and, like me, nobody else here can see a way that it would help inmate Foley," Mr Combs said in a Nov. 14 email.

    It's not unusual for inmates to receive treatment outside of prison, and Foley has twice left death row for other surgical procedures.

    Foley first complained to prison officials about the persistent pain in his right hip in September 2010, saying his leg sometimes "gives out on him," according to the lawsuit.

    Foley initially didn't want the surgery and tried to fashion his own hip brace out of "flip flops and other everyday items." Foley said the brace helped with the pain in an affidavit signed in February, but prison officials confiscated it.

    After Foley agreed to the surgery, officials searched for a doctor to perform the $US56,000 ($56,340) operation. At the time, Foley was under a death warrant signed by Mr Beshear.

    "If and when an order is received to execute Foley, I will contact (then-prison medical director Dr. Scott Haas) to try to stop all medical procedures related to his hip replacement," Mr Parker wrote.

    No execution date was set, and a judge later halted lethal injections as the state weighs execution procedures. It's not clear when executions could resume.

    While looking for a hospital, corrections officials increased Foley's pain medication and looked into the logistics of moving him.

    But prison nurse Chanin Hiland wrote in a September 2010 email to Mr Haas that orthopedists in Paducah, Madisonville and Murray had been contacted, and "none of them want any part of this."

    "The farther we have to go, the more security will have to be sent with him; although, it is obvious he will not be running anywhere soon," Ms Hiland wrote. Foley's hepatitis C infection was a further risk factor.

    In November of that year, Mr Parker and Mr Haas asked Corrections Commissioner LaDonna Thompson for advice on security. Mr Parker also wrote Mr Hass about his concerns about publicity and whether he could be safety housed outside the prison system.

    The difficulty in finding a surgeon illustrates the "gray area" between the law's requirement of treatment for inmates and a hospital's ability to turn down those patients, said Rebecca Walker, an associate professor of social medicine at the University of North Carolina in Chapel Hill.

    "Everyone would probably agree he ought to get his care somewhere. It's a collective responsibility," Walker said in a phone interview. "Who does it is the question."

    After finding a doctor to perform the surgery, Foley and corrections officials thought they had found a hospital when Frankfort Regional Medical Centre initially agreed. Corrections officials and the hospital set the surgery for Feb. 28, 2011 and conducted preoperative testing.

    During a meeting between corrections officials and hospital staff on Feb. 22, 2011, hospital CEO Chip Peal said he hadn't been aware the surgery was scheduled for less than a week later. A memo by Mr Parker summarized security measures and noted that Mr Peal needed others' approval.

    Mr Peal returned to the meeting after 30 minutes and said the surgery was off.

    "CEO Peal stated that they never had a patient at the hospital that required security and that he felt this was too high a profile person to be the first," Mr Parker wrote.

    At that point, corrections officials were left with few options.

    "After over a year of exhaustive search for a surgeon and hospital, this was our last hope," Mr Parker wrote to Thompson and Deputy Commissioner Jim Erwin on Feb. 23, 2011. "I expect future legal action in this matter, however, we know of no other options at this time."

    http://www.heraldsun.com.au/ipad/deb...-1226359828693
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    After originally filing a habeas petition in Federal District Court on October 16, 2000, Foley's petition was denied on January 30, 2013.

    http://docs.justia.com/cases/federal...552/21982/138/

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    Condemned inmate loses bid for clemency experts

    A Kentucky death row inmate won't get money to hire experts to bolster his bid for clemency after a federal judge found that the petition failed to raise new issues in the case.

    U.S. District Judge Danny C. Reeves on Wednesday turned away 56-year-old Robert Foley's request for funds to obtain a mental exam and says Gov. Steve Beshear will have enough information without an expert's report.

    Foley is preparing to ask Gov. Steve Beshear to spare him from execution for the 1991 slayings of Rodney and Lynn Vaughn after a dispute in Laurel County.

    The clemency bid comes as Kentucky seeks to restart executions for the first time since 2008. A hearing on the state's request to lift an order halting executions is set for March 18 in Frankfort.

    http://www.kentucky.com/2013/03/13/2...#storylink=cpy
    An uninformed opponent is a dangerous opponent.

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

  9. #9
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    Inmate on Kentucky's death row rejected for hip surgery

    LOUISVILLE, Ky. — Two Kentucky hospitals have rejected requests to perform a $56,000 hip replacement surgery on a death row inmate whose execution date could come this year.

    After more than a year of efforts to find a facility to perform the surgery on 56-year-old Robert Foley, the University of Louisville Hospital and the University of Kentucky Medical Center turned down the state’s request.

    The decisions are noted in a court filing Tuesday. They leave Foley’s immediate future in limbo, but he is one of two Kentucky death row inmates whose executions are waiting to be scheduled.

    Foley was convicted of killing six people in eastern Kentucky in 1989 and 1991, making him the most prolific killer on the state’s death row.

    Kentucky is trying to restart executions after a nearly four-year delay.

    http://deathpenaltynews.blogspot.com...-rejected.html
    Last edited by m!<god; 03-26-2013 at 02:21 PM.

  10. #10
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    On April 11, 2013, Foley filed an appeal in the US Sixth Circuit Court of Appeals over the denial of his habeas petition in Federal District Court.

    http://dockets.justia.com/docket/cir...s/ca6/13-5459/

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