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Thread: Horace Franklin Dunkins, Jr. - Alabama Execution - July 14, 1989

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    Horace Franklin Dunkins, Jr. - Alabama Execution - July 14, 1989

    Summary of Offense: Convicted of the 1980 rape and murder of a woman from Warrior, Alabama.

    Victim: Lynn McCurry

    Time of Death: 12:27 a.m.

    Manner of execution: Electric Chair

    Last Meal:

    Final Statement:

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    July 15, 1989

    2 Electric Jolts in Alabama Execution

    ATLANTA, July 14 — Alabama prison officials had to use a second jolt of electricity today to execute a mildly retarded murderer after the first charge failed to kill him.

    Alabama officials said improper cable connections were to blame for the fact that the execution of Horace Franklin Dunkins Jr. took 19 minutes.

    Mr. Dunkins, who was convicted of the 1980 rape and murder of a woman from Warrior, Ala., became the first retarded murderer to be executed since the Supreme Court said last month that the Constitution did not bar such executions.

    Mr. Dunkins, 28 years old, was executed at Atmore, Ala., after the Supreme Court refused late Thursday to block his execution. The Court voted 7 to 2, with Justices William J. Brennan and Thurgood Marshall dissenting. Stay for Georga Murderer

    In Georgia, the State Supreme Court issued a temporary stay of execution Wednesday for Son H. Fleming, who has also been found to be mildly retarded. He was convicted of murdering a rural Georgia police chief in 1976.

    In ruling June 26 that the Constitution allows states to execute mentally retarded murderers, the United States Supreme Court said juries were required to consider evidence of retardation before imposing a death sentence.

    Officials said the first throw of the electrical switch at 12:08 this morning failed to kill Mr. Dunkins. Officials reconnected the cables as Mr. Dunkins sat, apparently unconscious, strapped to the electric chair, his face covered by a black veil. At 12:17, the switch was thrown second time and 10 minutes later, he was declared dead.

    Alabama officials said human error was the cause of the problem.

    ''I regret very very much what happened,'' the Alabama Prison Commissioner, Morris Thigpen, said at a news conference after the execution. ''It was human error. I just hope that he was not conscious and did not suffer.''

    Critics said it was a ghoulish finale to a case that raised troubling questions about executing the retarded. 'Brutal and Unjustifiable'

    ''It was awful,'' said Mr. Dunkins's lawyer, Stephen D. Ellis. ''What happened was brutal and unjustifiable in and of itself. That it followed a gross miscarriage of justice made it that much worse.''

    Mr. Dunkins and an accomplice were convicted of the 1980 rape and murder of a 26-year-old mother of four. She was raped and then stabbed 66 times while tied to a tree. The accomplice was given a life sentence.

    Mr. Dunkins's lawyers argued that his death sentence should be overturned because the jury was never given evidence of his retardation. They said such evidence would have been essential for evaluating his culpability, and they argued that Mr. Dunkins waived his right to a lawyer before his interrogation by the police without any understanding of his legal rights.

    A juror who heard the case presented an affidavit this week saying she would not have voted for a death sentence if she had known of Mr. Dunkins's retardation. Alabama Disputes Defense

    Alabama officials argued that the jury was given evidence about Mr. Dunkins's learning deficiencies that gave them an understanding of his mental impairment even if he was not termed mentally retarded. They said his I.Q. of 69, at the borderline of retardation, made him responsible for his actions.

    ''If you're going to have a death penalty, if you don't have it for a crime like this, what do you have it for?'' asked Ed Carnes, head of the capital punishment division of the Alabama Attorney General's Office.

    But Mr. Ellis argued that the issue was not the brutality of the crime, but whether Mr. Dunkins received a fair trial and judicial review.

    ''This was an indigent, mentally retarded man,'' he said. ''There was absolutely no interest in protecting his rights or making sure his conviction and death sentence were fair, and in this case they were not.''

    Dr. George S. Baroff, a professor of psychology at the University of North Carolina, who testified at an appeals hearing as an expert witness called by Mr. Dunkins's lawyers, said the courts and legal profession had not yet addressed the issues of how retardation affects a person's ability to reason, to understand moral issues, to make decisions and to protect their own legal rights. Experts estimate that 10 percent or more of the prisoners on death row may be mentally retarded.

    ''We're on a slippery slope now where these people are going to be killed all over the country,'' he said. ''This thing is going to get a lot hotter.''

    http://www.nytimes.com/1989/07/15/us...xecuted&st=nyt

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