October 2021 | Page 7 of 8 | My Crime Library

Willie Scott Alabama Death Row

Willie Scott was sentenced to death by the State of Alabama for the rape and murder of a ten year old girl. According to court documents Willie Smith would sexually assault and murder ten year old Latonya Sager who was residing in the same home. Willie Scott would be arrested, convicted and sentenced to death

Willie Scott 2021 Information

Inmate:	SCOTT, WILLIE EARL
AIS:	0000Z691

Institution:	HOLMAN PRISON

Willie Scott More News

The evidence presented at trial tended to establish the following. Willie Earl Scott (Scott), who was 19 years old at the time, lived with his grandmother. Latonya Sager, the 10-year-old murder victim, also lived in the house, as did her younger sister and their mother, Latrice Sager. Latrice’s brother, Albert, his girlfriend, Shaneka Scott, and their two children lived there, too. Shaneka and Scott are cousins. During the evening of September 10, 1999, Latrice went to her mother’s house to play cards; Latonya accompanied her mother. Latrice and Latonya returned home at approximately 1:30 a.m. on September 11, 1999. While they were driving home, they saw Scott walking near the house. Latonya and Latrice went to the basement of the house, where their bedrooms were located. Latonya told her mother that she was very tired, and she went into her bedroom. Latonya was wearing her school uniform, which consisted of a white shirt and blue shorts; she was wearing panties and blue slippers, too.

Latrice went into her own bedroom and placed a handgun and some jewelry on the ironing board. She then took a bath. When she came out of the bathroom, she saw Willie Scott come into the house through the garage entrance he regularly used. He ran upstairs into the house. Latrice testified that Scott was playing rap music on the radio in the kitchen. Latrice told Latonya to go upstairs and turn on the air conditioning, which she did. Latonya and Latrice retired to their bedrooms for the night. During the night, Scott’s grandmother got up and saw Willie Scott driving away in a Lexus automobile that had been parked outside the house.

On the following morning Albert was attempting to locate a broom downstairs. Latrice told him to look in Latonya’s room. The door to Latonya’s room was locked and when Albert knocked on the door, Latonya did not answer. Albert removed the doorknob and entered the room with Latrice. Latonya appeared to be sleeping on her stomach and was partially covered by a sheet. Latrice touched Latonya’s foot and discovered it was cold. Latonya was dead. Latrice later realized that her gun was missing from her bedroom and that the Lexus was missing from the driveway.

Dr. Bruce Alexander performed the autopsy on Latonya’s body. He stated that Latonya weighed 64 pounds and was slightly more than four and one-half feet tall. The doctor observed that Latonya’s lower lip was bruised and she had an abrasion or a scratch on her neck. The doctor discovered small hemorrhages in the whites of her eyes, which are consistent with asphyxiation. He discovered extensive hemorrhaging beneath Latonya’s vocal cords and her larynx, as well as below her lower left eyelid. The doctor observed extensive swelling of Latonya’s brain and hemorrhaging in the area behind the brain. The doctor concluded that the cause of death was asphyxiation with strangulation and possibly also with suffocation. (R. 619.)

Dr. Alexander also observed a shiny substance around Latonya’s pubic area and inside both of her thighs. That material was collected and analyzed at a laboratory. The results of the analysis revealed the substance to be semen. The semen on Latonya’s right inner thigh contained Scott’s DNA. (R. 714-17.) The doctor took oral, anal, and vaginal swabs and discovered no sperm in any of the tested areas.

Also on the evening of September 10, 1999, Landris Wright had spent the night with her aunt, Gladys Wright Smith; Smith’s residence was located less than 10 miles from the residence where Latonya Sager was murdered. Wright and Smith testified that a “peeping Tom” had looked into the bedroom window at approximately 3:20 a.m., and Smith had twice reported the “peeping Tom” to the police that night. At approximately 6:00 a.m. on the morning of September 11, 1999, Scott pushed his way into Smith’s home, waving a gun. Smith and Wright were acquainted with Scott, but they had not invited him into the apartment that morning. Smith testified that Scott was acting “weird,” so she convinced him to leave the residence and to go with her to a nearby restaurant where she worked. (R. 438-39.) Scott drove to the restaurant in a Lexus automobile.

