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Elmo Sonnier Louisiana Execution

Elmo Sonnier was executed by the State of Louisiana for the murder of a couple. According to court documents Elmo Sonnier and his brother Eddie Sonnier would pretend to be law enforcement officers and pulled up to the young couple on a local lovers lane. The young couple would be brought to a remote location where the young woman was sexually assaulted by both men before the couple were murdered. Elmo Sonnier and Eddie Sonnier both would be arrested, convicted and sentenced to death. Elmo Sonnier would be executed by way of the electric chair on May 5 1984. Eddie Sonnier was later resentenced to life and would die in prison in 2013

Elmo Sonnier More News

lmo Patrick Sonnier, convicted of murdering a teenage couple in a sugar cane field in New Iberia, was electrocuted early Thursday after telling the father of one of the victims, “I ask you to have forgiveness.”

Lloyd LeBlanc, who witnessed the execution, nodded and said, “Yes.”

Sonnier, 34, was then strapped into the electric chair, executed, and pronounced dead at 12:15 a.m. by the local coroner.

He was convicted of the slayings of Loretta Bourque, 18, and her fiance, David LeBlanc, 16. Each was shot three times in the head on Nov. 5, 1977.

Sonnier was the third person executed in Louisiana in four months. Robert Wayne Williams was electrocuted Dec. 14 for killing a Baton Rouge supermarket guard, becoming the first person executed in Louisiana since 1961. Johnny Taylor Jr. was put to death Feb. 29 for stabbing a Kenner man to death in a shopping center parking lot.

Sonnier was one of two men scheduled for execution Thursday. Arthur Frederick Goode II faced death at 6 a.m. in Florida’s electric chair for raping and strangling 6-year-old Jason Verdow.

Sonnier was the 17th man executed since the Supreme Court lifted its ban on capital punishment in 1976. Goode’s execution would mark the first time two inmates have been executed on the same day since the court lifted the ban.

State prison warden Ross Maggio said Sonnier spent his last day with Sister Helen Prejean, a New Orleans nun who serves as his spiritual adviser, and with a female friend who is a lawyer but is not involved in his case.

The condemned man ate a steak dinner and was kept up to date as five courts turned down his 11th-hour pleas for a stay.

As he was led into the execution chamber, he looked at LeBlanc and said, “Mr. LeBlanc, I can understand the way you feel. I have no hatred in my heart, and as I leave this world, I ask God to forgive what…I have done.”

He then asked LeBlanc’s forgiveness.

Immediately after, Godfrey Bourque, the father of the other victim, who also witnessed the execution, said, “He didn’t ask me.”

Both fathers sat expressionless, with their arms crossed, as the execution was carried out. They declined to talk to reporters afterward.

Sonnier’s last words were addressed to Prejean. “I love you,” he said.

“I love you, too,” she replied.

Sonnier, wearing blue jeans and a blue T-shirt, was then strapped into the death chair. Witnesses said he appeared to be smiling.

At 12:07, his body was jolted with 2,000 volts of electricity for 20 seconds, followed by 500 volts for 10 seconds. The sequence was repeated.

There was no movement after the second jolt.

The way was cleared for the execution Wednesday when the five courts turned down a plea to stop it. The U.S. Supreme Court, the last of the five, turned Sonnier down only five minutes after his attorneys filed their petition.

Gov. Edwin W. Edwards then decided not to intervene, telephoning the condemned man to convey his decision personally.

In his appeal, Sonnier’s attorney William Quigley said a former Angola inmate has told him he heard Sonnier’s brother confess to the crime.

Quigley said he received a call “out of the blue” Wednesday morning from Richard Silvestri, who was in Angola from 1978 to 1981 and was at one time assigned to a cell next to the one occupied by Eddie Sonnier, who is serving a life sentence for the slayings of the teen-age couple.

Silvestri said he could testify that Eddie Sonnier admitted to him that he, and not his brother, was the trigger man in the slayings. Eddie Sonnier had written a letter to Edwards admitting he fired the shots and asking that Edwards spare Elmo Sonnier’s life.

The information on Silvestri was filed with the 5th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals and the U.S. Supreme Court after three other courts had rejected earlier appeals to delay the execution.

