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Thread: Ronald Woomer - South Carolina Execution - April 27, 1990

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    Ronald Woomer - South Carolina Execution - April 27, 1990




    Summary of Offense: Convited for the 1979 slaying of Della Louis Sellers

    Victim: Della Louis Sellers

    Time of Death: 1:12 a.m.

    Manner of execution: Electric Chair

    Last Meal:

    Final Statement: 'I'm sorry. I claim Jesus Christ as my Saviour. 'I only wish everyone could feel the love I feel for Him.''

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    April 28, 1990

    "I'm sorry" says a killer of four just before he's put to death

    COLUMBIA, S.C., April 27— A thief who killed four people and left another maimed for life in a 1979 rampage was executed today.

    ''I'm sorry,'' the inmate, Ronald Woomer, said in a low, shaky voice from the electric chair immediately before being put to death for the slaying of a convenience store clerk, Della Louise Sellers, one of the four victims.

    ''I claim Jesus Christ as my Saviour,'' said Mr. Woomer, 35 years old. ''I only wish everyone could feel the love I feel for Him.''

    Prison officials switched on the current at 1:05 A.M. and Mr. Woomer was pronounced dead seven minutes later, said William D. Catoe, Deputy Commissioner of Corrections for operations.

    ''It was too easy,'' said Mrs. Sellers's husband, Don, who witnessed the execution. ''It was too easy.''

    A cheer erupted from a waiting crowd of about 80 death penalty proponents, including relatives of Mr. Woomer's victims, as the hearse bearing the body left the death house.

    A Candlelight Objection

    A group of about 50 death-penalty foes ended a candlelight vigil in front of the Governor's mansion about the time execution occurred.

    Mr. Woomer's death sentence was carried out after the Supreme Court denied requests for a stay and Gov. Carroll A. Campbell Jr. turned down a plea for clemency Thursday.

    Two other people have been put to death in South Carolina since the death penalty was reinstated in 1976. Mr. Woomer was the 123rd person put to death nationwide since then.

    On his last day of life, Mr. Woomer told The Charlotte (N.C.) Observer that his final thoughts would be ''that I'm going home - I can rest.'' The newspaper quoted him as saying he wanted the pain and suffering to end for the familiies of his victims, and he added, ''If the Lord sees fit to end that by me going in there and sitting down in the electric chair, whatever He says is good enough for me.''

    Mr. Woomer was visited Thursday by his father, two sisters and a brother.

    His path to death row began on Feb. 21, 1979, when he and Eugene Skaar left West Virginia with a plan to steal rare coins from a collector, John Turner, 67, in Cottageville, S.C. When the pair reached Mr. Turner's home on Feb. 22, they took the coins and fatally shot him in the head, the police said.

    Two Victims in Same House

    From there, Mr. Woomer and Mr. Skaar drove to a neighboring community and forced their way into the home of Arnie Richardson, looking for money and guns. Mr. Woomer shot Mr. Richardson, 27, in the head, killing him, and then killed Mr. Richardson's 35-year-old mentally handicapped sister-in-law, Earldean Wright, to silence her screams.

    Later that day, Mr. Woomer and Mr. Skaar kidnapped Mrs. Sellers, 34, and Wanda Summers, 24, from a convenience store on Pawleys Island, where the women worked. Both were raped and shot. Mrs. Sellers died and Ms. Summers survived, losing half her face to a shotgun blast.

    Mr. Skaar killed himself to avoid capture and Mr. Woomer surrendered peacefully when the police closed in on their Myrtle Beach hotel late that day.

    http://www.nytimes.com/1990/04/28/us...xecuted&st=nyt

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