execution | My Crime Library

James Raulerson Florida Execution

James Raulerson was executed by the State of Florida for the murder of a police officer. According to court documents James Raulerson was in the middle of a robbery when police officers arrived. A gun fight ensued and in the process James Raulerson would strike an officer causing his death. James Raulerson would be arrested, convicted and sentenced to death. James Raulerson would be executed by way of the electric chair on January 30 1985

James Raulerson More News

Police killer James David Raulerson was electrocuted Wednesday as his victim’s father looked on to fulfill a graveside vow and 50 officers, including the slain policeman’s partner, stood vigil outside.

James David Raulerson, 33, was pronounced dead at 7:11 a.m., becoming the 11th Florida inmate and the 37th nationwide to die since the U.S. Supreme Court reinstated the death penalty in 1976. His was the fifth execution in the country this year.

″I made a promise at my son’s graveside that I would watch his killer die,″ said Jack Stewart, whose 23-year-old son, Michael, was killed during a Jacksonville restaurant robbery in April 1975.

″It wasn’t a pleasant thing,″ Stewart said. ″I didn’t come here out of hatred. This will put some of it to rest, but it won’t bring my son back.″

About 50 police officers from Jacksonville, some wearing T-shirts saying ″Raulerson Make My Day″ and ″Crank Up Old Sparky,″ stood in a pasture across from Florida State Prison. Some cheered when they learned Raulerson was dead, and applause erupted when the hearse rolled by.

Stewart’s partner, James English, hung his head as the signal was given that Raulerson was dead. Tears filled in his eyes.

″This is a great day,″ said English, now an active officer in the sheriff’s department. ″I feel relieved. It’s been a long time coming.″

About two dozen death penalty opponents held lighted candles and sang softly nearby.

Stewart died when he and English entered a restaurant after a robbery was reported. English was wounded, and Raulerson’s cousin, Jerry Tant, was killed in the gunfire.

In a final statement he read from a white piece of paper, Raulerson blamed English for Stewart’s death.

″I am sorry you are made a murderer through the state, Mr. Dugger,″ Raulerson said, referring to prison Superintendent Richard Dugger. ″James English killed Michael Stewart and used Stewart’s gun to murder my cousin. I am sorry for you for taking life. My family knows I love them and I love you.″

Ballistics tests showed that bullets from Raulerson’s pistol killed Stewart.

After declining a steak-and-eggs breakfast, Raulerson was steered into the death chamber at 6:58 a.m. He winked to his attorney, Stephen Bright, but turned his eyes away from Stewart after a brief glance.

A mask was lowered over Raulerson’s clean-shaven head and a hooded executioner, paid $150 for the job, delivered 2,000 volts. The prisoner jerked upward in the chair, his hands clenching into fists and turning purple.

Gov. Bob Graham signed a third death warrant for Raulerson Jan. 3, and late Tuesday, the U.S. Supreme Court rejected Raulerson’s appeals.

Raulerson, who learned through television news reports that he’d lost his last appeal, spent his final evening visiting his mother and stepfather, other family members, a minister and his attorney.

Another inmate scheduled to be executed Wednesday was granted an indefinite stay Tuesday by a federal appeals court. Two other convicted killers are scheduled to die next week in Florida.

https://apnews.com/article/28345cb945ad17ce58c8b3a8274fd217

Doyle Skillern Texas Execution

Doyle Skillern was executed by the State of Texas for killing an undercover police officer. According to court documents Doyle Skillern and Charles Sanne believed that a man they were dealing with in their drug trade was a police informant. Doyle Skillern and Charles Sanne would shoot and kill Patrick Randel who was an undercover State Narcotics agent. Doyle Skillern and Charles Sanne would be arrested. Charles Sanne would be sentenced to life in prison. Doyle Skillern would be convicted and sentenced to death. Doyle Skillern would be put to death by lethal injection on January 16 1985

Doyle Skillern More News

Doyle Skillern, convicted as an accomplice in a murder in which the man who confessed to the slaying may soon go free, was executed early today by lethal injection.

He was pronounced dead at 12:23 A.M., central standard time, according to Phil Guthrie, spokesman for the Texas Department of Corrections.

His last words were, ”I pray my family will rejoice and forgive,” according to Attorney General Jim Mattox, a witness to the execution.

Mr. Skillern, 48 years old, died for the Oct. 24, 1974, slaying of Patrick Randel, an undercover narcotics agent for the Texas Department of Public Safety.

