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    Briley Wayne Piper - South Dakota Death Row


    Chester Allan Poage




    Summary of Offense:

    On March 13, 2000, Briley Piper and two other individuals kidnapped Chester Allan Poage and beat him to death. Afterwards, they returned to Poage's home and stole personal property and the victim's 1997 Blazer, which was used to leave the state. Prior to trial, Piper pleaded guilty to felony murder, kidnapping, robbery in the first degree, burglary in the first degree, and grand theft. Piper further waived his right to a jury trial on sentencing and the sentencing hearing was held in front of the trial court. After this hearing, the trial court sentenced Piper to death. He has appealed to the South Dakota Supreme Court.

    The two other individuals, Darrell Hoadley and Elijah Page were arrested in connection with the Poage murder. Page, along with Piper pleaded guilty and left their sentencing up to District Judge Warren Johnson in a bench penalty phase proceeding. Both waived their right to have a jury empaneled for the penalty phase proceeding. Johnson found Page and Piper death penalty eligible upon finding that statutory aggravating circumstances were present, and accordingly sentenced them to death.

    Page would later drop all of his remaining appeals and request to be executed. Elijah Page became the first South Dakota inmate to be put to death by the state in 60 years when he was executed by lethal injection on the evening of July 12, 2007.

    Hoadley, meanwhile, elected to go to trial and while the jury in that case found him guilty; he was spared a death sentence when the jury instead recommended a life sentence. Hoadley is serving a sentence of life in prison without parole in the South Dakota State Penitentiary in Sioux Falls.

    On April 3, 2002, the South Dakota Supreme Court remanded the Piper case to the trial court for further proceedings, including an evidentiary hearing, on Piper’s allegations of prosecutorial misconduct and disproportionality of his death sentence. The trial court had had no opportunity to consider those issues because the issues arose after the appeal had begun. In the remand order, the Court did not decide the merits of any issues on appeal. The matter was decided on remand by the Circuit Court, and it will now return to the South Dakota Supreme Court for further briefing and decision by that Court. The Supreme Court decided to start the appeal process over, and the Court thereafter received written briefs and heard oral argument in March, 2004. The Supreme Court issued its decision affirming the death sentence and the conviction on January 4, 2006. The matter thereafter was remanded to the Circuit court. To this point, no new execution date has been set. There are several rounds of habeas court in State and federal courts that Piper may pursue, and so no estimate of the time when the sentence may be carried out is possible at this time.

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    Confessed murderer Briley Piper's plea stays on the books

    STURGIS -- Death-row inmate Briley Piper cannot withdraw his guilty plea and overturn his conviction in the March 2000 murder of Chester Allan Poage near Spearfish, according to 4th Circuit Judge Jerome Eckrich.

    Eckrich filed his final word on the matter Wednesday, Nov. 17, in Sturgis where Piper's court records are kept.

    Piper, 29, and Elijah Page pleaded guilty to murder in 2001, waived their right to a jury trial and were sentenced to death by 4th Circuit Judge Warren G. Johnson. Their lawyers later said that they believed the defendants had a better chance of avoiding the death penalty if a judge sentenced them because a jury would be swayed by the brutal nature of the crime.

    A third man, Darrell Hoadley, pleaded not guilty, was convicted by a jury and was sentenced to life in prison. Page waived all appeals and was executed in July 2007.

    Piper's defense team, Michael Stonefield and his co-counsel, Robert Van Norman of Rapid City, wanted to withdraw Piper's guilty plea for various reasons. They said that Piper was not properly advised of his option to have a jury trial; he misunderstood the maximum penalty he could receive; his pleas were not free, voluntary or intelligent, as required by law; and the court did not establish a factual basis on some of the pleas to charges.

    Van Norman intends to appeal Eckrich's denial to the South Dakota Supreme Court. Lawrence County State's Attorney John Fitzgerald could schedule a new sentence hearing in the case, but the appeal may delay that from happening. Fitzgerald has prosecuted the case from its beginning.

    In July 2009, the South Dakota Supreme Court unanimously overturned Piper's sentence -- but not his conviction -- ruling his decision to give up his right to have a jury decide his fate was not valid because he received incorrect legal information from the judge, who told him all 12 jurors would have to agree on the sentence. In fact, a life sentence would have been the result if even a single juror refused to impose the death penalty.

    The high court sent the case back to circuit court, ordering a jury trial to determine Piper's punishment.

    http://www.rapidcityjournal.com/news...cc4c002e0.html

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    Edited

    Piper sentencing trial gets underway with autopsy photos

    Lawrence County State’s Attorney John Fitzgerald told jurors that he believes the evidence will prove all three elements. And he wasted no time addressing the heinousness of the crime, calling forensic pathologist Dr. Donald Habbe as his first witness.

