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Thread: Chadrick Evan Fulks - Federal Death Row

  1. #11
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    Fulks asks for execution date

    One of two men convicted of kidnapping and murdering a Lincoln County student and a South Carolina woman has asked that all appeals be dropped and a South Carolina execution date set.

    Chadrick Fulks, a West Hamlin native, is asking the court to set his execution date for the second time. Earlier, he made the same request but dropped it a month later. At that time, Fulks said he was depressed and no longer wanted to live. His latest motion was filed last week in Columbia, South Carolina.

    Fulks and Brandon Basham were charged with the kidnapping and murder of 19-year-old Samantha Burns, a student at Marshall University. Burns disappeared after telephoning her mother in November 2002 to tell her she was on her way home from the Huntington Mall. Burns lived in West Hamlin. When Burns never reached her home, a massive manhunt followed. Eventually, her burned-out vehicle was found but her body has never been located.

    Authorities alleged that Fulks and Basham killed Burns and then murdered Alice Donovan of Galivants Ferry, South Carolina, after escaping from a Hopkins County, Kentucky jail. Donovan disappeared from a Wal-Mart parking lot in Conway, South Carolina in December 2002. Both Fulks and Basham were tried in South Carolina and sentenced to death in the Donovan case.

    They were also charged in West Virginia with Burns’ murder, where they pleaded guilty in federal court. Both men received life sentences in that case.

    Despite assurances by the pair that they would cooperate with authorities in locating the bodies, neither woman’s body has ever been located.

    Basham and Fulks are on death row at a prison in Terre Haute, Indiana.

    http://lincolnjournalinc.com/fulks-a...te-p1880-1.htm

  2. #12
    Administrator Moh's Avatar
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    For Fulks' sake, I do hope the feds manage to execute him.

  3. #13
    Administrator Moh's Avatar
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    In today's United States Supreme Court orders, Fulks' petition for a writ of certiorari was DENIED.

    Lower Ct: United States Court of Appeals for the Fourth Circuit
    Case Nos.: (11-3)
    Decision Date: June 26, 2012

    http://www.supremecourt.gov/Search.a...es/12-8364.htm

    Theoretically, Fulks' appeals are now exhausted. Unfortunately, litigation over the federal government's lethal-injection protocol has continued to be bogged down in the District of Columbia District Court since 2006.

  4. #14
    Administrator Heidi's Avatar
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    FBI used death row inmate in search for remains

    FBI agents took the unusual step of temporarily letting a federal death row inmate out of his cell so he could help with the search for the body of one of the two women he killed.

    Chadrick Evan Fulks, 36, was taken from the federal penitentiary in Terre Haute, Ind., to West Virginia in March to help with the search for the remains of 19-year-old Samantha Nicole Burns, according to a sealed order obtained by The Associated Press.

    In a letter to The Associated Press, Fulks confirmed his role in the search for the Marshall University student last seen in 2002. He said he showed agents the area where Burns was buried during his and fellow inmate Brandon Basham's 17-day crime spree after escaping the Hopkins County Jail in western Kentucky in 2002.

    The two-page order signed by U.S. District Judge Robert C. Chambers in Huntington, W.Va., allowed the FBI to take custody of Fulks for 18 hours between March 25 and April 12. Federal and state investigators conducted a search for Burns' remains on land near train tracks and an intersection near West Virginia 75. It's a rural area near where Kentucky, West Virginia and Ohio meet.

    Fulks sent The AP a copy of the sealed order along with a nine-page letter in which he says he helped the FBI because he feels remorse for the slayings.

    Burns, of West Hamlin, W.Va., disappeared after telephoning her mother in November 2002 to tell her she was leaving the mall near Huntington, W.Va. and heading home to West Hamlin, about 15 miles away. Burns never reached home. The disappearance set off a massive manhunt that led to her burned-out vehicle about 15 minutes south of Huntington, W.Va. Her body has never been located. Fulks and Basham pleaded guilty to kidnapping and murder and were sentenced to life in prison.