He had lost bids for a reprieve Tuesday from the United States Supreme Court and Gov. Mark White of Texas.

Fourth Execution in 1985

The fifth Texas inmate to be executed since 1982 and the 36th person nationwide since 1976, Mr. Skillern was the fourth person to be executed since the first of this year.

A spokesman for the state prisons, Phil Guthrie, said Mr. Skillern showed no emotion Tuesday when told of the Governor’s decision, but remarked, ”A lot of people will still have their troubles tomorrow and mine will be over.”

Governor White, who could have granted a 30-day reprieve, had previously refused reprieves for three other condemned men.

Mr. Skillern’s attorney, Shannon Salyer, had appealed for a stay from the United States Supreme Court, but late Tuesday afternoon the court voted 6 to 2 not to postpone the execution.

Father Cornelius Ryan brought Mr. Skillern holy communion Tuesday night, and the prison chaplain, Carroll Pickett, visited him.

Mr. Skillern did not shoot Mr. Randel, according to court testimony, but waited in a car nearby when Mr. Randel was shot six times by Charles Sanne, 51. Mr. Sanne also was convicted in the slaying, but received a life prison term and could be paroled soon.

Doyle Skillern was judged as guilty of the murder as Mr. Sanne under Texas’s ”law of parties,” which says accomplices can be found guilty of the most serious offense that occurs in a crime. Mr. Skillern had earlier been sentenced to five years in jail for killing his brother.

https://www.nytimes.com/1985/01/16/us/convict-in-texas-dies-by-injection.html

James Roach South Carolina Execution

James Roach was executed by the State of South Carolina for a double murder. According to court documents James Roach and Joseph Shaw would attack a teen age couple where the girl was sexually assault and both were murdered. James Roach and Joseph Shaw would be arrested, convicted and sentenced to death. Joseph Shaw would be executed by way of the electric chair on January 11, 1985. James Roach who was seventeen years old when the double murder took place would be executed on January 10 1986.

James Roach More News

James Terry Roach, who murdered two teen-agers when he was only 17, was executed today after the Supreme Court rejected his appeal and the governor refused clemency requests from the United Nations, Mother Teresa, Jimmy Carter and human rights groups.

Roach, 25, was pronounced dead at 5:16 a.m., said Doug Catoe, a deputy corrections department commissioner.

″I leave you comfortable that I’ve been forgiven in my sins, just as I have forgiven those who have done this to me,″ Roach said in a final statement addressed to his family and fellow death-row inmates.

″I’m going to a much better place without a heavy burden upon me. I pray that my fate will some day save another kid that ends up on the wrong side of the tracks. … ″To my family and friends, there is only three words to say: I love you. May God bless each and every one of you.″

With two dissenting votes, the Supreme Court late Thursday refused to grant a stay, clearing the way for Roach’s early morning execution in South Carolina’s electric chair at the Central Correctional Institution.

U.N. Secretary-General Javier Perez de Cuellar; Joao Clemente Baena Soares, the secretary-general of the Organization of American States; Nobel Peace Prize winner Mother Teresa; former President Carter and international human rights groups all made appeals on Roach’s behalf.

But Gov. Dick Riley refused to grant clemency. He had also refused clemency for co-defendant Joseph Carl Shaw, who was 22 when the slayings occurred and was executed Jan. 11, 1985.

About 220 death penalty proponents and 60 opponents gathered outside the century-old prison on the Congaree River in chilly predawn temperatures before the execution.

Inside, Roach laughed nervously while waiting for the sentence to be carried out.

″He was very calm about everything,″ said said witness Sean Callebs. ″He showed no emotion.″

Roach, who was the second person put to death in South Carolina and the 51st in the nation since the death penalty was reinstituted in 1976, spent Thursday night visiting with relatives and a minister.

He requested a last meal of fried shrimp, hush puppies, french fries, tossed salad, cherry cheesecake and a soft drink, said Hal Leslie, a spokesman for the state Department of Corrections.

Roach’s attorneys argued that his life should be spared because he suffered from Huntington’s chorea, a mentally debilitating condition, and because international accords prohibit the execution of those younger than 18 at the time of their offense.

Similar arguments made to the 4th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals earlier Thursday also were unsuccessful.

Roach said on ABC-TV’s ″Nightline″ Thursday he did not want to die.

″I think anybody who’s under 18 who is in the shape like I’m in, they can be rehabilitated,″ he said. ″I just hope that they let me live in prison. If I see somebody going down the same road that I’ve been going down, maybe I could say something to change his mind. ’Cause I’ve been there.″

In another interview, Roach said he would go willingly to his death.

