Samuel Lopez Arizona Execution

samuel lopez execution

Samuel Lopez was executed by the State of Arizona for the sexual assault and murder of a woman. According to court documents Samuel Lopez would sexually assault and murder 59 year old Estafana Holmes. Samuel Lopez would be arrested, convicted and sentenced to death. Samuel Lopez would be executed by lethal injection on June 27 2012

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Death-row inmate Samuel Villegas Lopez stared straight ahead Wednesday as he lay strapped to a table in Arizona’s execution chamber, wincing slightly as two catheters that soon would deliver a fatal drug were inserted into his veins.

Lopez’s execution was the first in Arizona history in which witnesses other than prison officials saw catheters inserted into an inmate’s veins — a move the state Department of Corrections made after a federal judge recently sided with The Associated Press and Idaho news organizations seeking full viewing access to lethal injections.

The ruling was upheld by the 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals in San Francisco, meaning it was unlikely Arizona would have been able to keep its process limited much longer.

Until Wednesday, news media and victims’ family members entered the death chamber at the state prison only after the inmate had been injected and covered with a sheet to his chest or neck.

This time, they watched on television screens set up in the death chamber as the execution team inserted Lopez with the catheters behind a curtain. The curtain was lifted just before a fatal dose of pentobarbital was sent coursing through Lopez’s veins.

During the process, Lopez blinked often and showed no signs he was experiencing pain, although he slightly winced once.

As the execution team checked his veins, Lopez asked, “It look all right?” to which they responded: “We’re doing good.”

Toward the end, Lopez said he had a question: “Are these the only two IV lines going to be inserted in me?”

Once the curtains were pulled, Lopez stared straight ahead and ignored the nine family members of his murder victim who were in the room to watch him die. When asked if he had last words, he said in a clear voice: “No, I do not.”

As the drug was delivered, Lopez began breathing heavily, closing his eyes and yawning once before he appeared to fall asleep with his mouth slightly open. He didn’t move again after that.

The execution ended at 10:37 a.m., about 40 minutes after the insertion process began. Unlike Idaho, Arizona did not allow witnesses watch as Lopez was brought into the death chamber and strapped to the table at his ankles and wrists and over his torso.

Dale Baich, a defense attorney who witnessed the execution and represents many death-row inmates in Arizona, said the new process was a “step forward in creating transparency.” But he said he hopes the Corrections Department eventually will allow witnesses to view the process from the very beginning.

Lopez, 49, was executed three days before his 50th birthday for the brutal rape and murder of 59-year-old Estafana Holmes of Phoenix about 26 years ago.

Her brother, Victor Arguijo of Fort Worth, Texas, and other family members from Phoenix and Texas addressed members of the media after watching the execution. They said they were not there for revenge but for justice for Holmes, a poor seamstress and grandmother who lived alone and whom they called “Tefo.”

“It’s been a long and difficult and frustrating road,” Arguijo said. “We now know and have confidence that the judicial system works for victims and their families even though at times our faith has wavered.”

He said the family hopes Lopez’s death brings them closure and that Holmes’ “soul and spirit will now finally rest in peace.”

Lopez’s attorney, Kelley Henry, said in a statement that his legal team was “deeply troubled” by the execution. She reiterated her arguments that Lopez was “denied due process at every level,” from his trial until recently, as courts declined to delay the execution to hear about his abusive and difficult childhood.

That evidence was never presented at trial and could have served as a mitigating factor and gotten him a sentence of life in prison rather than death.

“If we are going to have the death penalty, we should ensure that the process, at the very least, is fair and that it follows the rule of law,” Henry said. “Sadly, that did not happen in this case.”

Lopez was the state’s fourth death-row inmate executed this year. Of the 125 inmates still on Arizona’s death row, only five have been there longer than him.

Arizona is on pace to execute three more men this year, which would match the state’s busiest year for executions and make it one of the nation’s busiest death-penalty states.

Among Lopez’s failed last-minute efforts to avoid the death penalty was a request with the Arizona Supreme Court to delay his execution until the state had a new governor, arguing Gov. Jan Brewer and the state’s clemency board were prejudiced against him.

Brewer overhauled the clemency board in April, putting three new people on the five-member panel in what defense attorneys said was an obvious effort to appoint “political cronies” who would never recommend lessening a death-row inmate’s sentence to life in prison.

Brewer has denied that allegation through spokesman Matt Benson, who has said the board was changed to bring fresh insight to the process.

Lopez’s attorneys say board members were improperly appointed and didn’t have the authority to consider death-penalty cases because of open-meetings violations, statements to members of the media that showed prejudice, and other factors.