Willie Scott left the restaurant soon after he arrived there. Fearing for Wright’s safety because Scott had left, Smith called Wright and told her to check the doors and the windows in the apartment to be sure they were locked. She also told Wright not to let Scott into her home. Wright did not check the doors because her aunt usually locked them herself. Scott returned to Smith’s apartment at approximately 7:00 a.m., while Wright was taking a shower. Wright testified that, when she got out of the shower, Scott threw her on the bed and choked her. The two struggled; Willie Scott had a gun in his hand. Scott raped Wright.

Willie Scott then made Wright go into the bathroom where he forced her head into the toilet and put a pillow against the back of her head. He put a bullet in the chamber of the gun and told Wright he was going to blow her brains out. Scott forced Wright to bathe in the tub for approximately an hour. He then raped her a second time. She said that after he raped her again, he again forced her head into the toilet and then made her get into the tub. While she was in the bathtub, he brought some vinegar from the kitchen and poured it into the bath water. He made Wright clean herself in the bathtub.

Wright said that, after she got out of the tub,Willie Scott made her sit on the bedroom floor. He told her that he had killed a girl on the night before. He also told her that he had killed a boy over drugs and that he had raped another girl. Scott then told Wright to lie on the bed with him. He put his leg across hers so that she could not move and then he fell asleep. When she was certain that Willie Scott was asleep, she ran from the house to a nearby store, where someone flagged down police officers who were in the area.

The police took Wright to Smith’s residence and made her wait outside while they went into the house. The police brought Scott out and Wright heard Scott cursing and hollering. She testified that Willie Scott said he would be out of jail the next day. He also attempted to spit on Wright and he threatened to “chop up” her brother. (R. 377-78.) Wright’s mother testified that her daughter placed a frantic telephone call to her after she escaped from the house, and she and two of her children drove to Smith’s house. She, too, said that when Scott was brought out of the house, he was screaming and saying all kinds of things; he threatened to cut up her son. Wright’s mother testified that Scott said, “Y’all tripping about some pussy.” (R. 481.)

Officer Terri Jones of the Birmingham Police Department was on patrol in the area of Smith’s apartment when she was flagged down outside a business. Landris Wright told her that she had been raped by a man who was asleep inside her apartment. Jones and another officer went into Smith’s apartment and located Scott, who was asleep on the bed wearing only his underwear. The officers touched him to awaken him and he jumped out of bed, screamed, and ran around, out of control. He knocked down the blinds covering the window and broke the glass in the window with his head or his elbow, as if he intended to jump out of the window. Wright identified Scott as the man who had raped her. After he was arrested, the police found a handgun beneath the bed.

When the officers asked Willie Scott his name, he stated that his name was George Dwight Goldthwaite. (R. 332.) Two traffic citations were in the pocket of his pants that the officers found on the floor. Scott’s name was not on the citations; the name George Dwight Goldthwaite was on the citations. The citations had been issued the night before and were issued in two locations not far from the scene of the rape. Wright said she knew the suspect by the name “Willie Red” or “Willie Earl.” Smith later stated that she knew him by the name Willie Earl Scott. (R. 332.) When the officers checked the license plate on the Lexus at the scene, they learned that the vehicle was registered to someone who lived at the house where Latonya Sager had been murdered. While Willie Scott was being transported to the police station, information came over the police radio about Sager’s death. Officer Jones testified that Scott began to cry, and he asked, “What happened at my house?” (R. 323.)

Forensic tests revealed no semen or DNA from Scott on any of the swabs taken from Landris Wright, or on the bedsheet collected at the scene. The forensic biologist testified that bathing can diminish the presence of semen, but that it is possible to find semen even after a woman has bathed and douched. (R. 749-52.)

After the State rested its case, the court held an in camera hearing because defense counsel wanted to rest without presenting any witnesses, while Scott wanted to present witnesses who, his attorney believed, would damage his case. After hearing the arguments of defense counsel and his client, the trial court directed defense counsel to call the witnesses to testify.

