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Thread: Michael Brandon Samra - Alabama Execution - May 16, 2019

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    Michael Brandon Samra - Alabama Execution - May 16, 2019






    Summary of Offense:

    Sentenced to death in 1998 for the 1997 slayings of Randy Gerald Duke, Dedra Mims Hunt, Chelisa Nicole Hunt and Chelsea Marie Hunt.

    The evidence showed that Samra, along with three codefendants, planned to kill Randy Gerald Duke. To conceal the murder of Randy Gerald Duke, they also killed Dedra Mims Hunt, Chelisa Nicole Hunt, and Chelsea Marie Hunt, who were present at the scene. The four codefendants obtained two handguns to carry out the plan. Samra and Mark Anthony Duke then went to the home of Randy Gerald Duke, and Mark Anthony Duke shot Randy Gerald Duke. Samra shot Dedra Mims Hunt in the face, but the shot did not immediately kill her. Dedra Mims Hunt and her two minor children, Chelisa Nicole Hunt and Chelsea Marie Hunt, ran upstairs, and the Samra and Mark Anthony Duke followed them and killed them. After shooting Dedra Mims Hunt several times, they ran out of ammunition for the handguns. Therefore, they used kitchen knives to cut the throats of Chelisa Nicole Hunt and Chelsea Marie Hunt. The evidence showed that Samra actually cut the throat of one of the minor children. They tried to make it look like the murders had occurred during a robbery, and then they left to dispose of the weapons. Upon being questioned by law enforcement officials, Samra helped locate the weapons and made a statement in which he admitted his involvement in the murders.

    http://caselaw.findlaw.com/al-court-...s/1078546.html

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    Administrator Moh's Avatar
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    On October 26, 2007, Samra filed a habeas petition in Federal District Court.

    http://dockets.justia.com/docket/ala...v01962/120720/

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    September 21, 2013

    Alabama death row inmate convicted in 1997 Pelham quadruple slaying loses state Supreme Court appeal

    BIRMINGHAM, Alabama - More than 15 years after a Pelham man, his fiancée and her two young daughters were slaughtered in Shelby County, an Alabama death row inmate convicted in their deaths has lost another appeal.

    Michael Brandon Samra, now 35, remains incarcerated at Donaldson Correctional Facility in Bessemer after losing his latest round of appeals.

    The Alabama Supreme Court on Friday issued its opinion, declining to order a review of lower courts' rulings against Samra, who claims his punishment is unfair because his "more culpable" co-defendant Mark Anthony Duke's sentence was reversed because of his age.

    Duke, who was 16 when the slayings occurred, was originally sentenced to death, but his sentence was commuted to life in prison without parole in 2005, in light of a U.S. Supreme Court ruling that someone could not be executed for a crime committed while younger than 18.

    Duke's father Randy Duke, his fiancée Dedra Mims Hunt and her two daughters, 6-year-old Chelisa Nicole Hunt and 7-year-old Chelsea Marie Hunt were killed March 22, 1997.

    The two adults were shot to death, and the little girls' throats were slashed after the culprits ran out of bullets. Mark Duke killed his father, his father's fiancée and one of the children, and Samra slit the throat of the other child.

    Samra, who was 19 at the time of the murders, later admitted his involvement and led police to the murder weapons.

    According to statements made by co-defendants, Duke instigated the bloodbath because he was angry at his father for refusing to let him borrow a pickup truck.

    In court filings, Samra claims that his constitutional rights have been violated because Duke's sentence was changed.

    Court documents state that the fact that a court would "allow a co-defendant to be sentenced to death while the more culpable co-defendant is prohibited from being sentenced to death based on his age would be arbitrary, disproportionate, and fundamentally unfair."

