Lynda Block Execution

lynda lyon block

Lynda Block was executed by the State of Alabama for the murder of a police officer. Lynda Block would be executed by way of the electric chair on May 10, 2002

Lynda Block aka Lynda Lyon Block was born on February 8, 1948 in Orlando Florida.

Lynda who worked for a number of charity organizations and was the editor of a political magazine would enter into a common law relationship with George Sibley.

Lynda Block and George Sibley had failed to show up at court regarding an assault on Lynda’s ex husband and were on the run from authorities. Someone would phone the police and report a boy who appeared to need help and of a family living in their car.

When the police officer showed up he would park behind the car which contained George Sibley, Lynda Block and her nine year old son were in a nearby store, the officer would ask Sibley for his drivers license and soon after a gun fight began.

Lynda who would see what was taking place would draw her own gun and fire at the officer. When the officer turned towards her he was fatally shot in the chest.

Both George Sibley and Lynda Block would be charged with the murder of the officer and both would be convicted and sentenced to death.

George Sibley was executed on August 4, 2002. Lynda would be executed on May 10, 2005

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Lynda Block, 54, and her common-law husband, George Sibley Jr., were on the run after failing to appear on a domestic battery charge. With Block’s 9 year old son in the car, they stopped so Block could use the telephone in a Walmart parking lot. Opelika Police Sergeant Roger Lamar Motley had just finished lunch and was shopping for supplies for the jail when a woman came up to him and told him there was a car in the parking lot with a little boy inside. The woman was worried about him. She was afraid that the family was living in their car. Would he check on them?

Motley cruised up and down the rows of parked cars and finally pulled up behind the Mustang. Sibley was in the car with the boy, waiting for Block to finish a call to a friend from a pay phone in front of the store. Motley asked Sibley for his drivers license. Sibley said he didn’t need one. He was trying to explain why when Motley put his hand on his service revolver. Sibley reached into the car and pulled out a gun. Motley uttered a four-letter expletive and spun away to take cover behind his cruiser. Sibley crouched by the bumper of the Mustang. People in the parking lot screamed, hid beneath their cars and ran back into the store as the men began firing at each other. Preoccupied by the threat in front of him, Motley did not see Lynda Block until the very last moment.

She had dropped the phone, pulling the 9mm Glock pistol from her bag as she ran toward the scene, firing. Motley turned. She remembered later how surprised he looked. She kept on firing. She could tell that a bullet struck him in the chest. Staggering, he reached into the cruiser. She kept on firing, thinking he was trying to get a shotgun. But he was grabbing for the radio. “Double zero,” he managed to say — the code for help. He died in a nearby hospital that afternoon. In letters to friends and supporters, Lynda Block later would describe Motley as a “bad cop” and a wife beater with multiple complaints against him.

As part of the conspiracy against her, Lynda Block said, she was prohibited from bringing up his record in court. His personnel file makes no mention of any misbehavior. His wife says he was a kind and patient man. Both Lynda Block and Sibley received deeath sentences.

True to their “patriot” ideologies, Lynda Block waived her appeals. She has refused to accept the validity of Alabama’s judicial system, claiming that Alabama never became a state again after the Civil War. Lynda Block has been completely non-cooperative with her court-appointed attorney, who nevertheless attempted to work against her death sentence. First execution of a female in Alabama since 1957. She is the 9th female executed in the U.S. since reinstatement of the death penalty in 1976.

http://www.clarkprosecutor.org/html/death/US/block775.htm

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The notoriously anti-government George Sibley was defiant up to the very end. Less than a minute before the chemicals entered his body he offered these last words. “Everyone who is doing this to me is guilty of a murder. To my sister and my niece, I want to express my gratitude and my love and my gratitude to my personal my saviour the Lord Jesus Christ.”

For a full three to five minutes after the procedure began Sibley held his gaze. He kept his eyes on his family sitting with those of us in the media. He glanced only one time at Officer Motley’s family.

He then gasped heavily three or four times before he passed out. Doctors pronounced Sibley dead after 15 minutes.

Afterwards, the officer’s family asked reporters not to focus on Sibley’s death.

It was an intense seen inside the condemned man’s witness room. The media sat with Sibley’s family. Sibley’s sister and niece prayed constantly. Both were forced to leave not by officers but by their own emotions before doctors pronounced Sibley dead. The family isn’t saying where they will bury the convicted cop killer but he is from Florida.

Officer Motley’s widow, Juanita Kirkwood, told us Wednesday she personally did not want the execution. Thursday, she said it was extremely difficult to watch but she felt justice was done

https://www.wsfa.com/story/3685398/convicted-cop-killer-george-sibley-jr-put-to-death/

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Anti-government extremist George Sibley Jr. nodded to his relatives, stared at his victim’s family and gave a final statement of defiance before he was executed Thursday for the 1993 shooting death of an Opelika police officer.

“Everyone who is doing this to me is guilty of a murder,” Sibley said.

“My sister and my niece, I want to express my love and gratitude . . . and gratitude to my Lord and Savior, Jesus Christ,” Sibley said after being strapped to a gurney for the lethal injection to begin.

Officials at Holman Prison near Atmore said Sibley died at 6:26 p.m. The execution was carried out after the U.S. Supreme Court denied Sibley’s request for a delay and Gov. Bob Riley turned down Sibley’s request for a six-month postponement.

“There is no new evidence that would justify such a delay,” the governor said.

