Visit us out on Facebook and twitter

Executions

Reginald Brooks- 11/15/11



Summary of Offense:
On March 6, 1982, Brooks murdered his three sons, 17-year-old Reginald Jr., 15-year-old Vaughn, and 11-year-old Niarchos in their Cleveland home. Two days earlier, Brooks had been served with divorce papers. While his wife was at work, Brooks shot each child once in the head while they lay in bed. Brooks was arrested in Utah with the murder weapon in his possession.

Victim(s): 17-year-old Reginald Jr., 15-year-old Vaughn, and 11-year-old Niarchos

Time of Death: 2:04 p.m.

Manner of execution: Lethal Injection

Last Meal: Lasagna, garlic bread, ice cream, chocolate cake and root beer, along with several snacks

Final Statement: Brooks extended the middle figure of his left hand throughout the execution and made no final statement.

Oba Chandler - 11/15/11



Summary of Offense: Oba Chandler was convicted and sentenced to death for the murders of Joan Rogers and her two daughters, Michelle and Christe, on June 1, 1989.

Victim(s): Joan Rogers and her two daughters, Michelle and Christe. Joan Rogers and her daughters were vacationing in Tampa from Ohio. Chandler was sentenced to death on November 4, 1994.

Time of Death: 4:25 p.m.

Manner of execution: Lethal Injection

Last Meal: Chandler finished two salami sandwiches on white bread and half of a peanut butter and grape jelly sandwich. He declined the iced tea he ordered and drank coffee instead.

Final Statement: He gave no final statement and kept his eyes closed during the execution.

Guadalupe Esparza - 11/16/11



Summary of Offense: On June 6, 1999, in San Antonio, Esparza kidnapped and sexually assaulted seven-year-old Alyssa Vasquez then strangled her with his hands causing her death.

Esparza was sentenced to death in May 2001.

Victim(s): Alyssa Vasquez

Time of Death: 6:21 p.m.

Manner of execution: Lethal Injection

Last Meal: Salisbury steak, mashed potatoes, brown gravy, pinto beans, corn bread and tea.

Final Statement: “To the family of Alyssa Vasquez, I hope you will find peace in your heart. My sympathy goes out to you,” he said with his eyes closed and head straight, strapped to the gurney. “I hope you find it in your heart to forgive me. I don't know why all of this happened.”

Paul Rhoades - 11/18/11



Summary of Offense: Sentenced to death in 1988 for the murders of Susan Michelbacher and Stacy Dawn Baldwin.

Victim(s): Susan Michelbacher and Stacy Dawn Baldwin.

Time of Death: 9:15 a.m.

Manner of execution: Lethal Injection

Last Meal: Hot dogs, sauerkraut, mustard, ketchup, onions, relish, baked beans, veggie sticks, ranch dressing, fruit with gelatin and strawberry ice cream cups.

Final Statement: 'I'm sorry for the part I played in your wife's death. For Haddon, you still have to keep looking. I can't help you, I'm sorry for your family. I can't help you, I took part in the Michelbacher death, I can't help you guys, sorry.' 'Mom, goodbye,' and then he turned and faced the warden Randy Blades and said, 'You guys, I forgive you, I really do.'

New Execution Date

Anthony Bartee - Texas - 02/28/12



Bartee was sentenced to death in September 1998 for the murder of 37-year-old David Cook by using a nine-millimeter pistol to fatally shoot him in the head and neck. Bartee then took Cook's motorcycle and fled the scene. Bartee was on parole for two counts of aggravated rape when he committed the murders.

Died On Death Row

Brandon Wilson - Death row



On Thursday, Brandon Wilson, who was on death row for the murder of a 9-year-old boy in Oceanside in 1998, was found dead, hanging in his cell at San Quentin State Prison Thursday, state corrections officials said.

Wilson, 33, was convicted of first-degree murder with special circumstances for slitting the throat of Matthew Cecchi in an Oceanside Park restroom on Nov. 14, 1998.

