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Gary Simmons Mississippi Execution

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

Jan Brawner Mississippi Execution

Jan Brawner was executed by the State of Mississippi for the murders of four people. According to court documents Jan Brawner would go to his ex wives home and murdered her, their daughter and her parents. Jan Brawner would be arrested, convicted and sentenced to death. Jan Brawner would be executed by lethal injection on June 12 2012

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Petitions to the United States supreme court for a stay of execution for Jan Michael Brawner were denied late Tuesday afternoon. And Brawner was put to death hours later.

Brawner was pronounced dead at 6:18 Tuesday night. He is convicted of killing his 3-year-old daughter, his ex-wife and her parents in 2001. Brawner later admitted to the crimes and apologized to family members seconds before the injection started Tuesday night.

According to Mississippi Department of Corrections Commissioner Chris Epps Brawner discussed the murders with him hours before he died Tuesday.

“He talked about killing the mother in law first and then secondly was his former wife and then he took his three-year old and allowed her to watch television,” said Epps. “He thought about what he had done and thought that she could identify him, so he went and killed her and then he waited on the father in law to come home and killed him.”

Brawner shot his ex-wife and her parents each three times. He shot his own daughter 2 times in the face.

Epps said Brawner did show remorse saying “I asked him was he ready to go and he said he was prepared. And he said that he deserved to be executed for what he did.”

David Craft, who found his parents, sister and niece dead in their Tate County home in 2001 was the only family member who witnessed the execution.

Afterwards family members released a statement saying “man has a choice of good and evil. Michael choose evil while my family chose good.”

This is the fifth inmate executed in Mississippi this year.

https://www.wreg.com/news/convicted-killer-pronounced-dead-minutes-after-lethal-injection/

Henry Jackson Mississippi Execution

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

William Mitchell Mississippi Execution

William Mitchell was executed by the State of Mississippi for the sexual assault and murder of a woman. According to court documents William Mitchell who was released from prison earlier in the year would grab Patty Milliken when she was leaving the convenience store would be sexually assault and murdered. William Mitchell would be arrested, convicted and sentenced to death. William Mitchell would be executed by lethal injection on March 22, 2012

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A Mississippi man was executed Thursday for the 1995 slaying of a woman who disappeared from convenience store where she worked in Biloxi.

William Mitchell, 61, was pronounced dead at 6:20 p.m. Thursday after a lethal injection.

Asked whether he wanted to say anything before the chemicals were pumped into his veins, Mitchell emphatically said, “No.”

Dressed in a red jumpsuit, wearing black-and-white sneakers, Mitchell appeared to lick his lips, took a deep breath and exhaled and then yawned. Moments later he closed his eyes and officials pronounced him dead.

Mitchell was convicted in the Nov. 21, 1995, slaying of 38-year-old Patty Milliken, who disappeared after walking out of the Majik Mart convenience store where she worked to have a cigarette with Mitchell.

Her body was found the next day under a bridge. She had been “strangled, beaten, sexually assaulted and repeatedly run over by a vehicle,” according to court records.

Mitchell was convicted of capital murder in Harrison County in 1998.

Two members of Milliken’s family — son, Williams Burns; and a sister, Rosemary Riley — witnessed the execution.

Corrections Commissioner Chris Epps said Mitchell didn’t want any of his own relatives to witness it, but noted that Mitchell’s lawyers were present. Earlier Thursday, he was visited by a brother and two sisters.

Epps said Mitchell was talkative earlier in the day.

“Just small talk … nothing about what he was on death row for,” Epps said.

Mitchell’s last meal request was for fried shrimp and oysters, ranch dressing, two fried chicken breasts, a strawberry shake and a soft drink. Epps said Mitchell ate very little of the meal, but asked for a sedative.

The Mississippi Supreme Court and the U.S. Supreme Court earlier Thursday declined to stop Mitchell’s execution.

Gov. Phil Bryant issued a statement that he would not halt the execution.

