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William Sallie Georgia Execution

William Sallie was executed by the State of Georgia for the murder of his father in law. According to court documents William Sallie would shoot to death his father in law John Moore and would also shoot his mother in law Linda Moore. William Sallie would then take his wife and her sister back to his home however would eventually release the two. William Sallie and his ex wife were involved in a custody battle over their child. William Sallie would be executed by lethal injection on December 6, 2016

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Georgia executed its ninth inmate this year on Tuesday night, putting to death a man convicted of killing his father-in-law more than a quarter century ago.

William Sallie, 50, was pronounced dead at 10:05 p.m. after a lethal injection at the state prison in Jackson.

Lawyers who sought to block William Sallie’s execution said he should be granted a new trial because of alleged juror bias, but courts haven’t properly considered that evidence because he missed a filing deadline by eight days at a time when he didn’t have a lawyer, his lawyers said in court filings.

Georgia has put to death more people this year than any other state, including Texas with seven. There have been 68 men and one woman executed in Georgia since 1976, CBS affiliate WGCL reports.

Sallie was the 46th inmate put to death by lethal injection, according to officials.

Sallie was convicted of murder in the fatal shooting of John Lee Moore in March 1990. His first conviction and death sentence were overturned because his attorney had a conflict of interest.

At his second trial in 2001, a woman eventually chosen as a juror lied during jury selection and failed to disclose domestic violence, messy divorces and a child custody battle that were “bizarrely similar” to Sallie’s case, his lawyers said. They add she later bragged to his attorneys’ investigator that she persuaded her divided peers to vote unanimously for death.

The defense team made those arguments in a clemency petition to the Georgia Board of Pardons and Paroles, urging it to act as a “fail safe” against a miscarriage of justice. But the board, the only authority in Georgia with power to commute a death sentence, declined to spare Sallie’s life following a clemency hearing Monday.

Sallie’s lawyers asked the U.S. Supreme Court to stop the scheduled execution, but it declined. They argued that the high court’s ruling in a pending Texas case with ineffective counsel issues could remove the procedural bars that are keeping the lower federal courts from considering their juror-bias claims.

Attorneys for the state have argued the Texas case isn’t similar enough that its outcome would affect Sallie, particularly because that case doesn’t involve a federal petition that wasn’t filed on time. Furthermore, they argue, even if the issues were identical, the federal appeals court in Atlanta is bound by its own precedent – which doesn’t allow such an extraordinary admission of the procedurally barred evidence – and not by the future possibility of new precedent from the Supreme Court.

Sallie’s lawyers also have argued in a state court petition that carrying out his execution would violate his constitutional rights. Lawyers for the state rejected those claims and a court dismissed the petition. Sallie’s lawyers appealed to the state Supreme Court, which on Tuesday declined to stop his scheduled execution. His lawyers appealed to the U.S. Supreme Court which also declined Tuesday evening to stop his execution.

At the time of the killing, Sallie’s wife was living with her parents in rural south Georgia after having filed for divorce and after the two had fought bitterly over custody of their young son.

After cutting his in-laws’ phone lines and breaking into their house about 12:45 a.m. March 29, 1990, Sallie went to the master bedroom and shot John and Linda Moore, according to a Georgia Supreme Court summary of the case. John Moore died from his injuries, and his wife was injured.

Sallie then took his wife and her sister to his mobile home, leaving his son behind, the summary says. Sallie released his wife and her sister that night and was arrested a short time later.

Sallie’s lawyers have said the shooting was a botched attempt to take his son and leave.

There have been 18 executions so far this year in the United States, including those in Georgia and Texas and one each in Alabama, Florida and Missouri. Alabama has one more scheduled Thursday.

Sallie received visits Tuesday from six family members, four friends, three clergy members and four paralegals. He accepted a final prayer and recorded a final statement, according to officials, WGCL reports.

https://www.cbsnews.com/news/william-sallie-executed-convicted-of-killing-his-father-in-law/

Steven Spears Georgia Execution

Steven Spears was executed by the State of Georgia for the murder of his ex girlfriend. According to court documents Steven Spears would break into the victims, Sherri Holland, home and waited in her closet for four hours for the woman to fall asleep. When she did Steven Spears would suffocate the woman to death. Steven Spears would be convicted and sentenced to death. Steven Spears would be executed by lethal injection on November 17, 2016

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Steven Spears, who never fought his death sentence, died by lethal injection Wednesday night, becoming the eighth person Georgia has put to death this year.

He was pronounced dead at 7:30 p.m., executed for murdering his ex-girlfriend, Sherri Holland, in 2001.

The 54-year-old inmates’s path to the death chamber was unusual.

He refused to appeal, so his third ex-wife, Gwen Thompson, tried to stop it, claiming he was not competent to make such a decision. But in a court hearing a little more than 10 hours before his lethal injection, the lawyer who filed the petition for Thompson dropped it because their mental health expert, psychologist Robert Shaffer, interviewed Spears on Tuesday evening and determined he was competent.

