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James Edward McKamey North Carolina Death Row

James Edward McKamey was sentenced to death by the State of North Carolina for the murder of a music teacher. According to court documents James Edward McKamey would stab to death Carol Greer and leave her body beside a building. James Edward McKamey was also convicted of an attempted murder committed during a robbery. During that incident the woman was able to escape and James Edward McKamey would flee and murder Carol Greer the same night. James Edward McKamey was convicted of murder, attempted murder and robbery and would be sentenced to death.

James Edward McKamey More News

James Edward McKamey, who was convicted of murder in the death of a former Columbus County music teacher, has been sentenced to death.

The jury announced the unanimous verdict Thursday morning after deliberating for about an hour. The jury spent more than three hours deliberating Wednesday and about another hour Thursday morning.

McKamey’s attorney told the judge he intends to file an appeal to the North Carolina Supreme Court.

“The death penalty is the law of North Carolina and the District Attorney’s Office will continue to seek its application in the most egregious murder cases,” District Attorney Jon David said. “The senseless killing of Carol Greer was an incident which cried out for maximum justice, and we felt it was important to let the community decide the appropriate punishment.”

McKamey was convicted in the 2016 murder of Carol Greer, a former music teacher in Columbus County. McKamey stabbed Greer to death and then left her body near a small storage building behind her home in August 2016.

The death penalty has become more uncommon as a punishment in North Carolina according to UNC School of Government Professor Jeff Welty.

“Previously, the law required prosecutors to pursue the death penalty in most first-degree murder cases. But in 2001, the law changed. That gave prosecutors the discretion to seek the death penalty when they thought it was appropriate and not to seek it when they didn’t think it was appropriate, and that just reduced the number of capital trials quite a bit,” said Welty.

According to the North Carolina Department of Public Safety, McKamey will become the 138th active death row inmate in North Carolina. The state has not carried out any executions since 2006 due to ongoing litigation.

“We’re in a situation right now where the death penalty still exists, and prosecutors who see value in it and believe in it can pursue it, and yet opponents can say that, you know, we haven’t had any executions in a long time and we aren’t likely to have any anytime soon,” said Welty. “In some ways, it is kind of an equilibrium, and I’m not sure that there’s a major change to that equilibrium on the horizon in the near term.”

McKamey also was found guilty of attempted murder and assault in connection to the stabbing of Reshonta Love. David says McKamey stabbed Love after she game him a ride home. Love got away and drove herself to the hospital. McKamey then went to Greer’s home, stabbed her to death, and stole her car.

Greer’s body was found a day after the incident. McKamey was arrested in Brunswick County later that week.

McKamey was also sentenced to concurrent sentences of 180-228 months for the attempted murder charge, and 73-100 month sentences on two counts of robbery with a dangerous weapon.

https://www.wect.com/2023/01/26/man-convicted-former-teachers-murder-sentenced-death/

Joshua Burgess North Carolina Death Row

Joshua Burgess has been sentenced to death by the State of North Carolina for the murder of a fifteen year old girl. According to court documents Joshua Burgess would sexually assault, torture and eventually murder his fifteen year old stepdaughter Zaria Burgess, in Monroe, North Carolina. According to police reports the vicious assault spanned nearly 22 hours. Fifteen year old Zaria Burgess eventually died after having her throat cut. Joshua Burgess would soon admit to police he had murdered someone and he was arrested. Nearly three years later Joshua Burgess would be found guilty and sentenced to death.

Joshua Burgess 2022 Information

Joshua Burgess More News

Joshua Lee Burgess, 35, has been sentenced to death less than three years after he tortured and killed his teenage daughter, Zaria Burgess, in Monroe, North Carolina.

On Friday, the jury handed down Burgess’ sentence after three hours of deliberations, according to the Union County District Attorney’s Office. The sentencing came after a three-week trial.

Burgess killed his 15-year-old daughter on August 18, 2019, according to the district attorney’s office. According to investigators, he psychologically and sexually tortured Zaria for 22 hours at his home along Airport Road. He then cut her throat.

In addition to being convicted of first-degree murder, Burgess was convicted of statutory rape, three counts of statutory sex offense, and first-degree sexual exploitation of a minor. In addition to a death sentence, Burgess was handed an additional 76 years of incarceration.

At the time of Zaria’s murder, law enforcement said the case was an example of “pure evil.” The 15-year-old was visiting her father for the weekend. After the killing, Burgess reportedly told the Union County Sheriff’s Office he had killed someone.

At the time, Zaria Burgess was a rising high school sophomore. She was on the dance team and in the marching band at Monroe High School. Her band director Alan Sturdivant previously said she was full of energy and was an ideal member of the band’s dance team.