George Sibley and Lynda Block refused for years to file appeals. Before Lynda Block was put to death, she claimed through an attorney that Alabama never became a state again after the Civil War and she therefore did not recognize the state’s court system.

Motley’s widow, Juanita Motley Kirkwood, witnessed the execution, along with his mother, sister, son and two stepsons

http://legacy.decaturdaily.com/decaturdaily/news/050805/sibley.shtml

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Lynda Block was executed for the murder of a police officer

When Was Lynda Block Executed

Lynda Block was executed on May 10, 2002

Lisa Carpenter Graham Women On Death Row

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Lisa Carpenter Graham was sentenced to death for arranging the murder of her adult daughter. According to court documents Lisa Carpenter Graham would convince a friend to murder her daughter. The friend, Kenneth Walton, would taker her daughter, Stephanie Shea Graham, out for a drive that ended on an empty country road. Once Stephanie Shea Graham stepped out of the vehicle Kenneth Walton would fatally shoot her. Lisa Carpenter Graham would put her foot in her mouth when police came to question her and admitted giving a gun to Kenneth Walton however it would take years for the murder case to go to trial. Kenneth Walton quickly plead out to take the death penalty off the table but Lisa Carpenter Graham would go to trial, be convicted and sentenced to death

Lisa Carpenter Graham 2021 Information

Inmate: GRAHAM, LISA CARPENTER
AIS: 0000z803
  
Institution: TUTWILER DEATH ROW

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Convicted of capital murder for persuading a family friend to gun her daughter down on a remote dirt road in Russell County on July 5, 2007, Lisa Carpenter Graham was sentenced to death Wednesday.

Judge Jacob Walker III imposed that sentence after hearing testimony from psychologist and attorney Glen King, who was hired to conduct a presentencing psychological evaluation on Lisa Carpenter Graham, and from psychiatrist Heather Rowe of East Alabama Mental Health, who said she has been treating Graham since February 2013.

The evaluation was to determine whether Graham had any mental illness or other condition that would make her ineligible for the death penalty.

King testified his evaluation showed Graham is not mentally deficient and has no defect that would keep her from understanding the consequences of her actions. He added, though, that his tests showed Graham had an IQ of 77, indicating she likely would not in advance think through her actions like someone who scored higher.

He said his evaluation revealed Lisa Carpenter Graham scored low in “leisure and social activities,” meaning game-playing, travel and establishing friendships beyond immediate family. In that regard, she was “well below average,” King said.

When Russell County District Attorney Ken Davis asked whether Graham had been “malingering” or faking symptoms, King replied that he did not believe Graham tried to fake test responses. But he thought she had exaggerated her mental issues, embellishing psychiatric symptoms.

Also under Davis’ questioning, King acknowledged Graham was functional, having kept accounts balanced for her family business, having been literate and computer literate, and having pursued genealogical research as a hobby.

Rowe testified she found Lisa Carpenter Graham suffered from recurring and severe depression and had “borderline personality disorder.” She did not elaborate on the latter.

Online, the National Institute of Mental Health posts that borderline personality disorder is “a serious mental illness marked by unstable moods, behavior, and relationships,” and involves “problems with regulating emotions and thoughts; impulsive and reckless behavior; unstable relationships with other people.”

As testimony concluded, Davis argued nothing precluded Walker’s giving Lisa Carpenter Graham the death penalty.

Graham’s lead attorney Margaret Young Brown countered that King’s evaluation showed Graham had “borderline intellectual functioning” that casts doubt on her capacity to take reasonable actions.

She also called Walker’s attention to previous testimony by Graham’s son Kevin “Boo” Graham Jr., who told the judge that since his sister’s death, the only immediate family he has left are his mother, father and grandmother.

His mother’s execution would leave only the father and grandmother: “It wouldn’t be long for the rest of them to be gone, and then I’d have nobody,” he said.

A jury convicted Lisa Carpenter Graham March 5, and Walker III initially set a sentencing date of May 1, but then postponed it so Graham could be evaluated. Walker noted then that Graham had been diagnosed with post-traumatic stress disorder and was taking medications prescribed for schizophrenia.

Wednesday’s sentencing is not the end of the story, as Graham already has asked for a new trial and will appeal to the Alabama Court of Criminal Appeals. That process will add new chapters to what even veterans of the criminal justice system found to be a sordid and surreal story of a mother whose jealousy and disdain for her daughter led to a cold-blooded murder late at night on Bowden Road near Pittsview.

Lisa Carpenter Graham was convicted of persuading longtime family worker Kenneth Walton to kill her 20-year-old daughter Stephanie Shea Graham, who went by Shea. Walton said the mother met him at the Columbus Public Library on the evening of July 7, 2007, and loaned him her pistol for the job.

He later caught up with Shea at a Victory Drive gas station, where she left her car with friends and rode off in Walton’s pickup truck. He took her on a long, night drive down Alabama Highway 165 before pulling off on Bowden Road so they could relieve themselves.

When she got out to squat beside the truck’s open passenger door, he pulled out the pistol and shot her in the head from the driver’s seat, then got out, walked around the truck and shot her again and again.

He left her half-nude, bullet-riddled body where it lay, and drove away. Asked in court how his deadly betrayal of a young woman who trusted him made him feel, he replied, “I felt normal.”

Because witnesses saw Shea leave the gas station with Walton, investigators focused on him immediately. He confessed, and told them of the mother’s involvement, particularly of the pistol he had returned to her the day after the shooting.