    David Layne Collums and Michael Lafayette Ellison also were charged. Both men were in the getaway car instead of in the house where the slayings occurred.

    http://blog.al.com/spotnews/2013/09/...e_convi_2.html

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    Administrator Moh's Avatar
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    On September 5, 2014, Samra's habeas petition was DENIED in Federal District Court.

    http://docs.justia.com/cases/federal...1962/120720/52

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    On October 27, 2014, Samra filed an appeal before the US Court of Appeals for the Eleventh Circuit.

    http://dockets.justia.com/docket/cir.../ca11/14-14869

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    Court denies Alabama death row inmate's appeal in 1997 slayings of four in Shelby County

    A federal appeals court has rejected Alabama Death Row inmate Michael Brandon Samra's appeal of his conviction in the 1997 brutal slayings of two adults and two young children at a home in Pelham.

    A three-member panel of the U.S. 11th Circuit Court of Appeals on Tuesday affirmed a district court judge's denial of Samra's appeal on two issues.

    Attorneys for Samra, 37, who is now on death row at William E. Donaldson Correctional Facility in Jefferson County, argued his appellate lawyer was ineffective for not raising an argument on appeal that Samra was entitled to pretrial notice of the specific aggravating factor that prosecutors would rely upon in pursuing the death penalty against him at his 1998 trial.

    Samra also argued his trial lawyer was ineffective for failing to investigate evidence of brain dysfunction and for introducing and emphasizing evidence of Samra's membership in a Satanic gang, Forever Our Lord King Satan (or FOLKS), which Samra contends strengthened the state's case to the jury that there were aggravating factors.

    The appeals court rejected Samra's arguments.

    "Even if we disregard the gang-related evidence and argument, the state presented overwhelming evidence— including Samra's own confession—of the heinousness of this crime," the 11th Circuit opinion states.

    "By Samra's own admission, after he assisted in killing three people, he slit the throat of a seven-year-old girl who was pleading and struggling for her life. We find no reasonable probability that, absent evidence or discussion of Samra's gang involvement, the jury would not have found these murders to be as especially heinous, atrocious, or cruel as it found them."

    "As a result, Samra's claim that his trial counsel was ineffective for pursing a gang-related strategy and for failing to object to gang-related evidence must be denied," the court stated.

    Samra was convicted of capital murder in 1998 and was sentenced to death for his role in the killings of Randy Duke, his fiancée, Dedra Hunt, and her two daughters, Chelsea Hunt and Chelisa Hunt.

    According to evidence at trial and Samra's statements, Randy Duke's sixteen-year-old son, Mark Anthony Duke, came up with the murder plot following an argument in which Randy Duke refused to allow his son to use a pickup truck, the appeals decision states.

    Two other friends, David Collums and Michael Ellison, went with Samra and Mark Anthony Duke to the Duke home. Collums and Ellison waited nearby as Samra and Mark Anthony Duke went inside, according to the appeals court.

    Duke shot and killed his father. Samra wounded Dedra before Duke shot her to death. Duke slit six-year-old Chelisa's throat. Samra slit Chelsea's throat as Duke held her down.

    In 2005 the Alabama Court of Criminal Appeals affirmed Mark Anthony Duke's capital murder conviction in Shelby County Circuit Court. But that court also overturned the death penalty for Duke, who was 16 at the time of the murders. The court ordered he be re-sentenced to life imprisonment without the possibility of parole.

    Mark Anthony Duke is serving his sentence at the St. Clair Correctional Facility. Collums and Ellison were released from prison within the past two years.

    http://www.al.com/news/birmingham/in...death_row.html


    The decision is here.

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    Administrator Moh's Avatar
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    On November 6, 2015, the US Court of Appeals for the Eleventh Circuit DENIED Samra's petition for en banc rehearing.

    http://www.supremecourt.gov/search.a...es/15-8089.htm

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    Quote Originally Posted by Moh View Post
    "By Samra's own admission, after he assisted in killing three people, he slit the throat of a seven-year-old girl who was pleading and struggling for her life.
    Mind numbing that this parasite would expect any.. thing/human/person to think anything but death penalty after it admits to doing that...

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    Does Alabama even conduct executions anymore? They used to be pretty reliable with "Yellow Mama" but have never heard of a lethal injection even being planned. They seem constantly embroiled over what drugs to use (Pancuronium vs. Rocuonium vs. Vecuronium).

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    Last month. Christopher Brooks. So yeah...they're back in the game.

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