Charlie May Scott, the defendant’s aunt; Bonnie Scott, the defendant’s grandmother; and Rachel Hillary testified on Scott’s behalf. They provided no substantive testimony regarding the crimes, although Hillary testified that she saw Scott driving a Lexus after midnight on the night the crimes were committed.

The jury found Scott guilty on all counts, and the trial court adjudicated him in accordance with the guilty verdicts. The court then held a sentencing hearing before the jury.

https://caselaw.findlaw.com/al-court-of-criminal-appeals/1147880.html

Alfonzo Morris Alabama Death Row

Alfonzo Morris was sentence to death by the State of Alabama for the murder of an elderly woman during a robbery. According to court documents Alfonzo Morris broke into the home of eighty five year old Miriam Rochester and would proceed to beat the elderly woman to death. Alfonzo Morris would be arrested, convicted and sentenced to death.

Alfonzo Morris 2021 Information

Inmate:	MORRIS, ALFONZO
AIS:	0000Z695

Institution:	HOLMAN PRISON

Alfonzo Morris More News

The State’s evidence showed that on February 24, 1997, Miriam Rochester, who was 85 years-old, used a walker, and weighed 92 pounds, was beaten to death in her home. Rochester had transformed her home into a duplex and had taken in a boarder, Elizabeth Russell, who was also elderly and in poor health. The two ladies had become friends, and, on the night of the offense, at approximately 9:30 p.m., Rochester telephoned one of Russell’s sons to inform him that Russell had become ill and was being taken to the hospital.

A rescue unit and fire engine arrived at the house at approximately 9:00 p.m. and were shown to Russell by Rochester. The paramedic who was the driver of the rescue unit testified that the “house was very neat and orderly.” (R. 201.) After Russell was assessed and the ambulance called, the paramedic testified that she went outside to check on her truck. She testified that she saw someone “fooling around my rescue unit acting like he was looking in the windows, fooling with the doors.” (R. 203.) She then asked the person if there was a problem and if she could help him. The man, whom she identified in court as Morris, walked up to her and asked what was happening and who was sick; he insisted that he wanted to go inside the house. The paramedic testified that at one point Morris attempted to bypass her and enter the house, but she prevented him from doing so. He told her that “he lived in that area and he knew everybody and he had a right to go in there.” (R. 205.)

Although Morris smelled strongly of alcohol, the paramedic testified that Morris understood what she was telling him and that his responses were appropriate. As the paramedic saw the rescue crew carrying Russell out to the ambulance, she also saw Morris finally turn and walk away. The paramedic thereafter stepped into the ambulance and through the opened back doors of the vehicle saw that Morris had returned. She informed her partner that Morris had been causing trouble previously, and her partner instructed him to leave. The paramedic testified that she saw Morris walk approximately half of a block away as the rescue crew left.

At approximately 10:00 p.m., Russell’s son telephoned Rochester to update her on Russell’s condition. He received a call from his brother about an hour later, informing him that the brother had been to Rochester’s house at his mother’s request and that the door was open and the house appeared to have been ransacked. Both of Russell’s sons then went to the house and without entering determined, that the house had been vandalized. They attempted to telephone Rochester and then telephoned the police.

The police and rescue units arrived around midnight, among them the same paramedic who had earlier cared for Russell. She testified that she originally believed that Russell was the deceased. However, because of the number of police officers present, she determined that the death was not believed to be due to natural causes. She informed the officers that she had been called to the house earlier on that night and that the house had not been in disarray. She also told them about Morris’s presence and behavior. She did not know his name at that time but gave the officers his description.

The first officer who had arrived at the scene testified that there were “pry marks” on the door, indicating forced entry. (R. 261.) He took a description from the paramedic of the man who had attempted to gain entry into the house and, after the scene was processed, he left at approximately 4:00 a.m. and resumed his patrol of the area. At approximately 5:00 a.m., he observed a man fitting the description of the person who had earlier attempted to enter Rochester’s house earlier. The man appeared to be intoxicated and was staggering down the middle of the street. The officer asked the man questions and he responded in a “slurred, but logical way.” (R. 265.) The officer determined that it was not safe for the man to continue and arrested him for public intoxication. The officer identified Morris at trial as the man he had arrested. He asked the man if he was carrying any weapons, and he responded that he had a pocketknife in his right front pocket. (R. 267.) He also stated that he had other items in his pockets that he described as “junk.” (R. 267.) The officer stated that the items were pieces of costume jewelry. He also had a couple of pills and a cigarette in his pockets. Morris identified himself as “Anthony Morris” and gave the officer an address for his residence.¹ (R. 270.)