″Won’t nobody have to drag me in there,″ he said, adding that he wouldn’t give prosecutors ″the satisfaction.″

Roach pleaded guilty to the 1977 murders of Carlotta Hartness, 14, and Tommy Taylor, 17. The Columbia teen-agers were attacked as they sat in a car at a park near their high school.

Taylor was shot in the face and Miss Hartness was taken to nearby woods, raped, shot in the back of the head and mutilated.

Roach, a native of Seneca, denied shooting the couple, blaming it on Shaw.

He said in his final statement, ″To the families of the victims, my heart is still with you in your sorrow. May you forgive me, just as I know that my Lord has done.″

David Bruck, a member of Roach’s defense team, said on ″Nightline″ that the murder of the teen-agers was ″horrible.″

″But it seems to me that if all the world except the United States has already turned its back on the execution of juvenile offenders who aren’t retarded like Terry is, then the United States has no need to go on with this business of brandishing the electric chair at its own children.″

Solicitor Jim Anders, who prosecuted the case, said on the same program that Roach was only months from his 18th birthday when the crimes were committed and knew right from wrong.

″I think that when people are this mean, this cruel, there is no other way to deal with them,″ Anders said.

While South Carolina law does not forbid the execution of minors, age is considered in sentencing. A bill outlawing the execution of minor offenders is pending in the state Senate.

https://apnews.com/article/ac5920fb296ed8e76f35d58d845d1d22

Roosevelt Green Georgia Execution

Roosevelt Green was executed by the State of Georgia for the robbery, kidnapping, sexual assault and murder of a woman. According to court documents Roosevelt Green would kidnap the victim from her place of work after stealing money from the cash register. Roosevelt Green would take the woman to a remote location where she was sexually assaulted and murdered. Roosevelt Green would be arrested, convicted and sentenced to death. Roosevelt Green would be executed by way of the electric chair on January 9, 1985

Roosevelt Green More News

Coed killer Roosevelt Green, insisting he is innocent, lost a last-minute bid for clemency Tuesday and was to die in Georgia’s electric chair shortly after midnight with his mother watching.

The Georgia Board of Pardons and Paroles refused to grant a reprieve for Green, a black man twice convicted of killing an 18-year-old white coed in 1976.

Green, 28, was to be executed at 12:15 a.m. EST Wednesday and prison officials said his mother, Annie B. Green, would be among the 14 official execution witnesses.

Prisons spokesman Freed Steeple said Green, after a lengthy afternoon visit with his mother, formally asked prison officials to allow her to witness his execution.

Steeple said warden Ralph Kemp then asked Green’s mother if she wanted to witness the execution, ‘and she said yes, which is surprising.’

Steeple said to his knowledge, no mother had ever watched her son executed in Georgia — at least not in recent history.

Green requested no special last meal, Steeple said, and declined to eat the regular prison dinner of turkey pot pie.

Steeple said Green’s visitors left the prison at 4:15 p.m. and the condemned man ‘is just just watching television

The former migrant worker insisted he was not present when Theresa Carol Allen, an honors student from Cochran, Ga., was shot twice with a high-powered rifle — a claim supported by his accomplice.

‘We believe Roosevelt Green was an active participant in a continuing conspiracy and the logical conclusion of that conspiracy was murder,’ said Michael Wing, chairman of the five-member parole board. ‘Whether or not he pulled the trigger, we do not know.’

Green would be the fourth person executed in Georgia and the 34th in the nation since the Supreme Court reinstated capital punishment in 1976. He would be the third to die in the United States within two weeks.

The Supreme Court denied a stay of execution Monday in a rare 4-4 tie vote.

Prison spokesman Fred Steeple said Green spent most of his final hours visiting in his death watch cell with his mother, attorneys and the Rev. Murphy Davis, a prison minister. Steeple said Green made no special requests.

Davis said Green’s mother had hoped the parole board would grant her son a reprieve, saying she believed the evidence was ‘enough to grant clemency.’

Green visited Monday with his boyhood friend from Minter, Ala., William Daniels, Daniels’ wife and their five children.

‘They say he’s the meanest man in prison,’ said Davis, ‘but if you could have seen him sitting with those children on his lap …’

Green, was sentenced to death twice for the murder of Allen, who was abducted from a convenience store, raped, shot twice and her body dumped in a rural area.