At Lopez’s clemency board hearing Friday, board members called him the “worst of the worst” and said the brutality of his crime and Holmes’ heartbroken family members held great sway with them. They voted unanimously against recommending his sentence be reduced to life in prison or that it be delayed in any way.

In an affidavit provided to the board, Lopez wrote that he has no memory of the crime because he had been spending so much time sniffing paint that he would forget entire days.

“What happened to Ms. Holmes was so horrible and so wrong,” he wrote. “I’ve always been sorry for what she went through that night and for what her family has gone through ever since.”

Lopez’s own family did not attend the execution.

Police found Holmes’ half-naked body Oct. 30, 1986, in her small apartment.

The petite woman had three major stab wounds to her head, one on her face, and 23 in her left breast and upper chest. She had been blindfolded and gagged with her own clothing, and her throat had been slit. Blood was splattered on walls in the kitchen, bathroom and bedroom.

Semen found on her body matched Lopez’s after he was arrested in a separate rape less than a week later.

The state Supreme Court in 1993 upheld Lopez’s death sentence, saying the state of Holmes’ apartment and her body showed a “terrific struggle for life” and calling the killing a “grisly and ultimately fatal nightmare.”

Lopez, who was 24 at the time, did not know Holmes, who lived alone and was described by her family as hardworking, loving and deeply religious.

https://www.deseret.com/2012/6/27/20421226/arizona-inmate-executed-in-more-open-process

Gary Simmons Mississippi Execution

gary simmons mississippi

Gary Simmons was executed by the State of Mississippi for the murder of a man. According to court documents Gary Simmons and the victim Jeffrey Wolfe were involved in an argument when Simmons fatally shot Wolfe then proceeded to carve his body up into pieces. Gary Simmons would be arrested, convicted and sentenced to death. Gary Simmons would be executed by lethal injection on June 20 2012

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The Supreme Court this afternoon denied death row inmate Gary “The Butcher” Simmons’ motion for stay of execution and motion to file a post-conviction petition, the high court announced.

The move follows Attorney General Jim Hood’s office recommendation earlier today that the capital punishment sentence be upheld. Simmons’ attorneys had argued that his previous counsel “barely lifted a finger” to investigate mitigating evidence, which they said included Simmons’ alleged abuse as a child and post-traumatic stress.

They wanted additional time for experts to evaluate Simmons and file reports.

Simmons is scheduled to die at 6 p.m. by lethal injection at the state penitentiary at Parchman for the killing of Texas man Jeffrey Wolfe in 1996. An accomplice and Simmons’ former brother-in-law Timothy Milano shot Wolfe at Simmons’ Moss Point home, and Simmons then carved up the body. The pair dumped the parts into a nearby bayou, and investigators later found about 80 percent of it, including a severed head, there.

Police said Simmons owed Wolfe money for drugs, but Wolfe’s family has disputed that assertion.

Simmons was also convicted of the rape of Wolfe’s female friend, Charlene Leaser, whom he locked in large steel box, letting her out only to be raped.

https://www.gulflive.com/mississippi-press-news/2012/06/gary_simmons_execution_mississ_1.html

Richard Leavitt Idaho Execution

Richard Leavitt idaho

Richard Leavitt was executed by the State of Idaho for the sexual assault and murder of a woman. According to court documents Richard Leavitt would attack, sexually assault and stab to death Danette Elg. Richard Leavitt would be arrested, convicted and sentenced to death. Richard Leavitt would be executed by lethal injection on June 12 2012

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Convicted killer Richard Leavitt was calm and spending what was expected to be his last full day alive meeting with his team of lawyers and a handful of approved visitors at his cell on Idaho’s death row, prison officials said Monday.

Leavitt, 53, is scheduled to be put to death this morning by lethal injection at Idaho Maximum Security Institution, south of Boise. He was convicted in 1985 for the brutal stabbing death of Danette Elg, a 31-year-old woman from Blackfoot.

Idaho Press-Tribune reporter John Funk is one of the designated witnesses to the execution.

Leavitt, along with members of his family, insists he didn’t commit the crime. But barring any last-minute reprieve from federal judges, Leavitt will be just the second Idaho inmate put to death in 17 years.

He was calm as he met with visitors and lawyers, state prisons spokesman Jeff Ray said. Leavitt declined to disclose the identity of his approved visitors. Ray said Leavitt will have baked chicken, french fries and milk for his last meal.

Today’s execution will be different in two ways from the execution last November of Paul Ezra Rhoades.

The state’s execution team will administer a single, lethal dose of pentobarbital, a drug used as a surgical sedative. Last fall, Rhoades was given a lethal injection of three chemicals.

