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Thread: Scott David Allen - North Carolina Death Row

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    Scott David Allen - North Carolina Death Row




    Facts of the Crime:

    Before his 1998 escape from a North Carolina Department of Corrections work release program in which he was serving a sentence for numerous felony breaking or entering and felony larceny convictions, Scott Allen met Vanessa Smith and they became romantically involved.

    Immediately following Allen’s escape, he met Smith in a parking lot, and the couple began moving around from hotel to hotel through out the country, which Smith paid for with proceeds from a large settlement arising from her father’s death. The couple returned to North Carolina in the summer of 1999. Allen had false identification under the name of Byron Johnson, which he used when he moved into a mobile home near Badin Lake. In addition to Allen and Smith, Robert Johnson, Christopher Gailey, and Danny Lanier and his family resided in the mobile home. Christopher Gailey and Allen were long-time friends, but Smith never considered Gailey a friend. Life at the mobile home consisted of heavy partying, drinking, and drug abuse. Much of the drugs were provided by Gailey.

    On July 9, 1999, the day of the murder, Allen told Smith and Gailey he had stashed some firearms in a cabin in the Uwharrie Forest, and they should get them and sell them for drugs. The three arrived that evening at the Uwharrie Forest, after which they entered the forest and walked for what Smith described as at least an hour. Smith smoked marijuana while Allen and Gailey used cocaine. As they walked single file down a very narrow trail, fired a shotgun twice, first delivering a heavy buckshot blast into Gailey’s back, and then firing lighter birdshot into Gailey’s knee.

    Smith testified that she and defendant then went to the nearby cabin to sit and wait for Gailey to die. According to Smith’s testimony, for seven to eight hours after defendant shot Gailey, he would creep over on his stomach to Gailey’s body to throw rocks at him to discover if he would make a noise. During this waiting period, defendant told Smith that Gailey would never call her a “bitch” again and that he could not believe Gailey turned on him and was going to “rat him off” by reporting his location to the authorities. hristopher Gailey died as a result of his wounds.

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    Administrator Moh's Avatar
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    On March 3, 2006, the North Carolina Supreme Court upheld Allen's death sentence on direct appeal.

    http://www.aoc.state.nc.us/www/publi...6/115-04-1.htm

    On October 2, 2006, the US Supreme Court denied Allen's certiorari petition.

    http://www.supremecourt.gov/Search.a...s/05-11609.htm

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    Man sentenced to death after murder in Uwharrie National Forest to have evidence re-examined

    By Rachel Berry
    The Courier-Tribune

    A man who's spent the last 18 years on death row will have a new hearing and re-examination of evidence, the Supreme Court of North Carolina ruled.

    Scott David Allen was found guilty of first-degree murder in the 1999 killing of Christopher Gailey. He was sentenced to the death penalty in Montgomery County in 2003.

    Since his conviction, Allen has filed motions for relief, but those motions were dismissed. Allen appealed the dismissal of these claims to the state supreme court.

    Allen said he didn't have effective counsel in his original trial because his attorneys failed to "investigate, develop and utilize" various sources of evidence, according to the Supreme Court's decision.

    Evidence that was excluded from the trial includes affidavits from acquaintances of Allen and Vanessa Smith, the prosecution's main witness, implicating Smith in Gailey’s murder, and a report from a crime scene expert saying Smith’s account of Gailey’s killing was “unfathomable” when considering the physical evidence found at the scene, according to court documents.

    Taking this into consideration, the N.C. Supreme Court ruled Allen should get a new hearing. The hearing will examine the evidence and also a claim from Allen that he shouldn't have been shackled within view of the jury.

    Gailey's death

    Allen escaped from a North Carolina Department of Corrections work release program in 1998, according to court records. After escaping, he reunited with Smith, who he had been dating off-and-on. They lived in hotels and used large quantities of illegal drugs together, according to court records.

    In the summer of 1999, they lived together in a mobile home owned by a friend near the Uwharrie National Forest in Troy. During that summer, others lived in the mobile home with Allen and Smith, including Gailey, who was Allen's friend and drug dealer.

    In the afternoon on July 9, 1999, Allen, Smith and Gailey went into the forest together, and Gailey was shot and killed.

    Gailey's body was found by someone riding an ATV in the woods. Smith told authorities that Allen killed Gailey to take his money and drugs, according to court records.

    Smith's account

    During the trial, Smith testified that the group went into the forest to recover some weapons Gailey had stashed there, which they planned to sell and trade for cocaine.