Wilson was sentenced to death by a San Diego jury on Nov. 4, 1999 and placed on death row five days later, state officials said. On Feb. 22, 2000, Wilson also began serving a life sentence from an attempted first-degree murder conviction in Los Angeles County.

Stays Of Execution

Lester Bower - Texas

A divided federal appeals court in Washington on Monday rejected the U.S. Justice Department's request that the full court hear a dispute over a death row inmate's demand to review law enforcement records.

The U.S. Court of Appeals for the D.C. Circuit voted 5 to 3 to turn down DOJ's request for a full-court rehearing. The Justice Department had asked the entire court to vacate a panel decision that said the state prisoner, Lester Bower Jr., should have access to certain FBI documents in his quest to win his freedom.

Bower, sentenced to death in Texas in 1984, maintains he wasn’t responsible for a quadruple homicide. Bower blames four alleged drug dealers in Oklahoma; one of the men has since died.

Scheduled Executions

Gary Haugen - 12/06/11

A Marion County Circuit Court judge signed a death warrant Friday ordering Oregon's first execution in 14 years. Haugen is scheduled to die by lethal injection on Dec. 6. The 49-year-old inmate has disregarded advice from his lawyers and waived his remaining appeals.

New Death Sentences

James Fayed - California
Marcus Fletcher - California
Danny Hembree - North Carolina

Jury Recommended Death Sentences

Marco Topete - California
Humberto Delgado - Florida


Current Death Row Inmates

Artez Hammonds - Alabama

A lawsuit challenging the conviction and death sentence of a Dothan man has languished in federal court for more than six years, and no activity has been connected to the suit in the past two years and five months.

Alabama Attorney General Luther Strange is now asking a federal judge to resolve the suit, claiming that “justice delayed is justice denied.”

The attorney general’s office filed the motion last week in response to a writ of habeas corpus filed on behalf of Artez Hammonds, who has been on Alabama’s death row since 1997 for the 1990 rape and murder of Marilyn Mitchell.

Erickson Dimas-Martinez - Arkansas

A lawyer for a death row inmate says the Arkansas Supreme Court should overturn his murder conviction because a judge wouldn't bounce a juror caught tweeting during his 2010 trial.

Erickson Dimas-Martinez's lawyer on Thursday asked the court to overturn his client's conviction for the slaying of a Centerton teenager.

Dimas-Martinez's attorney says the juror was caught tweeting during the trial despite the judge's instruction to not to post on the Internet or otherwise or communicate with anyone about the case.

John Mills - Kentucky

A death row inmate was allowed last month to argue for his release before the Kentucky Parole Board - a hearing that officials now agree should not have taken place.

The Kentucky Department of Corrections, as well as attorneys involved in the case, said the Parole Board erred in allowing 41-year-old John Mills to argue for his freedom.

The Oct. 28 hearing, which state officials believe was a first involving a death row inmate in Kentucky, came months after Knox County Circuit Judge Roderick Messer threw out Mills' death sentence for the August 1995 stabbing death of 79-year-old Arthur L. Phipps in Knox County.

However, Mills was still under a death sentence at the time of the hearing because prosecutors and Mills' lawyer appealed to the Kentucky Supreme Court, and Messer's order was automatically stayed.

Michael Dale St. Clair - Kentucky

A convicted murderer who escaped from prison and killed a Kentucky man 20 years ago receives the death penalty again.

Michael St. Clair is set to be put to death in January. His case has been returned for either a new trial or sentencing three times by the Kentucky Supreme Court since 1998.

A jury had recommended the death penalty in October after a sentence rehearing in Bullitt County, where he was convicted of killing distillery worker Frank Brady.

St. Clair also faces a retrial in Hardin County, where he is charged with kidnapping Brady to steal his truck.

Henri Broadway - Louisiana

It may be one of the final steps for a man sentenced to death for killing a police officer, as his post-conviction appeal got underway Tuesday morning.

