Results 1 to 3 of 3

Thread: Andrew Anthony Apicella - Alabama

  1. #1
    Administrator Michael's Avatar
    Join Date
    Oct 2010
    Location
    Germany
    Posts
    1,515

    Andrew Anthony Apicella - Alabama




    Summary of Offense:

    One of two men sentenced to death in the 1994 execution-style shooting murders of five people at the Changing Times Lounge in Birmingham. On the morning of October 16, 1994, the bodies of Lester Edward Dodd, Pamela Dodd, William A. Nelson, Sr., James Watkins and Florence Adell Elliott were found in the Changing Times Lounge, a neighborhood bar, in Birmingham. The Dodds, who worked at the bar, were found lying facedown in the pool-table area of the lounge, while the other three, who were regular bar patrons, were found lying facedown in the bar area. The positions of the bodies suggested an 'execution style' killing. All five died from gunshot wounds to the top or back of the head. Co-defendant Stephen Pilley died on death row.

    Apicella was sentenced to death on August 13, 1997.

    For more on Pilley, see: http://www.cncpunishment.com/forums/...Pilley-Alabama

  2. #2
    Administrator Heidi's Avatar
    Join Date
    Oct 2010
    Posts
    33,217
    Jefferson County death row inmate's request upheld by Alabama Supreme Court

    Alabama criminal appeals judges must reconsider whether a Jefferson County judge wrongly rejected an attempt by a condemned murderer to amend an appeal in his case, the Alabama Supreme Court ruled Friday.

    The state high court unanimously ruled that the judges had wrongly rejected the amendment request by Andrew Anthony Apicella.

    Apicella, 53, was sentenced to death in 1996 for his role in the capital murders of five people on Oct. 16, 1994.

    Friday's ruling does not overturn Apicella's conviction and death sentence in the shootings of Pamela Dodd, Lester Dodd, William Nelson Sr., James Watkins and Florence Adell at the Changing Times Lounge.

    Circuit Judge Tommy Nail ruled in 2006, and the Alabama Court of Criminal Appeals later agreed, that Apicella could not file a third amendment to an appeal called a Rule 32 petition that he filed in 2002 and amended in 2003 and 2004.

    A general state legal rule allows amendments to pending Rule 32 appeals, with limited exceptions. But Nail and the criminal appeals court ruled Apicella's case was different because his Rule 32 appeal had been denied in 2004, more than a year before he filed the third amendment request.

    The state high court ruled Friday that the general legal rule allowing most amendments does apply to Apicella's case, because the 2004 decision rejecting his Rule 32 request was overturned two years later.

    That effectively made Apicella's Rule 32 appeal a pending matter when he filed the third amendment request, Justice Tom Woodall wrote on behalf of three other justices and three specially appointed justices.

    They sent the case back to the criminal appeals court to reconsider the trial court's denial of Apicella's third amended Rule 32 appeal.

    Chief Justice Sue Bell Cobb and Justices Greg Shaw, Jim Main and Kelli Wise, recused themselves because each presided in this or a related case while they were on the criminal appeals court.

    A recusal by Justice Tom Parker was not explained in Friday's decision.

    Justices Mike Bolin, Lyn Stuart and Glenn Murdock concurred in Woodall's decision released Friday.

    Retired high court justices Alva Hugh Maddox and Champ Lyons, along with Civil Appeals Judge William Thompson, also participated in the state high court decision.

    http://blog.al.com/spotnews/2011/05/...h_row_inm.html

  3. #3
    Administrator Heidi's Avatar
    Join Date
    Oct 2010
    Posts
    33,217
    Birmingham's Changing Times Lounge killer dies on Death Row

    Andrew Anthony Apicella, one of two men sentenced to death in the 1994 execution-style murders of five people at the Changing Times Lounge in Birmingham, died this afternoon in prison.

    Apicella was pronounced dead at 2:04 p.m. in the infirmary at Donaldson Correctional Facility in western Jefferson County, according to prison and county coroner officials. The 55-year-old inmate served more than 15 years on Alabama's Death Row.

    Apicella and Stephen Pilley both were convicted in the deaths of: bartender Pamela Dodd, 37; her husband, Lester "Eddie" Dodd, 38; her friend Florence Elliott, 45; and patrons William Nelson, 52, and James Watkins, 52.

    Until the January 2012 slaying of five men in an Ensley home, the Changing Times Lounge massacre was the largest mass murder in Birmingham's history.

    Pilley died from end-stage liver disease at the North Baldwin Infirmary in Bay Minette in February 2009. He had been on Death Row at Homan Correctional Facility near Atmore since 1997.

    Prison officials said today that Apicella also died from liver disease. A jury had recommended life without parole for Apicella, but then-Circuit Judge James Garrett overruled the recommendation and sentenced him to death. Apicella was 39 years old when he was sentenced to death.

    http://blog.al.com/spotnews/2013/03/...times_lou.html
    An uninformed opponent is a dangerous opponent.

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

Thread Information

Users Browsing this Thread

There are currently 1 users browsing this thread. (0 members and 1 guests)

Posting Permissions

  • You may not post new threads
  • You may not post replies
  • You may not post attachments
  • You may not edit your posts
  •