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Thread: Donald S. Wright - Louisiana Death Row

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    Donald S. Wright - Louisiana Death Row


    Heather White





    Summary of Offense:

    On January 14, 2000, a Webster Parish grand jury indicted defendant, Donald S. Wright, for the first-degree murder of Heather White in violation of La. R.S. 14:30. On the same day, the state filed its notice of intent to seek the death penalty. On March 20, 2000, defendant filed a motion for a change of venue, which the court granted after conducting a hearing on the matter on April 10, 2000, transferring the case to Lafayette Parish. On May 5, 2000, the state submitted defendant's case to a newly impaneled grand jury, which reindicted defendant for first degree murder. After a trial by jury, defendant was found guilty as charged on August 25, 2000. Two days later at the close of the penalty phase of the trial, the jury unanimously returned a verdict of death finding the aggravating circumstances that: (1) defendant was engaged in the perpetration or attempted perpetration of an aggravated or forcible rape; (2) the victim was under the age of 12 years; and (3) the offense was committed in an especially heinous, atrocious or cruel manner.
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    Administrator Moh's Avatar
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    No. 02-10652 *** CAPITAL CASE ***
    Title:
    Donald S. Wright, Petitioner
    v.
    Louisiana
    Docketed: May 13, 2003
    Lower Ct: Supreme Court of Louisiana
    Case Nos.: (2001-KA-0322)
    Decision Date: December 4, 2002
    Rehearing Denied: February 7, 2003

    ~~~Date~~~ ~~~~~~~Proceedings and Orders~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
    May 7 2003 Petition for writ of certiorari and motion for leave to proceed in forma pauperis filed. (Response due June 12, 2003)
    Aug 4 2003 Brief of respondent Louisiana in opposition filed.
    Aug 14 2003 DISTRIBUTED for Conference of September 29, 2003.
    Sep 2 2003 Reply of petitioner Donald S. Wright filed. (Distributed)
    Oct 6 2003 Petition DENIED.

    http://www.supremecourt.gov/Search.a...s/02-10652.htm

  3. #3
    Administrator Moh's Avatar
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    On the 26th day of January, 2007, the following action was taken by the Supreme Court of Louisiana in the case listed below:

    WRIT APPLICATION DENIED:

    2004-KP-1817 STATE EX REL. DONALD S. WRIGHT v. BURL CAIN, WARDEN (Parish of Webster)
    JOHNSON, J., would grant.

    http://www.lasc.org/news_releases/2007/2007-08.asp

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    Administrator Helen's Avatar
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    November 5, 2011

    Silence allows child abuse to persist, worsen

    It was a killing that shocked the community. Heather White had been tortured and beaten for weeks, possibly months.

    All along, though, people noticed odd things about the 6-year-old Minden-area child.

    Heather wore long-sleeved shirts and pants on warm days, a neighbor noticed. One man said he knew she existed but he never saw her. A woman standing behind Heather and her family in a Wal-Mart SuperCenter cashier line noticed hand-shaped bruises on the child’s face and neck. Someone bought a hungry Heather food while she waited alone four hours in a parked car in Shreveport.

    Yet no one, it seems, said anything. No one called police. No one contacted child protective workers.

    Heather died Dec. 15, 1999 after a savage beating – with a leather strap and boards – that left her unconscious and gasping for breath. The killer, her mother’s boyfriend, later was sent to death row.

    Some 12 years later, Louisiana’s children still are dying at the hands of abusers and the community largely still remains mute. The reasons for that collective silence are varied and complex but the impact is measured in the senseless deaths of society’s most innocent members.

    http://www.shreveporttimes.com/artic...persist-worsen
    "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

  5. #5
    Christine
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    Can anyone explain how I go about finding out when he will get an execution date or what petition he can file or has to file?

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    Administrator Moh's Avatar
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    Hi, Christine, and welcome to the site. Thank you very much for providing Wright's photograph.

    As far as getting more information on Wright's appeals status is concerned, I'd start by giving the Webster Parish DA a call. If they can't help you, try phoning the Attorney General's office in Baton Rouge.

