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Thread: Henry Eugene Hodges - Tennessee Death Row

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    Henry Eugene Hodges - Tennessee Death Row


    Henry Eugene Hodges


    Summary of Offense:

    Sentenced to death for the May 14, 1991 murder of Ronald Bassett. Hodges, 24 at the time, and his girlfriend Trina Brown, then 15, both from Smyrna, ransacked the house of the victim and murdered Mr. Bassett after they got his PIN for the teller machine.

    Hodges was sentenced to death on January 30, 1992.

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    Administrator Moh's Avatar
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    On January 6, 2009, Hodges filed an appeal before the US Court of Appeals for the Sixth Circuit over the denial of his habeas petition in Federal District Court.

    http://dockets.justia.com/docket/cir...s/ca6/09-5021/

  3. #3
    timbren
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    Hodges is the main suspect in the 1989 murder of Roland Van Dyk in Nashville. If anyone has any information, please call the Nashville Police Department.

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    Henry Hodges v. Stanton Heidle, Warden

    In today's Sixth Circuit Court of Appeals opinions, the court AFFIRMED the district court’s denial of Hodges’s habeas petition.
    An uninformed opponent is a dangerous opponent.

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

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    Administrator Heidi's Avatar
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    Article

    Court rejects appeal from condemned inmate Hodges

    Attorneys for a Tennessee death row inmate who once publicly called himself a serial killer did not fail him before he pleaded guilty, a federal appeals court ruled Wednesday.

    The evidence of 47-year-old Henry Hodges' guilt was "overwhelming" and his behavior indicated that he would have pleaded guilty regardless of what advice came from his lawyers, Judge Alice Batchelder wrote for the U.S. 6th Circuit Court of Appeals. Hodges gave a series of interviews in which he described himself as a serial killer and implicated himself in the 1990 strangulation death of Ronald A. Bassett of Nashville, in letters to a judge and prosecutors.

    "Leading up to trial, Hodges embraced his guilt," Batchelder wrote. "Those are not the actions of a defendant hoping to avoid a guilty plea, nor do they help establish a reasonable probability that Hodges would have pled not guilty if so advised by counsel."

    Judge Helene White, who dissented from part of the court's opinion, found that the defense team did inadequate or no research setting out the standards of adequate representation in capital cases. The lawyers also failed to study whether it was better to have jurors view his client as not guilty before deciding his fate.

    "Hodges' counsel did not consider the ramifications of pleading guilty rather than proceeding to the guilt phase of the trial," White wrote. "I must conclude that the decision that counsel met minimum constitutional standards involved an unreasonable application of clearly established law."

    Hodges, who worked as a homosexual male prostitute, pleaded guilty in 1992 to killing Bassett. A jury in Nashville later recommended a death sentence.

    Hodges and a 15-year-old female companion, Trina Brown, were arrested in Shelby, N.C., on May 18, 1990. Investigators recovered several items of personal property that had been stolen from Bassett's apartment.

    Prosecutors say Hodges and Brown planned to move to Florida together, but needed money for the trip. Hodges told Brown that he was going to kill and rob the next person who propositioned him. He repeated the statement on the day Bassett was killed.

    Hodges and Bassett met in Centennial Park in Nashville and went to Bassett's apartment. A short time later, Hodges returned to the park in Bassett's car and picked up Brown, at which point they went back to the man's apartment.

    When Brown arrived, Bassett was alive and lying on the bed, a pillow covering his head, his legs held together with duct tape and hands cuffed behind his back.

    Hodges and Brown ransacked the apartment and found Bassett's automatic teller machine card and code. Prosecutors say Hodges killed Bassett as he begged for his life. Hodges was also convicted of a murder in Fulton County, Ga., that same year.

    Defense attorneys advised Hodges to plead guilty with the hope of gaining credibility with jurors, surprising prosecutors and limiting the evidence shown to the panel. While the advice to plead guilty without any guarantees from prosecutors was "questionable," Batchelder wrote, it met the minimum requirements to pass legal muster.

    "The defense team talked to Hodges about the decision to plead guilty and reviewed the guilty plea form with him," Batchelder wrote. "Hodges thanked his attorneys for their work and never complained about their representation."

    http://www.charlotteobserver.com/201...#storylink=cpy
    An uninformed opponent is a dangerous opponent.

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

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    Administrator Moh's Avatar
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    On February 14, 2014, the US Court of Appeals for the Sixth Circuit DENIED Hodges' petition for en banc rehearing.

    http://www.supremecourt.gov/Search.a...es/14-5246.htm

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    Administrator Moh's Avatar
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    In today's orders, the United States Supreme Court declined to review Hodges' petition for certiorari.

