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Thread: Richard Allen Jackson - Federal Death Row

  1. #1
    Administrator Michael's Avatar
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    Richard Allen Jackson - Federal Death Row


    Karen Styles




    Summary of Offense:

    Jackson was sentenced to death in 2001 for the 1994 kidnapping, rape and murder of Karen Styles, 22, in the Bent Creek Recreation Area of Pisgah National Forest, North Carolina.

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    Administrator Michael's Avatar
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    July 2, 2009

    A federal judge upheld the death sentence handed to one of Buncombe County's most notorious killers, ruling that Richard Allen Jackson's trial attorneys did a competent job representing him.

    In a 251-page decision, U.S. District Court Judge Lacy Thornburg detailed his reasons for rejecting arguments by Jackson's appellate lawyers that he deserves life in prison for the 1994 kidnapping, rape and murder of Karen Styles.

    Styles, 22, disappeared while on a run in the Bent Creek Recreation Area of Pisgah National Forest. Her body was found about a month later duct-taped to a tree following one of the largest search-and-rescue operations ever in the county.

    Mistakes made during the former Candler dishwasher's trial and sentencing included a lack of evidence presented to the jury about his troubled childhood and mental illness, Jackson said in a 2004 petition to vacate the death sentence.

    But Thornburg ruled attorneys Stephen Lindsay and David Belser “performed far in excess of reasonableness or competency” in defending Jackson during his 2001 federal trial in Asheville.

    Lindsay said Wednesday that it's not surprising the attorneys in Jackson's appeal argued that defense counsel was incompetent.

    “I think that under the circumstances we did about as good a job as we could do,” he said. “I think my biggest regret is we didn't have enough time to prepare for a very difficult case with very horrible facts.”

    The next step in the legal process is an appeal of Thornburg's ruling to the 4th Circuit Court of Appeals.

    Jackson confessed to investigators that he abducted the woman at gunpoint, tortured her with a stun gun and raped her before ending her life with a single bullet to the head.

    Styles' death incited anger and disbelief for more than the viciousness of the random crime. She was a Western Carolina University graduate who had just accepted a job as a wilderness counselor when she vanished in an area frequented by hikers, runners and mountain bikers who had never considered safety an issue on the trails.

    Jackson was first sentenced to death following a trial in state court in 1995, but the conviction was overturned when the N.C. Supreme Court ruled that jurors shouldn't have heard his confession because he had invoked his right to counsel.

    Just before a new death penalty trial was to begin in 2000, Jackson pleaded guilty to a state charge of second-degree murder and was sentenced to at least 25 years in prison.

    A federal jury in 2001 convicted Jackson on a charge of using a firearm on federal land in the killing of Styles. A federal appeals court later upheld the conviction. He is awaiting execution on death row at a penitentiary in Terre Haute, Indiana.

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  3. #3
    Administrator Moh's Avatar
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    On February 11, 2011, the US Fourth Circuit Court of Appeals upheld the denial of Jackson's 28 § USC 2255 (habeas) petition by the Federal District Court.

    http://www.supremecourt.gov/Search.a...es/11-6315.htm

  4. #4
    Administrator Moh's Avatar
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    On October 1, 2012, the United States Supreme Court DENIED Jackson's certiorari petition.

    Lower Ct: United States Court of Appeals for the Fourth Circuit
    Case Nos.: (09-10)
    Decision Date: February 11, 2011
    Rehearing Denied: April 11, 2011

    http://www.supremecourt.gov/Search.a...es/11-6315.htm

    Theoretically, Jackson's 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.

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    Senior Member CnCP Legend Mike's Avatar
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    November 24, 1995

    Convicted killer is suspect in murders

    UPI

    Law enforcement officers said Friday they wouldn't confirm whether condemned killer Richard Allen Jackson was a suspect in other murders, but they said they would look into the possibility. A prosecutor has told Jackson he was a suspect in two other slayings and would 'see him in court.' A Superior Court jury sentenced Jackson to death Wednesday for raping and killing a female jogger last year.