    Habbe performed the autopsy on Poage, whose nearly naked body was found in a creek in Higgins Gulch in April 2000. Habbe testified that bruising and blood on and inside Poage’s body proved Poage was alive as he was beaten and when he received three stab wounds to the neck and head. Two of those stab wounds may have been fatal.

    Evidence photos projected onto a screen in the courtroom showed bruising and lacerations on Poage’s head. The photos also showed that parts of both ears and most of the skin on the back of Poage’s head were missing.

    Habbe said one of the potentially lethal stab wounds cut Poage’s jugular vein. The other, above his right ear, penetrated his skull and went about one inch into his brain – something Habbe has never seen before.

    “The skull is a bone,” he explained. “To penetrate the skull, that’s a good deal of force.”

    Habbe said Poage could have survived for some time despite his wounds.


    http://rapidcityjournal.com/news/pip...#ixzz1SYisqLFt

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    Lawrence Co. Denies Bill In Death Row Appeal Case

    Lawrence County commissioners are refusing to pay bills related to court appeals for an Alaska man convicted of murder in South Dakota and sentenced to death.

    Briley Piper of Anchorage, Alaska, acknowledged his role in the March 2000 killing of 19-year-old Chester Poage near Spearfish, and a judge sentenced him to death.

    But the state Supreme Court eventually overturned his death sentence by ruling that a jury, not a judge, should decide his fate. A jury sentenced Piper to death in July, and he is set to be executed in March.

    Piper's new lawyer, Steven Miller, requested the transcripts from the July sentencing hearing, but the Lawrence County commissioners are declining to pay the $16,435 transcript fees to the court reporter.

    http://www.keloland.com/News/NewsDet....cfm?Id=125587

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    Hearing set for Piper death penalty case

    A court hearing has been set to review the status of the 2001 death sentence of convicted murderer Briley Piper. Piper's death sentence was overturned by the South Dakota Supreme Court. The hearing is set for Jan. 3.

    Piper's attorney Robert Van Norman of Rapid City stated in a letter to Fourth Circuit Judge Jerome Eckrich that he intends to appeal the plea ruling to the state Supreme Court.

    Piper, 30, is trying to have his guilty plea thrown out.

    Eckrich ruled that Piper's murder conviction should stand and that he should be re-sentenced for his role in the March 2000 torture and slaying of 19-year-old Chester Allan Poage, near Spearfish.

    Piper pleaded guilty to murder and a judge sentenced him to death. The state Supreme Court in July 2009 left the conviction intact but overturned the death sentence. Piper and Elijah Page pleaded guilty to killing Poage, waived their right to a jury trial and were sentenced to death by Circuit Judge Warren G. Johnson. Their lawyers later said they believed the men had a better chance of avoiding the death penalty if a judge sentenced them because a jury would be swayed by the brutal nature of the crime.

    Page waived his appeals and was executed in July 2007.

    A third man, Darrell Hoadley of Lead, was convicted of murder in a jury trial and was sentenced to life in prison.

    Prosecutors said the three abducted Poage, who was an acquaintance, as part of a scheme to rob his mother's home, and killed him so there would be no witnesses. Authorities said Poage was forced into an icy stream, beaten, stabbed, kicked and hit with large rocks over a two-hour period.

    http://www.rapidcityjournal.com/news...cc4c002e0.html

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    Judge rejects request for mistrial in Piper case after question about inmate privileges

    Legal counsel for admitted killer Briley Piper moved for a mistrial Wednesday after a Lawrence County state’s attorney’s question ventured into an area the judge had previously ruled off limits.

    Lawrence County State’s Attorney John Fitzgerald asked a prison warden if inmates are allowed to watch television and defense attorney Robert Van Norman immediately asked for a recess. After the jury left the room Van Norman said Fitzgerald’s question was a direct violation of 4th Circuit Judge Jerome Eckrich’s order not to bring up the privileges inmates receive behind prison walls.

    Fitzgerald responded by saying he had merely asked a general question.

    Eckrich disagreed. “You stepped over the line there,” he said, but added, “I don’t think it’s irretrievable.”

    Penitentiary unit manager Brad Woodward’s response to the question had been brief and proceedings were immediately stopped. However, Eckrich directed Fitzgerald to “not even get close” to the topic when testimony resumed.

