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Thread: Charles Walton Wright - Tennessee

  1. #11
    Administrator Moh's Avatar
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    On August 20, 2015, the Sixth Circuit DENIED Wright's petition for en banc rehearing.

    http://www.supremecourt.gov/Search.a...es\15-7828.htm

  2. #12
    Administrator Moh's Avatar
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    In today's orders, the United States Supreme Court declined to review Wright's petition for certiorari.

    Lower Ct: United States Court of Appeals for the Sixth Circuit
    Case Nos.: (13-6573)
    Decision Date: July 15, 2015
    Rehearing Denied: August 20, 2015

    http://www.supremecourt.gov/search.a...es/15-7828.htm

  3. #13
    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:

    Charles Wright, Davidson County, motion denied:
    Wright was sentenced to die in 1985 by a Davidson County jury. Wright shot and killed Gerald Mitchell and Douglas Alexander.

    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."
    - 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.”
    - Rowan Atkinson

  4. #14
    Senior Member CnCP Addict TrudieG's Avatar
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    Creative argument however, I would argue that the victims fundamental right to life was taken away by the defendant and the ruling of the fundamental right to life was intended for the right to live in a relationship of their choosing. Capital punishment is constitutional and by the killing of another one forfeits their own right to life.

  5. #15
    Administrator Moh's Avatar
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    In today's orders, the United States Supreme Court declined to grant Wright's petition for rehearing.

    Lower Ct: United States Court of Appeals for the Sixth Circuit
    Case Nos.: (13-6573)
    Decision Date: July 15, 2015
    Rehearing Denied: August 20, 2015

    https://www.supremecourt.gov/search....es/15-7828.htm

  6. #16
    Administrator Aaron's Avatar
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    An execution date has been requested.

    https://www.scribd.com/document/3716...ses#from_embed
    Don't ask questions, just consume product and then get excited for next products.

    "They will hurt you. They will hurt your grandma, these people. The root cause of this is there's no discipline in the homes, they don't go to school, you know, they live off the government, no personal accountability, and they just beat people up for no reason, and it's disgusting." - Former Hamilton County Prosecutor Joe Deters

  7. #17
    Administrator Aaron's Avatar
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    Tennessee Supreme Court sets execution dates for six inmates

    Dec. 5, 2019, is the new execution date for Lee Hall, also known as Leroy Hall Jr. He was convicted of murder in the burning death of his girlfriend Traci Crozier.

    The other defendants and their execution dates are Donnie Edward Johnson, May 16, 2019, convicted in 1985 of killing his wife Connie Johnson in Shelby County; Stephen Michael West, Aug. 15, 2019, convicted of the murder of Wanda Romines and the rape and murder of Sheila Romines in Union County; Charles Walton Wright, Oct. 10, 2019, convicted in 1984 of the murders of Gerald Mitchell and Douglas Alexander in Davidson County; Nicholas Todd Sutton, Feb. 20, 2020, convicted in 1985 of the murder of Carl Estep in Morgan County; and Abu-Ali Abdur' Rahman, formerly known as James Lee Jones, April 9, 2020, convicted of the 1986 murder of Patrick Daniels in Davidson County.

    https://www.timesfreepress.com/news/...nmates/483217/
    Don't ask questions, just consume product and then get excited for next products.

    "They will hurt you. They will hurt your grandma, these people. The root cause of this is there's no discipline in the homes, they don't go to school, you know, they live off the government, no personal accountability, and they just beat people up for no reason, and it's disgusting." - Former Hamilton County Prosecutor Joe Deters

  8. #18
    Senior Member CnCP Legend Mike's Avatar
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    More on the Crime

    Following a lengthy trial in Davidson County, Tennessee, appellant Charles Walton Wright was found guilty of premeditated murder in the first degree of Gerald Mitchell and Douglas Alexander. He was sentenced to life imprisonment for the murder of Mitchell and to death by electrocution for the murder of Alexander. After careful examination of the record, we affirm both the convictions and the sentences.

