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Willie Smith Alabama Execution

Willie Smith was executed by the State of Alabama for the kidnapping and murder of a woman. According to court documents Willie Smith would kidnap the victim Sharma Johnson who was brought to an ATM and forced to make a withdrawl. Willie Smith would murder Sharma Johnson by shooting her in a cemetery. Willie Smith would be executed by lethal injection on October 21 2012

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Alabama carried out its first execution since March 2020 Thursday night as 52-year-old Willie B. Smith III was executed by lethal injection. Attorney General Steve Marshall said Smith’s time of death was 9:47 p.m.

Smith was convicted of kidnapping and murder in the 1991 killing of 22-year-old Sharma Johnson in Birmingham. According to court documents, Smith took Johnson from an ATM location at gunpoint, robbed her of $80 and shot her execution-style in a cemetery.

Leaders from across Alabama issued statements following the execution Thursday night.

Gov. Kay Ivey:

“Sharma Ruth Johnson was abducted at gunpoint, threatened while in the trunk of the car, terrorized, assaulted, and ultimately, Willie B. Smith, III brutally killed her. In that final moment of this young lady’s short life, Mr. Smith, after learning Ms. Johnson was related to a law enforcement officer, made the choice to put a shotgun to her head, stealing this woman’s future.

“Even after these heinous crimes were committed, Mr. Smith made the choice to burn the vehicle to hide his fingerprints. He knew full well he was doing wrong. This was an absolutely horrendous act against Ms. Johnson. It is also an attack on our men and women in blue.

“In dealing with this unimaginable and tragic loss, her loved ones have endured years of Mr. Smith attempting to avoid due punishment and then a delayed execution earlier this year. Mr. Smith had more time on death row than Ms. Johnson had in this life.

“The evidence in this case was overwhelming, and justice has been rightfully served. The carrying out of Mr. Smith’s sentence sends the message that the state of Alabama will not tolerate these murderous acts. I pray that the loved ones of Ms. Johnson can be closer to finding peace.”

Attorney General Steve Marshall:

“Justice has been served. Tonight, Willie Smith was put to death for the heinous crime he committed nearly three decades ago: the abduction and execution-style murder of an innocent young woman, Sharma Johnson.

“When a capital murderer is due to receive his just punishment, one always hears accusations of “cruel and unusual punishment,” with that term rarely used in a way that accords with its constitutional meaning — and absolutely never used in reference to the victim’s loved ones.

“The family of Sharma Johnson has had to wait 29 years, 11 months, and 25 days to see the sentence of Sharma’s murderer be carried out. Finally, the cruel and unusual punishment that has been inflicted upon them — a decades-long denial of justice — has come to an end.

“I ask the people of Alabama to join me in praying for Sharma’s family and friends, that they might now be able to find peace and closure.”

https://www.wvtm13.com/article/alabama-leaders-statements-on-execution-of-willie-b-smith-iii/38031292#

Preston Hughes Texas Execution

Preston Hughes was executed by the State of Texas for a double murder. According to court documents Preston Hughes would stab to death LaShandra Charles, 15, and her cousin Marcell Taylor, 3. According to police reports she told the officer that Preston attempted to rape her before she died. Preston Hughes was arrested, convicted and sentenced to death. Preston Hughes would be executed by lethal injection on November 15 2012

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Preston Hughes III, who was convicted in the fatal stabbings of two Houston youths in 1988, was executed Thursday at 7:52 p.m. after the U.S. Supreme Court and a federal district court rejected his last-minute appeals. Hughes was the second Texas inmate executed in two days, following the execution of Ramon Hernandez on Wednesday, and is the last scheduled this year.

Hughes was convicted in 1989 of fatally stabbing LaShandra Charles, 15, and her cousin Marcell Taylor, 3, in a field behind a Fuddruckers restaurant in Houston. A police sergeant reported that Charles identified the name “Preston” and said, “He tried to rape me,” shortly before she died.