State District Judge Thomas Bienvenue, the state Supreme Court and U.S. District Judge John Shaw all refused to stop the execution. But Quigley said that when those courts ruled they did not have the new information.

The 5th Circuit, which was given the new information, denied the stay request Wednesday evening.

The Supreme Court also rejected the bid without comment on a 6-2 vote. Justices Thurgood Marshall and William Brennan dissented as they always do in death penalty cases and Justice William Rehnquist did not participate.

The appeals all centered on the question of who pulled the trigger when Bourque and LeBlanc were killed. There was no question of whether the Sonnier brothers were involved in the crime, only which one acted as the trigger man.

Elmo and Eddie, 27, were both sentenced to die for the deaths, but the state Supreme Court changed Eddie’s sentence to life in prison because trial testimony indicated he only held the flashlight while his brother shot the youths to death.

Prosecutors said the two pretended to be law enforcement officers, abducted the couple from a lonely lovers lane near New Iberia and drove them more than 20 miles to a remote sugar cane field, where both raped the girl while the boy was handcuffed to a tree.

Both teen-agers were murdered, shot three times each in the back of the head with a .22-caliber rifle.

Although Eddie initially was given the death penalty, he managed to “give it back,” as he put it, by claiming he did not pull the trigger. It was after his sentence was reduced to life in prison that he first said he was the trigger man.

A state district court, however, did not believe him when he testified in Elmo’s trial. Elmo was sentenced to die for the crime.

https://www.pbs.org/wgbh/pages/frontline/angel/articles/timespicayune45.html

Arthur Goode Florida Execution

Arthur Goode was executed by the State of Florida for the sexual assault and murder of a nine year old boy. According to court documents Arthur Goode had been arrested and convicted of molesting two children however he was sent to a State mental hospital. Arthur Goode would flee from the hospital and soon after would sexually assault and murder nine year old Jason VerDow. Before he could be arrested Arthur Goode would kidnap another boy who he brought to Washington DC. While in Washington Goode would kidnap another boy who he later murdered. Arthur Goode would be arrested, convicted and sentenced to death. Arthur Goode would be executed by way of the electric chair on April 5 1984

Arthur Goode More News

Arthur Frederick Goode III, the former Hyattsville resident convicted of killing a small boy in Florida and another in Fairfax County, died in the electric chair in Florida State Prison yesterday after tearfully apologizing to his parents and expressing remorse for what he had done.

Goode, 30, received the death penalty for the murder of 9-year-old Jason Verdow of Cape Coral, Fla., in 1976. Ten days after committing the crime, he raped and killed 10-year-old Kenneth Dawson of Falls Church, for which he received a life sentence in Virginia.

Goode had said in interviews and letters to the parents of his victims that he was proud he killed the boys and would continue to molest and kill if he were released. But as he was strapped into the electric chair at the state prison in Starke, his tone became somber

“I want to apologize to my parents,” he said, his voice trailing off and tears welling in his eyes. “I have remorse for the two boys I murdered. It’s difficult for me to show it.”

Goode was executed less than six hours after Elmo Patrick Sonnier, 35, was electrocuted in Angola, La., for the November 1977 killing of two teen-aged sweethearts abducted from a lovers’ lane.

Yesterday was the first time two persons have been executed on the same day since the Supreme Court reinstated the death penalty in 1976. Goode was the 18th person executed in the United States since 1976 and the seventh person executed this year.

Michael Dawson, whose son’s body was found March 20, 1976, in a wooded area near Tysons Corner, had requested “a front-row seat” at Goode’s execution but was turned down by Florida officials.

Dawson learned of Goode’s death at 7:30 yesterday morning while listening to the radio at his Falls Church home. He spoke with the superintendent of Florida State Prison, Richard Dugger, a few hours later.

“He told me it probably would have done me more harm than good to have been down there to witness it,” Dawson said. “But I don’t know. I lost something. I don’t have the words to express it, the hurt, but I feel a little bit better this morning.

“At least I won’t have to hear his mouth and see his mouth anymore running on the television,” Dawson said.

At the time of his conviction in Virginia, the state did not impose the death penalty. It has subsequently been reinstated.

The fathers of the couple killed in Louisiana were permitted to witness the execution of Sonnier at Angola State Prison.