    Jurors in the case are charged with determining whether Piper, 30, deserves the death penalty or life in prison for his role in the 2000 murder of 19-year-old Chester Allan Poage.

    When Fitzgerald posed the television question, Woodward testified that since Piper arrived at the state penitentiary in Sioux Falls in 2001 he had broken administrative rules 80 times, 22 of those for what are deemed “major infractions,” such as getting a tattoo in prison.

    Woodward said none of the infractions were for insolence to staff or for violent acts. Piper is confined to his cell 23 hours each day, with one hour for showering and recreation in a locked “cage.”

    Woodward said he would describe Piper as more of a leader than a follower, noting that he is intelligent and outgoing. But he acknowledged that Piper had not used those “leadership qualities” to create problems in prison.

    Van Norman pointed out that 15 of Piper’s major infractions occurred during his first two years in prison. However Woodward estimated that 75 percent of inmates become better behaved over time.

    Wednesday’s testimony began with former prison psychiatrist Dr. Ulises Pesce, who met with Piper between 2001 and 2004 to treat him for depression, anxiety and other problems. Pesce told jurors Piper said “he didn’t do anything wrong and shouldn’t be here.” Piper also felt that what the state was doing to him by imposing the death penalty was a terrible crime, according to Pesce.

    In 2004 Pesce diagnosed Piper with anti-social personality disorder, which typically involves a lack of remorse or concern for others. Manipulation, deceitfulness and violence can also be associated with the disorder.

    “Anybody can have an anti-social behavior,” Pesce explained. “This is an enduring pattern of behavior.”

    Pesce acknowledged that he had not seen Piper for seven years. He also said Piper’s history of attention-deficit disorder could affect his ability to make good choices.

    Jurors ended the day by watching a two-hour videotaped interview investigators did with Piper in Alaska in late April 2000, less than a week after Poage’s body was found near Spearfish. In it Piper appears calm and relaxed as he tells investigators how his friend Elijah Page came up with a plan to rob Poage, then “flipped out” and held a gun to Poage’s head, tied him up and forced him to drink hydrochloric acid.

    “I sat back and watched in awe,” Piper said, though he admitted kicking Poage in the face as he lay on the ground “because he reached for me.”

    In the interview, Piper calmly tells how he, Page and Darrell Hoadley took Poage to Higgins Gulch, made him strip down to his T-shirt, and proceeded to beat and kick him. He denies stabbing Poage and says he retreated to Poage’s Blazer when Page began throwing rocks at Poage’s head.

    “I was like, ‘Man I can’t hang with this anymore’ … I could hear Allan screaming his head off,” Piper says, telling how he turned up the music to drown out the sound. “It sounded like rock on rock.”

    Piper also tells how the trio robbed Poage’s house and then drove his Blazer to Missouri, pawning stolen items and using Poage’s ATM card to get money along the way. He says they stayed in Missouri just 12 hours before returning to South Dakota, where Page dropped the others off in Rapid City.

    Throughout the tape Piper maintains that Page was the “ringleader” and that he hadn’t wanted to participate but went along because he was afraid Page might come after him. Piper also says that “if a friend of mine’s getting into a fight, I’ve got his back” – though he never said Poage fought back.

    “Why didn’t you just get the hell out of there that night?” asks investigator Pat Humphrey, to which Piper replies, “I’m homeless.” At the time he was living at Page’s house.

    At one point Piper says Poage “seemed like a cool guy” and that “for a brief second” he thought about helping him. Instead, he kicked him “four or five times” in the head and body with his combat boots.

    When Humphrey tells Piper that Poage died of brain hemorrhaging, Piper replies, “I tried not to kick him too hard in the head.”

    Testimony resumes today.

    http://rapidcityjournal.com/news/jud...#ixzz1Sk4l2U00

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    Lawrence County Commission votes to cover latest costs in Piper case

    Lawrence County commissioners reluctantly decided Tuesday to pay the first of what likely will be many court fees for the prosecution of Briley Piper, who was twice sentenced to death for murder and now sits on death row in the state penitentiary in Sioux Falls.

    At its last meeting in December, the commission unanimously decided not to pay for a set of court transcripts produced by court reporter Ken Howell, which was requested by the legal counsel for Piper, who pleaded guilty in 2001 to the murder of Chester Allan Poage.

    At the time, commissioners wondered why they were being asked to pay essentially a state employee to create what they believed was a copy of the transcripts.

    Bruce Outka, Lawrence County's legal counsel, explained Tuesday that the $16,435 bill was not simply for photocopies but for transcripts from Piper's resentencing trial in July that had not yet been translated from stenographer's notes.

