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Marcus Wellons Georgia Execution

Marcus Wellons was executed by the State of Georgia for the sexual assault and murder of a teenager. According to court documents after a breakup with his girlfriend Marcus Wellons would ransack his girlfriends home and when the victim, fifteen year old India Roberts walked by he would drag her into the apartment where the fifteen year old was sexually assaulted and murdered. Marcus Wellons would bring the body to a wooded area where she was dumped. Marcus Wellons would be arrested, convicted and sentenced to death. Marcus Wellons would be executed by lethal injection on June 17, 2014.

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A death row inmate was executed in Georgia on Tuesday night in the first lethal injection since a botched execution in Oklahoma nearly two months ago, and two more prisoners in other states were scheduled to die within 24 hours.

All the states planning executions — Florida, Georgia and Missouri — refuse to say where they get their drugs, or if they are tested. Lawyers for two of the condemned inmates have challenged the secretive process used by some states to obtain lethal injection drugs from unidentified, loosely regulated compounding pharmacies.

Nine executions nationwide have been stayed or postponed since late April, when Oklahoma prison officials halted the execution of Clayton Lockett after noting that the lethal injection drugs weren’t being administered into his vein properly. Lockett’s punishment was halted and he died of a heart attack several minutes later.

“I think after Clayton Lockett’s execution everyone is going to be watching very closely,” Fordham University School of Law professor Deborah Denno, a death penalty expert, said of this week’s executions. “The scrutiny is going to be even closer.”

In Georgia, 59-year-old Marcus Wellons was executed by lethal injection late Tuesday after last-minute appeals to the U.S. Supreme Court were denied. A corrections official said he was pronounced dead at 11:56 p.m. The execution seemed to go smoothly with no noticeable complications.

In Missouri, John Winfield was executed at the state prison in Bonne Terre by lethal injection at 12:01 a.m. and was pronounced dead at 12:10 a.m., a spokesman for the Department of Public Safety said.

John Ruthell Henry’s execution is scheduled Wednesday night in Florida.

Georgia and Missouri both use the single drug pentobarbital, a sedative. Florida uses a three-drug combination of midazolam hydrochloride, vecuronium bromide and potassium chloride.

Despite concerns about the drugs and how they are obtained, death penalty supporters say all three convicted killers are getting what they deserve.

Wellons was convicted in the 1989 rape and murder of India Roberts, his 15-year-old neighbor in suburban Atlanta. Soon after the girl left for school, another neighbor heard muffled screams from the apartment where Wellons was living. Later that day, a man told police he saw a man carrying what appeared to be a body in a sheet. Police found the girl’s body in a wooded area. She had been strangled and raped.

In Missouri, Winfield had been dating Carmelita Donald on and off for several years and fathered two of her children. Donald began dating another man. One night in 1996, in a jealous rage, Winfield showed up outside Donald’s apartment in St. Louis County and confronted her, along with two friends of hers.

Winfield shot all three women in the head. Arthea Sanders and Shawnee Murphy died. Donald survived but was blinded.

In Florida, the state is moving ahead with the execution despite claims that Henry is mentally ill and intellectually disabled. The state claims anyone with an IQ of at least 70 is not mentally disabled; testing has shown Henry’s IQ at 78, though his lawyers say it should be re-evaluated.

Henry stabbed his estranged wife, Suzanne Henry, to death a few days before Christmas in 1985. Hours later, he killed her 5-year-old son from a previous relationship. Henry had previously pleaded no contest to second-degree murder for fatally stabbing his common-law wife, Patricia Roddy, in 1976, and was on parole when Suzanne Henry and the boy were killed.

Asked Tuesday if he had discussed with the Department of Corrections what happened in Oklahoma and if any changes were needed in Florida, Gov. Rick Scott said, “I focus on making sure that we do things the right way here.”

Florida and Missouri trail only Texas as the most active death penalty states. Texas has carried out seven executions. Florida has executed five men in 2014 and Missouri has executed four. Combined, the three states have performed 16 of the 20 executions this year.

