December 2021 | Page 18 of 26

Alpha Stephens Georgia Execution

Alpha Stephens was executed by the State of Georgia for a robbery murder. According to court documents Alpha Stephens would shoot and kill the victim when he and Claude Sampson were robbing his sons home. Both Alpha Stephens and Claude Sampson would be arrested. Claude Sampson would be sentenced to life without parole however would take his own life in 1982. Alpha Stephens who had a long criminal record was sentenced to death. Alpha Stephens would be executed by way of the electric chair however it would take additional jolts to end his life. Alpha Stephens would die on December 12 1984

Alpha Stephens More News

Double-murderer Alpha Otis Stephens was executed in Georgia’s electric chair today with two 2,080-volt surges 10 minutes apart, shortly after he tried to commit suicide by cutting his wrist.

Prison officials said one surge of electricity was expected to carry out the execution order and Stephens was ‘brain dead’ after the first surge.

But witnesses saw Stephens’ fingers move and his head rolled back and forth after the first surge.

‘It was almost like he was trying to wake himself up,’ said reporter Lee Howell. ‘Then he started breathing. We counted 23 breaths and they were deep breaths. It was obvious he was alive.’

Stephens, who received his first jolt at 12:18 a.m. and his second at 12:28 a.m., was pronounced dead at 12:37 a.m. EST.

The wooden electric chair at Georgia’s Diagnostic and Classification Center had been tested five times this week. Although officials only planned to give Stephens one jolt, they insisted ‘there apparently was no malfunction.’

The 39-year-old career criminal with 19 felony convictions cut his wrist in the final hours after he had been shaven to prepare for the execution. Prisons spokesman John Siler said the cut was not life threatening.

‘Oh Jesus, no way,’ said Siler. ‘It has gotten out of hand. He had smuggled a small disposable razor in and had a small cut, a slight scratch on his left wrist.

‘It was minor — very little blood. It was hardly life threatening.’

Siler said it was not known how Stephens got the razor.

‘We are looking at that now,’ he said. ‘He had just been shaved. He must have smuggled it in.’

Stephens made no final statement, but wrote his last victim’s son earlier this week asking to be forgiven.

Stephens, who received his first jolt at 12:18 a.m. and his second at 12:28 a.m., was pronounced dead at 12:37 a.m. EST.

‘Oh Jesus, no way,’ said Siler. ‘It has gotten out of hand. He had smuggled a small disposable razor in and had a small cut, a slight scratch on his left wrist.

‘It was minor — very little blood. It was hardly life threatening.’

Siler said it was not known how Stephens got the razor.

‘We are looking at that now,’ he said. ‘He had just been shaved. He must have smuggled it in.’

Stephens made no final statement, but wrote his last victim’s son earlier this week asking to be forgiven.

Stephens, who began his criminal career at age 16 with an auto theft, was sentenced to death for the 1974 execution-style slaying of Roy Asbell, who caught Stephens and an accomplice robbing his son’s home.

The Rev. Charles Asbell said Stephens wrote him and ‘asked that I would forgive him and I did.’ But he added: ‘He chose to be wicked; he chose to be sinful. I feel the sentence should be carried out.’

Stephens became the 31st convict executed in the nation since 1976. His attorneys made two last-ditch appeals Tuesday to the Supreme Court and his final plea was denied at 11:22 p.m.

The Rev. Murphy Davis, a Presbyterian minister and director of Southern Prison Ministry in Atlanta, spent more than five hours with Stephens before the execution.

‘This is not justice,’ she said. ‘This is just an easy way for the state to answer its problems

She said Stephens was an abused child ‘who was on his own from about the age of six.’

Stephens, who had a childhood of poverty and was known as ‘Sonny Boy,’ had a final meal of fried shrimp, french fries, tossed salad, Coke and pecan pie. He was not visited by his family or his common-law wife and teenage daughter.

The last meal Stephens had outside prison was a $40 steak, champagne and beer dinner in Savannah in August 1974 just hours after he robbed and killed the elder Asbell with two point-blank shots through the ear.

