December 2021 | Page 24 of 26

Donald Moeller South Dakota Execution

Donald Moeller was executed by the State of South Dakota for the kidnapping, sexual assault and murder of a nine year old girl. According to court documents Donald Moeller would kidnap nine year old Becky O’Connell when she was leaving a convenience store. Becky O’Connell would be sexually assaulted and stabbed to death. Donald Moeller would be arrested after his DNA tied him to the murder. Donald Moeller would be sentenced to death and executed by lethal injection on October 30 2012

Donald Moeller More News

A South Dakota inmate was executed Tuesday night for the 1990 rape and murder of a 9-year-old girl who disappeared after leaving her home to buy sugar at a nearby store so she could make lemonade.

Donald Moeller, 60, received a lethal injection at the state penitentiary in Sioux Falls, marking South Dakota’s second execution this month in an unusual surge for a state that has carried out just two other death sentences since 1913. He was pronounced dead at 10:24 p.m.

Moeller kidnapped Becky O’Connell from a Sioux Falls convenience store, where she’d gone to buy sugar to make lemonade at home. He drove her to a secluded area near the Big Sioux River, then raped and stabbed the girl. Her naked body was found the next day; investigators said her throat had been slashed.

Becky’s mother, Tina Curl, has been steadfast in her wish to watch Moeller die, even raising funds to cover the expenses to make the 1,400-mile trip from her home in New York state to Sioux Falls for the execution.

“He watched my daughter take her last breath. I want to watch him take his last breath,” Curl told The Associated Press in August. “I’m doing this for her and for me.”

Moeller initially was convicted in 1992, but the state Supreme Court overturned it, ruling that improper evidence was used at trial. He was again convicted and sentenced to die in 1997. The state Supreme Court affirmed the sentence, and Moeller lost appeals on both the state and federal levels

Though he fought his conviction and sentence for years, Moeller in July he said he was ready to accept death as the consequence of his actions. He admitted for the first time in court that he killed the girl.

“I killed. I deserve to be killed,” he said.

But even as Moeller insisted he was ready to die, several motions were filed on his behalf to stop the execution despite his protests.

Earlier this month, a federal judge dismissed a pending suit challenging South Dakota’s execution protocol after Moeller insisted he wanted no part of it. Moeller also distanced himself from a motion filed by a woman with loose family ties who argued that his decades in solitary confinement had made him incapable of voluntarily accepting his fate. That motion was dismissed Monday.

Moeller’s execution comes just two weeks after the Oct. 15 execution of Eric Robert for killing South Dakota prison guard Ronald “R.J.” Johnson during a failed escape attempt. Before that, the last execution in South Dakota was in 2007, when Elijah Page died by lethal injection for the murder of Chester Allan Poage, who was abducted and killed in a scheme to burglarize his mother’s home.

In 1947, George Sitts was electrocuted for killing two law enforcement officers. And in 1913, Joseph Rickman was hanged for the murder of a woman and her daughter.

They were among 17 inmates executed since 1877, the oldest of which came during the days of the Dakota Territory.

https://www.cbsnews.com/news/south-dakota-executes-donald-moeller-for-rape-murder-of-9-year-old-girl/

Bobby Hines Texas Execution

Bobby Hines was executed by the State of Texas for the sexual assault and murder of a woman. According to court documents Bobby Hines would sexually assault and murder a woman who lived in the same building as him. Bobby Hines would be arrested, convicted and sentenced to death. Bobby Hines would be executed by lethal injection on October 25 2012

Bobby Hines More News

Convicted killer Bobby Lee Hines was executed Wednesday for strangling and repeatedly stabbing a suburban Dallas woman at her apartment 21 years ago.

Hines,40,was 19 and on probation for burglary when he stabbed 26-year-old Michelle Wendy Haupt 18 times and strangled her with a cord. Haupt had moved from the Pittsburgh area to Carrollton to work at a computer company in Dallas,and Hines was staying next door with a maintenance man for her apartment complex.

Asked by a warden to make a final statement,Hines repeatedly asked for forgiveness.

“I know that I took somebody special from y’all,” he said as Haupt’s father stood a few feet away,watching through a window. “I know it wasn’t right,it was wrong. I wish I could give it back,but I know I can’t.

“I wish there was something I could do.”

He said he loved his family,believed life in prison would be a worse punishment,and then declared that he was “going home.”

As the lethal dose of pentobarbital was administered,he said he could feel it and was stopped in midsentence. He snored once,then slipped into unconsciousness. Twelve minutes later,at 6:28 p.m.,he was pronounced dead.

