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Thread: Steven Vernon Bixby - South Carolina Death Row

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    Steven Vernon Bixby - South Carolina Death Row



    State Constable Donnie Ouzts



    Sergeant Danny Wilson




    Summary of Offense:

    Convicted of shooting Abbeville County Sheriff’s Deputy Sgt. Daniel Wilson and State Constable Donnie Ouzts with a 7mm rifle on the morning of December 8, 2003.

    Bixby was sentenced to death on February 21, 2007 in Abbeville County.

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    February 22, 2007

    ABBEVILLE, South Carolina (AP) -- A man convicted of gunning down two law enforcement officers during a dispute about his family's land was sentenced to death Wednesday a little more than an hour after jurors began deliberating.

    Steven Bixby, 39, showed no reaction as he was condemned for the murders of sheriff's Sgt. Danny Wilson and State Constable Donnie Ouzts.

    Bixby and his parents were upset that the state wanted a 20-foot strip of land near their home to widen a highway. Authorities said he and his father, who also is charged with murder, threatened to attack any officer who set foot on their property.

    Wilson was shot on Dec. 8, 2003, while standing on the front porch of Bixby's parents' home. Authorities say Ouzts, who arrived to check on Wilson once radio contact with the officer was lost, was shot as he stepped out of his patrol car.

    Defense attorneys declined to comment on the jury's decision but said they planned to appeal.

    Bixby joins 59 other inmates awaiting execution in South Carolina, which allows death row inmates to choose between electrocution or lethal injection.

    http://www.cnn.com/2007/LAW/02/22/sc....ap/index.html

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    Death Row Inmate Returns to Court in Abbeville

    A convicted murderer returns to court nine years after he murdered Abbeville County Sheriff’s Office Deputy Danny Wilson and Constable Donnie Ouzts on Monday.

    Steven Bixby, a death row inmate, returned to Abbeville on Monday for a post-conviction relief hearing, which is scheduled to continue through Thursday.

    Bixby’s attorneys, John Mills and Dan Westbrook, declined to comment on why Bixby was having this hearing. Eighth Circuit Solicitor Jerry Peace says that post-conviction relief hearings are often used to get criminals a new trial.

    Witnesses were called to the stand on Monday, including Professor Ruben Gur of the University of Pennsylvania’s Perelman School of Medicine.

    Gur, a recognized expert on how the brain works and specifically brain damage, said that given his research on Bixby, he suffers from brain damage and schizophrenia.

    http://www2.wspa.com/news/2012/dec/1...le-ar-5149453/
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    The South Carolina Supreme Court upheld Bixby's conviction and sentence on August 16, 2010.

    Opinion is here:

    http://www.judicial.state.sc.us/opin...m?caseNo=26871

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    Back in court

    Convicted cop killer Steven Bixby was back in court Thursday.

    The final day of testimony in Bixby's post-conviction relief hearing was Thursday in a small courtroom on the third floor of the Lexington County Courthouse. The proceedings were the continuation of a PCR hearing that began in December at Abbeville County Courthouse.

    Bixby is on death row for the Dec. 8, 2003, shooting deaths of Abbeville County Sheriff's Office Deputy Danny "Danny Boy" Wilson and Constable Donnie Ouzts. He was found guilty of murder in the case in 2007 and has been on death row ever since.

    Post-conviction relief actions are often made in an attempt to get convicted criminals a new trial. Bixby was in the courtroom Thursday. The inmate was shackled and escorted by a large contingent of armed officers from the South Carolina Department of Corrections. Bixby wore the dark green prison-issued jumpsuit typical of death row inmates.

    Bixby was represented in court Thursday by attorneys John Mills and Dan Westbrook. Meanwhile, Melody Brown and Don Zelenka, of the attorney general's office, represented the state. As in December, Judge Knox McMahon presided over Thursday's action.

    With the testimony phase now completed, lawyers on both sides will soon get transcripts of the hearing from the court reporter. Each side will write summaries and have an opportunity to write a response to the other side's summary. At some point after that, McMahon will consider all of the facts and issue an order as to whether Bixby will get post-conviction relief.

    Following Thursday's proceedings, McMahon said there is not a firm timetable as to when that order might be issued.

    On Thursday, the state called a pair of witnesses, including Dr. Donna Schwartz-Watts, a forensic psychiatrist, and Dr. Helen Mayberg, a neurologist with Emory University in Atlanta. Bixby's legal team countered with one rebuttal witness in Dr. Ruben Gur, a professor at the University of Pennsylvania's Perelman School of Medicine in Philadelphia.

    http://www.indexjournal.com/main.asp...rticleID=17553
    An uninformed opponent is a dangerous opponent.

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    August 17, 2010

    South Carolina court upholds death sentence for cop killer

    COLUMBIA, S.C. — The South Carolina Supreme Court has upheld the death sentence for a man convicted of killing two police officers in a dispute over a highway widening project.

    Steven Bixby's attorneys said his sentence should be overturned because prosecutors tried to play on jurors' emotions by showing scenes from one of the officer's funerals. Chief Justice Jean Toal said in the ruling released Monday that the video showed the impact of Abbeville County Sheriff's Sgt. Danny Wilson's death on the community.

    Prosecutors say Wilson was ambushed as he knocked on the family's door to talk about their dispute with state transportation officials. Constable Donnie Ouzts was killed when he went to check on Wilson.