    In addition, he said, the county must comply with due process, a constitutional right for the defendant.

    "We bear the costs of the prosecution. Some small counties might not even do a death penalty case because they can't afford it," Outka said, referring to the fact that a death penalty sentence requires an automatic appeal.

    And, he added, if the commission had decided to not pay the bill, the Supreme Court would likely have ordered it to.

    While commissioners said they appreciated the need to pay the bill, they were still upset at the mounting costs for Piper's conviction and sentencing.

    "It's just not right. But it's the law, and sometimes you have to stand up and just say baloney," said Commissioner Daryl Johnson, who estimated that the Piper case has cost the county about $1 million so far.

    Commission Chairman Bob Ewing said he is apprehensive about the seemingly increasing and continuing legal fees as the case drags on.

    "That money could have been a lot better spent on other things in this community," said Ewing, who added that county taxpayers shouldn't have to bear the cost.

    Commissioners Terry Weisengberg, Richard Sleep, Brandon Flanagan and Johnson voted to pay the bill; Ewing voted not to.

    Piper pleaded guilty to Poage's death in 2001 and waived his right to have a jury determine his sentence. Circuit Judge Warren G. Johnson sentenced him to death, but Piper appealed Johnson's sentence.

    The South Dakota Supreme Court granted Piper the right to a sentencing trial after determining that the judge gave Piper incorrect information when he told him a jury would have to unanimously agree on the sentence. In fact, a life sentence would have been the result if even a single juror refused to impose the death penalty.

    Read more: http://rapidcityjournal.com/news/loc...#ixzz1iW1a5WEC

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    July date set to decide Briley Piper’s fate

    Convicted killer Briley Piper could learn in July if he will remain on death row or spend the rest of his life in prison.

    A jury will determine Piper’s fate after a hearing scheduled to begin July 5. The hearing could take up to 20 days, 4th Circuit Judge Jerome Eckrich said Monday during a telephone hearing in Sturgis.

    Eckrich said the case has been going on for more than a year, and the hearing to determine Piper’s fate should be held “sooner rather than later.”

    Piper, his attorneys Robert Van Norman and Michael Stonefield, and Lawrence County State’s Attorney John Fitzgerald all participated by telephone in the hearing.

    Van Norman wanted to delay the hearing for as long as 12 months while he prepared and gathered expert witnesses.

    Eckrich called the time frame “unrealistic.”

    According to Van Norman, the American Bar Association guidelines for death penalty cases require the use of a mitigation specialist to do a social background evaluation on a defendant and his family.

    Van Norman and Stonefield also said they plan to call a psychologist and psychiatrist to testify.

    Piper, 30, and Elijah Page pleaded guilty to the 2000 killing of Chester Allan Poage near Spearfish. Both men waived their rights to a jury trial and were sentenced to death by 4th Circuit Judge Warren G. Johnson. Page was executed in 2007, after he waived all appeals.

    A third accomplice, Darrell Hoadley, was sentenced to life in prison after a jury found him guilty of Poage’s death.

    The trio kidnapped Poage and robbed his mother’s house in March 2000. They killed Poage to cover up their crime. His body was found several weeks later in a stream.

    The South Dakota Supreme Court overturned Piper’s death sentence in July 2009. The high court said Piper was given incorrect legal information when he entered his plea rather than standing trial.

    In late December, the Supreme Court rejected Van Norman’s attempts to withdraw Piper’s guilty plea, according to Fitzgerald.

    Van Norman said Monday that he plans to request a change of venue for the hearing.

    Eckrich set another hearing for Jan. 28 in Deadwood to consider any additional motions in the case.

    http://www.rapidcityjournal.com/news...cc4c03286.html

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    Prosecutors contend Piper was the ringleader in murder

    Fourth Circuit Judge Jerome Eckrich removed a juror from Briley Piper's sentencing hearing Friday after the older man admitted to not hearing about 50 percent of convicted murderer Darrell Hoadley's testimony Thursday.

    Jurors are deciding whether Piper, 30, lives or dies for his involvement in the March 2000 murder of Chester Allan Poage near Spearfish.

    One of the three alternate jurors listening to the hearing filled the vacancy after Eckrich dismissed the juror Friday afternoon, thanked him for his service and reminded him not to discuss the case with anyone until the verdict is decided.

    "This is one of the reasons we have alternates," Eckrich said Friday. He took the opportunity to remind the remaining 14 jurors to speak up if they cannot hear something and commended them on their attentiveness thus far.

    "That's what you do. That's your job," Eckrich said.

    If any of the 12 jurors decides against the death penalty, Piper will be sentenced to life in prison.