    Messages left for the attorneys for Burns' family were not returned. Because of the partial government shutdown, federal prosecutors in West Virginia declined to comment on the case. Messages left for West Virginia State Police were not immediately returned.

    It was unclear how close authorities were to finding Burns' remains on Wednesday or what became of the search in March.

    Fulks and the 32-year-old Basham were sentenced to death for kidnapping and killing 44-year-old Alice Donovan of Galivants Ferry, S.C., in December 2002. Donovan disappeared from a Wal-Mart parking lot in Conway, S.C. Her remains were found in 2009.

    "I've worked with both the Donovan and Burns family to recover their loved ones," Fulks said.

    Charlie Rose, who teaches criminal law at Stetson University Law School in Gulfport, Fla., said law enforcement agencies frequently ask inmates for information about unsolved crimes, but that it's unusual to take them out of their cells.

    Rose said bringing an inmate back to a crime scene could be advantageous if seeing the terrain and landmarks help to refresh his memory.

    Laurie Levenson, a law professor at Loyola University Law School in Los Angeles, agreed that it's a big deal to expend the resources needed to keep a death row inmate secure during a search.

    "It obviously is something you don't see all the time," Levenson said. "Leaving death row for any purpose is highly unusual."

    The U.S. Supreme Court rejected Fulks' latest appeal Monday. Basham's appeal is pending. In the letter, Fulks, of West Hamlin, W.Va., asked for nothing from prosecutors in return for his assistance, foresaw the ruling and predicted he will be executed soon.

    "My life ended in 2002, sir, and next year I'll begin a new journey when I'm releaved of this hell hole," Fulks wrote.

    Fulks and Basham were cellmates at the Hopkins County Jail in Madisonville, Ky., in 2002 where they were held on armed robbery charges. They were left in the jail's recreation yard unsupervised for about 90 minutes and security cameras weren't in their normal positions on the day they escaped.

    Fulks and Basham escaped through a fence around the recreation yard and fled initially to Indiana. From there, the pair went to West Virginia, North Carolina and South Carolina, where the run ended.

    "I do wish that I would've stayed in jail and faced those charges because these 2 women, Alice Donovan and Samantha Burns, would be alive today," Fulks wrote.

    The families of Burns and Donovan settled a lawsuit with the jail in 2008 for an undisclosed amount. Fulks and Basham were dismissed from the lawsuit.

    Fulks said helping the FBI in the search for Burns' remains will be one of two ways he'll leave death row. The other, Fulks said: "Will be in the back of a hearse."

    http://www.kentucky.com/2013/10/10/2...#storylink=cpy
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  5. #15
    Administrator Moh's Avatar
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    In today's United States Supreme Court orders, Fulks' petition for rehearing was DENIED.

    http://www.supremecourt.gov/Search.a...es/12-8364.htm

  6. #16
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    Condemned federal inmate says no to clemency

    A federal inmate on death row for killing a South Carolina woman after escaping from a Kentucky jail wants to bypass any attempt to save his own life and accept an execution date once it is set.

    Chadrick Evan Fulks says he wants to free his lawyers to work for inmates "that do have a chance" of winning a reprieve or an appeal and not spend time and energy on him.

    Fulks, of West Hamlin, W.Va., and Brandon Basham were sentenced to death for kidnapping and killing 44-year-old Alice Donovan of Galivants Ferry, S.C., in December 2002. The pair went on a 17-day crime spree through Kentucky, West Virginia, and South Carolina after escaping from a jail in western Kentucky in 2002.

    The federal government is in the midst of finalizing its lethal injection method and has not scheduled any executions.

    http://www.myrtlebeachonline.com/201...#storylink=cpy
    An uninformed opponent is a dangerous opponent.

    "Y'all be makin shit up" ~ Markeith Loyd

  7. #17
    Administrator Helen's Avatar
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    Convicted killer gives glimpse of life on federal death row

    By Alex Lang
    Sun News

    MYRTLE BEACH - Chadrick Fulks will one day be strapped to a gurney and given a lethal injection. The government will kill him because of his crimes.

    That day moved closer to reality months ago.