Joshua Burgess will now be housed at Central Prison in Raleigh, North Carolina, which is where the North Carolina Department of Public Safety says male death row offenders are housed. The state’s execution protocol dictates death by pentobarbital, a type of lethal injection. Burgess’ execution date must be scheduled at least 15 days after his sentencing, but no more than 120 days.

https://www.wcnc.com/article/news/crime/josh-burgess-zaria-death-sentence-crime-local-union-county-monroe-nc/275-e163c6c0-d3e1-4673-b4d6-28e9b0e1761f

Joshua Burgess Other News

A Union County jury took three hours to decide that a Charlotte-area man should be sentenced to death for murdering and raping his 15-year-old daughter. In August 2019, Joshua Lee Burgess, 35, killed his daughter, Zaria, after sexually and psychologically torturing her for 22 hours at his home off Airport Road in Monroe. Zaria was visiting her father for the weekend, WCNC reported. Burgess was convicted of first-degree murder, one count of statutory rape, three counts of statutory sex offense and one count of first-degree sexual exploitation of a minor, Union County District Attorney Trey Robison’s office said in a news release. He received an additional minimum of nearly 76 years in prison for his crime

The jury’s decision came after a three-week trial, according to Robison’s office’s news release.

“This was truly an especially heinous, atrocious, and cruel killing of an innocent child,” Robison’s office said in the news release. “This case was emotionally taxing for everyone involved. We continue to grieve with and pray for Zaria’s mother.”

Zaria was a rising sophomore at Monroe High School and was a member of the marching band and dance team at the time of her death, WCNC reported.

“The details of this murder are indescribable. Every officer and detective involved in this case is feeling the effects of what happened to this child,” Union County Sheriff Eddie Cathey told the TV station. “There is no logical answer to explain why this man did what he is accused of doing. Our hearts and prayers are with Zaria’s mom and her family.”

Burgess took Union County detectives to the scene of the crime and “readily admitted to what transpired,” Tony Underwood with the Sheriff’s Office told WCNC in 2019. Burgess is currently at Central Prison in Raleigh, where male death row offenders are housed, the North Carolina Department of Public Safety said. A single dose of pentobarbital, a drug typically used to treat insomnia and anxiety, is used to kill offenders sentenced to death in NC, according to execution protocol.

https://www.charlotteobserver.com/news/local/crime/article262156597.html

John Rook North Carolina Execution

John Rook was executed by the State of North Carolina for the sexual assault and murder of a woman. According to court documents John Rook would kidnap the victim who was later sexually assaulted before being run over by a car. John Rock would be arrested, convicted and sentenced to death. John Rook would be executed by lethal injection on September 19 1986

John Rook More News

Wearing his favorite cowboy boots and proclaiming ‘Freedom, freedom — at last, man!’ John Rook was executed by injection today for the rape and murder of a 25-year-old nurse.

Rook, 27, lost his bid for a stay on 5-4 Supreme Court vote shortly before midnight EDT and was wheeled into the Central Prison execution chamber about 2 a.m. wearing a Harley-Davidson T-shirt, blue jeans and his Dingo boots.

Freedom, freedom — at last, man! It’s been a good one,’ said Rook, a feisty inmate who stood 5-foot-4 with braided, waist-length blond hair and a beard that hung midway down his chest.

John Rook, whose execution had been postponed five times, received a lethal injection of the muscle relaxant procuronium bromide and was pronounced dead at 2:11 a.m., corrections spokeswoman Renee McCoy said.

‘He seemed to be very peaceful,’ said witness Lisa Shell. ‘He took several deep breaths (and) sighs and then there was a sunken impression on his chest.’

John Rook was convicted of killing Ann Marie Roche, 25, a Raleigh nurse he abducted and raped during a 1980 drinking spree. The woman was beaten with a tire iron, slashed with a knife, run over with a car and left to die in an isolated field, police said. Her body was still warm when found the next day — evidence her death had been long and painful, experts said

John Rook ordered a final meal of 12 hot dogs ‘all the way’ Thursday but only ate three, McCoy said. He made a point of telling officials that he planned to wear his Harley-Davidson T-Shirt and Dingo boots to the execution chamber.

John Rook was the 66th person nationwide and the third in North Carolina to be executed since the reinstatement of capital punishment in 1976. Velma Barfield, a 54-year-old grandmother put to death in 1984, was the state’s last execution.

Texas leads the nation in the number of post-1976 executions with 18.

John Rook had asked the Supreme Court to grant the stay on grounds the death penalty discriminates against males, poor people and those whose victims are white. Rook and Roche were white.

Rook’s attorneys said in asking Gov. Jim Martin to grant clemency that the state is partly to blame for failing to intervene in Rook’s family situation. Rook’s brother said their father once stripped young Rook naked and beat him with a belt until he bled, and often gave Rook liquor and beer as early as age 4 to watch him get ‘stone drunk.’