Wellons was the first Georgia inmate executed since February 2013 and just the second since 2011.

https://www.cbc.ca/news/world/marcus-wellons-1st-u-s-inmate-executed-since-botched-injection-1.2679197

Brian Terrell Georgia Execution

Brian Terrell was executed by the State of Georgia for the murder of his mother’s friend. According to court documents Brian Terrell would murder his mother’s friend, 70 year old John Watson after Watson discovered a number of checks missing. Brian Terrell first trial would end in a hung jury and his second trial he would be found guilty but it would later be overturned and he would be ultimately found guilty and sentenced to death in a third trial. Brian Terrell would insist he was innocent and many believe that the State of Georgia on December 15, 2015 executed an innocent person

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A Georgia man convicted of forging checks belonging to his mother’s friend and killing the man after he demanded money back has been executed.
The execution of Brian Keith Terrell, 47, was carried out at 12.52am on Wednesday at the state prison in Jackson, the corrections department said in a press release.

Terrell was convicted of murder in the June 1992 killing of 70-year-old John Watson from Covington, a community 35 miles east of Atlanta.

The statement said Terrell accepted a final prayer and refused to record a final statement.

Terrell was on parole in 1992 when he stole 10 of Watson’s checks and signed his name on some, prosecutors said. Watson told police about the theft but asked them not to pursue charges if most of the money was returned.

The day he was to return the money, according to the prosecutors, Terrell had his cousin drive him to Watson’s house where he shot Watson multiple times.

Terrell’s lawyers had said their client was innocent. They argued that no physical evidence connected Terrell to the killing and that prosecutors had used false and misleading testimony to secure the conviction that drew the death penalty.

State lawyers countered that the courts had already heard and rejected the defense arguments.

The US supreme court, without explanation, denied a request for a stay about four hours after the 7pm scheduled execution time.

On Monday the Georgia Board of Pardons and Paroles had denied Terrell’s request for clemency.

A state court on Tuesday dismissed a complaint in which Terrell claimed innocence, and the state supreme court declined to halt the execution.

Terrell also had filed a court challenge saying the state cannot ensure the safety or efficacy of the drug it plans to use to execute him.

A federal court on Tuesday rejected that challenge and Terrell appealed to the 11th US court of appeals.

Terrell was previously set for execution on 10 March, but after Department of Corrections officials discovered solid chunks had formed in the drug that was to be used in another execution on 2 March they temporarily suspended all executions to allow time for an analysis of the drug.

The state has said the most likely cause was that the drug was shipped and stored at a temperature that was too cold. Precautions were taken to prevent it happening again, state lawyers said

https://www.theguardian.com/world/2015/dec/09/georgia-executes-brian-keith-terrell-for-killing-his-mothers-friend

Marcus Johnson Georgia Execution

Marcus Johnson was executed by the State of Georgia for a murder committed in 1994. According to court documents Marcus Johnson would pick up the victim Angela Sizemore in a bar and before the night was done she would be fatally stabbed. Marcus Johnson would be be found guilty and sentenced to death. Marcus Johnson would be executed by lethal injection on November 19, 2015

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Marcus Ray Johnson became the first person to be executed in Georgia on Thursday night since Kelly Renee Gissendaner was put to death despite pleas for mercy from Pope Francis.

Johnson, 50, was convicted in April 1998 in the stabbing death of Angela Sizemore of Albany, Georgia, whom he’d picked up in a bar in March 1994. The Georgia Department of Corrections said he was executed at 10:11 p.m. ET at the state prison in Jackson.

Johnson declined a final prayer and refused to record a final statement, the state said.

The state Supreme Court denied Johnson’s request Thursday to delay his execution for 90 days to allow for additional DNA testing. Johnson’s lawyers claimed that while he admitted having had sex with Sizemore, there wasn’t enough evidence to tie him to the killing.