Before the officer left the scene of Morris’s arrest, the paramedic was brought to that location to determine if she could identify him as the man she had seen earlier. The paramedic testified that she was certain that he was the man she had seen earlier at Rochester’s house. (R. 223.) Morris was taken to the administrative building where officers concluded that he was too intoxicated to be interviewed. He was taken to jail for the night and interviewed the following day.

Rochester’s granddaughter and Russell’s son identified some of the jewelry taken from Morris as belonging to the victim and Russell .² Blood found on Morris’s shoe was determined to be Rochester’s and a cigarette butt found in the Rochester’s house contained Morris’s DNA.

Morris testified at trial that he had been drinking on the day of the offense and had gotten into an argument with the man with whom he had been living. He left the house and eventually began gambling with a man known as “Cue Ball.” (R. 433.) He testified that he won a bag of jewelry from “Cue Ball” and that, as he was attempting to gather the jewelry, “Cue Ball” snatched money from him and a fight ensued. He stated that other gamblers got involved in the altercation, because they did not want him to leave since he was winning. Morris stated that he suffered cuts and bruises, as well as a laceration over his eye, in the altercation. He testified that “Cue Ball” threw the jewelry at him and that he picked it up and walked to a Huddle House restaurant for breakfast. He stated that he became belligerent with the waitress because he had been drinking, and he was forced to leave. He also testified that after eating he put a cigarette in his mouth but did not light it.

Morris testified that he then encountered a police officer who indicated that Morris appeared to have been drinking and arrested him for public intoxication. Morris stated that he was taken in the police car “to the scene of a crime in a house” (R. 441), where a woman identified him. (R. 443-444.) While he was standing in front of the police vehicle, he stated that a dog “came from somewhere” and ran around his feet. (R. 444.) He was subsequently taken to the hospital to treat the laceration to his eye and then was taken to the jail.

https://caselaw.findlaw.com/al-court-of-criminal-appeals/1507275.html

Rick Belisle Alabama Death Row

Rick Belisle was sentenced to death by the State of Alabama for the murder of a store worker in the middle of a robbery. According to court documents Rick Belisle and his wife would rob a convenience store where she use to work and would shoot and kill the store clerk Joyce Moore during the robbery. Rick Belisle would be arrested, convicted and sentenced to death

Rick Belisle 2021 Information

Inmate:	BELISLE, RICK ALLEN
AIS:	0000Z697

Institution:	HOLMAN PRISON

Rick Belisle More News

“The Court finds the facts of this case to be that in May of 1999, the defendant, Rick Belisle, and his wife and codefendant, Annette Belisle, were in desperate need of money and they together planned to burglarize the T & J [Kwik] Mart at the intersection of Highway 205 and 431 in Boaz, Alabama. Annette Belisle had worked at the store for a period of time and Rick Belisle had come there on occasion and assisted Annette Belisle. Both Annette Belisle and the defendant had access to the combination of the floor safe where the money was kept. The two had been to the store and had been seen in the store a couple of times on nights just prior to the incident. Rick and Annette Belisle had been ‘casing’ the store and finalizing their plans for the burglary.

On May 19, 1999, the defendant and Annette Belisle went to the store just prior to closing and were seen in the store by others. Annette Belisle had on other occasions distracted the cashier working in order for Rick Belisle to check out a good place to hide and wait for the store to close. On one occasion another cashier noticed Rick Belisle had gone to the bathroom for an extended period of time and she became suspicious of them.