Asbell was slain just two days after Stephens escaped from the Houston County Jail with a hacksaw he bought from a trusty for $20.

Claude Sampson, Stephens’ accomplice in the Asbell robbery-murder, was sentenced to Georgia’s State Prison in Riedsville and committed suicide there in 1982.

Stephens, who spent most of his life in prison, also had been sentenced to five life terms fo crimes ranging from killing country store owner Louise Mercer in 1973 to armed robbery and kidnapping.

After killing Asbell and leaving his body in an abandoned house used to store hay, Stephens then fled to Savannah in the dead man’s car, picked up a woman and they shared a nine-course dinner at a hotel restaurant.

But Stephens drank so much champagne and beer he passed out on a park bench. He was arrested when police awakened him and the .357 magnum that killed Asbell fell from his coat.

https://www.upi.com/Archives/1984/12/12/Double-murderer-Alpha-Otis-Stephens-was-executed-in-Georgias-electric/6160471675600/

Robert Willie Louisiana Execution

Robert Willie was executed by the State of Louisiana for the sexual assault and murder of a woman. According to court documents Robert Willie and Joseph Vaccaro would kidnap eighteen year old Faith Hathaway who would be sexually assaulted and killed. Three days later the two men would attack a young couple, sexually assault the female and shot the male. The male would survive his injuries however he would be paralyzed. Robert Willie and Joseph Vaccaro would be arrested, Robert Willie would be arrested, convicted and sentenced to death. The book and movie Dead Man Walking is based on the relationship between Robert Willie and Sister Helen Prejean.

Robert Willie More News

Robert Lee Willie, who raped and killed an 18-year-old Mandevile woman, was executed Friday morning after telling the victim’s parents, “I hope you get some relief from my death.”

Willie, 26, who was pronounced dead at 12:15 a.m., became the sixth Louisiana man executed in the past 13 months, and the 32nd nationwide since executions resumed in 1977.

Vern and Elizabeth Harvey, the stepfather and mother of murder victim Faith Hathaway, were among eight people witnessing the execution. The Harveys have been vocal supporters of the death penalty and have demonstrated in support of capital punishment at other executions.

The Harveys did not move or show emotion as Willie spoke to them.

But within a half-hour after the execution, a smiling Vern Harvey poured a drink for himself and his wife in their van parked outside the state penitentiary’s main gate.

“Do you want to dance?” he asked a reporter. “First thing I’m gonna do is have a drink, then go home and get some rest.”

Willie, who had said earlier that he was not afraid of the electric chair, was led into the death chamber just after midnight. He was wearing jeans, a white sweatshirt, and white slippers; and was escorted by six guards.

“I would just like to say Mr. and Mrs. Harvey that I hope you get some relief from my death,” he said. “Killing people is wrong. That’s why you’ve put me to death. It makes no difference whether it’s citizens, countries, or governments. Killing is wrong.”

He was strapped into the chair and a hood was placed over his head.

Then, he asked Angola State Penitentiary Warden Frank Blackburn to remove the hood, and he winked at Sister Helen Prejean of New Orleans, his spiritual advisor.

Prejean was praying, and said, “Forgive those who collaborate.”

At 12:07, Willie was jolted by 2,000 volts of electricity for 10 seconds, and then 500 volts for 20 seconds. The sequence was repeated.

West Feliciana Parish Coroner Alfred Gould examined Willie at 12:13 and pronounced him dead at 12:15.

On his last day, Willie visited with his mother, Elizabeth Oalman of Covington, four brothers, and Prejean.

Blackburn said that Willie was served the last meal he requested — fried fish, oysters and shrimp — as well as some french fries and a salad.

Blackburn said Willie’s mood before the execution was “quiet and somber … appropriate to the occasion. He doesn’t seem scared, but he’s not lighthearted.”

Outside the prison, Hathaway’s sister, Lizabeth, 14, demonstrated for the death penalty along with a half-dozen members of Parents of Murdered Children, a group the family founded.