Martin’s decision not to grant clemency came about 12 hours before the scheduled execution.

https://www.upi.com/Archives/1986/09/19/Rook-executed-for-killing-nurse/5028527486400/

James Hutchins North Carolina Execution

James Hutchins was executed by the State of North Carolina for the murders of 3 police officers. According to court documents James Hutchins would have an argument with his daughters that turned violent and the police were called. The first two responding officers Captain Roy Huskey, 42, and Deputy Owen Messersmith, 58 would be shot and killed. James Hutchins would take off and be later pulled over by a North Carolina State Trooper who did not know that he was wanted for the two murders. State Trooper Robert L. “Pete” Peterson, 37, would be shot and killed. James Hutchins would later be arrested, convicted and sentenced to death. James Hutchins would be executed on March 16, 1984 by lethal injection

James Hutchins More News

James W. Hutchins was executed by lethal injection early this morning for the slayings of three law officers almost five years ago.

Gov. James B. Hunt Jr. had refused on Thursday to halt the execution. Mr. Hutchins, who had asked his lawyers to drop all appeals, was the 15th convict put to death since the United States Supreme Court reinstated capital punishment in 1976, and the third to die by lethal injection. The latest occurred Wednesday when James David Autry was executed in Texas.

Mr. Hutchins, 54 years old, visited with his wife, Geneva, on Thursday at Central Prison in Raleigh. He also met with a minister from his native Rutherford County, where the slayings occurred after Mr. Hutchins and his daughter, Charlotte, argued over the amount of alcohol in a bowl of punch for a high school graduation party.

A Department of Correction spokesman, Patty McQuillan, said the condemned man twice refused to order a last meal, but ate a steak sandwich and drank a soft drink about 1 P.M. He spent the evening reading a newspaper and 14 letters he had received, including one from his son, Jamie, she said. He also visited with his wife again and called Jamie and spoke to him for about two minutes.

The last execution in North Carolina was on Oct. 27, 1961, when Theodore Boykin went to the gas chamber for the rape and murder of a Duplin County housewife.

Mr. Hutchins selected as his method of execution a lethal injection of drugs, sodium thiopental, to induce a deep sleep and the paralytic drug procuronium bromide to cause death.

He was sentenced to die in September 1979 fort the shooting deaths of Sheriff’s Deputy Owen Messersmith and Highway Patrol Trooper Robert L. Peterson. He also received a life sentence for the death of another deputy, Roy Huskey. The deputies were killed answering a call for help from Mr. Hutchins’s daughter. The trooper was killed as he pursued James Hutchins as he fled in a car after the killings.

David Lynch North Carolina Death Row

David Lynch was convicted of a double murder and sentenced to death by the State of North Carolina. According to court documents David Lynch would open fire on a group of people killing a twelve year old girl and her father while wounding five more people. No reason was given for why he opened fire. David Lynch would be arrested, convicted and sentenced to death

David Lynch 2021 Information

Offender Number:	0251740
Inmate Status:	ACTIVE
Gender:	MALE
Race:	WHITE
Ethnic Group:	UNKNOWN
Birth Date:	02/24/1960
Age:	61
Current Location:	CENTRAL PRISON

David Lynch More News

A loner who neighbors said regularly cursed at the children in his community was charged Monday with killing a 12-year-old girl and her father and wounding at least five other people in a morning-long siege.

David Clayton Lynch, 31, surrendered and was ordered held without bond in Gaston County Jail. A hearing was set for Tuesday.

In Lynch’s neat ranch house police found weapons in place at several windows and cases of ammunition. ″He’s got more guns than we had out here,″ Capt. Archie Huffstetler said.

Sporadic gunfire into the neighborhood of mostly single-family homes prevented rescuers from reaching some victims for several hours.

Anita Kiser, who lives across the street, said Lynch had a history of cursing, throwing rocks and ″generally terrorizing″ neighborhood children. ″He has never been a friendly neighbor,″ she told the Shelby Star during the ordeal. ″He is ugly to everyone.″

Lynch surrendered around midday, more than four hours after the siege began, said Ken Beach, assistant Gaston County police chief.

He was charged with first-degree murder, assault with a deadly weapon with intent to kill, assaulting police and shooting into an empty vehicle.

Police said a minor traffic citation was their only record of Lynch.

Neighbors said India Anderson was shot to death while waiting for her school bus Monday morning in her yard across the street from Lynch. Her father, Bobby, was shot minutes later. Rescuers couldn’t get to either one until Lynch gave himself up.

The wounded included the girl’s mother, a father and son living next door to Lynch and two police officers.

″He’d been hollering at the kids and threatening to spit on them,″ said Donna Overman, 18, who lives in the area. Vivian Whitlock, whose back yard abuts the gunman’s property, said her granddaughter had just boarded the school bus when she heard gunfire. Ms. Whitlock said she fled by car with her 4-year-old grandson.

″I didn’t know what to do. I was scared to death,″ she said.

Before the standoff ended, the gunman fired four shots, apparently aiming at two helicopters circling overhead. Police were in one chopper, a television crew was in the other.

https://apnews.com/article/3e229de3792762aee051843c19b8fa33