It’s the first time Georgia has carried out an execution since Gissendaner, a 47-year-old graduate of the prison system’s theology program, was killed by lethal injection on Sept. 30.

That case drew worldwide attention after the pope urged the state parole board to spare her life.

https://www.nbcnews.com/news/us-news/marcus-ray-johnson-executed-georgia-1994-murder-n466721

Warren Hill Georgia Execution

Warren Hill was executed by the State of Georgia for the murder of his cellmate. According to court documents Warren Hill was serving a life sentence for the murder of his girlfriend Myra Wright in 1985. In 1990 Warren Hill would beat to death his cellmate Joseph Handspike using a board imbedded with nails. Warren Hill would be convicted and sentenced to death. Warren Hill would be executed on January 27 2015 by lethal injection

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A prisoner who has twice come within hours of death on Georgia’s death row is once again facing execution.

Warren Lee Hill, who was sentenced to death for the 1990 beating death of fellow inmate Joseph Handspike, is scheduled to be executed at the state prison in Jackson at 7 p.m. Monday.

Authorities said Hill bludgeoned Handspike with a nail-studded board while his victim slept.

Hill has come within hours of death twice in the past year before scheduled executions were halted by last-minute court orders.

Hill’s lawyers have long argued that Hill is mentally disabled and therefore should not be put to death because the execution of mentally disabled offenders is prohibited by state law and a 2002 U.S. Supreme Court decision.

Warren Hill Other News

Georgia on Tuesday executed a man who killed a fellow inmate despite arguments from his lawyers that his execution was prohibited by the Constitution because he was intellectually disabled.

Warren Lee Hill was put to death by an injection of pentobarbital at the state prison in Jackson. The 54-year-old was pronounced dead at 7:55 p.m. He declined to make a final statement but did accept an offer to have a prayer read over him by a clergy member.

After reading the execution order, the warden left the room at 7:42 p.m. Records from previous executions show that the drug generally begins to flow within a minute or two of the warden leaving the room. Hill kept his head raised, looking out at the witnesses, for a couple of minutes and then laid back and took a few deep breaths before becoming still.

“Today, the Court has unconscionably allowed a grotesque miscarriage of justice to occur in Georgia,” Brian Kammer, a lawyer for Hill, said in an emailed statement. “Georgia has been allowed to execute an unquestionably intellectually disabled man, Warren Hill, in direct contravention of the Court’s clear precedent prohibiting such cruelty.”

Warren Hill was sentenced to serve life in prison for the 1986 killing of his 18-year-old girlfriend, who was shot 11 times. While serving that sentence, he beat a fellow inmate, Joseph Handspike, to death using a nail-studded board. A jury in 1991 convicted Hill of murder and sentenced him to death.

Warren Hill was previously set to die in July 2012, February 2013 and July 2013, but courts stepped in at the last minute with temporary stays so they would have time to consider challenges filed by Hill’s lawyers. State and federal courts rejected his lawyers’ filings this time around, and the U.S. Supreme Court declined his request for a stay of execution at about 6:30 p.m. Tuesday.

Lawyers for Warren Hill have long argued he is intellectually disabled and, therefore, shouldn’t be executed. State law and a 2002 U.S. Supreme Court decision both prohibit the execution of the intellectually disabled.

But Georgia has the toughest-in-the nation standard for proving intellectual disability. It requires capital defendants to prove beyond a reasonable doubt that they are intellectually disabled in order to avoid execution on those grounds. The state has consistently said Hill’s lawyers failed to meet that burden of proof.

Hill’s lawyers have argued that Georgia’s standard is unconstitutional because mental diagnoses are subject to a degree of uncertainty that is virtually impossible to overcome. But the standard has repeatedly been upheld by state and federal courts.

Hill’s lawyers had asked the U.S. Supreme Court to consider Hill’s case in light of a ruling it issued in May that knocked down a Florida law. The high court said in that ruling that defendants should have a fair opportunity to show the Constitution prohibits their execution. Hill’s lawyers argued that ruling should also invalidate Georgia’s tough burden of proof.

