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Thread: John Louis Evans III - Alabama Execution - April 22, 1983

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    John Louis Evans III - Alabama Execution - April 22, 1983


    John Louis Evans III was born in Beaumont, Texas on January 4, 1950


    Facts of the Crime: After his 1976 parole from an Indiana prison, Evans (born in Beaumont, Texas on January 4, 1950) and fellow convict Wayne Ritter embarked on a two-month long crime spree involving, by Evans's own admission, over thirty armed robberies, nine kidnappings, and two extortion schemes across seven states. On January 5, 1977 he and Ritter robbed and killed Edward Nassar, a pawn shop owner in Mobile, Alabama while his two young daughters were in the store. The perpetrators fled, but were captured on March 7 by FBI agents in Little Rock, Arkansas. Among the evidence recovered was the gun used to shoot Nassar in the back, and another gun stolen from the pawn shop.

    Time of Death: 12:15 AM

    Manner of Execution: Electrocution

    Last Meal: Evans requested ‘steak, shrimp and french fries’, however, ‘it was not available so it was ordered from a nearby hotel restaurant and the warden [JD White] paid for it out of his own pocket’. Evans had also ‘requested a six-pack of beer with his last meal, but was denied by Alabama Prison Commission Fred Smith, because “alcohol is not allowed” on prison property’

    Final Words: Evans, 33, a drifter from Beaumont, Texas, convicted of killing a Mobile pawnbroker, had asked that his final statement remain private. But when the warrant was read and it was Evans’ turn to speak, Prison Chaplain Martin Weber, one of nine men in the small observation room, began to quote the condemned man’s last words. “He’s saying, ‘I have no malice for anyone, no hatred for anyone,’” Weber, apparently knowing what Evans intended to say, whispered to the witnesses. Prison Commissioner Fred Smith turned and shook finger as if scolding a child, and Weber fell silent. One of Evan’s final wishes had been violated.

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    Witness To An Execution

    By Mark D. Harris
    United Press International

    ATMORE, Ala. - Ten hours before being led into a small room to witness the execution of John Louis Evans III, I learned my wife was pregnant with our first child, and in that brief span of time my notions of life and death became something abruptly personal - beautifully and horribly.

    There is still a nagging regret that my joy over the impending birth was blurred by the chilling sight of Evans’ chest rhythmically rising and falling after what was supposed to be an instantaneously lethal dose of electricity.

    And now a week after the fact, questions linger about whether Evans still felt anything after that first bolt of electricity ripped into his shaved skull.

    Three reporters and the two witnesses Evans asked to attend his execution were searched at Holman Prison on April 22 and then ushered through a raging thunderstorm to a back door.

    After a short walk along a hall lined by prison guards, we were in the observation room. Beyond a window was Evans, strapped around his legs, chest, arms and abdomen to the bright yellow electric chair. The leather straps pulled his shoulders back into an awkward and uncomfortable final position.

    Eaglelike. That’s how he looked, with shaved head and sharp, handsome nose and chin.

    But Evans’ face was pure calm. His pale blue eyes stared straight ahead, blinking occasionally. He had said he was prepared to die. If that wasn’t true, his face didn’t betray him.

    Inside the red brick death chamber with Evans, attired in a white button-up prison smock and white socks, were Holman Warden J. D. White and two uniformed guards.

    White, standing directly in front of Evans, read the death warrant. That was supposed to take three minutes, but it seemed much shorter -- perhaps because I was intent on committing the scene to memory. No paper or pen was allowed the media witnesses.

    Evans, 33, a drifter from Beaumont, Texas, convicted of killing a Mobile Ala. pawnbroker, had asked that his final statement remain private. But when the warrant was read and it was Evans’ turn to speak, Prison Chaplain Martin Weber, one of nine men in the small observation room, began to quote the condemned man’s last words.

    “He’s saying, ‘I have no malice for anyone, no hatred for anyone,’” Weber, apparently knowing what Evans intended to say, whispered to the witnesses. Prison Commissioner Fred Smith turned and shook finger as if scolding a child, and Weber fell silent.

    One of Evan’s final wishes had been violated.

    Evans’ words weren’t audible to the spectators, but he delivered them in unrushed sentences and even smiled once before the guards attached the electrode-filled skullcap to his head.

    Evans’ head was made snug to the chair with a chin strap and black belt across the forehead. His causal expression disappeared behind a black veil.

    Smith opened a telephone line to Gov. George Wallace in Montgomery.

    I folded my arms across my chest and told myself I was ready. A man I love and respect had witnessed an electrocution as a young reporter. He had given me a novelist’s description of an electric chair execution, along with the warning, “It’ll be loud and it will stink.”

    At the instant White pulled the switch and sent 1,900 volts burning into Evans, who clenched his fists and arched his body rigidly into the restraining straps, the folly of being prepared was gone.

    A moment later, as spark and flame crackled around Evans’ head and shaved, razor-nicked left leg, white smoke seeped from beneath the veil and curled from his head and leg.