If the execution goes forward, it will mark the first time state and media witnesses will view Idaho’s lethal injection process in its entirety. Last fall, witnesses were barred from seeing the execution team escort Rhoades into the chamber, strap him to a gurney and insert the IV catheters into his arms.

Prison officials had blocked that portion of the execution to protect the identity of the execution team members. But more than a dozen news organizations sued the state, alleging that the Idaho Department of Correction policy limiting access to an execution from start to finish violated the First Amendment and the public’s right to know.

The news groups, led by The Associated Press, sought to expand access to bring Idaho policies in line with a 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals, which ruled on a 2002 case that the public has a right to view executions in their entirety. The portion of the execution process blocked by Idaho prison officials has been subject to legal challenges by death row inmates nationwide, claiming the insertion of the catheters can be botched in a way that causes pain, other medical complications and raises questions about the dignity of the process

On Friday, a three-judge panel from the San Francisco-based court sided with the news groups and ordered IDOC to modify its policy.

The same federal appeals court on Monday rejected two requests by Leavitt’s team of lawyers to rehear appeals in his case.

Late Monday, the U.S. Supreme Court rejected a motion Leavitt filed seeking a stay of the execution.

https://www.idahopress.com/news/local/richard-leavitt-execution-set-today/article_c76ef884-b450-11e1-9ad2-001a4bcf887a.html

Henry Jackson Mississippi Execution

henry jackson mississippi

Henry Jackson was executed by the State of Mississippi for the murders of four children. According to court documents Henry Jackson would go to the home of the children’s grandmother in order to steal a safe. Before he would leave Henry Jackson would stab the four children aged 2 to 5 to death. Henry Jackson would be arrested, convicted and sentenced to death

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A Mississippi man convicted of killing his four young nieces and nephews in a 1990 stabbing rampage was executed Tuesday, despite pleas from his two sisters to spare the brother who killed their children.

Henry “Curtis” Jackson Jr. was pronounced dead at 6:13 p.m. CDT (7:13 p.m. ET) Tuesday after receiving an injection at the Mississippi State Penitentiary at Parchman, officials said.

Clad in a red prison jumpsuit as he lay strapped to a gurney, Jackson was asked if he wanted to make a statement.

“No, I don’t,” he responded as family members sat somberly in a nearby witness room.

Jackson’s sister, Glenda Kuyoro, stifled a sob when she walked into the witness room earlier and saw her brother on the gurney. Jackson’s eyes were closed when the witnesses arrived and he never looked in the direction of his family.

Earlier, the 47-year-old inmate had spent the day receiving relatives, including one of the sisters whose two children were slain and who survived the stabbing attack. The slain children ranged from 2 to 5 and were killed as Jackson reportedly was trying to steal his mother’s safe while she was away at church, court records showed.

Jackson was the fourth person executed this year in the state and the 19th person executed in the nation. 

He did not request a last meal and ate none of the standard dinner offered to him, corrections officials said. He also declined a sedative ahead of the execution. 


Late Tuesday afternoon, Republican Gov. Phil Bryant declined to stop the execution though he said he was “deeply touched” by requests for clemency from the sisters and his brother-in-law.

In Mississippi, the governor has the sole authority to grant clemency and can also commute death sentences to life in prison.

“There is no question that Mr. Jackson committed these heinous crimes, and there is no clear and convincing evidence that compels me to grant clemency,” Bryant said.

His statement added: “One of these sisters was a stabbing victim, and both of the sisters are mothers of the murdered children. However, as governor, I have the duty to see that justice is carried out.”

Corrections Commissioner Chris Epps said at a penitentiary briefing earlier Tuesday that the inmate acknowledged the crime and was talkative as he received relatives. Visitors included his sister Regina Jackson, who was stabbed five times and survived the attack that killed her two daughters and two nephews.

Regina Jackson had met with the governor Monday and pleaded for her brother’s life. She also wrote Bryant a letter last month saying she “just can’t take any more killing.”

“As a mother who lost two babies, all I’m asking is that you not make me go through the killing of my brother,” she wrote.


Kuyoro and her husband, Andrew, also had asked Bryant to spare the inmate in a letter dated May 15.

“We are the victims in this case, and we are begging you not to let Curtis be killed. You can keep him in Parchman forever, but please don’t put our family through this horrible execution,” the Kuyoros had written earlier.

After the execution Regina Jackson, who was one of the witnesses, said: “I forgave my brother. I love my brother … God says we got to forgive in order for Him to forgive us.”

The attack took place Nov. 1, 1990, at Jackson’s mother’s home in the Delta region.