Henri Broadway was convicted in 1996 of murdering Baton Rouge police officer Betty Smothers in the line of duty.

Smothers, the mother of former NFL star Warrick Dunn, was killed in 1993 while trying to make a bank deposit for a business.

David Brown - Louisiana

The judge in the Angola 5 first-degree murder trials says a prosecutor erred in questioning a defense witness last month, but the error was not sufficient to warrant a new trial for inmate David Brown.

Retired Orleans Parish District Judge Jerome M. Winsberg sentenced Brown to death Wednesday for the Dec. 28, 1999, beating and stabbing death of Louisiana State Penitentiary security officer David C. Knapps.

Billy Joe Sowell - Ohio

On Tuesday the 6th Circuit Court Of Appeals AFFIRMED the district court's grant of habeas relief.

Carlos Sanders - Ohio

On Thursday a federal judge allowed an Ohio inmate sentenced to die for ordering a guard's killing during 1993 prison riots to request evidence the inmate claims could exonerate him.

Death row inmate Carlos Sanders was convicted of Robert Vallandingham's slaying during the riots in Lucasville that also killed eight inmates.

The 48-year-old Sanders maintain a leader of the Black Gangster Disciples and two other prisoners killed Vallandingham and that affidavits and statements from other Lucasville inmates back this up.

Roland Steele - Pennsylvania

A McKees Rocks man on death row for the 1985 murders of three elderly women in Washington County won't get a new trial, but will be sentenced again, a federal judge ruled on Wednesday.

A Washington County jury convicted Roland Steele, 65, in 1986 for beating to death and robbing Lucille Horner, 88, Minnie Warrick, 86, and Sarah Kuntz, 85. Steele had a black belt in karate and a pathologist testified that two victims were beaten until their hearts ruptured while the third asphyxiated as a result of a fractured larynx.

U.S. District Judge Arthur Schwab ruled that while some of the evidence used in the trial was questionable, the bulk of the evidence overwhelmingly linked Steele to the murders and robberies. He ruled that Steele must be resentenced because the court used a sentencing form that has since been ruled unconstitutional.

Melissa Lucio - Texas

On Wednesday the Texas Court of Criminal Appeals DENIED Lucio's request for a rehearing on her direct appeal.

Marvin Wilson - Texas

On Wednesday the 5th Circuit Court of Appeals AFFIRMED the district court's DENIAL of Wilson's petition for writ of habeas corpus regarding an Atkins claim.


United States Supreme Court DENIALS

Samual Lopez - Arizona
Wayne Benoit Prince - Arizona
Harold Harvey - Florida
Randall Jones - Florida
James Allen Coddington - Oklahoma
Hector Medina - Texas


Reversed/New Trials/Commuted/Released

Charles Gabrion - Federal

federal appeals court has thrown out a decision that overturned a rare death sentence for a western Michigan man convicted of killing a woman in a national forest.

The new ruling Thursday means the full appeals court in Cincinnati will start over and take another look at Marvin Gabrion's case.

In 2002, a jury in Grand Rapids sentenced Gabrion to death for killing a woman who'd accused him of rape. Her body was found in a lake in the Manistee National Forest, which qualified the case for federal court and a possible death sentence.

David McClure Jr. - South Carolina

On Wednesday David McClure, Jr. received two life sentences in the final resentencing in the 1996 double murder he was previously convicted of.

“This will conclude all litigation in this case,” Judge James Barber said to McClure before handing down his sentence.

Judge Barber’s concurrent sentences are for McClure to serve a term of life in prison for the 1996 murder of his father, David McClure Sr., and a term of life in prison without the possibility of parole for the 1996 murder of Donna Fitzpatrick.

McClure was originally sentenced to death for the two murders April 29, 1998 after being found guilty by a jury April 24, 1998.

State By State Death Penalty News

Oregon

The Oregon Department Of Corrections made a few changes to the lethal injection protocol in preparation of the December 06, 2011 execution of Gary Haugen.