As Hughes’ execution date neared, lawyer Patrick McCann filed a clemency petition to the Board of Pardons and Paroles, which makes recommendations to Gov. Rick Perry on whether to spare a death row inmate at the last minute. In the petition, McCann pointed to new evidence he found that indicated Hughes had been molested by an uncle.

McCann said that Hughes’ jury never heard that evidence, and it might have affected their decision about whether Hughes deserved execution. “They came out of that trial thinking Preston was a monster, not a tragically twisted boy, tortured by memories of sadistic abuse at the hands of an older figure of trust,” McCann wrote to the parole board. “No court of appeals has ever before seen this evidence.

An ongoing debate between lawyers as the execution neared concerned the actions of the detectives investigating the crime back in 1989.

After hearing the victim say Hughes’ first name, Houston police Sgt. Don Hamilton and other detectives located him in a nearby apartment complex and found blood on his clothing and a knife in his apartment. Hughes confessed to the murder during the investigation. During his trial, however, he denied involvement. No biological evidence tied him directly to the crime. He said the blood on the knife came from a rabbit he had killed months before. At Hughes’ trial, Hamilton said he continued to ask Charles questions, but could not understand many of the answers. “I could not understand it,” Hamilton told the jury. “It was more of a mumble.”

After reviewing autopsy reports, Tarrant County’s deputy medical examiner Robert White concluded that Charles would have died within 60 seconds of the stabbing. The officers claimed to hear her speak nearly 15 minutes later. “Even with instant extensive medical attention she would have been unconscious in a matter of seconds,” White wrote in a sworn affidavit that accompanied the clemency petition. “It is simply not medically feasible that this young woman … could have spoken to the officers.”

“The officers had to have flat out lied,” McCann said.

Assistant Attorney General Fredericka Sargent contended that McCann’s accusations were “wholly without merit.”

“Dr. White makes broad assumptions about how long Shandra could have been conscious after being stabbed, but he was not there,” she wrote in a brief to the Supreme Court. “Whatever Dr. White says now, nearly twenty-five years after the fact, does nothing to call into question the integrity of those first officers on the scene.”

During the course of the last year, McCann’s work has been doubted fervently by Hughes’ advocates, including blogger John Allen, who believe that Hughes never committed the crimes and that McCann failed to raise claims of innocence. “We’ve done everything we can to get McCann to defend him, and we failed,” Allen said. “I ceased communication with him.”

McCann responded by explaining that Texas and federal law set such a high burden of proof for new claims of “actual innocence” that he would never have succeeded in such efforts. But he could not comment on why he did not agree with Allen regarding Hughes’ innocence. “I find myself in an odd position,” he said, “because I’m ethically bound not to advance a claim I think is false.”

Hughes himself sought to have McCann replaced. “I’ve been trying to get rid of him for years,” he said recently from death row in Livingston. “I’ve asked him several times to withdraw from representing me. He’s ignored my request.” In September, Mr. Hughes filed a petition to have Mr. McCann replaced, and a court rejected it.

On Oct. 26, McCann attempted to sue the Texas Department of Criminal Justice over its lethal injection protocols in civil court. In July, the department switched to single-drug executions. McCann says that they did so without any oversight and that this infringed on Hughes’ rights. “If the head of TDCJ wanted to he could bring back hanging,” McCann said.

State District Judge R.K. Sandill told McCann that he would not be permitted to represent Hughes in civil court without his client’s signature. The Court of Criminal Appeals, Texas’ highest criminal court, ordered Sandill not to stay Mr. Hughes’ execution.

On Monday, Allen filed a motion for DNA testing in state district court, asking the court to order testing of a vaginal swab that prosecutors at trial argued included Hughes’ DNA. On Thursday, the motion was denied.

Activist Ward Larkin, who has worked closely with Allen, attempted to file a second, different clemency petition with the Board of Pardons and Paroles. The board rejected the petition, and Larkin sued the board. A federal civil court refused to rule on the matter, saying it did not have jurisdiction.