    Lower Ct: United States Court of Appeals for the Sixth Circuit
    Case Nos.: (09-5021)
    Decision Date: August 14, 2013
    Rehearing Denied: February 14, 2014

    http://www.supremecourt.gov/search.a...es/14-5246.htm

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    Administrator Helen's Avatar
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    Case files: New appeals for Tennessee death row inmates

    By Stacey Barchenger
    The Tennessean

    Lawyers have filed motions in Tennessee courts on behalf of condemned inmates that present a new, and perhaps unexpected, course of attack on the death penalty: Citing the U.S. Supreme Court ruling legalizing same-sex marriage nationwide. The motions seek to re-open the condemned inmates' cases.

    They argue that the Supreme Court justices in the 2015 same-sex marriage case, known as Obergefell, ruled that courts cannot infringe on fundamental rights, including the right to life. The inmates say that to impose a death sentence infringes on that right.

    Many of those motions have been denied by judges, though a few are still pending.

    Here are some of those cases:

    Henry Hodges, Davidson County, motion denied: Hodges was convicted in the 1990 strangulation and robbery of Nashville phone repairman Ronald Bassett. He received another life sentence in December 1992 after pleading guilty in the 1989 stabbing death of Inglewood nurse Barry McDonald.

    http://www.tennessean.com/story/news...ates/91294878/
    "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."
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    "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.”
    - Rowan Atkinson

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    Senior Member CnCP Legend Mike's Avatar
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    State Attorney General Seeks Execution Dates for Nine Death Row Prisoners

    By Steven Hale
    Nashville Scene

    Tennessee Attorney General Herbert Slatery is asking the Tennessee Supreme Court to set execution dates for nine more men, including the four remaining death row prisoners from Nashville.

    The request for more execution dates came without warning. Slatery’s office filed motions asking for the dates on Sept. 20 — the same day the AG announced he would challenge Nashville Criminal Court Judge Monte Watkins’ decision to vacate the death sentence of Abu-Ali Abdur’Rahman at the request of Nashville District Attorney Glenn Funk. Slatery took aim at Watkins and Funk — both of whom are elected officials — in a press release announcing the legal challenge, calling the decision to drop

    Abdur’Rahman’s death sentence “unlawful” and “unprecedented.” Funk said he stands by his position, while Abdur’Rahman’s attorney Bradley MacLean called the AG’s move “unprecedented” and said the state is “bound” by Watkins’ order.

    The AG can seek execution dates for a death row prisoner once the prisoner has exhausted the three-tier appeals process. The state Supreme Court decides when the executions will take place. In February 2018, Slatery sought a slew of execution dates and asked for them to be scheduled in quick succession, citing concerns about the state’s ability to carry out lethal injections beyond June of that year. The state Supreme Court ultimately blocked the AG’s request for the rush of executions.

    Excluding Abdur’Rahman — whose execution had been scheduled for April 16, 2020 — there are two more men scheduled to be executed in the coming months: Lee Hall on Dec. 5 and Nicholas Sutton on Feb. 20.

    The men for whom the AG is seeking execution dates are below:

    Henry Hodges (Davidson County), who pleaded guilty and was sentenced to death for the 1990 murder of Ronald Bassett during a robbery.

    Like the five men who have been executed since August 2018, many of the men above have a history of severe mental illness.

    The Scene received this response from Assistant Federal Public Defender Kelley Henry:

    We learned of the request for mass executions late yesterday after receiving the requests in the mail. Seven of the nine are represented by my office. All of the remaining Davidson county cases are included in the request. We were surprised by the request for mass executions. Each case is unique and represents a number of fundamental constitutional problems including innocence, racism, and severe mental illness. We will oppose the appointed Attorney General’s request.

    https://www.nashvillescene.com/news/...-row-prisoners
    Last edited by Mike; 09-24-2019 at 09:30 AM.
    "There is a point in the history of a society when it becomes so pathologically soft and tender that among other things it sides even with those who harm it, criminals, and does this quite seriously and honestly. Punishing somehow seems unfair to it, and it is certain that imagining ‘punishment’ and ‘being supposed to punish’ hurts it, arouses fear in it." Friedrich Nietzsche

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    It appears that Henry Hodges is volunteering for execution. He twice asked the Tennessee Supreme Court to set his execution date. Today the TSC again denied Hodges request because his attorney did
    not authorize the motion. However, the State’s motion to set an execution date is still pending.

    https://www.tncourts.gov/sites/defau...ution_date.pdf

    https://www.tncourts.gov/sites/defau...ed_as_moot.pdf
    Last edited by Julius; 11-03-2021 at 04:02 PM.

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