Death penalty opponents did not demonstrate at Angola, as they have in the past, but staged a vigil outside the Governor’s Mansion in Baton Rouge. As they prayed, tourists took photos of the governor’s 40-foot Christmas tree.

Before the execution, Vern Harvey said he regretted that Willie would not feel much pain from the electrocution.

“It’s going to be quick for him. I’d rather it would be a lot slower. I think he deserves the painful death she had.”

Willie sometimes said he’s sorry for his crimes, but couldn’t understand “why everybody keeps bringing it up.” He said Harvey shouldn’t dwell on the murder.

“It’s like he’s a glutton for punishment over her death,” Willie said.

In interviews last week, Willie recounted his life of drugs, booze, and violence in remorseless terms, and said he was not afraid to die.

“Electric chair don’t worry me, man,” he said. “I have a lot of pride, I don’t run from nothing.”

Willie said he and a friend, Joseph Jesse Vaccaro, were “loaded” at 4:30 a.m. May 28, 1980, when they say Hathaway walking alongside Mandevile road. Hathaway was returning from a celebration on the night before she was scheduled to enter the Army.

Willie and Vaccaro blindfolded her, raped her, and drove her to a remote section of Washington Parish.

“She just kept saying, ‘I won’t identify y’all or nothing,'” Willie said. “She kept saying ‘Don’t hurt me.'”

Willie and Vaccaro offer different accounts of the stabbing that ensued, blaming each other for the 17 knife wounds that took Hathaway’s life.

Willie said Vaccaro, unexpectedly began stabbing Hathaway and that he helped by holding her hands. But Vaccaro, who was sentenced to life imprisonment for his role in the murder, said at trial that “Willie jugged her and jugged her until she begged us to kill her.”

Eight days later, Willie and Vaccaro kidnapped a Madisonville couple from a wooded lovers’ lane and drove them to Alabama. They raped the 16-year-old girl, and then stabbed and shot her boyfriend, 20-year-old Mark Brewster, leaving him tied to a tree.

Brewster survived, but is paralyzed from the waist down, At trial, Willie mocked the victims by blowing kisses at the woman he raped and drawing his finger across his throat in a menacing fashion when Brewster took the stand.

After his conviction for Hathaway’s murder, Willie pleaded guilty to the 1978 killing of Dennis Hemby near Covington. Willie said he and his cousin, Perry Wayne Taylor, beat and drowned Hemby and stole $10,000 worth of marijuana from him.

Taylor plead guilty to manslaughter and is serving a 21-year-sentence.

Willie was also given six life sentences stemming from those crimes.

John Willie, 53, the condemned man’s father, served 27 years at Angola for cattle theft, aggravated battery, and manslaughter. He said that his son and Vaccaro both deserve to die.

“I believe more in capital punishment than those people on the juries,” he said. “I’d like to pull the switch myself or shoot them down.”

Wiring of chair account retracted

The father of convicted murderer Robert Lee Willie said Thursday he did not wire the electric chair at the state penitentiary at Angola in which his son was to be executed early Friday.

John Willie retracted an earlier account in which he claimed to have wired the chair when he was an inmate electrician in 1982. That claim was published in an article Thursday in The Times-Picayune/The States Item.

Angola Warden Frank Blackburn said Thursday the chair was wired before 1982 and that Willie was not an electrician and did no work on it. An inmate would not have been used for the job, Blackburn said.

Willie, responding to Blackburn’s statement, said that while he was an inmate at the prison in 1982 he watched electricians work on the chair, but did none of the work himself.

https://www.pbs.org/wgbh/pages/frontline/angel/articles/timespicayune1228.html

John Evans Alabama Execution

John Evans was executed by the State of Alabama for a murder committed during a robbery. According to court documents John Evans and Wayne Ritter went on a crime spree that lasted for months that included numerous armed robberies and kidnappings. John Evans and Wayne Ritter crime spree ended with the murder of Edward Nassar, a pawn store owner. John Evans attempted to plead guilty to all charges however Alabama prosecutors wanted the death penalty. In the end John Evans would be sentenced to death. However his execution by way of the electric chair did not go well as it took three additional jolts of electricity before he died on April 22, 1983

John Evans More News

Ten hours before being led into a small room to witness the execution of John Louis Evans III, I learned my wife was pregnant with our first child, and in that brief span of time my notions of life and death became something abruptly personal – beautifully and horribly.