    Bixby's father has been involuntarily committed to a mental institution. His mother is serving a life prison sentence.

    http://www.deseretnews.com/article/7...op-killer.html

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    Ceremony to mark tragedy in Abbeville

    It's been an eyelash shy of a full decade since Abbeville County endured one of the darkest days in the county seat's rich history.

    Sunday marks the 10-year anniversary of the highly publicized Bixby shooting in Abbeville. And officials are expected to take time out Monday morning for a short ceremony in memory of the victims of the tragedy, which left two county law enforcement officers dead.

    Abbeville County Sheriff's Office deputies will gather at the ACSO Law Enforcement Center, 21 Old Calhoun Falls Road, shortly after 9 a.m. The ceremony will include a moment of silence and a wreath laying at a shrine in front of the LEC dedicated to the two slain officers - Deputy Danny "Danny Boy" Wilson and Magistrate's Constable Donnie Ouzts.

    "We are going to salute them and show respect to the officers involved," Capt. Natalie Talbert said.

    Wilson responded to the Bixby home along Union Church Road the morning of Dec. 8, 2003, planning to talk to the residents about an ongoing land dispute between the state Department of Transportation and members of the Bixby family. He was shot as he stood on the front porch and dragged into the residence where he bled to death. Ouzts was one of the first officers to arrive on the scene after Wilson was shot, and he was gunned down as he stepped out of his patrol car and walked through the front yard. He died later while en route to the hospital. A 14-hour standoff and gun battle ensued between members of the Bixby family and several law enforcement officers.

    Officers eventually arrested Steven, Arthur and Rita Bixby in connection with the incident. Rita Bixby was convicted of masterminding the ambush in 2007 and sentenced to life in prison. Arthur Bixby, who was charged but deemed mentally unfit to stand trial, was remanded to a mental institution. Both died in September 2011.

    Steven Bixby still sits on death row after being convicted in 2007 of murdering the two officers. His last post-conviction relief hearing concluded in March in Lexington County. Officials from the South Carolina Attorney General's Office said this week Circuit Court Judge Knox McMahon, who presided over those proceedings, has yet to render a ruling in the case.

    Years later, remnants of the shooting continued to be a source of grief for officials. Former Abbeville County Sheriff Charles Goodwin kept a picture of the two fallen deputies on his desk up until his departure from the sheriff's office earlier this year. During an August 2012 interview with the Index-Journal, he said the fatal incident was the hardest thing he's had to deal with in his nearly 40-year law enforcement career.

    http://www.indexjournal.com/main.asp...rticleID=22385
    An uninformed opponent is a dangerous opponent.

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    On April 12, 2017, Bixby filed a habeas petition in Federal District Court.

    https://dockets.justia.com/docket/so...cv00954/234935

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    In today's orders, the United States Supreme Court declined to review Bixby's petition for certiorari.

    Lower Ct: Court of Common Pleas of South Carolina, Abbeville County
    Case Numbers: (2011-CP-01-110)
    Decision Date: January 13, 2015
    Discretionary Court Decision Date: March 7, 2017

    https://www.supremecourt.gov/search....c/17-5598.html

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    Prosecutor Wants Execution Drug Law 14 Years After Ambush

    A prosecutor says the inability for South Carolina to execute a man who ambushed and killed two law officers at his South Carolina home is troubling.

    ABBEVILLE, S.C. (AP) — For the death penalty to mean anything in South Carolina, the killer who ambushed and killed two law officers in South Carolina in 2003 needs to be executed when his appeals run out, said the prosecutor whose office handled the case.

    Solicitor David Stumbo said South Carolina's lack of drugs to carry out executions is changing the way fellow prosecutors do their jobs, adding another hurdle as he and families consider whether to seek the death penalty in murder cases.

    Stumbo spoke Friday at a ceremony marking 14 years since Abbeville County Sheriff's Deputy Danny Wilson and state constable Donnie Ouzts were killed by a family angry over a highway widening project outside their Abbeville home.

    Steven Bixby and his parents were charged with murder. They have died, but Bixby, 50, remains on death row after being convicted.

    "If we are to have the death penalty in South Carolina, which the vast majority of our citizens are in favor of, it has to mean something," Stumbo said in a statement.

    Executions in South Carolina are on hold because the state does not have the drugs needed for lethal injection. State prison officials want a law passed allowing the companies who provide the drugs to remain secret so they can sell the needed drugs without facing scrutiny.

    Dozens of people packed a room at the Abbeville County Sheriff's Office on Friday to remember Wilson and Ouzts.

    Wilson went to the Bixby home on Dec. 8, 2003, to speak to the family after they picked up survey stakes and threatened workers on the widening project for state Highway 72 that would have taken about 20 feet (6 meters) of their land.

    Bixby shot Wilson through the door as he approached, dragged him inside, handcuffed him with his own handcuffs and left him to die, prosecutors said.

    Ouzts was shot about 20 minutes later as he came to check on Wilson after dispatchers hadn't heard from him.

    Over the next 14 hours, Steven Bixby and his father hid in their home and fire hundreds of rounds at officers, including several who managed to drag a mortally wounded Ouzts to an ambulance. No other officers were injured, a result that then State Law Enforcement Division Chief Robert Stewart called a miracle.

    The Bixby house is still standing, decrepit and full of bullet holes. But a local businessman has bought the property and is talking to the county about clearing the land for a memorial, Abbeville County Sheriff Ray Watson said.

    "We wanted to burn it. Like I wish we would have done that night when the propane tank caught on fire," Watson said. "We're going to tear it down ... and we want to put some kind of memorial up."

    https://www.usnews.com/news/best-sta...s-after-ambush

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