Carzell Moore also was convicted of the slaying and sentenced to death. He remains on death row.

Moore, according to appeal testimony, told another inmate that after the abduction, he was left alone with Allen, a freshman nursing student at Middle Georgia College, while Green went to get gas. Moore said he then shot the woman.

The Georgia Supreme Court ruled in a 1980 appeal the conviction should stand because Green left the woman alone on a dark road witha man he knew to be dangerous.

Kenneth Allen, the victim’s 25-year-old brother, said he had forgiven Green for the murder, but still thought the execution should be carried out.

‘I am a born-again Christian, and even if the sentence isn’t carried out, I forgive him,’ said Allen. ‘But capital punishment is part of our judicial system. If they’re not going to carry it out, they should take it off the books.

https://www.upi.com/Archives/1985/01/08/Coed-killer-Roosevelt-Green-insisting-he-is-innocent-lost/9820474008400/

David Martin Louisiana Execution

David Martin was executed by the State of Louisiana for a quadruple murders. According to court documents David Martin would find out his wife was cheating on him and would go to the man’s home where he would open fire killing Bobby Todd, Terry Hebert, Anne Tierney, and Sandra Brake. David Martin would be arrested, convicted and sentenced to death. David Martin would be executed by way of the electric chair on January 4 1985

David Martin More News

David Dene Martin, a former youth conselor who said stress and drugs led him to murder his wife’s lover and three other people, was executed early today after the State Pardon Board refused a last-minute plea to spare him from the electric chair.

He was pronounced dead at 12:16 A.M. central standard time, said C. Paul Phelps, secretary of the state Department of Corrections.

Mr. Martin’s execution, the 33rd in the nation since the 1976 Supreme Court decision that allowed states to impose the death penalty, was the second in Louisiana in eight days. All court appeals were long ago exhausted.

Slayings in 1977

Mr. Martin, 32 years old, was executed for the Aug. 14, 1977, slayings of Bobby Todd, a bar owner with whom Mr. Martin’s wife, Gloria, said she was having an affair, and three other people who happened to be at Mr. Todd’s mobile home in Bayou Blue when Mr. Martin walked in and started shooting.

Mr. Martin’s attorney, Richard Shapiro, maintained that Mr. Martin was driven to murder after his wife’s affair and after his daughter was born with birth defects. Mr. Shapiro said Mr. Martin was under the influence of alcohol and the drug phencyclidine, also known as PCP or angel dust, at the time of the slayings.

Spent Evening With Minister

Mr. Martin spent Thursday evening at Louisiana State Penitentiary with the Rev. Ray Winders of Paris, Tex., a Seventh-day Adventist and Mr. Martin’s spiritual adviser.

”They were talking and reading the Bible,” said Frank Blackburn, the prison warden. ”I asked if there was anything special he wanted to report to the news media and he said, ‘No.’ ”

”He had a last meal of Sloppy Joes and french fries,” the warden said. ”He didn’t want anything special. That’s what was on fare for everybody tonight.”

”He seemed to be in very good spirits,” Mr. Blackburn said.

His mother, three sisters and half- brother attended the five-hour hearing of the pardon board, and wept after the board announced its 5-0 decision without comment.

One sister, Luvena Farinala of Wheeling, W.Va., testified tearfully: ”I don’t want to see him die. He has touched the lives of many people spiritually, intellectually and personally.”

Mr. Martin’s mother and another sister also testified.

Calm at Pardon Hearing

Mr. Martin showed little emotion, nodding only to acknowledge that he understood. He then turned to Mr. Shapiro, shook his hand and said, ”You’ve been a good friend.”

A native of Keene, Tex., Mr. Martin married soon after moving to Houma in southeast Louisiana in 1973. In Houma, he led many social programs for the Seventh-day Adventists through the church’s Way-Out Help Clinic.

In those programs, he monitored a hotline for troubled teen-agers, counseled young people and played folk songs on his guitar. He supported himself as a carpenter, maintenance man and door-to-door salesman.

The United States Circuit Court of Appeals for the Fifth Circuit noted that a divided Louisiana Supreme Court had affirmed David Martin’s death penalty by a 4-3 vote, with the three dissenters saying death was too harsh a penalty in this case.

Evidence in the case showed that Mr. Martin reloaded his revolver twice, pulled the trigger 15 times and confessed the crime to five people. While Mr. Shapiro stressed the influence of drugs and alcohol, the judges of the appeals court said the evidence indicated Mr. Martin had planned the murders in advance.