Lisa Carpenter Graham then incriminated herself when authorities came looking for the gun. She had given it to an elderly neighbor she knew as “Papa” to clean, but told sheriff’s investigators she didn’t know where it was, and allowed them futilely to search her house before her husband told them “Papa” might have it.

Finding ample evidence of her involvement, investigators charged her with murder, and Davis announced he would seek the death penalty.

But five years passed before the case finally came to trial — the first time. Davis said Wednesday that the first delay resulted from courthouse renovation that made the building unsafe for holding a death-penalty trial.

Walton pleaded guilty June 14, 2012, and was sentenced to life in prison. Graham’s trial was set for the following fall.

But after jury selection and some initial testimony, then-Circuit Judge George Greene abruptly declared a mistrial on Sept. 25, 2012, saying he could no longer preside because of his failing health.

When prosecutors pursued a second trial, Graham’s defense team appealed, claiming Greene could have continued the trial, and to try Graham again would constitute double-jeopardy. During testimony in that appeal, witnesses said Greene had multiple health issues, and had been falling asleep in court, even snoring.

Greene retired in December 2013, and died Jan. 1, 2014.

After the Alabama Court of Appeals rejected the defense double-jeopardy arguments on Oct. 17, 2013, Graham’s attorneys appealed to the Alabama Supreme Court. It turned them down on Aug. 8, 2014.

Meanwhile other Russell County judges recused themselves from presiding at Graham’s next trial. Walker, a Lee County Circuit Court judge, was appointed to fill in.

Jury selection in the second trial began Feb. 17, with witness testimony starting the following week.

That testimony showed Lisa Carpenter Graham repeatedly had remarked to witnesses that Shea was ruining her life, and she would kill her daughter if she could. The daughter was facing aggravated assault charges related to a drive-by shooting in Columbus, and Graham feared she would flee town and leave her parents responsible for her $100,000 bond.

Walton testified he lured Shea into his pickup the night she died with the promise of providing her a vehicle in which to run away.

Graham’s attorneys would not comment after Wednesday’s sentencing, but Davis did.

“This is a case in which the death penalty was called for,” the prosecutor said, adding, “This was a woman who opportuned, cajoled, threatened another individual over the course of months to murder her biological child, to take her down into the darkness of Russell County, Alabama, on a dirt road and shoot her five times.”

With Graham’s appeals pending, much work remains to be done, he said.

“This is really the beginning of a capital case,” Davis said. “A capital case calls for automatic appeals. Those appeals will go up on both levels, both the federal level and the state level. No one can say what will happen on appeal. It’s a process the attorney general of Alabama will be involved in, and we will certainly be current with it.”

https://www.ledger-enquirer.com/news/local/crime/article45356997.html

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Lisa Carpenter Graham is currently incarcerated at the TUTWILER DEATH ROW home of Alabama Death Row for Women

Why Is Lisa Carpenter Graham On Death Row

Lisa Carpenter Graham was convicted for the contract killing of her adult daughter

Christie Michelle Scott Women On Death Row

Christie Michelle Scott Women On Death Row

Christie Michelle Scott is on Alabama Death Row for the murder of her child. According to court documents Scott set fire to her home that would kill her six year old autistic son. Fire investigators believed that the fatal fire was actually set in her children bedroom. It is believed that Scott was trying to collect on the insurance policy. Scott was quickly convicted and sentenced to death.

Christie Michelle Scott 2019 Information

Inmate: SCOTT, CHRISTIE MICHELLE
AIS: 0000Z761
  
Institution: TUTWILER DEATH ROW

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The evidence tended to show that in the early morning hours of August 16, 2008, a fire was set in the Scott house and that Mason died as a result of the fire. Dr. Emily Ward, a pathologist with the Alabama Department of Forensic Sciences, testified that Mason died from smoke in his airway and thermal burns.

At the time of the fire, Christie Michelle Scott and her four-year-old son Noah were sleeping in Scott’s bedroom, Mason was in the boys’ bedroom, and Jeremy Scott, Scott’s husband, was not at home and had been out of town for several weeks. Sgt. Brian Shackelford of the Russellville Police Department testified that he arrived minutes after the emergency call, that he kicked open the back door, and that he was only able to make it four or five feet inside the house because of the heat and smoke. Firefighters testified that after extinguishing the fire they searched the house several times before they were able to identify Mason’s badly charred body.

The Scott’s neighbor, Jennifer Davidson, testified that her doorbell rang around 2:30 a.m. on August 16, 2008. She opened the door and found Scott and Noah. Christie Michelle Scott told her that her house was on fire. Davidson went to the back of the house to telephone emergency 911 because, she said, the telephone in the front of the house was not working. When she got back to the front door, she said, Christie Michelle Scott told her that her other son, Mason, was still in the house. Davidson telephoned 911 again to inform them that a child was still in the house. Emergency 911 records showed that the first call was made at 2:33:17 on the morning of August 16 and that the second call was made at 2:35:48—two and one half minutes later.



After police and firefighters arrived at the scene, Davidson stayed with Christie Michelle Scott. Davidson testified that when Scott was in the ambulance Christie Michelle Scott said, “Don’t call Jeremy. Don’t call Jeremy. He’ll blame me or he’ll try to hurt his self.” (R. 998.) Davidson also heard Christie Michelle Scott ask what fire marshal was at the scene. Scott said that she did not like one of the fire marshals because he had worked her other house fire. Davidson also testified that Christie Michelle Scott was fully dressed and that at one point while they were in the ambulance Scott patted her pant pocket and pulled out a cell phone and said: “I had my cell phone the whole time. I could have called 911.” (R. 997–98.)