Before he was executed, Hughes thanked Allen and others for their work on his case and maintained that he did not commit the murder, according to officials at the Texas Department of Criminal Justice. “Please continue to fight for my innocence,” he said, “even though I’m gone.”

https://www.texastribune.org/2012/11/15/preston-hughes-executed-1988-murderpreston-hughes-/

Bret Hartman Ohio Execution

Bret Hartman was executed by the State of Ohio for the brutal murder of a woman. According to court documents Bret Hartman would brutally stab to death Winda Snipes who had her throat slit and her hands were cut off. Bret Hartman would be arrested, convicted and sentenced to death

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Brett Hartmann is dead.

After 15 years of failed appeals, the condemned Akron man was strapped to a gurney Tuesday morning at the Southern Ohio Correctional Facility.

“I’m good. Let’s roll,” he said in his final words as a dose of lethal drugs were shot into his system.

He smiled and gave a thumbs up to his sister as she watched the execution through a glass window.

Sixteen minutes later, at 10:34 a.m., Hartmann was declared dead.

He maintained his innocence since his 1997 conviction for the slaying of Winda Snipes, 46, who lived in Akron’s Highland Square neighborhood.

In a statement released after the execution, Hartmann’s family, which includes a daughter and sister, said they hope the death serves as a “wake up call to the flaws in our legal system.” Prosecutors have always said there was “overwhelming” evidence of his guilt

“After numerous appeals and stays of execution, the state of Ohio carried out Brett Hartmann’s death sentence,” Summit County Prosecutor Sherri Bevan Walsh said in a news release. “The evidence was overwhelming that he brutally stabbed and mutilated Winda Snipes. Hopefully, Winda’s friends and family can now start the healing process.”

Hartmann’s sister Diane Morretti and a friend, John McClure, witnessed the execution. Hartmann appeared to smile broadly at his sister as he was dying. He eventually turned away from the window and closed his eyes.

Minutes into the execution, he spoke to prison Warden Donald Morgan.

“This is not going to defeat me,” Hartmann said, according to the Associated Press. Morgan did not respond.

In a 25-minute phone call Monday night with a Beacon Journal reporter, Hartmann, 38, said he was relieved to finally learn his fate in the face of his pending appeals. For several weeks, his future was uncertain due to his appeals to obtain more DNA testing on crime-scene evidence.

‘It’s my time,’ convict says

He said he was disappointed, but not surprised, the U.S. Supreme Court declined to stop his execution Monday evening. Twice before, in 2009 and 2011, Hartmann was given a stay

“It’s the road I got to walk,” he said. “It’s my time. It’s hard, especially for my family. But it’s not overwhelming for me. I’ve just never had any luck.”

He said he had no desire to spend the rest of his life in prison and was hoping to win a second trial and secure additional DNA testing. He said his family knows he is innocent, and he hopes the search for Snipes’ true killer continues.

“I think we’re lucky on death row because we have an out,” Hartmann said. “It’s a harsh structure in prison, but at least we’re not in for 50 to 60 years. Death row is its own little enigma. We are in our own little world.

“But being locked up and away from family, it’s tough. I’m tired of fighting and no one listening. I’m tired of begging for money [and tired] of prison. So, there’s some relief.”

Hartmann’s years of appeals ended about 6 p.m. Monday, when his attorneys told him the U.S. Supreme Court declined to intervene. He was convicted of aggravated murder and kidnapping in 1997.

“It’s all over and I’m relieved,” said Jacqueline Brown of Doylestown. She served as the only witness on Snipes’ behalf.

Snipes’ mother is in poor health and was unable to attend, Brown said.

“It’s a shame he died so peacefully. There’s no doubt he did it. No doubt at all,” she said.

Snipes and Hartmann had been involved in what he called a casual sexual relationship for several months before her death.

Hartmann, then 23, told police he was with Snipes the night before her death and the two drank alcohol and had sex. He said he left her South Highland Avenue apartment and returned about 14 hours later to find her dead.

Snipes was stabbed more than 130 times. Her hands were severed. She was not raped, authorities said.