“It’s like a backache,it never goes away,” Harold Haupt said afterward about the pain of losing his daughter. “It’s always there.

“On the upside of this,Bobby Hines paid the ultimate price,a life for a life,and that’s the good news. The bad news is it took 21 years,a lot of taxpayer money and all he did was go to sleep. He didn’t suffer like my daughter did. He got like a forever sleeping pill.”

In the pre-dawn hours of Oct. 20,1991,a neighbor heard screaming and called police,but officers were unable to find the source. When other residents told the apartment manager later that day about screams and loud noises that sounded like a bowling ball being dropped repeatedly,they persuaded him to open Haupt’s door and found her dead.

Hines was arrested that day. Hines’ older brother,a manager at the complex,told police he suspected his brother was involved,according to court records. And witnesses said Hines had bragged about having a passkey that allowed him to enter anyone’s apartment.

Police interviewed Hines,noticed he had scratches on his face and neck,and got consent from his roommate to search the apartment. Detectives found Haupt’s blood on Hines’ clothing and several things that had belonged to her,including a distinctive gold charm she wore on a necklace.

Hines was tried and convicted in March 1992.

He initially was scheduled to die in 2003,but his execution was delayed for eight years until the courts resolved claims that he was mentally impaired and,thus,ineligible for capital punishment. He was scheduled to die in May and the U.S. Supreme Court refused to review his case,but the Dallas County district attorney’s office again delayed the execution so that new DNA testing could be conducted. Those tests confirmed Hines’ guilt,and the punishment was reset.

Relatives and friends of Hines filed a federal civil rights lawsuit Tuesday against the Texas Department of Criminal Justice,top agency officials and prison wardens and “all persons involved” in Hines’ execution,contending their rights had been violated because Hines had been on death row more than two decades and that his lawyers had been misleading. A federal judge in Houston dismissed the suit Wednesday.

Last week,the Texas Court of Criminal Appeals rejected an appeal from Hines,whose lawyer argued previous attorneys failed to investigate and show how Hines had been abused by his father.

William Hughey,who was one of Hines’ trial lawyers and is now a state district judge in East Texas,recalled Hines’ case as one “where it was clear his childhood had significant impact as to who he was and how he ended up.”

Hines,who had declined to speak with reporters,first was arrested at age 12 for auto theft and had other arrests for assault and burglary. He was on 10 years’ probation when the slaying occurred.

Hines’ execution was the 11th this year in Texas. Another is set for next week

https://indianexpress.com/article/news-archive/print/texas-executes-convicted-killer-bobby-lee-hines-for-1991-slaying/

Eric Robert South Dakota Execution

Eric Robert was executed by the State of South Dakota for the murder of a prison guard. According to court documents Eric Roberts and Rodney Berget during an escape attempt would murder a prison guard, Ronald “RJ” Johnson with a metal pipe. Eric Robert and Rodney Berget would be both sentenced to death. Rodney Berget was executed in 2018. Eric Robert would be executed by lethal injection on October 16, 2012

Eric Robert More News

A South Dakota man who beat a prison guard with a pipe and covered his head in plastic wrap to kill him during a failed escape attempt was put to death Monday, in the state’s first execution since 2007.

Eric Robert, 50, received lethal injection and was pronounced dead at the state penitentiary in Sioux Falls. He is the first South Dakota inmate to die under the state’s new single-drug lethal injection method, and only the 17th person to be executed in the state or Dakota Territory since 1877.

Robert was put to death in the same prison where he killed guard Ronald “RJ” Johnson during an escape attempt on April 12, 2011. Robert was serving an 80-year sentence on a kidnapping conviction when he tried to break out with fellow inmate Rodney Berget, 50.

Johnson was working alone the morning of his death — also his 63rd birthday — in a part of the prison known as Pheasantland Industries, where inmates work on upholstery, signs, custom furniture and other projects. Authorities said the inmates beat Johnson with a pipe, covered his head in plastic wrap and left his body on the floor.

Robert then put on Johnson’s pants, hat and jacket and approached the prison’s west gate. With his head down, he pushed a cart loaded with two boxes. Berget was hidden in one of the boxes, according to a report filed by a prison worker after the slaying

Other guards became suspicious as the men got closer to the gate. When confronted, Robert beat one guard; other guards quickly arrived and detained both inmates.

Months later, Robert told a judge his only regret was that he hadn’t killed more guards. He pleaded guilty to Johnson’s slaying and asked to be sentenced to death, telling a judge last October that he would otherwise kill again. He never appealed his sentence and even tried to bypass a mandatory state review in hopes of expediting his death.