Also, just after noon on Wednesday, the State Board of Pardons and Paroles declined to stop the execution. Spears had not asked for clemency, but his attorney and others had gone before the parole board on Tuesday, asking the board to call it off.

Steven Spears said consistently in the years after he murdered Sherri Holland that he wanted the death sentence. In an interview with a psychiatrist on Tuesday, Spears explained that his decision was rational, and he didn’t have a death wish.

Steven Spears told psychiatrist Matthew Norman, who was hired by the state: “Would you want to live in a 6-by-9 cell? That’s not living. … Everything I do, I’ve got to get permission to do.

“I don’t want to live like I’m living. It’s like a cancer eating me up every day,” Spears said, according to the psychiatrist’s report.

Other than an automatic appeal that was filed after his conviction, Spears steadfastly refused to let lawyers challenge his sentence. Even at trial, he would not authorize his lawyers to present evidence that might have persuaded the Lumpkin County jury to vote for a life sentence.

Steven Spears also never denied that he murdered Holland, a 34-year-old single mother, after their three-year relationship ended.

He hid in a bedroom closet at her Dahlonega home for about four hours until she was asleep. And during the early morning hours of Aug. 25, 2001, he choked her unconscious, wrapped duct tape around her face, placed a plastic bag over her head and secured it with more tape.

After hiding in the woods for 10 days, a Lumpkin County deputy spotted him walking to town to surrender.

Steven Spears confessed immediately.

https://www.ajc.com/news/local/georgia-executes-steven-spears-for-2001-murder/75Cr3QHMskGHT7POypFeNJ/

Gregory Lawler Georgia Execution

Gregory Lawler was executed by the State of Georgia for the murder of a police officer. According to court documents Gregory Lawler would shoot and kill Alanta police officer John Sowa and critically injured a second police officer. Apparently Gregory Lawler was upset that the officers gave his drunk girlfriend a ride home. Gregory Lawler would be arrested, convicted and sentenced to death. Gregory Lawler would be executed on October 19, 2016

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The state of Georgia on Wednesday executed a man who opened fire on Atlanta police with an AR-15 rifle in 1997, killing one officer and critically wounding another after they had given his intoxicated girlfriend a ride hom

Gregory Lawler, 63, died by lethal injection at 11:49 p.m. at a state prison in Jackson, Georgia Attorney General Sam Olens said in a statement.

The execution was the seventh this year in Georgia, matching Texas for the most death sentences carried out in a U.S. state in 2016, according to the Death Penalty Information Center.

There have been 17 executions in the United States in 2016, compared with 28 for all of last year, the center’s data showed.

Gregory Lawler was sentenced to death in 2000 after being found guilty in the murder of officer John Sowa, 28. A second officer, Patricia Cocciolone, survived the shooting with a shattered pelvis, damaged intestines and permanent brain injury.

She testified at Lawler’s trial, according to a Georgia Supreme Court summary of the case.

The synopsis said Gregory Lawler and his girlfriend had been drinking at a bar near their Atlanta apartment the night of the October 1997 shooting.

Police were summoned by a witness who thought he saw Lawler hit the woman with a bag as they walked home. Lawler fled when officers arrived.

The officers decided to help the girlfriend get home. At the apartment, they were met by Lawler, who fired at the officers 15 times, the case summary said.

Sowa and Cocciolone still had their pistols strapped into their holsters when backup arrived. Lawler surrendered after a six-hour standoff, according to court records.

At his trial, a co-worker testified Lawler had talked about having “an extreme dislike” of police and that if they ever tried to enter his home, he would be “ready for them,” court records said.

Georgia’s State Board of Pardons and Paroles denied Lawler’s request for clemency on Tuesday. In their petition to the board, his attorneys said Lawler had recently been diagnosed with autism, a disorder that had prevented him from explaining the murder to jurors.

The U.S. Supreme Court also denied a last-minute request for a stay of execution.

https://www.reuters.com/article/us-usa-georgia-execution-idUSKCN12J1PM

Barney Fuller Texas Execution

Barney Fuller was sentenced to death by the State of Texas for the murders of 2 of his neighbors. According to court documents Barney Fuller would shoot and kill his neighbors Nathan and Annette Copeland following an argument. Barney Fuller would plead guilty to the double murders and would still be sentenced to death. Barney Fuller would be executed by lethal injection on October 5, 2016

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Summoned to court to answer charges that he made a threatening phone call to his neighbor’s home in a rural East Texas county more than two years earlier, Barney Fuller Jr.’s anger smoldered as he began drinking.

Two nights later, Barney Fuller left his home with a 12-gauge shotgun, a military-style semi-automatic carbine and a .40-caliber pistol and carried the weapons about 200 yards to the home of neighbors Nathan and Annette Copeland. He fired 59 shots into their house, kicked in the back door and walked inside, opening fire again. Nathan Copeland, 43, was killed in his bedroom, shot four times. His wife, 39, was gunned down in a bathroom while calling 911. One of their two children was shot but survived.