There is still a nagging regret that my joy over the impending birth was blurred by the chilling sight of Evans’ chest rhythmically rising and falling after what was supposed to be an instantaneously lethal dose of electricity.

And now a week after the fact, questions linger about whether Evans still felt anything after that first bolt of electricity ripped into his shaved skull.

Three reporters and the two witnesses Evans asked to attend his execution were searched at Holman Prison on April 22 and then ushered through a raging thunderstorm to a back door.

After a short walk along a hall lined by prison guards, we were in the observation room. Beyond a window was Evans, strapped around his legs, chest, arms and abdomen to the bright yellow electric chair. The leather straps pulled his shoulders back into an awkward and uncomfortable final position.

Eaglelike. That’s how he looked, with shaved head and sharp, handsome nose and chin.

But Evans’ face was pure calm. His pale blue eyes stared straight ahead, blinking occasionally. He had said he was prepared to die. If that wasn’t true, his face didn’t betray him.

Inside the red brick death chamber with Evans, attired in a white button-up prison smock and white socks, were Holman Warden J. D. White and two uniformed guards.

White, standing directly in front of Evans, read the death warrant. That was supposed to take three minutes, but it seemed much shorter — perhaps because I was intent on committing the scene to memory. No paper or pen was allowed the media witnesses.

Evans, 33, a drifter from Beaumont, Texas, convicted of killing a Mobile Ala. pawnbroker, had asked that his final statement remain private. But when the warrant was read and it was Evans’ turn to speak, Prison Chaplain Martin Weber, one of nine men in the small observation room, began to quote the condemned man’s last words.

“He’s saying, ‘I have no malice for anyone, no hatred for anyone,’” Weber, apparently knowing what Evans intended to say, whispered to the witnesses. Prison Commissioner Fred Smith turned and shook finger as if scolding a child, and Weber fell silent.

One of Evan’s final wishes had been violated.

Evans’ words weren’t audible to the spectators, but he delivered them in unrushed sentences and even smiled once before the guards attached the electrode-filled skullcap to his head.

Evans’ head was made snug to the chair with a chin strap and black belt across the forehead. His causal expression disappeared behind a black veil.

Smith opened a telephone line to Gov. George Wallace in Montgomery.

I folded my arms across my chest and told myself I was ready. A man I love and respect had witnessed an electrocution as a young reporter. He had given me a novelist’s description of an electric chair execution, along with the warning, “It’ll be loud and it will stink.”

At the instant White pulled the switch and sent 1,900 volts burning into Evans, who clenched his fists and arched his body rigidly into the restraining straps, the folly of being prepared was gone.

A moment later, as spark and flame crackled around Evans’ head and shaved, razor-nicked left leg, white smoke seeped from beneath the veil and curled from his head and leg.

Midway through the surge of electricity, his body quivered and then fell back into the chair as the current ended.

We thought that was it – bad enough, but expected and bearable.

Two doctors filed out the witness room to examine the body and pronounce Evans dead.

The prison doctor, dressed in a blue surgical costume and tan loafers with tassels, placed a stethoscope to the smock, turned and nodded — the natural signal for “Yes, he’s dead.”

But the nod meant he had found a heartbeat. The other doctor confirmed the gruesome discovery.

They and the warden walked from the death chamber, and a guard reattached the power lines to the chair and the electrode that fell away when a leg strap burned through.

Evans’ chest rose against the straps the first time. It rose evenly once, twice, maybe again.

A stream of saliva ran down the front of the white prison smock.