On the night of May 19, 1999, the defendant hid in the ceiling of the bathroom and Annette Belisle left the store with the knowledge that Rick Belisle was hiding in the bathroom ceiling. After Joyce Moore closed the store, Rick Belisle confronted Joyce Moore, viciously attacked her with a large can of peas and a metal pipe which was part of an electric fan stand. The victim endured extreme pain and suffering before she died. After she was beaten to the point she was dying and lying face down on the floor in her own blood, she would raise up on her arms begging for help, and the defendant hit her again several times with the metal pipe, knocking her arms under her so she could not push up. Joyce Moore then died as a result of the injuries inflicted on her by Rick Belisle. He left the store, went home and told Annette Belisle about the events at the store.

Both Annette and Rick Belisle fled the State and went to Missouri where law enforcement officers found them after investigation. Rick Belisle stated in an unsolicited response to an investigator during a phone conversation, ‘You know what happened in Alabama was an accident.’ Then defendant in the same conversation denied any wrongdoing.”

The State’s evidence also tended to show the following: Dr. Stephen Pustilnick, the coroner who conducted the autopsy on Moore’s body, testified that she died of blunt-force trauma to the head. She sustained six blows to the front of her head and approximately eight blows to the back of her head. The blows were consistent, he said, with having been made by a flat rod or a can containing food. A six-pound can of peas was identified as one of the murder weapons.

In exchange for a 20-year sentence, Annette agreed to testify against her husband Rick Belisle. Annette testified that, before the murder, she and her husband were both out of work, had no money, and could not buy food.

Approximately two weeks before the murder, she said, she and Rick discussed robbing the T & J Kwik Mart convenience store. She knew the store because she had worked there and had quit working at the store about three weeks before the murder. She said that two days in advance of the incident, she and Rick went to “case” the store.

On May 19, 1999, they both went to the store and talked with Moore. She said that Rick left and came back in the store while Moore was busy with customers. Annette said that Rick never came out of the store, and that she left the store at around 10:00 p.m. and walked back to their house to wait on Rick. Rick got home, she said, at around 12:30 a.m. and told her that he had killed Moore. He told her that Moore was choking on her own blood and tried to get up, so he kept hitting her until she stopped. Rick had $898 in cash and $70 in rolled change when he came back to their house. Annette said that they flushed the coin wrappers down the toilet and put the change in a coffee can.

The next day, she went to a liquor store and a grocery store and spent some of the cash. About two days after the murder, she said, they sold most of their belongings and went to Missouri, where they both had family.

https://caselaw.findlaw.com/al-court-of-criminal-appeals/1059854.html

Lee Boyd Malvo Teen Killer DC Sniper

Lee Boyd Malvo is a teen killer who along with John Allen Muhammad would murder ten people. According to court documents Lee Boyd Malvo and John Allen Muhammad would carry out a series of attacks using a sniper rifle that would cause the deaths of ten people around the DC area. John Allen Muhammad would be sentenced to death and would be executed in 2009. Lee Boyd Malvo was seventeen years old at the time of the DC Sniper attacks was ineligible for the death penalty due to his age and would receive multiple life without parole sentences. Lee Boyd Malvo would claim years after his convictions that he was sexually abused by John Allen Muhammad which led to his participation in the DC Sniper attacks

Lee Boyd Malvo 2023 Information

Personal Information Lee Boyd Malvo
Alias: Not Available
Age/Race/Sex 36/Black/Male
Offender I.D.#1180834
Location Red Onion State Prison
Release Date Multiple Life Sentences

Lee Boyd Malvo More News

At 3:19 in the morning on October 24, 2002, to be exact, the FBI closed in on the snipers and their 1990 Chevy Caprice.

During the month, 10 people had been randomly gunned down and three critically injured while going about their everyday lives—mowing the lawn, pumping gas, shopping, reading a book. Among the victims was one of our own—FBI intelligence analyst Linda Franklin, who was felled by a single bullet while leaving a home improvement store in Virginia with her husband.

The massive investigation into the sniper attacks was led by the Montgomery County (Maryland) Police Department, headed by Chief Charles Moose, with the FBI and many other law enforcement agencies playing a supporting role. Chief Moose had specifically requested our help through a federal law on serial killings.