Just before a black hood was pulled over his head, Sonnier turned to Godfrey Bourque, father of Loretta Bourque, 18, and to Lloyd LeBlanc, father of David LeBlanc, 16, and, staring at LeBlanc, said: “Mr. LeBlanc, I can understand the way you feel.

“I have no hatred in my heart,” Sonnier continued. “As I leave this world . . . I ask to have your forgiveness.” LeBlanc nodded and said “yes.”

Lawyers worked until almost the hour of execution for both men trying to get the sentences stayed, but the Supreme Court rejected last-minute bids for each.

Goode had treated his crimes cavalierly almost from the moment he was arrested, taunting the parents of his victims, conducting his own defense for the Florida killing, abusing his parents, who insisted that he was insane and worked tirelessly to prevent his execution, and frequently appearing on television as a self-styled expert on child molesters.

Prison officials said Goode wrote 10 to 15 letters a day, mostly to public officials and members of the news media because he was forbidden years ago to continue writing to the parents of his victims.

The Washington Post has received continuous correspondence from him since he was first arrested in Fairfax County in March 1976. His final letter to the Post is dated “3-29-84” and reads in its entirety: “Dear Editor, The Washington Post, Wash, D.C. Very Urgent! My ‘execution’ is scheduled for next week (4-5-84) and I demand it be carried out! Please arrange to come ‘interview’ me immediately. Sincerely Arthur F. Goode III 038781.”

As recently as Wednesday at a prison news conference, Goode had said he had no remorse for the killings, demanded to be executed and said his final wish was to have sex with a little boy.

Prison officials said that after Goode spoke with his parents for the last time just after midnight, he seemed to realize that, in Superintendent Dugger’s words, “This time there would be no last-minute stay. I think until then he really thought there would be.”

At 4:45 a.m. yesterday Goode ate a final meal of steak, baked potato, buttered cauliflower and broccoli, half a gallon of ice cream, and a dozen chocolate chip cookies.

“He ate with gusto,” said prison spokesman Vernon Bradford.

Dugger led Goode to the electric chair and held a microphone to carry his last words to 12 witnesses.

“I’m very upset,” Goode said as he was strapped into the chair. “I don’t know what to say, really. How much time do I have?”

Dugger did not answer, and Goode then issued his apology.

A black gag was placed across his mouth and a hood was dropped over his face, and at 7:03 a current of 2,000 volts was sent through his body. His body jolted, his fists clenched, and then his body relaxed. He was pronounced dead at 7:08.

A funeral home in Florida said Goode’s body would be sent to Hyattsville for burial. Goode is survived by his father and mother, who live in Pine Island, Fla., and three older sisters.

https://www.washingtonpost.com/archive/politics/1984/04/06/repentant-goode-executed-in-florida/c9ce2ab5-cd69-4c6a-8271-41efb4b60e21/

James Adams Florida Execution

James Adams was executed by the State of Florida for the murder of a man during a robbery. According to court documents James Adams had escaped from a Florida prison where he was serving a 99 year sentence for rape when he attempted to rob Edgar Brown who he would beat to death with a fireplace poker. James Adams would be arrested, convicted and sentenced to death

James Adams More News

Urging other death row inmates to ”keep on fighting,” James Adams died in the electric chair today for murdering a rancher, becoming the first black executed in Florida in 20 years.

Mr. Adams, 47 years old, who had maintained his innocence and charged that race played a part in his convictions, was pronounced dead at 7:11 A.M. The United States Supreme Court, voting 5 to 4, cleared the way for his execution Wednesday night by overruling a lower court that granted a stay so it could review whether Florida’s death penalty laws were racially discriminatory.

The stocky, muscular man told reporters earlier he ”wouldn’t hesitate to walk like a man” to his death. He did just that.

‘I Have Only Love’

”To all the men on death row, keep on fighting because it is wrong and immoral,” Mr. Adams said after being strapped into the chair where four others have died since 1979. ”I have no animosity toward anyone. I only have love.”

Mr. Adams was convicted of the murder of Edgar Brown of Fort Pierce, a prominent rancher and former St. Lucie County sheriff’s deputy. Mr. Brown was beaten to death with a poker in a robbery at his home on Nov. 12, 1973, and a witness said he had seen Mr. Adams running from the scene.

At the time, Mr. Adams was an fugitive from Tennessee, where he had served 10 years of a 99-year sentence for rape.