    "Am I scared to be executed?" Fulks wrote in a letter to The Sun News. "No, not at this point. I'm ready to get it over with. I'm not saying I won't be scared when the day comes, I won't know until it happens."

    As the summer started, Fulks, like the other 60 men on federal death row, were in limbo as to when they would be killed. The federal government has not executed an inmate in 15 years.

    U.S. Attorney General William Barr announced in August the federal government would resume executions. The Bureau of Prisons was ordered to schedule executions for five inmates who have exhausted their appeals.

    Fulks was not one of those scheduled, but Barr's announcement notes additional executions will be set.

    "Here on the row," Fulks wrote, "time just stands still, and it is the loneliest that I've ever been."

    Fulks has spent 15 years on death row along with co-defendant Brandon Basham since their 2004 sentences. The duo escaped from a Kentucky jail in 2002 and embarked on a crime spree across the Bluegrass State, Tennessee, West Virginia, North Carolina and South Carolina.

    Basham and Fulks kidnapped and killed Galivants Ferry resident Alice Donovan from a Conway Walmart parking lot. It wasn't until 2009 that Fulks helped police find her remains. The duo also killed a woman in West Virginia.

    There are about 60 people on the federal death row in Terre Haute, Indiana. Notable inmates "on the row" include Dylann Roof, who was sentenced to death for killing nine people at a Charleston church.

    Brandon Council will become the newest member of death row after he was sentenced to death in a South Carolina federal court last week. Council shot and killed two employees during a robbery of the Conway, South Carolina, CresCom bank in 2017.

    Council's execution will take years, likely more than a decade, while he undergoes various appeals processes.

    In 1972, the Supreme Court ruled the death penalty was unconstitutional. It wasn't until 1988 that the federal death penalty returned, and nobody was executed until 2001. There have been no federal executions since 2003.

    After Barr's announcement, The Sun News reached out via letters to both Fulks and Basham about their reactions to the decision and life on death row. Fulks provided four pages of answers. Basham did not send a response.

    "It's been very difficult and very long, and I'm ready to get it over with," Fulks wrote.

    Fulks has stated that he no longer wishes to fight his execution and called the system broke. He said his attorneys were careless.

    Fulks wrote about how he watched his relatives die, and it's a constant reminder of the pain he caused the families of his victims.

    "Now, this last step should help them find a little more closure," he wrote.

    Barr's announcement was both a shock and unsurprising at the same time, Fulks wrote. Inmates figured something was different when weeks leading up to the announcement prison staff increased the number of execution practices and stripped inmates of their belongings, Fulks wrote.

    "This was a signal to a lot of us that something was about to change," Fulks wrote.

    Conditions on death row have deteriorated with the number of meals cut to the bare minimum, Fulks wrote. It has been difficult to get medical care, medication and mail.

    Fulks theorized he won't be the only person on the row to request an execution date and wrote, "This is hell on earth."

    https://www.theitem.com/stories/conv...ath-row,334976
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  8. #18
    Administrator Aaron's Avatar
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    7th Circuit denies third attempt of death penalty relief, notes questions raised about federal ‘savings clause’

    By Katie Stancombe
    The Indiana Lawyer

    An incarcerated man waiting on federal death row has for the third time unsuccessfully sought relief from his capital punishment, the 7th Circuit Court of Appeals ruled. This time, it rejected his argument under the “savings clause” that recent changes in clinical diagnostic standards show that he is intellectually disabled and ineligible for the death penalty.

    In 2004, Chadrick Fulks pleaded guilty to several federal charges, including two death-eligible offenses arising from the carjacking, kidnapping, and death of Alice Donovan in 2002. Fulks, now located at the U.S. Penitentiary in Terre Haute, had escaped from a Kentucky jail with a fellow inmate before killing Donovan.

    Prior to his third attempt at seeking relief, Fulks had also unsuccessfully sought to be taken off death row in his direct appeal and subsequent post-conviction petition brought under 28 U.S.C. § 2255.