“God, he’s trying to signal them,” I thought.

I had been told a body might continue to jerk after taking a massive electric charge. I strained to figure out if this was convulsive movement in Evans’ strap-crossed chest, and concluded absolutely not. This was too measured. Just slow deep breathing.

Turning to another witness, I said, “He survived.” He nodded.

Behind us, Russell Canan, the lawyer who 90 minutes earlier lost a battle to win Evans a reprieve, stared resolutely ahead.

Spark and flame again accompanied the onset of the second charge. But this time, for a grim second, the veil slipped a fraction of an inch on the left side, giving the impression it was burning though and would fall away – exposing the face I’d noted was handsome minutes earlier.

Almost in unison a kind of shuddering grunt came from the witnesses, but the mask stayed in place.

When the second charge subsided the doctors re-examined Evans and again it was clear they found a pulsating heart. Smith knocked on the viewing room window for a clue to Evans’ state. Deputy Warden Ron Jones turned and shook his head.

From the back of the room, Canan suddenly, urgently blurted: “Commissioner, I ask for clemency. This cruel and unusual punishment.”

Smith, his back to Canan, did not respond or even indicate he had heard the plea, which Canan repeated, begging that the request be relayed to Wallace.

The commissioner then conveyed the appeal for clemency, but before a reply came from the governor’s office in Montgomery, the third charge was administered.

Again, Evans’ head and leg smoldered. His fists, which clenched with the first jolt, remained locked on the chair’s arms.

The doctors went back for the third time and Canan begged for clemency “in case they have to do it again.”

Smith, eyes welling, communicated the message. His voice broke.

I thought Canan had snapped. Surely he didn’t want Evans unstrapped at this point. I was convinced things were out of hand and was not sure the chair, for whatever reason, was capable of killing Evans. But surely the only thing worse than proceeding was stopping.

I seriously thought they would have to bring in a gun and shoot Evans in the chair.

Smith signaled White out of the death chamber as the doctors again listened for a heartbeat. The warden cracked the door to the witness room and heard Smith order: “Hold everything. They’re asking for clemency.”

Moments later, with things spiraling faster out of control, word came back from Wallace.

“The governor will not interfere. Proceed,” Smith said.

Almost simultaneously a witness to my right said, “He’s dead.”

Cold as it sounds, it was welcome news. Evans’ ordeal was over. And for the time being, so was the ordeal, however great or small, of those picked to watch him die.

https://en.wikisource.org/wiki/Execution_of_John_Louis_Evans_May_4,_1983:_First_Person_Account

Jimmy Gray Mississippi Execution

Jimmy Gray was executed by the State of Mississippi for the kidnapping and murder of a three year old girl. According to court documents Jimmy Gray who was on parole after serving seven years for murder would kidnap, sexually assault and murder a three year old girl. Jimmy Gray would be arrested, convicted and sentenced to death. Jimmy Gray would be executed by the way of the gas chamber on September 2, 1983. The execution was considered to be botched as Jimmy Gray took a long time to die as Gray would bash his head off a steel pole until he lost consciousness.

Jimmy Gray More News

Jimmy Lee Gray died gasping and choking in the cyanide-filled gas chamber at Parchman prison early Friday for the murder of a 3-year-old girl who came to his apartment to play with his kittens.

State Corrections Commissioner Morris Thigpen said doctors reported that Jimmy Gray was dead two minutes after the first smoky wisps of cyanide gas seeped into the gray steel chamber at 12:10 a.m. CDT.

He said the agonized gasps and convulsions that still wracked his body eight minutes later were ‘involuntary type movements that occur in any person who has died. In the doctors’ opinion, it was a prompt and easy death.’

Observers were ordered out of the witness room at 12:18 — eight minutes after executioner T. Berry Bruce released the cyanide pellets — and Jimmy Gray, wracked by convulsions, appeared to still be breathing.