On Wednesday, Fuller, 58, is set for lethal injection for the May 2003 rampage outside Lovelady, about 100 miles north of Houston.

He’d be the seventh convicted killer executed this year in Texas and the first in six months. His execution would be only the 16th this year nationally, a downturn fueled by fewer death sentences overall, courts halting scheduled executions for additional reviews, and death penalty states encountering difficulties obtaining drugs for lethal injections.

Hours after the shooting frenzy, Fuller called Houston County authorities and told them he would surrender peacefully at his home.

He pleaded guilty to capital murder, declined to be in the courtroom after individual questioning of prospective jurors began at his July 2004 trial, and asked that the trial’s punishment phase go on without his presence. He didn’t return to the courtroom until jurors returned with their death verdict.

“He was very adamant not wanting to be there,” William House, one of his trial lawyers, recalled. “From the very start, he just really didn’t care

https://www.washingtontimes.com/news/2016/oct/4/texas-set-to-execute-man-who-pleaded-guilty-to-kil/

John Conner Georgia Execution

John Conner was executed by the State of Georgia for the murder of a friend in 1982. According to court documents John Conner and JT White were at a party when an argument broke out and Conner would beat the man to death. John Conner would be arrested, convicted and sentenced to death. John Carter would be executed by lethal injection on July 15, 2016 after 32 years on death row

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Georgia on Friday executed its sixth inmate this year, the most in any calendar year in the state since the death penalty was reinstated four decades ago.

John Wayne Conner, 60, was put to death for beating a friend to death during an argument after a night of partying in January 1982. Warden Eric Sellers told witnesses the time of death was 12:29 a.m.

Conner didn’t make a final statement and declined to have a prayer said for him.

The warden left the room at 12:15 a.m. Records from past executions show the lethal drug generally begins to flow within a couple of minutes of the warden leaving the room, but that is not visible to news media witnesses.

Georgia executed five inmates last year and in 1987. Only five states have carried out death sentences this year, for a total of 15 executions. Aside from the six in Georgia, six inmates have been executed in Texas and one each in Alabama, Florida and Missouri.

Lawyers for Conner had argued that imposing the death penalty after he’s spent 34 years on death row was unconstitutional cruel and unusual punishment and amounted to double jeopardy, which is when someone is punished twice for the same crime.

“Due to the extraordinary delay in this case, Mr. Conner has already been subjected, in effect, to a life sentence under exceptionally severe penal conditions,” his lawyers wrote in a court filing. “To top this punishment with the permanently harmful indignity of execution would be excessive and disproportionate punishment, prohibited by the Eighth Amendment.”

They also said John Conner was raised in poverty in a home where extreme violence and substance abuse were the norm and exhibited signs of mental impairment that led his teachers to believe he was intellectually disabled from an early age.

In a clemency petition, his lawyers described Conner’s father as someone who was feared by the community and his family, who regularly cut his wife and children with a knife and fired a gun at them. As a result, Conner “fell into the pattern modeled by those in his family,” his lawyers wrote in a clemency application.

But details of his background weren’t provided to the trial jury or to appellate courts because he had ineffective lawyers and because of strict procedural rules, his lawyers argued.

His difficult background and mental impairment do not excuse what he did, but if that evidence had been presented, John Conner might have been spared the death penalty, his lawyers argued.

Those arguments were rejected by the State Board of Pardons and Paroles, the only entity authorized to commute a death sentence in Georgia, and by state and federal courts.

Conner spent the evening of January 9, 1982, drinking and smoking marijuana at a party with his girlfriend and other friends, including J.T. White. They then returned to the home John Conner shared with his girlfriend in Milan, about 150 miles southeast of Atlanta.

His girlfriend went to bed, and Conner and White took a nearly empty bottle of bourbon and left on foot in search of more alcohol. Conner told police he and White were walking down the road when White told Conner he wanted to sleep with his girlfriend. That led to a fight, during which Conner told police he hit White with the bottle and beat him with a stick, the documents say.

John Conner went home and woke his girlfriend and told her he’d had a fight with White and thought he was dead, according to court documents. Before they left town, Conner told his girlfriend he had to be sure and walked to a drainage ditch. She heard a thud and Conner told her he was sure and they left, according to court documents.

The couple was later found hiding in a hay barn. White’s body, with a badly beaten face, was found in the ditch.

While Conner’s execution was the sixth in 2016, he was also the ninth inmate put to death by the state since Sept. 30, the most in a 12-month period since the death penalty was reinstated in 1976. The state’s previous record for a 12-month period was set when seven inmates were put to death between October 2001 and August 2002.

https://www.al.com/news/2016/07/john_wayne_conner_executed_in_1.html