That morning, the hunt for the snipers quickly came to an end, when a team of Maryland State Police, Montgomery County SWAT officers, and agents from our Hostage Rescue Team arrested the sleeping John Allen Muhammad and Lee Boyd Malvo without a struggle.

Just a few hours earlier, at approximately 11:45 p.m., their dark blue 1990 Chevy Caprice—bearing the New Jersey license plate NDA-21Z, which had been widely publicized on the news only hours earlier—had been spotted at a rest stop parking lot off I-70 in Maryland (see photos right). Within the hour, law enforcement swarmed the scene, setting up a perimeter to check out any movements and make sure there’d be no escape.

What evidence experts from the FBI and other police forces found there was both revealing and shocking. The car had a hole cut in the trunk near the license plate (see photo below, left) so that shots could be fired from within the vehicle. It was, in effect, a rolling sniper’s nest.

Also found in the car were:

The Bushmaster .223-caliber rifle that had been used in each attack;
A rifle’s scope for taking aim and a tripod to steady the shots;
A backseat that had the sheet metal removed between the passenger compartment and the trunk, enabling the shooter to get into the trunk from inside the car;
The Chevy Caprice owner’s manual with—the FBI Laboratory later detected—written impressions of the one of the demand notes;
The digital voice recorder used by both Malvo and Muhammad to make extortion demands;
A laptop stolen from one of the victims containing maps of the shooting sites and getaway routes from some of the crime scenes; and
Maps, walkie-talkies, and many more items.

Both Malvo and Muhammad were convicted at trial or pled guilty in multiple court cases in Maryland and Virginia. Both were sentenced to life without parole; Muhammad also received the death penalty in Virginia.

Timeline of Terror

October 2: Man killed while crossing a parking lot in Wheaton, Maryland
October 3: Five more murders, four in Maryland and one in D.C.
October 4: Woman wounded while loading her van at Spotsylvania Mall
October 7: 13-year-old-boy wounded at a school in Bowie, Maryland
October 9: Man murdered near Manassas, Virginia, while pumping gas
October 11: Man shot dead near Fredericksburg, Virginia, while pumping gas
October 14: FBI analyst Linda Franklin killed near Falls Church, Virginia
October 19: Man wounded outside a steakhouse in Ashland, Virginia
October 22: A bus driver, the final victim, killed in Aspen Hill, Maryland
October 24: Muhammad and Malvo arrested in Maryland

Breaking the Case

It was just another fall evening in the nation’s capital—until a sniper’s bullet struck down a 55-year-old man in a parking lot in Wheaton, Maryland. By 10 o’clock the next morning—October 3, 2002—four more people within a few miles of each other had been similarly murdered.

The attacks were soon linked, and a massive multi-agency investigation was launched, led by the Montgomery County Police Department in Maryland.

Within days, the FBI alone had some 400 agents around the country working the case. We’d set up a toll-free number to collect tips from the public, with teams of new agents in training helping to work the hotline. Our evidence experts were asked to digitally map many of the evolving crime scenes, and our behavioral analysts helped prepare a profile of the shooter for investigators. We’d also set up a Joint Operations Center to help Montgomery County investigators run the case.

But the big break in the case came, ironically, from the snipers themselves.

On October 17, a caller claiming to be the sniper phoned in to say, in a bit of an investigative tease, that he was responsible for the murder of two women (actually, only one was killed) during the robbery of a liquor store in Montgomery, Alabama, a month earlier.

That set in motion a chain of events that led to the capture of John Muhammad and Lee Malvo four days later, ending 23 days of random attacks in the Washington, D.C, area.