He was not finally pronounced dead until 12:47 a.m., although Thigpen at first announced that doctors — monitoring Gray’s heartbeat via a remote stethoscope — reported the condemned man’s heart stopped at 12:18.

Jimmy Gray, 34, was the eighth man executed in the United States since the Supreme Court lifted the death penalty ban in 1977, and the first to be executed in Mississippi since 1964

He appeared to die as hard as John Louis Evans, whose death required three massive jolts of current in Alabama’s electric chair in April.

Thigpen would not reveal the names of the two doctors who witnessed the execution from a private room, but he said that ‘Within 30 seconds after the fumes began to come up from beneath the chair, Mr. Gray appeared to lose conciousness.

‘At two minutes, the doctors stated there was no heartbeat at all. Over the next five to six minutes, there was irregular breathing and involuntary type movements and reflex actions that commonly occur in any person who has died. In the doctors’ opinion, it was a prompt and easy death,’ Thigpen told reporters.

At 12:01 a.m. CDT, with protestors lighting candles and praying at the prison gates on a hot, muggy night, Warden Eddie Lucas murmured over his hand held radio ‘Let’s go.’

Eight minutes later, Gray was brought into the 4-by-4-foot gray steel gas chamber in the red jump suit of the death row prisoner. He was accompanied by two guards and the huge sheriff of Jackson County, where he was convicted of the murder of 3-year-old Deressa Jean Scales in 1976.

It took two minutes for the guards to strap him into the seat. He kept his head bowed and his eyes closed, whispering occasionally. At 12:10 a.m., the door to the chamber sealed, and Sheriff John Ledbetter signalled Bruce — a school custodian who has been Mississippi’s executioner since the chamber was built in 1955 — to proceed. He threw the lever that dropped a small container of white cyanide crystals into an acid solution under Gray’s seat. A white wisp of gas writhed up between Gray’s legs and he visibly sucked in his breath, breathing deeply. Within a minute his head fell forward and he appeared to be unconscious

But then his head jerked back, he began to choke and strain at the straps holding him to the seat by his arms, legs and chest. His fists :lenched. His face contorted, and prolonged, agonized groans and shuddering gasps could be heard in the witness room.

Three times his head dropped and he appeared dead, but each time it snapped up, striking with an audible clang a steel pole running from floor to ceiling behind his seat. After eight minutes of this, assistant Warden Joe Cook entered the steaming, mosquito-filled witness room and said ‘Gentlemen of the press, let’s go.’ ‘ The chamber was still filled with gas — and mosquitos — and Gray’s head was strained back against the pole, his head turned to the side, his eyes open and rolled back in his head, his mouth open, and his head was moving slightly.

In Dallas, Texas, Richard A. Scales, the father of Gray’s victim, said ‘I’d glad he’s dead. I hate to put it that way. I am glad the he was finally executed, but glad is a bad word. I feel like justice should have been carried out years ago.’

Gray’s seven-year fight for life ended Thursday, when the Supreme Court for the third time turned down his appeals.

https://www.upi.com/Archives/1983/09/02/Jimmy-Lee-Gray-died-gasping-and-choking-in-the/9453431323200/

Robert Sullivan Florida Execution

Robert Sullivan was executed by the State of Florida for the murder of a restaurant manager. According to court documents Robert Sullivan and Reid McLaughlin would abduct the victim from a restaurant and brought to a remote location where he was fatally shot. Robert Sullivan would be arrested, convicted and sentenced to death. Robert Sullivan was executed by way of the electric chair on November 30, 1983

Robert Sullivan More News

Robert Sullivan, who spent more than 10 years on Florida’s death row for conviction of killing the night manager of a Howard Johnson’s restaurant, yesterday walked sobbing but unassisted to the state’s electric chair and was executed with a 2-minute surge of 2,000 volts.

His head and lower right leg shaved, Sullivan sat in the three-legged oaken chair and read passages of the 62nd Psalm scribbled on a legal pad: “And in God alone is my soul at rest, because my hope comes from within,” authorities at Florida State Prison at Starke said.