Berget also has pleaded guilty in the killing, but has appealed his death sentence. A third inmate, Michael Nordman, 47, was given a life sentence for providing materials used in the slaying.

Robert’s execution could be the first of two in as many weeks. Donald Moeller is scheduled to be put to death the week of Oct. 28 for the 1990 kidnapping, rape and murder of a 9-year-old girl. Robert had been on death row only for about a year, Moeller has been there for more than two decades. Only three other inmates currently are on the state’s death row.

South Dakota’s last execution before Monday took place in 2007, and that was the first in the state for 60 years.

“You have few people on death row, few executions, and then you have this coincidence of cases coming all at once,” said Richard Dieter, executive director of the nonprofit Death Penalty Information Center. “When people waive appeals, their cases start to move more quickly.”

https://www.usatoday.com/story/news/nation/2012/10/15/sd-death-row-inmate-to-be-executed-monday/1635505/

Jonathan Green Texas Execution

Jonathan Green was executed by the State of Texas for the kidnapping, sexual assault and murder of a twelve year old girl. According to court documents Jonathan Green would kidnap Christina Neal, who would later be sexually assaulted and murdered. The body of the 12 year old girl would be found at Jonathan Green home a month later. Jonathan Green would be arrested, convicted and sentenced to death. Jonathan Green would be executed by lethal injection on October 11 2012

Jonathan Green More News

A Texas man whose lawyers argued was mentally ill and incompetent for execution was put to death Wednesday evening for killing a 12-year-old girl more than a decade ago.

Jonathan Green, 44, received lethal injection after the U.S. Supreme Court rejected last-day appeals to spare him. A judge earlier this week stopped the punishment, but an appeals court overturned the reprieve.

Asked by the warden if he had a statement from the death chamber gurney, Green shook his head and replied, “No.”

But seconds later he changed his mind, saying: “I’m an innocent man. I never killed anyone. Y’all are killing an innocent man.”

He then looked down and said his left arm, where one of the needles carrying the lethal drug was inserted, and said, “It’s hurting me bad.” But almost immediately he began snoring loudly. The sounds stopped after about six breaths.

Green was pronounced dead 18 minutes later at 10:45 p.m.

Green was condemned for the abduction, rape and strangling of Christina Neal, whose body was found at his home in 2000 about a month after she was reported missing. Her family lived across a highway from Green in Dobbin, about 45 miles northwest of Houston.

Green’s lethal injection is the 10th this year in Texas and the first of four scheduled for this month in the nation’s most active death penalty state.

Green’s attorneys argued his hallucinations made him ineligible for the death penalty and said a state competency hearing for him two years ago was unfair.

That led to a reprieve from a federal district judge in Houston. But the Texas attorney general’s office persuaded the 5th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals to overturn that ruling and lift the stay of execution late Tuesday

Green’s lawyer, James Rytting, said his client hallucinated about the “ongoing spiritual warfare between two sets of voices representing good and evil.”

The appeals court found the procedures at Green’s competency hearing were not improper, that no Supreme Court precedents were violated and that it was reasonable to find Green competent for the death penalty.

Green told a psychiatrist who examined him before the competency hearing that he didn’t and couldn’t have killed Christina, that false evidence was used against him and that he understood a murder conviction could result in him receiving an injection that would kill him

Supreme Court guidance says mental illness can’t disqualify someone from execution if they understand the sentence and reasons for the punishment, the state lawyers argued.

Green had declined to speak with reporters as his execution date neared.

Investigators questioned Green at least twice in the days following Christina’s disappearance 12 years ago. His wallet was found in some woods near clothing and jewelry that belonged to Christina, but authorities found nothing else of significance at the time. A few weeks later, a tip from a neighbor about an unusually large burn pile behind his ramshackle home brought them back again.

While Green had been cooperative in the past, he grew testy and ordered them off his property when an FBI agent looking at the fire site detected the smell of a decaying body and inserted a metal probe into a patch of disturbed earth. They returned hours later with a search warrant and a dog trained to detect human remains.

The dog led officers to the girl’s body, stuffed inside a laundry bag in the home and wedged into a corner behind a piece of furniture. Green contended someone else had placed the body there and that he was being set up.