Davidson’s boyfriend, Brian Copeland, testified that Christie Michelle Scott came to the door of the house he shared with Davidson in the early morning hours of August 16 and told them that her house was on fire. Copeland ran to the Scott’s house to try and find a way inside to help Mason. Copeland said that Christie Michelle Scott told him that all the doors were locked and there was no way to get inside the house, that Christie Michelle Scott did not enter any numbers in the keypad to open the garage door in his presence, that he did not enter any numbers in the keypad, and that he did not have to restrain Christie Michelle Scott to prevent her from going into the house. These statements were inconsistent with Scott’s account of the events on August 16, 2008.

An emergency medical technician with Pleasant Bay Ambulance Service, Elzie Malone, testified that he responded to the fire. He said that Christie Michelle Scott told him that she was alright and that she did not need to go to the hospital. Malone said that Christie Michelle Scott then said: “How am I going to tell Jeremy that I have let his baby die?” (R. 1061.)

Several officials testified concerning a statement that Scott’s father’s, Donald Bray, made to Scott when he arrived at the scene of the fire. William Crenshaw, a volunteer firefighter, testified that when Scott’s father arrived he said: “What the hell have you done with my grandbabies?” (R. 1291.) Sgt. Shackelford testified that Scott’s father said: “Oh, my God. What have you done to my babies?” (R. 1260.)

Jerry Yarborough, a paramedic with Pleasant Bay Ambulance Service, testified that when Scott’s father arrived at the scene he was upset and said to Scott: “Where’s my babies? Oh, no, not my babies. What have you done?” (R. 1126.) When Yarborough tried to calm Scott down, Yarborough testified, Christie Michelle Scott said to him “You don’t understand. I killed his [Jeremy’s] baby.” (R. 1128.) Yarborough also testified that Scott said that she didn’t know how someone could be so unlucky as to have two fires in three years and “I hope it ain’t that one [the fire marshal] from Colbert County. I don’t want him here.” (R. 1128.)

Cpt. Steve Thornton with the Russellville Fire Department testified that he arrived at the scene after the fire had been extinguished. The fire, he said, originated in Mason’s and Noah’s bedroom. He said that some of the electrical outlets from the bedroom were cut out of the wall in his presence, that each outlet was cut at a different length to identify it, and that the outlets were photographed from all angles. One outlet, he said, the outlet that was behind Mason’s bed could not be located; however, numerous photographs of this outlet had been made. Thornton said that firefighters sifted through the fire debris for 8 to 10 hours but were unable to locate this missing outlet.

Dolan Gassett, a deputy fire marshal, testified that he found a disabled smoke detector in the hallway outside the boys’s bedroom. (R. 1818.) Morris Brown, a former firearms and toolsmark expert with the Alabama Department of Forensic Sciences, testified that in his opinion the smoke detector had been forcibly removed, or pulled from the wall, before the fire started and it was lying on the floor, undamaged by the fire. He said: “[S]ome force acted upon the wires enough to cause the tearing of this housing and caused the collateral abrasion of the wire.” (R. 2399–40.) There was evidence indicating that everything else mounted on the walls at the same height as the smoke detector—the electrical box that housed the smoke detector, a thermostat, a wooden doorbell cover, and a picture frame—had sustained serious heat damage or had melted completely. Testing indicated that the smoke detector would have worked properly if it had been on the wall at the time of the fire.

James Edwards, a deputy with the State Fire Marshal’s Office, testified that he interviewed Scott at the Russellville Fire Department on August 26. Christie Michelle Scott gave the following account of the events of August 16:

“I went back to watch TV. I was watching Fear on HBO. I went back to check on them at 10:00 p.m. Mason was asleep and Noah Riley was not. I turned on the satellite and told him that he needed to go to sleep. I went back to watch my movie. The movie went off around 11:00 p.m. I went in the room to check on the boys. The TV was off and Noah Riley was still awake. I told him to come get in the bed with me.

We went to my room and went to bed. As I went to sleep, the house was fine. The Jack and Jill bathroom light was on and the night-light played and—plugged into the wall. In my room I had turned the light on over the toilet for Noah Riley. We went to sleep.

“The next thing I remember is something hitting my face. As I started to wake up, I could smell the smoke and feel the heat on my face. I rolled off the bed and covered Noah Riley and told him to be still. I crawled over to the door. I looked out in the hallway, which was covered in smoke. I could see flickering that I thought at the time was coming from the laundry room.

“I went back into our room, pushed the door to. I crawled back over to the bed and pulled Noah Riley off in the floor. He began to cry at this point. I took a deep breath, stood up, and opened the window. I punched the screen out. I picked up Noah Riley, kissed him, told him I loved him, and dropped him out of the window.

“At this time I could hear crackling and popping. I began to try to get out of the window, got halfway out and fell. When I got on the ground, I took, Noah Riley by the hand and started around the house. He told me that I was hurting him. So I picked him up and carried him through the front yard with me.

“Where there was—there was fire coming out of the window in the boys’ room and going over the top of the roof. It was orange. I ran to Jennifer’s house, banged on the door. When she came to the door, I handed Noah Riley to her, told her to dial 911 that the house was on fire.