    Testimony in the case was both protracted and conflicting. Appellant himself gave numerous conflicting and convoluted versions of the events which led to the homicides in the afternoon of July 18, 1984, in a public park in Davidson County, Tennessee. Appellant and both victims were residents at that time of Murfreesboro, in Rutherford County, Tennessee, although appellant had in the past resided in Nashville. Appellant and the victim Mitchell were, by appellant's own admission, involved in trafficking in illegal narcotics.

    Alexander may also have been involved. Their involvement was such that police officials in Murfreesboro had prepared a search warrant to search the residence of appellant for possession and sale of marijuana, but the warrant was never actually issued or served because of the homicides.

    It appears without question that all three men came to Nashville in the afternoon of July 18, 1984, for the purpose of purchasing contraband narcotics with the intent to traffic therein.

    At the trial, appellant admitted shooting and killing Mitchell and leaving the bodies of both Mitchell and Alexander in the public park. It was his contention that Mitchell had previously shot Alexander. The jury obviously concluded otherwise.

    The homicides occurred in the late afternoon, probably around 6 p.m. Several persons in the park heard Three shots.

    When the bodies were found, Alexander had been shot twice. One bullet penetrated his forearm, apparently a defensive wound, and then penetrated his face, entering at the corner of his mouth on the right side and being found lodged in the left cheek. This shot apparently did not cause death and would not necessarily have been fatal. The second shot was in the left rear portion of his skull.

    According to the only medical expert who testified, this shot would have produced unconsciousness instantly and death within a short time.

    Mitchell was shot once, below the left ear. The medical expert testified that this shot would have produced unconsciousness immediately and death within a few minutes. The body of Mitchell was found face down on the top of a knoll in the park. The body of Alexander was some 50 to 60 feet away, downhill, and near the top of a flight of steps leading to the knoll from a small parking area below.

    A vehicle later identified as that belonging to Alexander was observed being driven by a single occupant away from the park.

    The next day the car was found in Murfreesboro, and appellant admitted that he drove the vehicle from the park in Nashville to a park in Murfreesboro where he abandoned it. Appellant admitted borrowing a pistol from one Jessie King in Murfreesboro. Ballistics showed that this was the weapon from which the fatal shots were fired. Appellant admitted being in possession of the pistol after the homicide and returning it to King. It was his contention, however, that prior to the homicide he had let Mitchell borrow the pistol.

    He said that Mitchell shot Alexander, and appellant then retrieved the pistol from Mitchell and shot the latter.

    Appellant denied any involvement in the homicide for several days and gave highly misleading and false information to many witnesses who testified, as well as to investigating police officials.

    The numerous discrepancies in the various versions which he gave of the events of July 18 were explored in depth at the trial, including introduction at the instance of his own counsel of a lengthy and admittedly false statement given to the police.

    It is not necessary here to review the convoluted and often confusing testimony. Essentially, appellant insisted that the three men had come to Nashville to purchase drugs and to sell them later in Murfreesboro.

    He admitted his own rather extensive involvement in illicit narcotics. Appellant said, however, that Mitchell knew the contact in Nashville from whom the marijuana was to be purchased.

    He testified that he did not accompany Alexander and Mitchell in making the purchase, although both he and Mitchell supplied substantial funds for the purchase. He remained where they let him out of the car.

    He said that when Alexander and Mitchell returned to pick him up in Alexander's automobile, they were quarreling. He testified that the drug transaction was only partly completed, and the parties were going to have to wait for about an hour to obtain the rest of the marijuana.

    Appellant testified that he suggested that they go to the park, which is located not far from the residence of appellant's mother, and that they proceed to bag such marijuana as had already been obtained.

    He said that Mitchell and Alexander went to the top of the knoll while he stayed in the car, that he heard two shots and then ran up the steps.

    There he found that Alexander had been shot by Mitchell. He took the pistol from Mitchell, struck the latter with his fist, and then shot him behind the ear.

    It is clear that the jurors were not bound to accept this testimony, which was given at trial but which was markedly different from the numerous previous accounts which had been given by appellant. There was abundant testimony from which the jury could have found, as it did, that appellant committed both murders. The jury acquitted appellant of counts of murder committed in the perpetration of robbery in connection with each homicide, but it found that each homicide was premeditated murder in the first degree.