    Although numerous experts explained that Fulks suffered from borderline intelligence with IQ scores ranging from 75 to 79, along with moderate brain and cognitive impairments, he stopped short of arguing that he was intellectually disabled. But in the case at hand, Fulks invoked 28 U.S.C. § 2241, the last resort “savings clause” in § 2255(e), and the Supreme Court’s decision in Atkins v. Virginia, 536 U.S. 304 (2002), arguing that recent changes in clinical diagnostic standards show that he is – and since at least age 18 has been – intellectually disabled and therefore ineligible for the death penalty.

    The Indiana Southern District Court denied Fulks’s § 2241 petition as procedurally barred by 28 U.S.C. § 2255(e) and concluded that because Fulks failed to show a structural problem with § 2255, he could not use § 2241 to raise his Atkins claim. Affirming the district court, a panel of the 7th Circuit agreed in Chadrick Fulks v. T. Watson, 20-1900, that Fulks cannot now pursue his Atkins claim under § 2241.

    It rejected Fulks argument that he can pursue his Atkins claim through § 2241 because the recent adjustments to present day legal and clinical diagnostic standards came after his sentencing and § 2255 petition. That means he could not have pursued or prevailed on his intellectual disability claim until now, Fulks contended.

    “But Fulks cannot satisfy the saving clause’s requirements either, and this deficiency stops his § 2241 petition in its tracks. We reached the same conclusion on similar facts less than a year ago in the capital case of Alfred Bourgeois,” Circuit Judge Michael Scudder wrote for the 7th Circuit.

    Guided in large measure by its decision in Bourgeois v. Watson, 977 F.3d 620 (7th Cir. 2020), the 7th Circuit concluded that any updates to the clinical diagnostic standards for intellectual disability do not convince it that the remedy available to Fulks in his original § 2255 motion was inadequate or ineffective.

    “Fulks sought at sentencing to avoid the death penalty by relying on his cognitive impairments and fetal alcohol spectrum disorder—owing in no small part to his horrific upbringing—and he had every opportunity to take the next step and argue, whether measured more functionally or under a strict application of clinical standards (or both), that he was intellectually disabled,” the 7th Circuit wrote.

    It therefore concluded that it is not aware of any “Supreme Court or Fourth Circuit case on the books at the time of Fulks’s § 2255 petition that would have foreclosed him from raising an arguable Atkins claim.”

    “In the end, then, we are unable to identify any structural defect in § 2255 that rendered it an inadequate or ineffective device to challenge his capital sentence. The consequence is that Fulks cannot use § 2241 to claim for the first time that he is ineligible for the death penalty under Atkins,” Scudder wrote.

    It similarly rejected Fulks’ second ground for habeas relief invoked by relying on Madison v. Alabama, 139 S. Ct. 718 (2019), finding it had no import to Fulks’s intellectual disability claim.

    “Although Fulks has not prevailed today and cannot access § 2241 through the savings clause, he has identified—through the assistance of very able counsel—a potential structural limitation that may require additional assessment in a future case,” the 7th Circuit concluded.

    “The difficult question on the horizon is whether a capital prisoner can access § 2241 to vacate a death sentence in the face of a monumental change to the clinical definition of intellectual disability that occurs after the prisoner completed one round of § 2255 proceedings,” Scudder wrote. “Assuming a substantial change in the clinical standards allows a newfound diagnosis of intellectual disability, his execution would offend the Eighth Amendment. But the prisoner would have no way to raise his Atkins claim as a second or successive motion under § 2255(h)’s two express exceptions.”

    https://www.theindianalawyer.com/art...savings-clause



    What a satisfying read. Even though Fulks isn't getting executed anytime soon, if ever, it's satisfying to read the same legal reasoning that slammed the door shut on Alfred Bourgeois' attempt to escape justice. And this is the reasoning that should have been used on Blaine Milam.
    Don't ask questions, just consume product and then get excited for next products.

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  9. #19
    Administrator Moh's Avatar
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    The panel was made up of Judges Rovner (G.H.W. Bush), Hamilton (Obama) and Scudder (Trump).

    The decision can be read here.

  10. #20
    Senior Member Frequent Poster Fact's Avatar
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    That's a pretty liberal panel outside of Scudder.

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