    Midway through the surge of electricity, his body quivered and then fell back into the chair as the current ended.

    We thought that was it - bad enough, but expected and bearable.

    Two doctors filed out the witness room to examine the body and pronounce Evans dead.

    The prison doctor, dressed in a blue surgical costume and tan loafers with tassels, placed a stethoscope to the smock, turned and nodded -- the natural signal for “Yes, he’s dead.”

    But the nod meant he had found a heartbeat. The other doctor confirmed the gruesome discovery.

    They and the warden walked from the death chamber, and a guard reattached the power lines to the chair and the electrode that fell away when a leg strap burned through.

    Evans’ chest rose against the straps the first time. It rose evenly once, twice, maybe again.

    A stream of saliva ran down the front of the white prison smock.

    “God, he’s trying to signal them,” I thought.

    I had been told a body might continue to jerk after taking a massive electric charge. I strained to figure out if this was convulsive movement in Evans’ strap-crossed chest, and concluded absolutely not. This was too measured. Just slow deep breathing.

    Turning to another witness, I said, “He survived.” He nodded.

    Behind us, Russell Canan, the lawyer who 90 minutes earlier lost a battle to win Evans a reprieve, stared resolutely ahead.

    Spark and flame again accompanied the onset of the second charge. But this time, for a grim second, the veil slipped a fraction of an inch on the left side, giving the impression it was burning though and would fall away - exposing the face I’d noted was handsome minutes earlier.

    Almost in unison a kind of shuddering grunt came from the witnesses, but the mask stayed in place.

    When the second charge subsided the doctors re-examined Evans and again it was clear they found a pulsating heart. Smith knocked on the viewing room window for a clue to Evans’ state. Deputy Warden Ron Jones turned and shook his head.

    From the back of the room, Canan suddenly, urgently blurted: “Commissioner, I ask for clemency. This is cruel and unusual punishment.”

    Smith, his back to Canan, did not respond or even indicate he had heard the plea, which Canan repeated, begging that the request be relayed to Wallace.

    The commission than conveyed the appeal for clemency, but before a reply came from the governor's office in Montgomery, the third charge was administered.

    Again, Evans’ head and leg smoldered. His fists, which clenched with the first jolt, remained locked on the chair’s arms.

    The doctors went back for the third time and Canan begged for clemency “in case they have to do it again'

    Smith, eyes welling, communicated the message. His voice broke.

    I thought Canan had snapped. Surely he didn’t want Evans unstrapped at this point. I was convinced things were out of hand and was not sure the chair, for whatever reason, was capable of killing Evans. But surely the only thing worse than proceeding was stopping.

    I seriously thought they would have to bring in a gun and shoot Evans in the chair.

    Smith signaled White out of the death chamber as the doctors again listened for a heartbeat. The warden cracked the door to the witness room and heard Smith order: “Hold everything. They’re asking for clemency.”

    Moments later, with things spiraling faster out of control, word came back from Wallace.

    “The governor will not interfere. Proceed,” Smith said.

    Almost simultaneously a witness to my right said, “He’s dead.”

    Cold as it sounds, it was welcome news. Evans’ ordeal was over. And for the time being, so was the ordeal, however great or small, of those picked to watch him die.

    http://en.wikisource.org/wiki/Execut...Person_Account

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    Senior Member Frequent Poster joe_con's Avatar
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    April 20, 1983

    Murderer John Louis Evans III laughed with his family

    By JEFF WOODARD
    United Press International

    ATMORE, Ala. -- Murderer John Louis Evans III laughed with his family Wednesday in a holding cell 25 feet from the Holman Prison death chamber and told a prison chaplain he was 'ready for death' Friday morning if the Supreme Court refuses to stay his execution.

    'You'd never know he was subject to being executed in a matter of hours,' said prison spokesman Ron Tate.

    Evans, 33, of Beaumont, Texas, is scheduled to die in the electric chair at 1:01 a.m. EST Friday. Early Wednesday, his attorneys asked Supreme Court Justice Lewis Powell to block the execution, but there was no response from the high court Wednesday night.

    Powell was asked to stay the execution until the court can consider Evans' claims that Alabama's death sentencing process is unreliable and unconstitutional.

    Late Wednesday, Tate reported that prison chaplain Martin Weber told him Evans did not expect Powell to stay his execution.

    'He is ready for death,' Tate quoted Weber as saying.

    Evans would be the seventh man executed in the United States since the Supreme Court lifted the death penalty ban in 1976, and the first to die in Alabama in 18 years.

    Evans was condemned to die for the 1977 slaying of Mobile pawnbroker Edward Nassar, who was shot in a holdup. Evans first said he wanted to die but changed his mind after U.S. Supreme Court Justice William Rehnquist granted a stay in 1979.

    Eddie Nassar, 73, father of Evans' victim, said Wednesday night that 'We gotta have laws. We have to follow the laws of God and we have to follow our laws. If they let him live, he's going to come back and kill.