    For Piper to receive the death penalty, prosecutors must prove the murder was exceptionally cruel and inhuman, that Piper benefited financially from Poage's death or that Poage was killed to eliminate him as a witness.

    Piper's attorneys objected to the juror's removal, citing a violation of Piper's fifth, sixth, eighth and fourteenth amendment rights.

    Friday's testimony resumed with Hoadley continuing to argue the semantics of his past statements with Lawrence County State's Attorney John Fitzgerald and refusing to name Piper as the ringleader in the murder. Hoadley previously had said that it was Piper's idea to rob Poage.

    "He's the one that brought it up to me; therefore, I said it was his idea," said Hoadley, wearing a blue Meade County Jail prison uniform. "I don't know if it was."

    Hoadley is serving a life sentence for his role in Poage's death; he spent Thursday casting the blame on Elijah Page, who was executed in 2007 for the crime.

    Piper, Page and Hoadley kidnapped Poage and robbed his mother's house in 2000. They killed Poage to cover up their crime. His body was found several weeks later in a stream near Spearfish.

    Piper and Page pleaded guilty to Poage's murder and were sentenced to death by a judge. Hoadley was found guilty by a jury and was sentenced to life in prison.

    The South Dakota Supreme Court set aside Piper's death sentence two years ago, giving him the right to let a jury determine if he deserved the death penalty or life in prison.

    While questioning Hoadley on Friday, Fitzgerald pointed to the acid and beer mixture the three men forced Poage to drink, the dull knife used to stab him and the four hours it took for him to die.

    "He wasn't like fighting back or anything, but he didn't just die," Hoadley said Friday while testifying.

    Defense Attorney Michael Stonefield asked Hoadley if the three of them knew anything about killing someone and whether they purposely meant to torture Poage for four hours. Hoadley answered no to both questions.

    The prosecution spent part of the day calling employees of the South Dakota State Penitentiary to testify that Piper was of above average intelligence, a leader, manipulative and showed no remorse for his crimes. The defense countered that testimony, attempting to establish that Piper was neither threatening nor disrespectful while in prison and that the employees did not try to talk to Piper about his remorse or the victim. The defense also tried to disqualify the state's witnesses by questioning them about speaking with other witnesses while under an order not to communicate with one another.

    In the afternoon, Fitzgerald called Christine Whartman to the stand. The Spearfish woman testified in the initial trials against all three men, saying she saw her son and Poage with Piper, Hoadley and Page the night Poage died. She recounted to the jury what Piper told her during one of their first meetings.

    "He wanted to kill somebody, because he wanted to know what it felt like," Whartman said Friday; she said she had then cautioned her son to stop hanging out with them.

    Testimony resumes at 9 a.m. Monday; the defense is expected to call its first witness at 1 p.m.

    http://rapidcityjournal.com/news/pro...#ixzz1SwMkuM6H

  10. #10
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    Victim's Mother Talks About Death Penalty

    Monday night's execution of Eric Robert was the first since Elijah Page was put to death by lethal injection in July of 2007. Page was sentenced for his role in the brutal killing of Chester Allan Poage.

    "You know, my son's life was cut way too short. He was never able to marry and have children, to give me grandchildren. That's something that I can only vision in my mind. What if?" Dottie Poage said.

    It's that question that lies at the heart of the pain and loss still felt by Dottie Poage.

    In 2007, Poage witnessed the execution of Elijah Page, one of two men sentenced to die for the brutal 2000 murder of her son, 19-year-old Chester Allan Poage.

    "It does bring somewhat of closure, some sort of calm, but it still does not bring your loved one back," Poage said.

    Poage says that her heart goes out to Lynette Johnson, the wife of murdered corrections officer Ron 'R.J.' Johnson.

    "I can very much identify with her as she probably can with me, knowing that one step has been done and it prepares you for the second step and the final time," Poage said.

    Just as Rodney Berget is still awaiting his execution in the murder of officer Johnson, Briley Piper is also on death row for his role in the killing of Poage's son.

    "You have to wait. You have to wait for the process to be done accordingly," Poage said.

    But more than 12-years after the murder of her son, Poage says she still has faith in the system and the death penalty.

    "It does not bring your loved one back but it helps to strengthen why we have this system to help us, to help make us a little bit stronger, to give us a little more hope for other people," Poage said.

    Briley Piper is in the process of appealing his death sentence. However, Poage says she's confident that the sentence will ultimately be carried out and plans on being there to witness the execution.

    http://www.keloland.com/newsdetail.c...lty/?id=138589
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