  7. #7
    Moderator MRBAM's Avatar
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    Why no movement in this case??

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    Moderator Dave from Florida's Avatar
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    I wouldn't call Louisiana an aggressive state when it comes to carrying out an execution. Back in the 80's they were.

  9. #9
    Christine
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    August 26, 2005

    5 years later: Wright still on death row

    5 years ago, Donnie Wright was found guilty by a Lafayette jury for the
    1st degree murder of 6-year-old Heather White. Just 2 days later, that
    same jury sentenced Wright to die by lethal injection for the crime.

    Today, Wright remains on death row at Angola State Penitentiary, and it
    looks like he may be there awhile yet.

    "He's really not a whole lot closer to getting executed than he was 5
    years ago," District Attorney Schuyler Marvin, who prosecuted the case as
    an assistant, said. "That's really frustrating."

    The public first heard of the tragic story on Sunday, December 12, 1999,
    when Webster sheriffs deputies responded to a call in which a little girl
    had quit breathing.

    LSU Health Sciences Center officials said then the best-case scenario for
    little Heather would be living with brain damage.

    Deputies worked throughout the night and the next week, piecing together
    evidence that led to the conviction of Wright.

    Items recovered as evidence from the Freight Entrance Road mobile home
    included blood spatters on the walls, a bloody board and rifle strap used
    to beat the child, among other things.

    Heathers mother, Lora Moseley, and Wright, Moseley's boyfriend, were then
    arrested for attempted murder.

    But on Wednesday, December 15, 1999, with Heather brain dead, but still
    alive, family members made the decision to remove her from life support.

    Residents and law enforcement from all over Webster Parish mourned the
    little girl, holding candlelight vigils, prayer meetings and celebrating
    her birthday by lighting a tree in downtown Minden in her honor.

    Moseley and Wright found themselves now charged with 1st degree murder.

    Trial began the next August, with Judge Dewey Burchett ordering a change
    of venue to Lafayette because of the publicity the case had received. Jury
    selection took a little more than a week, with testimony beginning
    Tuesday, August 22. Expert witnesses testified the extent and
    repetitiveness of Heathers injuries, which included countless beatings,
    malnutrition, sexual abuse and dozens of bruises internally and
    externally.

    When the jury went out for deliberations, it took just 3 hours for them to
    unanimously vote to convict Wright of 1st degree murder. During the
    penalty phase, it took just 2 hours for the jury to determine death as the
    appropriate sentence for the child killer.

    Moseley pleaded guilty in October 2000 to 1st degree murder in exchange
    for a life sentence. She remains at the Louisiana Correctional Institution
    for Women at St. Gabriel.

    The death sentence for Wright was the 1st in Lafayette since 1983.

    Wright has exhausted all of his appeals through the Second Circuit,
    Louisiana Supreme Court and United States Supreme Court. The case is now
    in its second round of appeals through the Capital Appeals Project of New
    Orleans, which is required by law to represent all death row cases.

    "The bar association booklet says they shouldnt handle more than five
    cases on trial and 10 on appeals. There are 70 to 80 on death row, and
    they represent every one of them," Marvin said. "They say theyre over the
    limit and can't take any more cases."

    However, the court has ruled that the Project must represent Wright - a
    ruling that is now on appeal.

    "It's crazy. This is insanity," Marvin said. "If you have $10 million in
    the bank, you can't hire anybody else - you have to hire these folks, and
    then they say they can't be ordered to represent you because theyre over
    the limit on cases."

    Recent exonerations due to DNA and mental incapacitations have also put a
    hamper on the death penalty.

    "There's a lot of prosecutors who think we won't execute anybody in 5
    years in Louisiana," Marvin said. "Mental retardation has been changed in
    the legislature. That and DNA has kind of overwhelmed the death penalty.

    "A lot of states are doing away with the death penalty because of the
    exoneration by DNA," he continued. "DNA's great, but it's just not there
    in every case and never will be, and this case has absolutely nothing to
    do with DNA."

    Wright will die on death row - but only time will tell whether it will be
    by lethal injection or natural causes.

    http://lists.washlaw.edu/pipermail/d...st/003326.html

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