September 2021 | Page 6 of 17

Anthony Doyle Texas Execution

Anthony Doyle was executed by the State of Texas for a robbery murder. According to court documents Anthony Doyle would make an order from a restaurant and when the delivery person showed up he would demand her money and when Hyun Cho replied she did not have any Anthony Doyle would fatally beat her with a baseball bat. Anthony Doyle would be arrested, convicted and sentenced to death. Anthony Doyle would be executed by lethal injection on March 27, 2014.

Anthony Doyle More News

Texas executed convicted murderer Anthony Doyle on Thursday as it kept the pace of executions steady while other states have had to postpone capital punishments because they cannot obtain drugs used in lethal injections.

Doyle, 29, was convicted of beating food delivery woman Hyun Cho, a South Korean native, to death in 2003 with a baseball bat, putting her body in a trash can and stealing her car.

Doyle was pronounced dead at 6:49 p.m. CDT (2349 GMT) at the state’s death chamber in Huntsville after receiving a lethal injection. He did not make a last statement, a Department of Criminal Justice spokesman said.

Texas, which has executed more people than any other state since the U.S. Supreme Court reinstated the death penalty in 1976, has obtained a fresh batch of its execution drug pentobarbital, the Department of Criminal Justice said this month, without revealing the source.

On Thursday, a state judge ordered Texas to release the name of its new drug supplier. The state attorney general’s office said it would appeal the ruling.

The decision was for two inmates due to be executed in April and had no impact on Doyle’s execution.

Many other U.S. states have been struggling to obtain drugs for executions after pharmaceutical firms, mostly in Europe, imposed sales bans because they object to having medications used in lethal injections.

Oklahoma has had to postpone two executions planned for this month because it could not find drugs. Alabama said this week it has run out of one of the main drugs it uses, putting on hold executions for 16 inmates who have exhausted appeals and face capital punishment.

Several states have looked to alter the chemicals used for lethal injection and keep the suppliers’ identities secret. They have also turned to lightly regulated compounding pharmacies that can mix chemicals.

But an Oklahoma judge ruled on Wednesday that the state’s secrecy on its lethal injections protocols was unconstitutional, a decision that could delay executions in other states where death row inmates are planning to launch similar challenges.

Texas plans to execute five more inmates between now and the end of May, about the same number as every other state combined for the period, according to the Death Penalty Information Center, a non-profit organization which monitors capital punishment.

Doyle was the fourth person executed in Texas this year and the 512th in the state since the death penalty was reinstated.

But executions overall have been on the decline in Texas, after hitting a peak of 40 in 2000. Since 2010, Texas has averaged about 15 executions a year.

The high costs of prosecutions and the availability of a sentence of life without parole have caused capital punishment convictions to fall to about 10 or less a year in recent years.

“We are now very selective in what we choose to go after as death penalty cases, instead of deciding that every single murder that we try will be a capital case,” said Susan Reed, the district attorney in San Antonio and a death penalty supporter.

https://www.reuters.com/article/us-usa-execution-texas-doyle-idUSBREA2R00R20140328

Jeffrey Ferguson Missouri Execution

Jeffrey Ferguson was executed by the State of Missouri for the sexual assault and murder of a teen girl. According to court documents Jeffrey Ferguson would kidnap seventeen year old Kelli Hall as she was finishing her shift at a St. Louis gas station. Kelli Hall would be sexually assaulted and murdered. Jeffrey Ferguson would be arrested, convicted and sentenced to death. Jeffrey Ferguson would be executed by lethal injection on March 26, 2014

Jeffrey Ferguson More News

A man convicted of kidnapping, raping and killing a 17-year-old girl in suburban St. Louis was executed early Wednesday in Missouri, marking the state’s fifth execution in as many months.

Jeffrey Ferguson abducted Kelli Hall as she finished her shift at a Mobil gas station in St. Charles on Feb. 9, 1989. Her naked, frozen body was found 13 days later on a St. Louis County farm, and investigators determined she had been raped and strangled.

Ferguson, 59, was pronounced dead shortly after midnight at the state prison in Bonne Terre.

In an attempt to spare his life, Ferguson’s attorneys made last-minute court appeals challenging, among other things, the state’s refusal to disclose where it gets its execution drugs. Supporters said Ferguson, who expressed remorse for the crime, became deeply religious in prison, counseled inmates and helped start a prison hospice program.

“Society doesn’t gain anything by his execution,” Rita Linhardt of Missourians for Alternatives to the Death Penalty, said Tuesday. “He’s not the same man he was 24 years ago.”

His attorney also said he was an alcoholic who blacked out the night of the murder.