    'What do you do if a rat comes into your house? You kill him. I hate to feel that way but I do,' Nassar said.

    Evans was moved from his death row cell to a special holding cell 25 feet from the death chamber at Holman Prison near Atmore. Tate said the rest of the inmates appeared unmoved over the situation.

    'The mood is indifferent,' he said. 'It's like, 'I know you got problems, but I've got problems of my own.'

    'They're aware of what's happening to John Louis Evans, but there have been no outbursts and there probaby won't be,' said Tate.

    He said Evans was bearing up well.

    'His face remains stone-faced,' Tate said. 'He shows very little emotion whatsoever. He's very calm, cool and collected.'

    Tate said he saw Evans laughing with his mother, sister and brother in his cell. 'He didn't look like anyone likely to die in the electric chair anytime soon.

    An hour before being strapped into the electric chair that prisoners call 'Yellow Momma,' Evans will be shaved bald. A black skull cap with a black shroud covering his face will be placed on his head.

    He will order his last meal Thursday afternoon, selecting anything the prison has in stock.

    State troopers had cordoned off an area roughly a mile around the south Alabama prison, which is isolated in an expanse of green fields planted with wheat, oats and rye grass.

    Mounted troopers patrolled the area and a state helicopter flew low-level surveillance around the facility.

    Holman is Alabama's only maximum security facility and houses all 59 of the state's condemned men.

    There were no sign of demonstrators Wednesday, but the Alabama Prison Project, an anti-death penalty group, said it would conduct a candle-light vigil nearby -- although not within sight of the prison - beginning at 8 p.m. Thursday.

    Alabama Attorney General Charles Graddick, in a brief filed before Justice Powell, said 'In spite of the fact that Evans is a cold-blooded murderer who has promised to kill again at the first opportunity, during the past six years our judicial system has indulged every legal nicety on his behalf, sometimes against his wishes.'

    'The matter has run its course,' he said, 'and unless this court is willing to ban the death penalty or make it available by consent only, the last-minute stay application filed by Evans should be denied.'

    http://www.upi.com/Archives/1983/04/...3232419662800/
    Last edited by joe_con; 07-30-2017 at 03:16 AM.

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    Killer on Death Row scorched in horrific 14-minute execution

    A convicted killer on Death Row suffered one of the most debilitating botched executions in history when he was slowly burned to death over the course of 14 minutes.

    John Louis Evans III was convicted of murder after confessing to a two-month long crime spree from December 1976 to January 1977, reports Daily Star.

    He was the first Death Row convict to die by electric chair in the state of Alabama after the punishment was reintroduced.

    Evans admitted to 30 armed robberies, nine kidnappings and two extortion plots across seven US states - during which he and fellow convict Wayne Ritter stole from and then murdered pawn shop owner Edward Nassar.

    Despite Evans' confession, prosecutors reportedly rejected his guilty plea in a scheme to get him executed - which was only permitted through a jury conviction.

    Evans was tried in State Circuit Court on April 26, 1977, where he admitted to the charge of first-degree murder.

    He claimed he did not feel remorse and that under the same circumstances he would kill again and threatened to murder each member of the jury if they did not sentence him to death.

    After 15 minutes of deliberation, the jury reached a guilty verdict and the death penalty was confirmed by the Alabama Court of Criminal Appeals and by the Alabama Supreme Court.

    The 33-year-old killer tried to appeal his sentence twice, before he was eventually sent to die on the State's notorious 'Yellow Mama' electric chair in April 1983.

    But the current – which should have been deadly almost immediately – took far longer to kill him than expected.

    Russell F. Canan described the execution in his book 'Burning at the Wire: The Execution of John Evan', writing: "At 8:30 p.m. the first jolt of 1900 volts of electricity passed through Mr. Evans's body.

    "It lasted thirty seconds. Sparks and flames erupted from the electrode tied to Mr. Evans's left leg.

    "His body slammed against the straps holding him in the electric chair and his fist clenched permanently.

    "The electrode apparently burst from the strap holding it in place. A large puff of greyish smoke and sparks poured out from under the hood that covered Mr. Evans's face.

    "An overpowering stench of burnt flesh and clothing began pervading the witness room. Two doctors examined Mr. Evans and declared that he was not dead.

    "The electrode on the left leg was refastened. At 8:30 p.m. Mr. Evans was administered a second thirty-second jolt of electricity. The stench of burning flesh was nauseating.

    "More smoke emanated from his leg and head. Again, the doctors examined Mr. Evans. The doctors reported that his heart was still beating, and that he was still alive.

    "At that time, I asked the prison commissioner, who was communicating on an open telephone line to Governor George Wallace to grant clemency on the grounds that Mr. Evans was being subjected to cruel and unusual punishment. The request for clemency was denied.

    "At 8:40 p.m., a third charge of electricity, thirty seconds in duration, was passed through Mr. Evans's body.

    "At 8:44, the doctors pronounced him dead. The execution of John Evans took fourteen minutes."

    https://www.google.com/amp/s/www.dai...h-24422213.amp
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