Days before Hill was to be executed in February 2013, his lawyers submitted new statements from the three doctors who had examined Hill in 2000 and testified at his trial that he was not intellectually disabled. In their new statements, the doctors wrote that they had been rushed at the time of Hill’s trial, and new scientific developments had surfaced since then. All three reviewed facts and documents in the case and wrote that they believed Hill is intellectually disabled.

The State Board of Pardons and Paroles, the only entity authorized to commute a death sentence to life in prison, on Tuesday rejected Hill’s clemency petition.

https://www.valdostadailytimes.com/news/state_news/ga-man-executed-for-killing-fellow-inmate/article_c93fd93a-a69c-11e4-bddb-8f62055d4be7.html

Andrew Brannan Georgia Execution

Andrew Brannan was executed by the State of Georgia for the murder of a police officer. According to court documents Andrew Brannan would be involved in an argument with Laurens County Sheriff Deputy Kyle Dinkheller after being pulled over for speeding at nearly 100mph. Andrew Brannan would pull out a gun and fatally shoot the Sheriff Deputy. Andrew Brannan would be arrested, convicted and sentenced to death. Andrew Brannan who was a Vietnam vet with a documented case of severe PTSD would be executed by lethal injection on January 13, 2015.

Andrew Brannan More News

Convicted killer Andrew Brannan, who murdered a Georgia sheriff’s deputy 17 years ago, was put to death Tuesday night after attempts for clemency citing his post-traumatic stress disorder developed in combat in Vietnam were denied.

The execution was carried out by lethal injection at 8:33 p.m. at the Diagnostic and Classification Prison in Jackson, Ga. Brannan’s lawyers had filed numerous appeals in recent days asking for clemency and a stay of execution, saying the post-traumatic stress he developed after serving in combat in the Army had crippled him for life.

Andrew Brannan, 66, lost his temper with Laurens County Sheriff Deputy Kyle Dinkheller, on Jan. 12, 1998, after driving 100 mph on a country road and getting pulled over by the officer. Brannan left his vehicle and sarcastically prodded Dinkheller to shoot him, screamed that he was a “goddamn Vietnam combat veteran,” and then retrieved a rifle from his pickup truck, according to a police cruiser dashboard camera video later released

The two men exchanged shots, with Brannan suffering one gunshot wound to the abdomen and Dinkheller getting hit nine times. The graphic video shows Dinkheller, a Laurens County deputy, screaming in terror and pain as Brannan closes in on him and kills him at point-blank range after reloading. It is now used in police training across the country.

The bid for clemency, detailed on Checkpoint on Sunday, comes at a time when Americans are openly debating altercations with police nationwide, and also how post-traumatic stress should be cared for and considered in modern military veterans. Brannan’s fate was hotly debated on social media by veterans and others in recent days.

Brannan lost a bid for clemency with the Georgia Board of Pardons and Paroles on Monday, and with Georgia’s top court and the U.S. Supreme Court on Tuesday. His lawyers had pleaded for leniency, noting his service to his country.

“Andrew’s combat experience forever altered his personality and his life,” his lawyers said in the most recent petition to the Georgia board. “Although he initially re-entered civilian life, he soon began to manifest signs of serious mental illness, which grew worse over time.”

In a statement, Brannan’s lawyer, Joe Loveland, said that he spoke to Brannan a few hours before his execution and had a message for fellow veterans who had supported him.

“I am proud to have been able to walk point for my comrades, and pray that the same thing does not happen to any of them,” Andrew Brannan said, according to Loveland.

According to military documents released by Brannan’s legal team, he served as a first lieutenant with the Army in Vietnam from June to December of 1970, working as a forward observer and directing artillery fire to assist nearby infantrymen. He twice stepped in as a company commander when other soldiers were lost.

https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/checkpoint/wp/2015/01/13/vietnam-veteran-andrew-brannan-executed-for-murder-after-ptsd-defense-fails/