    The same panel Monday found Jackson guilty of kidnapping, rape and first-degree murder in the Oct. 31, 1994 death of Karen Styles near a popular park outside Asheville. The jury was out only one hour Monday afternoon before rejecting defense claims that said Jackson, 26, was insane and unable to tell the difference between right and wrong. After the death sentence was pronounced, Assistant District Attorney Kate Dreher said she told Jackson he was a suspect in two other slayings. 'I will not confirm or substantiate these statements which I really don't understand whether they were made in haste or in anger by Kate Dreher,' Police Capt. Pat Hefner said. 'But as with any convicted murderer of this magnitude we will certainly be taking a closer look at the unsolved cases.' Dreher spoke to reporters in a courtroom hallway shortly after her exchange with Jackson. 'On the way out of the courtroom Richard Jackson turned to me and said 'see you in Superior Court,' demonstrating he knows his appellate rights,' Dreher said. And I responded, 'yeah, we'll see you in court on two other murders we suspect you of.'

    "We have two unsolved murders involving women whose bodies were discovered in wooded areas and who had been shot,' she said later. 'He has not been ruled out as a suspect and he was at the age at the time the murders occurred to be considered a suspect,' she said. Seven killings are unsolved in Buncomb County. and Dreher would not say which murders may involve Jackson, but she was heard telling him, '...and Pamela Murray, too.' Murray, an industrial engineer, was 23-years-old when she was abducted from a parking lot on the Asheville Mall on Valentine's Day in 1987. Murray's body had gunshot wounds to her head and back and was found on a deserted road in a wooded area in Oteen, N.C., later that day.

    The only other unsolved murder similar to Styles was that of Beverly Sherman, a 17-year-old convicted prostitute who was last seen Jan. 20, 1987, getting into a car behind the Asheville Civic Center. Authorities said she was killed that day by someone who shot her in the head. Her body was not found until April 26. 'Styles' murder does not look like someone's first offense. It was too organized and well planned. We expect the investigation to continue, ' Dreher said.

    https://www.upi.com/Archives/1995/11...6667817189200/
    "There is a point in the history of a society when it becomes so pathologically soft and tender that among other things it sides even with those who harm it, criminals, and does this quite seriously and honestly. Punishing somehow seems unfair to it, and it is certain that imagining ‘punishment’ and ‘being supposed to punish’ hurts it, arouses fear in it." Friedrich Nietzsche

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    Habeas relief denied by the Fourth Circuit.

    Judgement of the district court affirmed.

    https://law.justia.com/cases/federal...022-04-20.html
    Thank you for the adventure - Axol

    Tried so hard and got so far, but in the end it doesn’t even matter - Linkin Park

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    Administrator Moh's Avatar
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    The panel was made up of Judges Niemeyer (G.H.W. Bush), Motz (Clinton) and King (Clinton).

    https://law.justia.com/cases/federal...022-04-20.html

  8. #8
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    En banc rehearing denied June 17, 2022.

    https://www.supremecourt.gov/DocketP...EOT%20Cert.pdf
    Thank you for the adventure - Axol

    Tried so hard and got so far, but in the end it doesn’t even matter - Linkin Park

    Hear me, my chiefs! I am tired. My heart is sick and sad. From where the sun now stands, I will fight no more forever. - Hin-mah-too-yah-lat-kekt

    I’m going to the ghost McDonalds - Garcello

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    Final appeal again distributed for conference March 17, 2023.

    https://www.supremecourt.gov/search....c/22-5982.html
    Thank you for the adventure - Axol

    Tried so hard and got so far, but in the end it doesn’t even matter - Linkin Park

    Hear me, my chiefs! I am tired. My heart is sick and sad. From where the sun now stands, I will fight no more forever. - Hin-mah-too-yah-lat-kekt

    I’m going to the ghost McDonalds - Garcello

  10. #10
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    Petition for certiorari denied.

    Lower Ct: United States Court of Appeals for the Fourth Circuit
    Case Numbers: (20-9)
    Decision Date: April 20, 2022
    Rehearing Denied: June 17, 2022

    https://www.supremecourt.gov/search....c/22-5982.html
    Thank you for the adventure - Axol

    Tried so hard and got so far, but in the end it doesn’t even matter - Linkin Park

    Hear me, my chiefs! I am tired. My heart is sick and sad. From where the sun now stands, I will fight no more forever. - Hin-mah-too-yah-lat-kekt

    I’m going to the ghost McDonalds - Garcello

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