But St. Louis County prosecutor Bob McCulloch said Ferguson’s good deeds in prison didn’t make up for the senseless killing of an innocent teenager. Calling the crime “unspeakable,” he noted that it took several minutes for Hall to die.

“She gets abducted, abused in unspeakable manner by this guy and then slowly murdered and dumped in a field like a bag of garbage,” McCulloch said.

The courts appeared to agree: The U.S. Supreme Court, the 8th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals and the governor all refused to halt the execution.

https://www.nbcnews.com/news/crime-courts/missouri-executes-man-who-raped-killed-teen-1989-n62256

Robert Henry Florida Execution

Robert Henry was executed by the State of Florida for a double murder committed during a robbery. According to court documents Robert Henry would rob a Cloth World and in the process would beat the two workers with a hammer before setting them on fire causing their deaths. Robert Henry would be arrested, convicted and sentenced to death. Robert Henry would be executed by lethal injection on March 20, 2014

Robert Henry More News

The man convicted of killing two female co-workers by beating them with a hammer and setting them ablaze during a robbery at the store where they worked has been executed.

Authorities say 55-year-old Robert L. Henry was pronounced dead at 6:16 p.m. following a lethal injection Thursday at the Florida State Prison.

He was convicted of two counts of first-degree murder in the Nov. 2, 1987, slayings of 53-year-old Phyllis Harris and 35-year-old Janet Thermidor at the Cloth World store in Deerfield Beach. Authorities said he stole $1,269 from the fabric store.

Thermidor lived for hours after being attacked and identified Henry to investigators. Michael Satz, prosecutor at Henry’s 1988 trial, told jurors the killings were evil, adding “He literally burned them up.”

Although Henry at first told police the crime was committed by an unknown assailant, Thermidor lived long enough to positively identify him as the perpetrator in a recorded statement to investigators. Broward State Attorney Michael Satz, who prosecuted the 1988 trial, told the jury that Henry had committed one of the most cold-blooded acts in recent memory.

Barring a last-minute reprieve from the United States Supreme Court, Henry will be put to death Thursday. The Florida Supreme Court rejected his most recent appeals last week, including yet another challenge to the state’s method of lethal injection. Henry would be the fourth person executed in Florida this year.

In his latest appeal to the U.S. Supreme Court, Henry’s lawyers cite medical experts who claim that one of the drugs used in Florida’s lethal injection procedure, midazolam, could cause a heart attack and extreme pain, because Henry suffers from coronary artery disease, high blood pressure and high cholesterol levels.

His lawyers seek a stay of execution so those issues can be sorted out, citing the Eighth Amendment’s prohibition against cruel and unusual punishment.

In response, the Florida attorney general’s office said there is no requirement for a hearing for each inmate who claims he might suffer some level of pain in the execution process. They also noted that five death row inmates have been executed “without any mishap” using the newer drug combination.

According to trial testimony and his own statements to police, Henry first approached Harris after the store had closed on Nov. 2, 1987, telling her unknown robbers had ordered him to tie her up and blindfold her.

Henry took Harris to a restroom, tied her to a urinal, then went to the store’s office where he hit Thermidor repeatedly on the head with hammer, doused her with a flammable liquid and set her on fire. Henry then went back to the restroom and attacked Harris with the hammer, setting her ablaze as well.

Authorities responding to the fire found Harris dead, but Thermidor still alive, after she had tried to douse the flames in a second restroom. She lived about 12 hours, and her statement pointed to Robert Henry. He was arrested the next day.

Henry was convicted of two counts of first-degree murder, armed robbery and arson, largely on the strength of Thermidor’s deathbed statement

Henry’s lawyer tried unsuccessfully to persuade jurors that Thermidor never said on the tape that she actually saw Henry and that police had improperly coerced his confession.

https://miami.cbslocal.com/2014/03/20/s-florida-killer-faces-execution-thursday-evening/

Ray Jasper Texas Execution

Ray Jasper was executed by the State of Texas for a robbery murder. According to court documents Ray Jasper would attempt to steal recording equipment from David Alejandro and in the process would slit his throat causing his death. Ray Jasper would be arrested, convicted and sentenced to death. Ray Jasper would be executed by lethal injection on March 19, 2014

Ray Jasper More News

Ray Jasper, who was convicted 14 years ago of killing a man he intended to rob of recording equipment by slashing his throat, has been executed.

Officials pronounced Jasper dead at 6:31 p.m. Wednesday, after a lethal dose of pentobarbital was injected into his system.

Of the three men found guilty of David Alejandro‘s November 1998 slaying, Jasper, 33, was the only one to receive a death sentence.