Alibi in slaying

Instead of calling 911 immediately after finding Snipes’ body, Hartmann said he panicked, fearing he would be blamed for the murder because of their sexual encounter the previous day. He said he walked to a bar and got drunk. He then went back to the apartment and removed evidence of his visit and returned home.

Later that night and even more intoxicated, he reported the murder during a series of anonymous 911 calls and waited around the Highland Square neighborhood.

Eventually, he talked to officers at the scene and became a suspect. Detectives went to Hartmann’s apartment and found a bloody T-shirt stashed behind his bed. They also found Snipes’ jewelry.

Hartmann said he had left the T-shirt at Snipes’ apartment the night before and took it along with other items to conceal his visit, not his guilt.

“I made a lot of bad decisions that night, and I’m paying the price now,” Hartmann said in the phone call to a Beacon Journal reporter. “I was drunk and stupid, basically.”

Hartmann said his greatest regret is not being around for his daughter, whom he met for the first time this year. The 20-year-old Akron woman was unaware he was her father until her mother broke the news in the summer. Hartmann and the woman’s mother had a relationship early in the 1990s.

A paternity test confirmed the inmate’s parentage. The woman visited Hartmann at the death house Monday night.

“She cried outside in the hall, but she held up pretty good during our visit. It’s pretty hard for her,” he said.

During the phone call, Hartmann joked often, even about his cremation. He said his remains probably would wind up in a box in some family member’s basement. He marveled at the size of his special meal, which included steak, shrimp and a baked potato.

“What else are you going to do?” he said. “Sometimes, all you can do is laugh.”

https://www.beaconjournal.com/story/news/local/2012/11/14/ohio-executes-brett-hartmann-in/10501297007/

Mario Swain Texas Execution

Mario Swain was executed by the State of Texas for the kidnapping and murder of a woman. According to court documents Mario Swain would break into the womans home, kidnap her and drive to a remote location where she was beaten and stabbed. Mario Swain would be arrested, convicted and sentenced to death. Mario Swain would be executed by lethal injection on November 8 2012.

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A man who was sentenced to die in the fatal beating, stabbing and strangling of an East Texas call center supervisor more than a decade ago, displayed a pattern of obsession and violence that a former district attorney said indicated the potential of a serial killer.

Mario Swain has since filed two unsuccessful appeals and the U.S. Supreme Court has refused to review his case. Swain, 33, is scheduled for execution Thursday.

Worried friends alerted police when Lola Nixon didn’t show up for dinner two nights after Christmas in 2002. Officers discovered signs of forced entry at her home near Dallas – and blood throughout – but no sign of the 46-year-old woman. Neighbors said they had seen a truck parked outside the night she went missing, and police traced that vehicle to a man who said his grandson, Swain, had borrowed it.

Swain gave several confessions, and said his friends had beaten Nixon while burgling her home. But those friends all had credible alibis.

Eventually he led detectives to Nixon’s body, in the backseat of an abandoned vehicle at a remote site in Gregg County. She had been beaten with a tire iron, stabbed and strangled.

“Unless you knew where you were going, you wouldn’t get there,” Lance Larison, a prosecutor at Swain’s 2004 trial, said.

Evidence indicates Nixon fiercely resisted the attack and that Swain left her bleeding in her bathtub before throwing her in the back of her BMW and driving her to the site where she was found. He then returned to her house and tried to clean up.

The tire iron was recovered from a trash container where Swain said he had thrown it. Prosecutors said Swain used Nixon’s credit cards and that he gave a piece of her jewelry to a friend.

Nixon’s blood was found on Swain’s clothing in the truck, along with her car keys and garage door opener

At trial, prosecutors presented evidence and witnesses that showed a pattern of crimes: Swain gathered information about women he wanted to rob, then attacked them, forcing them to inhale the anesthetic halothane and hitting them over the head with a wrench or shooting them with a stun gun.

“Not only did he stalk, he started making physical assaults,” Larison said.

“Girlfriends told us he loved to watch detective shows, crime science shows, that he was fascinated by them,” he said. “He would keep lists of women’s cars and certain license plates.”