Evidence at his trial indicated he had tried to burn the body, buried it in a shallow grave, then removed it when detectives left to obtain the search warrant. DNA from her remains tied him to the slaying. A carpet fiber from her panties found in the woods was traced to a carpet in his home

Two years ago, Green came within about four hours of execution before the Texas Court of Criminal Appeals stopped the punishment amid similar arguments he was too delusional and too mentally ill to be put to death.

https://www.usatoday.com/story/news/nation/2012/10/11/texas-execution/1626179/

Cleve Foster Texas Execution

Cleve Foster was executed by the State of Texas for the sexual assault and murder of a woman. According to court documents Cleve Foster and Sheldon Ward would kidnap, sexually assault and murder the woman. Both Cleve Foster and Sheldon Ward would be convicted and sentenced to death. Sheldon Ward would die from a brain tumor in 2010. Sheldon Ward would be executed by lethal injection on September 25 2012

Cleve Foster More News

A former Army recruiter failed to win a fourth reprieve from the U.S. Supreme Court and was executed Tuesday evening in Texas for participating in the shooting death of a woman he and a buddy met 10 years ago at a bar.

Cleve Foster was pronounced dead at 6:43 p.m. CDT, 25 minutes after his lethal injection began and two hours after the high court refused to postpone his punishment. Three times last year the justices stopped his scheduled punishment, once when he was moments from being led to the death chamber.

His attorneys argued he was innocent of the 2002 slaying of Nyaneur Pal, a 30-year-old immigrant from Sudan. They also said he had deficient legal help at his trial and in early stages of his appeals and argued his case deserved a closer look.

Foster, 48, also was charged but never tried for the rape-slaying a few months earlier of another woman in Fort Worth, Rachel Urnosky

In the seconds before the single lethal dose of pentobarbital began, Foster expressed love to his family and to God.

“When I close my eyes, I’ll be with the father,” he said. “God is everything. He’s my life. Tonight I’ll be with him.”

He did not proclaim innocence or admit guilt. He did turn to relatives of his two victims, saying, “I don’t know what you’re going to be feeling tonight. I pray we’ll all meet in heaven.”

As the drugs began taking effect and while he was repeatedly saying he loved his family, he began snoring, then he stopped breathing.

Three of the nine Supreme Court justices — Ruth Bader Ginsburg, Elena Kagan and Sonia Sotomayor — would have stopped the punishment, the court indicated in its brief ruling.

Last year — in January, April and September — the justices did intervene and halted his execution, once only moments before he could have been led to the death chamber.

“It’s offensive to us the frivolous appeals that were thrown up at the Supreme Court last minute,” said Terry Urnosky, whose 22-year-old daughter’s death was blamed on Foster and a partner, Sheldon Ward. “One stay after another, just delaying the closure our families sought.”

Urnosky, his wife, and Pal’s uncle and aunt stood a few feet away from Foster and watched the execution through a window.

“It’s like ripping off a deep scab each time, preventing the wound from being able to start healing,” Urnosky said. “Now the wound can start closing.”

Maurie Levin, a University of Texas law professor representing Foster, argued the Supreme Court needed to block it again in light of their ruling earlier this year in an Arizona case that said an inmate who received poor legal assistance should have his case reviewed.

Foster and Ward were sentenced to die for killing Pal, who was known as Mary Pal and was seen talking with the men at a Fort Worth bar hours before her body was found in a ditch off a Tarrant County road.

“I am as certain of Foster’s guilt as I can be without having seen him do it,” Ben Leonard, who prosecuted Foster in 2004, said last week.

A gun in the motel room where Foster and Ward lived was identified as the murder weapon and was matched to Rachel Urnosky’s fatal shooting at her apartment.

“It wasn’t the violent death that both Mary and my daughter experienced,” Urnosky’s father said. “I feel it was way too easy, but it is what it is.”

Foster blamed Pal’s slaying on Ward, one of his recruits who became a close friend. Prosecutors said evidence showed Foster actively participated in her death, offered no credible explanations, lied and gave contradictory stories about his sexual activities with her.

The two were convicted separately, Ward as the triggerman and Foster under Texas’ law of parties, which makes participants equally culpable. Pal’s blood and tissue were found on the weapon and DNA evidence showed both men had sex with her.

At his trial, prosecutors presented evidence Pal wasn’t shot where she was found; that Ward alone couldn’t have carried her body to where it was dumped; and that since he and Foster were nearly inseparable and DNA showed both had sex with her, it was clear Foster was involved. A Tarrant County jury agreed, and both received the death sentence. Ward died in 2010 of cancer while on death row.

Foster grew up in Henderson, Ky., and spent nearly two decades in the Army. Records showed court martial proceedings were started against the sergeant first class and he was denied re-enlistment after allegations he gave alcohol to underage students as a recruiter in Fort Worth and had sex with an underage potential recruit. He’d been a civilian only a short time when the slayings occurred.

https://www.cbsnews.com/news/cleve-foster-executed-by-texas-after-failing-to-win-4th-reprieve-from-us-supreme-court/