“I yelled to her that Mason was still in the house as I headed back to the house. I ran over to the garage doors. I put in the code and the doors would not open. I tried several times to get in with the code. Then I ran around to the front of the house. The flames had started running across the peak of the roof.

“I was headed to the front door when Brian [Copeland] grabbed me and held me down. Later I remembered the light in my bathroom was off when I woke up.”

A psychiatrist, Dr. Rebecca Dailey, testified that Mason was brought to her for an evaluation in April 2007. She diagnosed Mason with Attention Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder (“ADHD”); Oppositional Defiant Disorder (“ODD”); and Pervasive Developmental Disorder (“PDD”). She prescribed Abilify for his obsessive behavior; Risperdal as a antipsychotic; and Vyvense for his hyperactivity. Dr. Dailey testified that she last saw Mason 12 days before his death.

A pediatrician, Dr. Duane Carter, testified that on February 6, 2008, he diagnosed Mason with bronchitis and prescribed an antibiotic Omniced, a steroid drug Decadron, and a codeine based cough syrup whose generic name is promethazine. He prescribed promethazine again on April 16, 2008. Dr. Carter testified that the cough syrup would make a child sleepy.

A toxicologist at the Department of Forensic Sciences, Dr. Jack R. Kalin, analyzed Mason’s blood. Dr. Kalin testified that he identified the following drugs in Mason’s system: amphetamines, codeine, and promethazine, an antihistamine typically used to treat nausea in postoperative patients. He said that the amphetamine level in a typical child being treated for ADHD is less than 100 but that Mason’s level was 450—a level, he said, that was consistent with what you would expect to see in a DUI case. Dr. Kalin further testified that this was the first case where he had seen codeine used in conjunction with promethazine and that both substances would induce sleepiness and drowsiness. Dr. Kalin said that he did not find the presence of Risperdal or Abilify in Mason’s blood. Mason’s carbon-monoxide level, he said, was greater than 90% which is extremely high.

The State’s experts ruled out lightning, spontaneous combustion, rechargeable batteries, and faulty electrical wiring as the cause of the fire. Michael Haynes with the State Fire Marshal’s Office testified that there was no indication that any hydrocarbon accelerant had been used. (R.1927.) Dr. Raphael A. Franco, Jr., an electrical engineer, testified that he was asked to examine the scene and to determine whether the fire was electrical in origin. In August 2008, he said, he went to the scene and stayed there for 12 hours conducting his examination. Dr. Franco testified that there were five electrical outlets in the boys’s bedroom, that the wiring ran under the floor, that the outlets were all on one circuit breaker, that he inspected every outlet and receptacle, except outlet number 1, that he took 425 photographs of the scene, that he examined the wiring underneath the house, that he examined the attic, that the night-light was not the cause of the fire, that there was no damage to the underground wiring in the house, that the fire did not originate in outlet number 1 because the electrical box that housed the outlet was intact, and that, in his opinion, the fire was not electrical in origin. He further testified that the television had been plugged into outlet number 5, that the cord to the television was damaged by an external fire which caused the circuit breaker to trip meaning, he said, that the electricity had to pass through outlets number 1 through 4 before going to 5 and that the fire could not have been electrical in origin.

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A Russellville jury found Christie Scott guilty of three counts of capital murder in the death of her young son a year ago.

Mason Scott, 6, died in a house fire in August of 2008. Christie Scott and Mason’s brother escaped from the blaze.

“[The jury] did see what happened in this case, and the fact that Mason was murdered by his mother,” said Franklin County District Attorney Joey Rushing.

Fire marshals testified that the fire began in Mason’s room. However, Christie Scott’s attorney said the state conducted a bad investigation where they looked at rumors and not facts.

In their closing arguments, the defense also reminded jurors that a faulty television cord could have been the cause of fire.

State prosecutors closed their case by stating that circumstantial evidence was strong, with Christie Scott having purchased an insurance policy for her son shortly before the fire. Also, prosecutors said Scott had been looking at real estate the night of the fire, and a cherished wedding ring was taken out of the house before the fire.

Jeremy Scott, Christie’s husband and Mason’s father, had to be consoled by his mother while they waited for her to arrive from the Franklin County jail for the verdict.

Christie Michelle Scott didn’t show emotion as heard the jury’s verdict late Wednesday morning. As she was being lead away from court, she would not comment.

She was the first woman convicted of capital murder in Franklin County.

“This is the most heinous crime in Franklin County history,” Rushing said. “There is nothing worse than a mother murdering her son for insurance.”

“If you kill a child and you’ve done it intentionally, then yes, she deserves the death penalty,” said Franklin County resident Jeff McCormick.

The sentencing phase of the trial will begin Thursday morning. Due to the capital murder verdict, she will be either sentenced to life in prison or to death by lethal injection.

However, the jury won’t begin deliberating her sentence immediately. The defense and prosecution will present witnesses and then the judge will turn it over to the jury panel.

https://www.waff.com/story/10657942/christie-scott-found-guilty-of-capital-murder/

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Christie Michelle Graham is currently incarcerated at the TUTWILER DEATH ROW the home of Alabama Death Row For Women

Why Is Christie Michelle Graham On Death Row

Christie Michelle Graham was convicted of the fatal arson that would kill her six year old son

Heather Leavell Keaton Women On Death Row

Heather Leavell Keaton Women On Death Row

Heather Leavell Keaton is on Alabama Death Row for the murders of two young children. According to court documents Leavell Keaton and her common law husband John DeBlase murdered the first child in March 2010, the ten year old child strangled to death after she was duct taped and placed in a closet. The second child was murdered in June 2010 when he was duct taped to a broom handle and placed in the closet. Both of the children would be later buried in the backyard. According to witnesses the two children were murdered after asking about their biological mother which enraged Heather. Both Heather and her common law husband John DeBlase would be convicted on both murders and sentenced to death.