Here’s how the investigation played out:

Investigators soon learned that a crime similar to the one described in the call had indeed taken place—and that fingerprint and ballistic evidence were available from the case.
An agent from our office in Mobile gathered that evidence and quickly flew to Washington, D.C., arriving Monday evening, October 21. While ATF handled the ballistic evidence, we took the fingerprint evidence to the FBI Laboratory (then located at our Headquarters).
The following morning, our fingerprint database produced a match—a magazine dropped at the crime scene bore the fingerprints of Lee Boyd Malvo from a previous arrest in Washington State. We now had a suspect…
The arrest record provided another important lead, mentioning a man named John Allen Muhammad. One of our agents from Tacoma recognized the name from a tip called into that office on the case. A second suspect…
Our work with ATF agents revealed that Muhammad had a Bushmaster .223 rifle in his possession, a federal violation since he’d been served with a restraining order to stay away from his ex-wife. That enabled us to charge him with federal weapons violations. And with Malvo clearly connected, the FBI and ATF jointly obtained a federal material witness warrant for him. The legal papers were now in our hands…
Meanwhile, on October 22, we searched our criminal records database and found that Muhammad had registered a blue Chevy Caprice with the license plate of NDA-21Z in New Jersey. That description was given to the news media and shared far and wide, leading to the arrest of the two snipers.

That was the end of the attacks, but not our role in the case. We spent many more hours gathering evidence and preparing it for court—work that ultimately paid off in the convictions of both Lee Boyd Malvo and John Muhammad.

https://www.fbi.gov/history/famous-cases/beltway-snipers

Lee Boyd Malvo Videos

Lee Boyd Malvo FAQ

Lee Boyd Malvo 2022

Lee Boyd Malvo is currently incarcerated at the Red Onion Prison, a supermax facility

Lee Boyd Malvo Release Date

Lee Boyd Malvo is serving multiple life sentences

John Allen Muhammad Execution

John Allen Muhammad was executed in 2009

Ernest Johnson Missouri Execution

Ernest Johnson was executed by the State of Missouri for the murders of three people during a robbery. According to court documents Ernest Johnson would rob a convenience store in which he would shoot and kill three people. Ernest Johnson would be arrested, convicted and sentenced to death. Ernest Johnson who was born with fetal alcohol syndrome would appeal against his death sentence due to an intellectual disability. Ernest would be executed by lethal injection on October 5, 2021

Ernest Johnson More News

A Missouri man has been executed for murder despite pleas for clemency by advocates who said he had an intellectual disability.

Ernest Johnson received a lethal injection on Tuesday after the US Supreme Court refused to consider a stay of execution earlier in the day.

The 61-year-old’s pleas for leniency had received support from Pope Francis and two members of Congress.

Johnson killed three convenience store workers in a 1994 robbery.

Attorneys for Johnson argued he was ineligible for the death penalty because multiple IQ tests had shown he had the mental capacity of a child and read at a primary school level.

Johnson, a black man, had been born with foetal alcohol syndrome after his mother drank heavily during her pregnancy.

He had also been missing a fifth of his brain tissue since 2008 after undergoing surgery to remove a brain tumour.

Attorneys pointed to a 2002 Supreme Court ruling that asserts that using the death penalty against Americans with intellectual disabilities violates the Eighth Amendment of the US Constitution, which prohibits “cruel and unusual punishments”.

However, the US state’s top court denied Johnson a stay of execution last year and refused to take up his case again. The state’s Republican governor had also refused to block the sentence from being carried out.

Elected officials, racial justice activists and faith leaders joined the efforts to spare Johnson’s life.

A representative of Pope Francis – who in 2018 changed the teachings of the Catholic faith to officially oppose the death penalty in all circumstances – wrote last week to Missouri’s governor that the pope “wishes to place before you the simple fact of Mr Johnson’s humanity and the sacredness of all human life”.

But on Monday, Governor Mike Parson announced the state would “deliver justice and carry out the lawful sentence Mr Johnson received in accordance with the Missouri Supreme Court’s order”.

Writing in support of the execution, Attorney General Eric Schmitt said that the facts of Johnson’s actions “plainly reflect the offender’s ability to plan, strategise, calculate, and scheme effectively”.

Johnson had asked to be executed by firing squad but his request was denied by the Missouri Supreme Court, and he was instead executed by lethal injection.

In a handwritten statement before his death, Johnson apologised for his crimes and thanked his family, friends and lawyer for their support.

He is the first inmate to be put to death in the state since May 2020 and the seventh to be executed in the US this year, according to the Death Penalty Information Center.

https://www.bbc.com/news/world-us-canada-58811241

Month: October 2021