“To all my peers on death row, despite what is about to happen to me, do not quit,” Sullivan said, according to prison spokesman Vernon Bradford. “I plead and encourage a continued effort to end this monster called capital punishment.”

As two dozen witnesses watched, Sullivan’s head was covered with a black hood. At 10:10 a.m., Florida Gov. Robert Graham told prison Superintendent Richard Dugger by telephone, “There are no stays. God save us all,” according to Patrick Riordan, a spokesman for the governor

One minute later, a black-hooded executioner unleashed the massive jolt of electricity. Sullivan was pronouned dead at 10:16 a.m.

A former Howard Johnson’s restaurant manager, Sullivan, 36, became the ninth murderer in the United States to be executed since the Supreme Court lifted its ban on capital punishment in 1976. As the inmate with the longest tenure on death row in the nation, Sullivan was also the 199th convict to die since 1924 in Florida’s electric chair.

The adopted son of a Harvard-educated surgeon, the 6-foot, 280-pound Sullivan battled for a legal reprieve until moments before his death, when the 11th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals refused to delay it further.

On Tuesday night, the Supreme Court, by 7 to 2, also declined to spare Sullivan, noting in an unsigned opinion that “there must come an end to the process of consideration and reconsideration.” That decision is believed to be another sign that a majority on the high court has grown impatient with the protracted legal maneuvers ensnarling capital punishment cases

Despite a plea for mercy from Pope John Paul II, Graham also refused to spare the condemned man.

About 30 death penalty protesters kept a vigil outside the penitentiary walls yesterday morning, according to the Associated Press. They were flanked by several people supporting the execution. Groups opposing capital punishment were quick to deplore the execution of Sullivan, although none of those contacted predicted an accelerated pace as a result of yesterday’s electrocution. As of Oct. 20, according to the NAACP Legal Defense Fund, there were 1,268 persons on death row in the United States.

“The death penalty is supposed to be reserved for the very worst of the cases,” Stephen Bright, director of the Southern Prisoners Defense Committee in Atlanta, said. “But of the offenders, Sullivan is probably among the least deserving of execution. It’s a classic example of the arbitrariness of the system.

Sullivan maintained his innocence until the end, claiming in an interview with the Florida Times-Union that he had been singled out because the state wanted to prove it could execute “middle-class white boys.”

Last week, Roman Catholic Bishop John J. Snyder told the same newspaper that a Boston man had confessed to his priest that he was with Sullivan in a Miami gay bar at the time of the murder for which Sullivan was convicted. But the church was unable to provide further details about the witness because revealing details from the confessional is grounds for excommunication.

A college dropout who became manager of the Howard Johnson’s restaurant in Homestead, Fla., Sullivan was sentenced to five years probation in August, 1972, for stealing $6,200 from his employer.

With a friend, Reid McClaughlin, Sullivan returned to the restaurant on the night of April 8, 1973, and killed night manager Donald Schmidt with a shotgun after robbing him, according to David Skipper, spokesman for the Florida Department of Corrections. Schmidt’s watch and credit cards were found on Sullivan when he was arrested

McClaughlin, who agreed to testify for the state against Sullivan, was sentenced to life imprisonment and was paroled in 1981, Skipper said. Sullivan was sentenced to die, and entered death row at Starke on Nov. 14, 1973. He came within 38 hours of execution in 1979 before a stay was issued, and yesterday’s electrocution followed a 27-hour delay caused by legal skirmishing.

Defense attorneys argued unsuccessfully in their appeals that his trial lawyers failed to investigate Sullivan’s alibi, that the system of administering a death penalty discriminates against those convicted of killing whites, and that Sullivan’s sentence was not compared with those handed down in other murder cases.

At 6 a.m. yesterday, Sullivan was served a last meal of steak, french fries, milk and fresh strawberries

https://www.washingtonpost.com/archive/politics/1983/12/01/sullivan-executed-in-florida-electric-chair/9baf5d39-bf71-44b1-ad07-271f443d4a0b/