    In the numerous issues presented on appeal by counsel for appellant, the sufficiency of the evidence to sustain the verdicts at the guilt hearing is not questioned and need not be further discussed in detail.

    At the sentencing hearing the State announced that it would not seek the death penalty in the homicide of Mitchell. It was the theory of the State that Mitchell and appellant had had a quarrel over previous drug transactions.

    There was hearsay testimony, not objected to, that some children in the park had heard quarreling taking place just before the shots were fired in the present case.

    It was one theory of the State that appellant shot Mitchell as a result of this quarrel and then shot Alexander to eliminate him as a witness or to prevent appellant's apprehension and arrest.

    The other theory of the State was that the two homicides were intimately connected and that, regardless of the order in which they occurred, the second was committed while appellant was in the course of committing, attempting to commit or escaping from the first homicide.

    In addition to the extensive testimony adduced both on direct examination, through cross-examination and in rebuttal at the guilt hearing, the State introduced one additional witness at the sentencing hearing.

    This was the medical examiner, Dr. Charles Harlan, who had already testified at the guilt hearing as to the positions of the bodies when he arrived at the scene on the evening of July 18, the nature and extent of the gunshot wounds, the results of his autopsy and the cause of death.

    At the sentencing hearing, Dr. Harlan ventured the opinion that the most probable sequence of events was that Mitchell was shot first and that the two shots which wounded, then killed, Alexander followed thereafter.

    The only real factual basis for this opinion, however, was that the body of Alexander was found downhill and on a lower level than that of Mitchell.

    Dr. Harlan admitted freely that other sequences could have occurred, including the sequence that Alexander was shot first and that Mitchell was then shot while fleeing the scene.

    Earlier Dr. Harlan had testified that none of the gunshot wounds was fired at point-blank range, all of them apparently having been fired from at least 24 inches or more from the bodies of the victims. This opinion was based upon the absence of stippling or powder burns upon either victim.

    http://murderpedia.org/male.W/w/wrig...les-walton.htm

  9. #19
    Administrator Aaron's Avatar
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    Attorneys and Supporters Seek Clemency for Nashville Man Dying on Death Row

    Charles Wright is set to be executed on Oct. 10, but he may not live that long.

    Wright, who was convicted in 1985 for the murders of Gerald Mitchell and Douglas Alexander during a drug deal in Nashville, has cancer that started in his prostate and has spread to his bones. Late last year he was moved off of Riverbend Maximum Security Institution's Unit 2, which houses death row prisoners — some of whom were caring for Wright on a day-to-day basis — to an infirmary at the prison. At least once since then, attorneys and visitors believed he was in his final days. But he lived to see the state set his execution date.

    In court filings, attorneys have raised a number of issues with Wright's case, including racial bias in Tennessee capital cases in the 1980s and the fact that numerous other drug-related homicides have not led to death sentences. Like that of Ed Zagorski, who was executed in November, Wright's case is an example of what two attorneys and researchers called "Tennessee's Death Penalty Lottery." Wright has been sentenced to death, even as some Tennessee prisoners are serving life sentences for killing four, five or even six people in drug-related homicides.

    The more pressing matter now, though, is Wright's illness. He is seeking clemency from the governor, but specifically, his supporters are hoping to see him released so that he can spend his final days outside of prison with family.

    Former Nashville Congressman Bob Clement sent a letter to Gov. Bill Haslam in September pleading for Wright's release.

    "It is clear to me that Charles is not among the 'worst of the worst' for whom the ultimate punishment is to be reserved," Clement wrote. "He was a product of his environment and the deprivation in which he — I will not say 'was raised' as the fact is, Charles and his siblings basically raised themselves. He turned to drugs early in his teenage years — he was fourteen or fifteen when an older drug dealer put a heroin needle in Charles' arm. Charles does not absolve himself of his responsibility for making wrong choices."

    Haslam's last day in office is Saturday, Jan. 19.

    Clement, who is the son of former Tennessee Gov. Frank Clement — an ardent death penalty opponent who famously visited death row and commuted a number of death sentences and fought for repeal — spoke to the Scene on Tuesday about how his upbringing shaped his views of the death penalty. Prisoners were often employed as workers at the governor's mansion at the time, and Clement got to know them as a young boy.