Heather Leavell Keaton 2019 Information

Inmate: KEATON, HEATHER LEAVELL
AIS: 0000Z801
  
Institution: TUTWILER DEATH ROW

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Heather Leavell Keaton, the stepmother suspected in the deaths of Natalie and Chase DeBlase who authorities say were buried in the woods, was returning to Alabama Friday from a Kentucky jail to face charges along with her common-law husband.

According to Louisville Metro Corrections spokeswoman Pam Windsor, Leavell-Keaton was being held at a Louisville jail on abuse charges before she was picked up around 1:00 a.m. Friday to be transferred back to Mobile, Ala.

The children’s father, John DeBlase, 27, told authorities that he dumped his 5-year-old daughter Natalie in the woods north of Mobile in March and discarded 3-year-old Chase’s body, dressed in only a diaper and stuffed into a plastic garbage bag, in Mississippi in June.  Authorities believe the skeletal remains found in the woods of rural Mississippi Wednesday are those of the little boy, but they’re conducting tests to confirm the identity. Natalie’s body has yet to be found.

DeBlase is charged with two counts of murder, child abuse and corpse abuse in their deaths.

Police aren’t ready yet to charge Leavell-Keaton with killing either of the children, but arrest warrants in the case accuse her of abusing the young children.

According to documents, between March 1 and November 19, 2010, DeBlase allowed Leavell-Keaton to bind the girl’s hands and feet with duct tape, put a sock in her mouth and stuff her in a suitcase in a closet for about 14 hours, reports CBS affiliate WKRG.

The warrants also detail how Leavell-Keaton duct-taped the young boy’s hands to the side of his legs, strapped a broom handle to his back and shoved a sock in his mouth. The boy was then forced to stand in a corner all night while the adults went to bed.

Investigators only began searching for the bodies of Chase and Natalie just weeks ago, but police say they were last seen in March and June, respectively. Their disappearance wasn’t reported until Leavell-Keaton sought a protective order against DeBlase in Kentucky, according to Mobile police officer Chris Levy.

She said in the Nov. 18 filing that DeBlase “may have murdered his children,” and that she feared for her life because he was abusive. The couple just had a child together this summer.

“I am afraid that he is going to do something to harm our daughter because of what he as done to the other children,” she wrote.

Both DeBlase and Leavell-Keaton have accused each other for the children’s deaths.

“He’s placing the blame on Heather, and Heather’s placing the blame on him,” said Levy. “Both of them are ultimately responsible for the deaths.”

DeBlase pleaded not guilty to the lesser charges Wednesday and is due in court again Friday for a bond hearing on the murder charges. His attorney, Jim Sears, said DeBlase will plead not guilty to those charges as well.

Heather Leavell Keaton More News

Arrest warrants describe the horrific abuse two young children allegedly suffered at the hands of their father and his girlfriend, including stuffing one of the children into a suitcase for 14 hours, before the children were allegedly killed by their dad.

As the grim details surrounding the children’s death surface, police have announced they believe they found the remains of 3-year-old Chase DeBlase, allegedly dumped in the Mississippi woods by his father, John Deblase, in March.

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Police are also scouring woods in rural Alabama for the body of 5-year-old Natalie DeBlase, who police allege was killed and discarded by her father in June.

The arrest warrant details bizarre punishments allegedly devised for the children. It charges DeBlase with allowing his girlfriend, Heather Leavell-Keaton, to create a night-long torture for Chase while the parents went to bed.

“Allowing Heather Leavell-Keaton (his girlfriend) to duck-tape the childs hands to the side of his legs, tape a broom handle to his back, placing a sock in his mouth and duck-taping it to his mouth, then making the child stand in a corner all night when they went to bed,” the warrant says.

Police have not yet given a cause of death for Chase or Natalie although they believe the abuse played a major factor.

“We have not determined cause of death,” Assistant District Attorney Joe Beth Murphree told ABC News. “Remains found yesterday and the medical examiner is looking at remains at this time. Even if exact cause cannot be determine we believe homicide can still be proved.”

According to police Natalie was not spared the monstrous abuse doled out by DeBlase and Leavell-Keaton, his girlfriend since 2008.

A separate arrest warrant outlines that DeBlase allegedly allowed Leavell-Keaton to “duck-tape” Natalie’s hands and feet before stuffing her in a suitcase.

“Duck-tape the child’s hands and feet, place a sock in her mouth, place her inside a black suitcase and leave it inside a closet from 8 a.m. until 10 p.m.,” the warrant says.

Jackson County Sheriff Mike Byrd said that Chase’s body was stuffed inside a black garbage bag, wearing only a diaper, by his father close to the road because DeBlase allegedly didn’t want to get lost on his way back to his vehicle.

According to police little Chase DeBlase’s remains stayed hidden there for over six months, and for Mobile Police Officer Chris Levy, that’s one of the most troubling parts of this story.

“The fact for six months a child was dead and nobody reported it. For six months,” Levy said to ABC News today.