In an interview Tuesday, Mr. Adams said he was ”railroaded” in each crime because he was a poor black and the victims were white.

But Gov. Bob Graham, who signed Mr. Adams’s death warrant, said there was no reason to grant a reprieve as requested by defense attorneys and opponents of the death penalty.

Al Brown, the victim’s son, said: ”I don’t care what they do to him. I have mixed feelings about the whole thing.” ‘A Terrible Mistake’

The family of James Adams, one of 14 children of parents who were sharecroppers, insisted the wrong man was executed. ”He has never killed anyone and Governor Graham is making a terrible mistake,” relatives said in a statement distributed in Tallahassee.

The Rev. Ernie Brunelle, a Roman Catholic priest from Gainesville, who was among 30 death penalty opponents outside Florida State Prison, said, ”The fact he was tried by a male, all- white jury, that means a great deal.” About 50 others protested at the Capitol in Tallahassee.

Carl Shriner Florida Execution

Carl Shriner was executed by the State of Florida for the murder of a store clerk during a robbery. According to court documents Carl Shriner would shoot and kill Judith Ann Carter during a robbery at a convenience store. Carl Shriner would be arrested, convicted and sentenced to death. Carl Shriner would be executed by way of the electric chair on June 20 1984

Carl Shriner More News

Carl Shriner, who spent most of his 30 years behind bars but found ‘the light’ on death row, died in the electric chair today for the murder of a young mother in a convenience store holdup.

Shriner, who was sent to reform school when he was 8, died at 7:12 a.m. in the wooden electric chair at Florida State Prison

He was the 20th man executed in the United States since the death penalty was reinstated in 1976, and the sixth in Florida — twice as many as any other state.

After he was strapped into the chair, the lanky Shriner read a final statement from a paper held in front of him by Prisons Superintendent Richard Dugger.

‘Many of my friends have mentioned for me to look for the light,’ Shriner said in a steady voice. ‘But I already saw the light when I accepted Christ years ago. Only now I get to go stand in it and enjoy it with the Lord.’

Shriner nodded to his attorney, Ken Lawrence, one of 25 people in the witness chamber. When black-hooded executioner — hired for $150 a job through classified advertising — threw the switch, up to 2,000 volts surged through Shriner’s body. His chest heaved and his fists clenched, and the body did not relax until the current was turned off 90 seconds later

Prison spokesman Vernon Bradford said Shriner spent a sleepless night meeting with his minister, the Rev. Fred Lawrence, and ate a hearty last meal of steak, potatoes, corn on the cob, salad, cantaloupe, strawberries and ice cream.

‘He ate everything from the cream on the strawberries to the ice cream in the cantaloupe,’ said Bradford.

Shriner then took a shower and was shaved in preparation for the 7 a.m. EDT execution in the three-legged, oaken electric chair called ‘Old Sparky’ by the 219 men and one woman on Florida’s death row.

About 40 demonstrators, nearly all of them agaist the death penalty, gathered in pre-dawn fog outside the gate of the sprawling Florida State Prison.

Shriner told reporters Monday he had found Christ in prison and was prepared to die.

‘Spiritually I ain’t scared, but physically, as long as I’m in this human form, I’m scared,’ Shriner said.

He was sentenced to die for the Oct. 22, 1976, murder of Judith Ann Carter, 34, during the robbery of a Gainesville convenience store where she worked. Mrs. Carter, the mother of four young children, was shot five times.

Shriner, one of 10 children of a Cleveland window washer and his wife, who now lives in Phoenix, Ariz., had been released from a Florida prison only 23 days before the murder after serving most of a five-year term for robbery in Miami.

He admitted driving the getaway car, but another man, whom he refused to name, killed Mrs. Carter. That claim was never made at his trial.

Shriner was first scheduled to be executed April 21, 1982, but the 11th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals in Atlanta intervened after attorneys claimed he had ineffective trial counsel.

The Atlanta court intervened again Monday, but lifted the temporary stay late Tuesday, saying his claims of ineffective trial counsel had ‘either been previously determined, have no merit or constitute an abuse of the writ.’

Defense lawyers then went to the Supreme Court, which took only 90 minutes to vote 6-2 vote not to block the execution.