    "Those prisoners were my best friends growing up," Clement said, laughing. "Because I played basketball and football with them."

    Clement and Wright's attorneys, led by Kelly Henry — an assistant supervising federal public defender based in Nashville — are hoping the governor will grant Wright clemency in one of two ways. Ideally, they'd like to see Haslam commute Wright's sentence to time served so that he can be released and die outside of prison. In lieu of that, Haslam could commute Wright's sentence to life in prison, which would allow Wright to apply for a medical furlough, a release that can be granted to prisoners who are near death. Death row prisoners, however, are not eligible for medical furloughs.

    Former WSMV anchor Demetria Kalodimos interviewed Wright as a reporter years ago and has continued visiting him regularly ever since. Her interviews with Wright, and other videos about the case, are available here.

    "After covering the death penalty in Tennessee for more than 30 years, it’s clear it needs re-examination at all levels," Kalodimos told the Scene Tuesday. "Charles’ case is so exceptional it should be the catalyst for the reform we need in Tennessee. He has led an inspirational life in hopeless captivity. I wish he had the chance to testify to the legislature and the governor."

    https://www.nashvillescene.com/news/...g-on-death-row
    Don't ask questions, just consume product and then get excited for next products.

    "They will hurt you. They will hurt your grandma, these people. The root cause of this is there's no discipline in the homes, they don't go to school, you know, they live off the government, no personal accountability, and they just beat people up for no reason, and it's disgusting." - Former Hamilton County Prosecutor Joe Deters

  10. #20
    Administrator Aaron's Avatar
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    Few options for dying inmate Charles Wright, who is facing Oct. 10 execution date

    Outgoing Gov. Bill Haslam granted clemency to 23 people during his last full day in office Friday, but he did not intervene on behalf of a terminally ill death row inmate fighting to die naturally rather than face execution.

    Charles Walton Wright, 63, is bedridden and hobbled by terminal cancer that has spread from his prostate into his bones. Doctors said he had weeks to live last summer, but he has surpassed the expectations of his medical team.

    If he survives long enough, the state plans to put Wright to death on Oct. 10, part of a wave of executions scheduled by the Tennessee Supreme Court. Haslam's decision not to act leaves the matter in the hands of Tennessee's new governor, Bill Lee.

    "Charles has exhausted all legal remedies," Wright's attorney Kelley Henry said in an email.

    Wright's legal team said mercy was the only way out of prison.

    His lawyers are fighting to get him released so he can die in his family's care rather than in a prison cell or on a gurney in the execution chamber. They've enlisted a pair of high-profile supporters to bolster their case.

    “His health is deteriorating," said former U.S. Rep. Bob Clement, who wrote a letter to Haslam asking for Wright's release. “I’d like to see Charles be released and spend the last part of his life with his family and friends.”

    Former WSMV anchor Demetria Kalodimos has conducted a serious of video interviews with Wright, his family and his attorneys.

    In the videos, Henry, a federal public defender, said there were a series of trial errors that contributed to Wright's death sentence.

    The governor could commute Wright's sentence to life, which would allow him to apply for compassionate release, or commute the sentence to time served.

    Wright was sentenced to death in 1985 after he was convicted on two counts of first-degree murder. Prosecutors said he shot and killed Gerald Mitchell, 33, and Douglas Alexander, 27, in a North Nashville park during a dispute over drugs.

    His lawyers and supporters said he has shown remorse and rehabilitation, citing his record of good behavior as an inmate. Now, they say, he deserves mercy.

    While the legal team sought to address the trial errors before Wright's condition worsened, their focus now is clemency.

    It is one of many death penalty cases Lee will face during his term. Three other death row inmates are scheduled to die this year, and two more executions are scheduled in 2020.

    https://www.tennessean.com/story/new...ll/2546832002/
    Don't ask questions, just consume product and then get excited for next products.

    "They will hurt you. They will hurt your grandma, these people. The root cause of this is there's no discipline in the homes, they don't go to school, you know, they live off the government, no personal accountability, and they just beat people up for no reason, and it's disgusting." - Former Hamilton County Prosecutor Joe Deters

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