Levy said the birth mother and grandparents of the children have been questioned as to why they didn’t report the children missing, and according to him they gave reasons, “no good reasons,” though he said.

Equally as troubling, Levy said detectives later found a number neighbors and associates of DeBlase and Leavell-Keaton who claimed they witnessed the children being abused numerous times.

“We have all these people coming forward now who say they saw them hit the children with objects, they say they saw burns on the children that required medical attention, and nobody called the police. Where were those people a year ago when these children were actually in danger?” Levy said.

DeBlase has been charged with two-counts of murder. He has not yet entered a plea and does not yet have a lawyer. Leavell-Keaton is in jail in Kentucky, arrested on child-abuse charges, may be extradited to Alabama today, Murphree said.

Leavell-Keaton may face more serious charges.

“It’s a very intense investigation going 24/7. If murder charges can be brought, they will be brought,” Murphree said.

Police say DeBlase and Leavell-Keaton, who have an infant daughter together, are blaming each other for killing the children. Their surviving child is currently in protective custody, according to police.

According to police documents, the grisly story came to the attention of police on Nov. 18 when a family member of Leavell-Keaton allegedly told police she feared the children were dead, a report from the Louisville Police Department states.

Police contacted Leavell-Keaton, and began interviewing neighbors of associates of the couple. The report says at that point she requested a restraining order against DeBlase out of fear he may harm their infant daughter.

“I am afraid that he is going to do something to harm our daughter,” the statement says.

“I feel he may have murdered his children because he said that they were nonresponsive,” Leavell-Keaton allegedly told police according to the report.

“Choices were made this morning, and he had to do what he had to do,” Heather Leavell Keaton told police DeBlase said to her, according to the report.

According to police, the couple had moved to Louisville from Mobile several months ago.

Officer Carey Klain of the Louisville Police told ABC News that as they filed Heather Leavell Keaton’s request for a restraining order and took down her report on the children, detectives from Mobile spoke to several people who indicated they witnesses her abuse the children on numerous occasions. At that point Levy said she was arrested on charges of child abuse.

Klain said her department placed Heather Leavell Keaton in custody and the Mobile police triggered a national missing children’s report as they began to try to locate DeBlase and the children.

DeBlase was picked up on Dec. 2 in Florida. According to a report out of the Santa Rosa County Sheriff’s office, DeBlase had been staying in Florida with friend Randall Melville since Nov. 30.

Mellville says he received a phone call from an associate who, according to the police report, told Melville he saw a television report about DeBlase being wanted in connection with the disappearance of his children.

“Melville said he asked John about this information which John then got up yelling ‘I didn’t do it,’ and left the residence,” the police report states.

DeBlase was picked up by police a short time later, and he again allegedly blurted out to the officers, “I didn’t do it,” the report says.

Frequently Asked Questions

Heather Leavell Keaton More News

A woman sentenced to die by a Mobile County jury will be headed back to court later this month after her sentence was overturned.

Heather Leavell-Keaton, the first woman in Mobile County history to be sent to death row, will face a hearing Oct. 13 in Mobile County Circuit Court where she will be resentenced for her 2015 capital murder conviction.

Leavell-Keaton, along with her common-law husband John DeBlase, were convicted of torturing and killing his two children, four-year-old Natalie and three-year-old Chase, in 2010.

The Alabama Court of Criminal Appeals Tuesday ruled that Leavell-Keaton did not have a chance to address the court prior to her sentencing back in 2015. Leavell-Keaton displayed no emotion during her sentencing, according to a report at the time.

“To be clear, the trial court is not to hold a full capital-conviction sentencing hearing, which has already occurred,” the court ruled. Instead, the court will allow her to speak, take into consideration anything she may say, and sentence her to either death or life imprisonment without the possibility of parole, the court ruled.

According to prosecutors, Natalie was choked to death in March 2010 after being duct-taped and placed in a suitcase which was set in a closet for 12 hours. Her body was later dumped in a wooded area near Citronelle.

Chase was choked to death in June 2010 when he was taped to a broom handle and left in the corner of the couple’s bedroom overnight. His body was found in the woods outside Vancleave, Miss.

Prosecutors claimed that Leavell-Keaton was jealous of Natalie and bristled when friends and family members called her a princess. Chase was killed when he asked where Natalie was

Heather Leavell Keaton Photos

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Heather Leavell Keaton FAQ

Heather Leavell Keaton 2021

Heather Leavell Keaton is currently incarcerated at the TUTWILER DEATH ROW the home of Alabama’s Death Row for women

Why Is Heather Leavell Keaton On Death Row

Heather Leavell Keaton was convicted of the murders of two children

Patricia Blackmon Women On Death Row

patricia blackmon women on death row

Patricia Blackmon is on death row in Alabama for the murder of a child. According to court documents Patricia called 911 to report that a child was not breathing. When emergency personal arrived on the scene they were shocked by what they scene. The child who was not breathing was covered in vomit and was wearing blood soaked socks. Once the child was brought to the hospital doctors noticed a very high number of both new and old injuries and called the police. Patricia Blackmon would be found guilty of both murder and felony child abuse and would be sentenced to death

Patricia Blackmon 2022 Information

Inmate: BLACKMON, PATRICIA
AIS: 0000z685
  
Institution: TUTWILER DEATH ROW

Patricia Blackmon Other News

The State’s evidence tended to show that on May 29, 1999, Patricia Blackmon telephoned emergency 911 to summon paramedics to her mobile home in Dothan.   Patricia Blackmon told the 911 operator that her child was not breathing.   Eddie Smith, a paramedic in Dothan, testified that he arrived at Patricia Blackmon’s mobile home at around 9:30 p.m. and that he found Dominiqua lying on the floor of the master bedroom-she was wearing only a diaper and blood-soaked socks, was covered in vomit, and was not breathing.   There was a hematoma on her forehead and blood on her chest.   After the paramedics attempted to revive her, she was transported to Flowers Hospital Emergency Room.