    After about an hour of walking, the path narrowed, and the group proceeded single-file, with Gailey followed by Allen then Smith. At one point, Allen reportedly turned around and pushed Smith to the ground before shooting at Gailey with a shotgun he had brought with them, Smith testified. Smith said she didn't witness the shooting but heard several gunshots.

    Allen and Smith then waited in a nearby cabin for Gailey to die. Smith told the court they stayed for about seven or eight hours, and Allen would crawl toward the body and throw rocks at him to determine if Gailey was still alive. When the two left the cabin, they heard Gailey empty his .45 mm handgun, Smith testified in court.

    They drove Gailey's truck out of the woods and went to a party at Smith's friend's house. There they met a man named Jeffrey Lynn Page, who testified at Allen's trial. Page said at the time, Allen told him he had just killed a man and that he needed to get rid of his truck. Page bought the truck. He was charged in connection to the death but testified for the prosecution.

    'A witness with less-than-perfect credibility'

    Allen and Smith were both arrested and charged in connection to Gailey's death. After spending almost two years in jail, Smith took a plea deal, saying she would testify against Allen, and her murder charge would be changed to a lesser offense.

    Smith testified against Allen, saying he was the only one responsible for Gailey's death and that he shot Gailey from behind, unprovoked. Allen didn't testify, so Smith's recollection was the only account of the events given at trial.

    Looking back on this case, the state Supreme Court called Smith “a witness with less-than-perfect credibility," as she was a chronic drug user who had smoked marijuana shortly before Gailey's death. Allen had also recently broken up with her and reunited with an ex-girlfriend.

    The state's case was solely based on testimony from Smith and Page.

    "No fingerprint, DNA, or forensic evidence connecting Allen to the crime scene was ever produced, nor was the alleged murder weapon—Allen’s sawed off-shogun—ever located," according to court records.

    The evidence

    The Supreme Court of North Carolina's decision recounts that the following evidence was found at the scene:

    • "A .45-caliber semi-automatic handgun between Gailey’s feet, loaded with a magazine containing five live rounds, and one spent .45-caliber shell casing jammed in the receiver
    • A number of live rounds of .45-caliber ammunition next to Gailey
    • A magazine containing live rounds several feet from Gailey’s head
    • A black t-shirt draped over a rock with another smaller rock on top of it, approximately four feet from Gailey’s body
    • A nylon handgun holster
    • Five expended shotgun shells
    • A hunting knife located on top of a duffel bag
    • A yellow container with $1,944.00 in cash on Gailey’s body"

    The state's forensic pathologist said Gailey died from two gunshot wounds, one to the back of his right shoulder and one on his right knee, which was from further away.

    The pathologist said Gailey probably lost consciousness "'within a matter of minutes" of the shooting and that it was unlikely Gailey survived for more than an hour or two after the shooting.

    The jury found Allen guilty of first-degree murder. He was sentenced to the death penalty.

    Allen's appeals

    In the years since, Allen filed multiple motions for relief.

    He claimed among other things that:

    • The state provided false and misleading evidence at trial.
    • His attorneys failed to investigate and call defense witnesses that could provide exculpatory evidence, meaning evidence to prove his innocence.
    • His attorneys failed to effectively cross-examine the prosecution's witnesses.
    • His attorneys failed to object to improper statements made by the defense in closing arguments.
    • His attorneys failed to present testimony from a mental health expert during sentencing.
    • During the sentencing, his attorney didn't investigate and present available evidence showing he doesn't deserve the death penalty and didn't adequately prepare Allen's witnesses for testimony.

    Allen submitted affidavits from acquaintances of Smith who put her version of events in question. One of these affidavits was from Smith's ex-boyfriend who said Smith told him she made and carried out a plan to jump Gailey and take his cocaine and cash.

    Another affidavit from Gregory McCrary, a former agent with the Federal Bureau of Investigation who examined the evidence found at the crime scene, said the evidence wasn't consistent with Smith's story of an unprovoked attack. McCrary said the evidence showed a physical confrontation that developed into a shootout between Allen and Gailey.

    In another filing, Allen claimed his lawyers didn't investigate the possible involvement of a third party in Gailey's killing. He was also shackled in the presence of the jury during the trial.

    The court dismissed these claims.

    The Supreme Court's decision

    The Supreme Court analyzed the dismissal of Allen's claims in the lower court. The court found that Allen should be given a hearing based on his claims to determine if he was given adequate legal representation during the guilt/innocence phase of the trial. It will also examine the fact that he was shackled in the view of the jury. The court upheld the lower court's decision about the claims surrounding the sentencing hearing.

    If the court rules in Allen's favor during the hearing, he will receive a new trial.

    https://www.courier-tribune.com/stor...es/8136094002/
    "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.”
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