He was “a serial killer in training,” the prosecutor said

Earlier this year, a federal appeals court rejected Swain’s appeal that argued his confessions to the slaying should not have been allowed at trial, that his lawyers were deficient and that there was a problem in jury selection. The U.S. Supreme Court three weeks ago refused to review Swain’s case. And last week the Texas Court of Criminal Appeals refused an appeal challenging an investigator’s trial testimony.

Nixon was unmarried and lived alone. She had been a supervisor at a telephone call center in Longview where Swain once worked.

Swain declined from death row to speak with reporters as his execution date neared.

His lethal injection would be the 13th this year in Texas, where two more executions are set for next week.

https://www.beaumontenterprise.com/news/article/Man-set-to-die-in-2002-slaying-of-East-Texas-woman-4016872.php

Gary Allen Oklahoma Execution

Gary Allen was executed by the State of Oklahoma for the murder of his fiancee. According to court documents Gary Allen would shoot to death his fiancee following a breakup. When Gary Allen was being taken into custody he was in a struggle and attempted to shoot the officer, however the officer moved and Gary Allen shot himself in the eye. Gary Allen was convicted and sentenced to death. Gary Allen would be executed by lethal injection on November 6 2012

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An Oklahoma man who was put to death Tuesday evening despite claims that he was insane spent his final moments rambling about the presidential election and appeared startled when a prison official announced the start of the execution.

Garry Thomas Allen, 56, was executed for the 1986 killing of his fiancée, 24-year-old Lawanna Gail Titsworth, outside an Oklahoma City day-care center. His attorneys had argued that Allen should not be put to death because he could not understand the judgment against him.

Allen appeared confused moments after prison officials lifted a curtain separating the death chamber from witnesses. Slurring his words, Allen spoke for two minutes in an address that mentioned Barack Obama and Mitt Romney. His execution was held at 6pm Tuesday, one hour before polls closed in Oklahoma.

“Obama won two out of three counties,” Allen said. “It’s going to be a very close race.”

At 6:02pm, a prison official announced that the execution was about to begin.

“What? Huh?” Allen said.

When the drugs began to flow, Allen grunted several times and wiggled his feet. He was pronounced dead at 6:10pm.

Titsworth had moved out of the home she shared with Allen and their two sons four days before her death. Allen confronted Titsworth and shot her twice in the chest. She ran with a center employee toward the building, but Allen pushed the worker away, shoved Titsworth down some steps and shot her twice more in the back, according to court records.

Titsworth’s sister-in-law, Susan Titsworth, issued a statement after the execution, on behalf of the family.

“Our beloved Gail, daughter, sister and mother of two young boys, was taken from our family tragically and senselessly due to domestic violence,” the statement said. “For over 25 years, we have waited for justice to be served and for this sentence to be carried out. We are thankful to close the book on this chapter today but we will never stop grieving the loss of Gail.”

A police officer responding to a 911 call tussled with Allen before shooting him in the face, according to court documents. Allen was hospitalized for about two months with injuries to his face, left eye and brain. He entered a blind guilty plea to first-degree murder, meaning he had not reached a plea deal with prosecutors and did not know what the sentence would be. A judge sentenced him to die.

Allen’s attorneys argued he was not competent enough to enter the plea. They also contended he was mentally impaired when he killed Titsworth, that he had been self-medicating for a mental illness and that his mental condition became worse on death row. The US constitution forbids the execution of inmates who are insane or mentally incompetent.

A judge halted Allen’s original execution, on 19 May 2005, after a psychological examination at the prison indicated that Allen had mental problems. Three years later, a jury rejected Allen’s claim that he should not be put to death. The Oklahoma Pardon and Parole Board had voted in April 2005 to recommend that Allen’s death sentence be commuted to life without parole. That clemency recommendation was not acted on until this year, when Republican governor Mary Fallin denied it.

https://www.theguardian.com/world/2012/nov/07/oklahoma-executes-garry-thomas-allen-insanity