Dr. Matthew Krista testified that he treated Dominiqua when she was brought to the emergency room.   He said that he first established an airway but that at 10:22 p.m. she was pronounced dead. Dominiqua’s pediatrician, Dr. Robert Head, was also called to the emergency room.   Both doctors testified that the child had multiple bruises and contusions and an imprint of the sole of a shoe on her chest.1  They also said that they observed marks from previous injuries on her body.


Dr. Alfredo Parades, the medical examiner who conducted the autopsy, testified that Dominiqua died of multiple blunt-force injuries to her head, chest, abdomen, and extremities-he detailed some 30 injuries that he discovered on the child’s body.   Dr. Parades testified:
“She has bruises in the front part of the lower chest and upper abdomen.   Bruises around the right groin.   She has a fracture, this is the fracture of the leg.   And, on her side, she has bruises on the left temporal area above the ear.   She has bruises on ․ the ear on the left.   She had a bruise on the right cheek area.   She had a bruise on the side of the heel and foot area.   Then on the back, she had multiple bruises on the lower back, bilaterally.   That is both sides.   Bruises of the buttocks, bruises behind the knee area and below the knee area.   And in addition to that, she had numerous linear, what I describe as in parallel, like a train tack.   There were numerous injuries with a pale area in between ․ the left buttock area.”



Parades also said that Dominiqua had two broken bones and many other injuries that were in various stages of healing.   Parades also described many internal injuries.   He said that Dominiqua also had an imprint of the sole of a shoe on her chest.


Dr. James Downs, chief medical examiner for the State of Alabama, testified that he compared the sandals Patricia Blackmon was wearing on the day of the murder with the scanned image of the victim’s chest, and it was his opinion that the imprint on Dominiqua’s chest was consistent with the sole of the sandals.   Downs also testified that it was his opinion that Dominiqua’s recent injuries were consistent with having been made by a pool cue.


There was testimony indicating that Patricia Blackmon had adopted Dominiqua approximately nine months before she was killed.   Testimony also showed that Patricia Blackmon had sole charge of the child from the time her father-in-law saw the two of them earlier on the evening of the murder until the time of the child’s death.   Wayne Johnson, Blackmon’s father-in-law, testified that on the night Dominiqua was killed he saw Dominiqua and she was playing and acting normal.   He said that Patricia Blackmon and Dominiqua left his house at around 8:00 p.m.
A search of Patricia Blackmon’s mobile home revealed several blood-splattered items.   Forensic tests revealed the presence of blood on a broken pool cue, a child’s T-shirt, a pink flat bed sheet, a quilt, and two napkins.   The blood matched Dominiqua’s blood.


Patricia Blackmon called several witnesses to testify in her defense.   Judy Whatley, an employee of the Department of Human Resources, said that she had had contact with Dominiqua and Patricia Blackmon once a month for five months before August 1998 and that she noticed that the two had a good relationship.   Tammy Freeman, Blackmon’s neighbor, testified that she frequently left her children with Patricia Blackmon.


The jury convicted Patricia Blackmon of capital murder.   A separate sentencing hearing was held, at which the State relied on the aggravating circumstance that the murder was especially heinous, atrocious, or cruel to support a death sentence.   After the sentencing hearing the jury, by a vote of 10 to 2, recommended that Patricia Blackmon be sentenced to death.

Frequently Asked Questions

Patricia Blackmon Photos

Patricia Blackmon
Patricia Blackmon 1

Patricia Blackmon FAQ

Patricia Blackmon 2021

Patricia Blackmon is currently incarcerated at the TUTWILER DEATH ROW the home of Alabama Death Row For Women

Why Is Patricia Blackmon On Death Row

Patricia Blackmon was convicted of the murder of a child

Patricia Blacmon Other News

The attorney for a Dothan woman who beat and stomped her adopted daughter to death argued before the Alabama Court of Criminal Appeals Tuesday that she does not deserve the death penalty.

A Houston County judge sentenced Patricia Blackmon to death for the May 1999 capital murder of 2-year old Dominique Bryant. The judge ruled that Bryant’s death was especially heinous, atrocious and cruel, which qualified Blackmon for the death penalty. Bryant’s body sustained numerous injuries, including a fractured skull. The little girl was stomped with such force that an imprint from a shoe was left on her chest. Blackmon attorney Clark M. Parker told the appellate court today that the medical examiner who testified in the case could not say to a medical certainty that Bryant was conscious during the beating.

If that was the case, then she could not have been under emotional stress to merit the “heinous, atrocious and cruel” guidelines for the death penalty to be imposed. Arguing for the state, Stephen Shows said the evidence showed that Bryant suffered greatly before she died. Bryant had injuries on both her front and back, which Shows said proves that she was struggling to get away while she was being beaten.

https://www.wsfa.com/story/1409057/dothan-woman-appeals-her-death-penalty-conviction/