Shriner said he felt sorry for Mrs. Carter’s family, but added ‘I don’t know the people personally. My family loves me just like your family loves you.’

He said neither his parents, nor any of his seven brothers and two sisters could afford to come across country from Phoenix to witness the execution

https://www.upi.com/Archives/1984/06/20/Carl-Elson-Shriner-who-spent-most-of-his-30/2409456552000/

Ivon Stanley Georgia Execution

Ivon Stanley was executed by the State of Georgia for the murder of an insurance agent. According to court documents Ivon Stanley and Joseph Thomas planned to rob the victim, Clifford Floyd. The two men would kidnap the victim, bring him to a remote location where he was shot and buried alive. Joseph Thomas would be arrested first and would confess to the murder which lead to the arrest of Ivon Stanley. Ivon Stanley would be convicted and sentenced to death. Ivon Stanley would be executed by way of the electric chair on July 12 1984, Joseph Thomas would be initially be sentenced to death however later would be sentenced to life

Ivon Stanley More News

Ivon Stanley, a killer who buried his victim alive, died in Georgia’s electric chair shortly after midnight Thursday but two Florida killers facing the nation’s first double execution in 19 years a few hours later won temporary stays.

The Supreme Court rejected Stanley’s final appeal at 11:47 p.m. EDT, 18 minutes before he was led into the death chamber at Jackson Diagnostic Center south of Atlanta

Stanley, 28, a black high school dropout with an IQ of 81, was pronounced dead at 12:24 a.m. EDT.

He was the 21st man executed in the United States and the second in Georgia since the Supreme Court dropped its ban on the death penalty in 1976.

Stanley’s grandmother, mother, brother and sister-in-law joined 17 other people in a grassy field outside the prison. At 12:15 a.m., the appointed time of Stanley’s death,. a woman took a candle from his mother’s hands and blew it out.

Stanley had no last words and refused to see a minister several times in the ours before he died. He was impassive and expressionless before the death hood was dropped over his face and the switch was thrown to send the deadly voltage through his body.

A three-judge panel of the 11th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals in Atlanta denied a stay of execution for Stanley earlier Wednesday.

Late Wednesday the 11th Circuit Court granted a temporary stay for Jimmy Lee Smith, 30, and 2 hours later U.S. District Judge Eugene Spellman, of Miami, granted a reprieve for David Lee Washington, both of whom were scheduled to die one after the other beginning at 7 a.m. in the electric chair at Starke, Fla.

Both stays were temporary, however, and the Florida death warrants allow their executions up to noon on Friday.

Spellman granted Washington a stay until 6:59 a.m. EDT Friday to give the Atlanta appeals court time to consider his case. The Atlanta court ordered a 9:30 a.m. hearing Thursday on Smith’s appeal.

Washington, 34, a former choir boy, high school drummer and confessed triple murderer whose 1976 violent rampage over 9 days stunned Dade County, was to have died first, followed by Smithj 7 a.m. Thursday.

Florida has already executed six men since 1976, more than any other state.

Washington is black; Smith is white.

Stanley was taken to Georgia’s ‘death watch’ cell next to the death chamber at noon Wednesday, and authorities said his only request was for vanilla ice cream. His last meal also consisted of squash and peanut butter cookies

In Florida, officials said Washington and Smith were in holding cells about 12 feet apart next to the death chamber. They could not see each other but could communicate if they wished. Apparently they had little to say to each other, according to prison spokesman Vernon Bradford.

Stanley and another man, Joseph Edward Thomas, 28, were convicted of the robbery-murder of Clifford Floyd, a prominent Bainbridge, Ga., insurance man who was robbed, beaten, shot and buried alive in 1976.

Thomas is still on Georgia’s death row.

‘He’s innocent. As a child he was always looking to help someone,’ said Eliza Yulee, the grandmother who reared Stanley, as she brushed back tears at a news conference at Atlanta City Hall Tuesday.

Mrs. Yulee said she once told Ivon to kill a chicken for a family meal, but he couldn’t do it. She said he refused to retaliate when he was provoked by school bullies.

Stanley’s father deserted the family before he was born, and his mother often treated him coolly, according to documents filed with the Georgia Board of Pardons and Paroles.

https://www.upi.com/Archives/1984/07/12/Ivon-Ray-Stanley-a-killer-who-buried-his-victim/6101458452800/