Co-defendants Steve Russell and Douglas Williams are each serving life sentences. Russell took a plea deal days after a jury sentenced Jasper to death and Williams was sentenced to life by a jury six months later.

No one from Jasper’s family was in Huntsville Wednesday to witness the execution. No one from the Alejandro family, who are against the death penalty, attended either — instead opting to spend the evening together in San Antonio.

During his capital murder trial in 2000, Jasper, a local rapper, admitted to using a kitchen knife to cut David Alejandro’s throat during what was supposed to be a recording session at the victim’s studio.

But Jasper also insisted that he wasn’t responsible for Alejandro’s death. It was instead the 25 stab wounds inflicted by Williams and Russell that caused the death, he asserted on the witness stand.

In a seven-page letter Jasper recently sent to Gawker.com that he has described as his final statement, he continued to deflect responsibility.

“I’m on death row and yet I didn’t commit the act of murder,” he said in the letter, which has been touted by Gawker.com for having been read 1.7 million times.

He is the third inmate executed in Texas this year.

https://www.mysanantonio.com/news/local/article/S-A-rapper-Ray-Jasper-executed-5332421.php

Paul Howell Florida Execution

Paul Howell was executed by the State of Florida for the murder of a State Trooper. According to court documents Paul Howell had made a pipe bomb and had placed it in a microwave with the intention of killing someone who could connect him to a murder. Paul Howell would hire another man to deliver the bomb but as he was driving to the witness home he was stopped by the police and taken into custody on an unrelated manner. Soon after the pipe bomb would explode killing State Trooper Jimmy Fulford. Paul Howell would be convicted and sentenced to death. Paul Howell would be executed on February 26, 2014

Paul Howell More News

Paul Augustus Howell, convicted in the 1992 pipe-bombing death of state trooper Jimmy Fulford, said he was sorry for his crime before he was executed Wednesday night at Florida State Prison.

“I would like to apologize to the Fulford family for what happened back in 1992,” Howell said during a more than two-minute statement. After giving the statement, Howell said prayers as he was given a series of lethal-injection drugs.

Howell, a Jamaican native who learned bomb-making skills in the Army, was a member of the violent Jamaican Posse, which was notorious for trafficking in crack cocaine and guns. He rigged a microwave oven with a pipe bomb to silence a Marianna woman who could tie him to the murder of a South Florida drug dealer.

Howell hired another man, Lester Watson, to deliver the bomb to the woman. On Feb. 1, 1992, Fulford stopped the car for speeding along Interstate 10 in Jefferson County. After examining the gift-wrapped package, the bomb exploded, killing Fulford instantly.

During his statement, Howell said he’d instructed Watson that no matter what, “Don’t let a cop get in the car.” He also said he originally was going to place the bomb inside a television set, but another woman, a cousin described in court documents as another potential witness, told him to put it in a microwave because the woman he intended to kill would be using it to heat up a bottle for her baby.

“So I’m sorry about that,” Howell said as he lay strapped to a gurney with an IV in his left arm.

The execution began about 6:18 p.m. About two minutes later, Howell closed his eyes. A couple of minutes later, the team warden conducted a consciousness check by touching his eyelash and pinching a neck muscle. He was pronounced dead at 6:32 p.m.

Howell visited earlier in the week with his wife and grown daughter at the prison. He asked that they not attend the execution. None of Fulford’s family members attended the execution, said Jessica Cary, a spokeswoman for the Florida Department of Corrections.

Fulford’s twin brother, Tim Fulford, said Howell’s apology brought “a little bit of comfort.” But he said the only thing that would bring him closure is “if my brother came walking through the door.”

“The main thing I want people to know is the system takes too long,” he said. “But I’m glad it’s finally over.”

Maj. Mark Welch of the Florida Highway Patrol gave a short statement after the execution.

“Twenty-two years ago this month, the patrol lost one of its most courageous and brave officers, trooper Jimmy Fulford,” he said. “And rather than reflect on the incident that happened this night, we prefer to use this opportunity to honor trooper Fulford and let this serve as a reminder of the dangers that law-enforcement officers face each and every day they put on their uniform and leave their homes and their families behind.”

State Attorney Willie Meggs, Jefferson County Sheriff David Hobbs and Wakulla County Sheriff Charlie Creel were among the witnesses at the execution.

“For the Fulford family, I hope it brings them closure,” Meggs said. “I think justice was done. And my basis for that was Paul Howell had the opportunity to not let this happen.”

Dispatchers contacted Howell during the traffic stop, and prosecutors have said he could have signaled to someone to stay away from the bomb but never did.

https://www.tallahassee.com/story/politics/2014/02/27/howell-apologizes-to-family-before-execution/5854789/