The mother was at church that day, and Regina Jackson was there with her two daughters and four nieces and nephews. Her two daughters and two nephews were stabbed to death, records showed. Another niece was so severely injured that she was a paraplegic until her recent death.

Jackson has said he doesn’t remember stabbing the children, but there was testimony at his September 1991 trial that he cut the phone line before going in the house, then demanded money and began the attack, according to the court record.

Regina Jackson testified at trial that she lapsed in and out of consciousness after being tied up and stabbed in the neck, but she could hear her brother dragging a safe down a hall. The noise awoke 5-year-old Dominique, one of her daughters.

“Regina testified that Jackson called Dominique to him, told her that he loved her, stabbed her, and tossed her body to the floor,” according to the court record. “Jackson returned to Regina, stabbing her in the neck and twisting the knife, at which point she pretended to be dead until she heard him leave.”

Henry Jackson subsequently surrendered to police. He was convicted of four counts of capital murder at trial and sentenced to death.

https://www.nbcnews.com/news/world/mississippi-executes-killer-who-fatally-stabbed-4-his-nieces-nephews-flna815885

Michael Bascum Selsor Oklahoma Execution

Michael Bascum Selsor

Michael Bascum Selsor was executed by the State of Oklahoma for the murder of a store clerk during a robbery. According to court documents Michael Bascum Selsor and his accomplice would rob a series of stores and in the process Selsor would shoot and kill Clayton Chandler. Michael Bascum Selsor would be sentenced to death and would be executed by lethal injection on May 1 2012

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An Oklahoma man convicted of murdering a Tulsa convenience store manager almost 37 years ago was executed by lethal injection Tuesday.
Michael Bascum Selsor, 57, was pronounced dead at 6:06 p.m. Tuesday at the Oklahoma State Penitentiary. 
Selsor’s execution ends more than 3 decades of legal proceedings in which Selsor was twice convicted of 1st-degree murder and sentenced to die for the Sept. 15, 1975, shooting death of Clayton Chandler.
 “My son, my sister, I love you till I see you again next time,” Selsor said. “I’ll be waiting at the gates of heaven for you. I hope the rest of you make it there as well.”

He didn’t address Chandler’s relatives, some of whom were watching him.

He breathed heavily a couple of times, and then stopped. The clanging did, too. He was pronounced dead at 6:06 p.m.

The 55-year-old Chandler was shot 8 times during an armed robbery in which the thieves got away with a little more than $500. Michael Bascum Selsor, and Richard Dodson, were arrested a week after Chandler’s death in Santa Barbara, Calif., where their car with Oklahoma tags had been spotted.
Selsor was originally convicted and sentenced to death following a 1976 trial, in which Dodson was a co-defendant. Later that year, the U.S. Supreme Court invalidated Oklahoma’s mandatory death penalty statute. The Oklahoma Court of Criminal Appeals modified Selsor’s sentence to life in prison without parole.
Michael Bascum Selsor, initiated a new round of appeals challenging his conviction and in April 1996, the 10th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals threw out Selsor’s murder conviction, as well as two related convictions.
In 1998, Selsor was convicted of first-degree murder and sentenced to death following a retrial. The same jury recommended Selsor serve a life term as an accessory to Dodson’s shooting of Chandler’s co-worker, Ina Louise Morris, who survived multiple gunshot wounds. The jury also imposed a 20-year term for armed robbery.
On April 16, the Oklahoma Pardon and Parole Board voted 4-1 against commuting Selsor’s death penalty to life in prison without parole.
The U.S. Supreme Court rejected his request for a stay of execution Friday. Defense attorneys had argued that executing Michael Bascum Selsor after he has been in prison for almost 2 generations lacked any deterrent value and would “amount to cruel and unusual punishment” in violation of his constitutional rights under the Eighth Amendment.
Dodson, now 71, was convicted of robbery and shooting with intent to kill and is serving a prison sentence of 50 to 199 years. Dodson is imprisoned in the Davis Correctional Facility in Holdenville and has a parole hearing scheduled for November 2013, according to Department of Corrections records.
Selsor becomes the 3rd condemned inmate to be put to death this year in Oklahoma and the 99th overall since the state resumed capital punishment in 1990. Only Texas (482) and Virginia (109) have executed more inmates since the death penalty was re-legalized in the USA on July 2, 1976.
Selsor becomes the 18th condemned inmate to be put to death this year in the USA and the 1295th overall since the nation resumed executions on January 17, 1977.

https://www.uticaod.com/story/news/2012/05/02/soil-tests-show-47-homes/8831904007/