“After reviewing the case of William Mitchell and the crime he committed, I will not stand in the way of the scheduled execution. My thoughts and prayers are with the family and friends of Patty Milliken, who fell victim to this horrible act of violence,” Bryant said in the statement.

Mitchell’s body will be turned over to his sister Gerolyn Mitchell and Brinson Funeral Home in Cleveland, Miss.

Court records show Mitchell, had been out of prison on parole for less than a year for a 1974 murder when he was charged with raping and killing Milliken.

According to court records, Mitchell, as a young adult, served in the Army but by the 1990s, he had a long criminal record and had spent much of his adult life behind bars. He was charged twice with beating women in 1973. In 1974, he was charged with killing a family friend and stabbing her daughter.

In his petition to the Supreme Court, Mitchell had argued the Mississippi courts denied his right to due process by failing to address his challenge that was based on his lawyers’ inadequate representation. He said the courts just ignored the issue by saying it had already been adjudicated elsewhere.

Mississippi Attorney General Jim Hood in his brief to the Supreme Court said the issues raised by Mitchell were nothing new and were rejected by other courts

https://www.gulflive.com/mississippi-press-news/2012/03/mississippi_executes_prisoner.html

Larry Puckett Mississippi Execution

Larry Puckett was executed by the State of Mississippi for the sexual assault and murder of a woman. According to court documents Larry Puckett would sexually assault and murder Rhonda Hatten Griffis, who was his bosses wife. Larry Puckett who was an 18 year old former Eagle Scout would be arrested, convicted and sentenced to death. Larry Puckett would be executed by lethal injection on March 20 2012

Larry Puckett More News

A Mississippi man who was an 18-year-old Eagle Scout when he was charged with murder was executed Tuesday for the 1995 sexual assault and slaying of the wife of his former boss.

Larry Matthew Puckett, 35, was put to death by injection and pronounced dead at 6:18 p.m. Tuesday, authorities said. Puckett was convicted of the Oct. 14, 1995, killing of Rhonda Hatten Griffis, a 28-year-old mother of two who lived northeast of Hattiesburg in Petal.

While Puckett’s supporters claimed that the woman’s husband killed her in a jealous rage, the victim’s mother said she found Puckett in the home holding an axe handle, which prosecutors said was used in the killing.

“I caught him in her house with the club in his hand,” Nancy Hatten told The Associated Press on Friday. “Her husband wasn’t anywhere on the premises at the time. He drove up later.”

Griffis’ husband found his wife’s battered body in the living room, according to court records. Puckett had worked as a landscaper for Griffis’ husband, and the crime occurred weeks before Puckett was scheduled to leave for basic training with the Navy.

Puckett, who ran from the home, was captured two days later. He confessed to being at the Griffis’ home to burglarize it, but claimed Griffis’ husband killed her, according to court records. Puckett was sentenced to death on Aug. 5, 1996.

Supporters who insisted Puckett was innocent rallied Monday at the state Capitol in Jackson alongside the man’s mother, Mary Puckett. They raised a sign that read “Take a Stand, Save Matt” and many wore black T-shirts with words in white lettering: “Save Matt.”

But Gov. Phil Bryant refused to grant a reprieve after the U.S. Supreme Court on Thursday afternoon denied his final petition. Bryant said in a statement as the execution hour loomed that he had reviewed the case but decided against intervening.

“In light of Mr. Puckett’s having been convicted by a jury of his peers more than 15 years ago and after a review of the facts associated with his case, I have decided not to grant clemency and will not delay the execution,” Bryant’s statement said. “My thoughts and prayers are with the victim’s family.”

Earlier, Puckett spent his final hours receiving his parents, brothers, uncle and a spiritual adviser at the Mississippi State Penitentiary at Parchman, where the death chamber is housed. He requested a last meal of Macadamia nut pancakes, shrimp and grits, ice cream cake, caramel candy and root beer.

Mississippi Corrections Commissioner Chris Epps said the man’s mood was “somber” in the hours before the execution. Epps said he talked to Puckett about his childhood and becoming an Eagle Scout, but he did not want to talk about the crime for which he was convicted.

“He said there’s more to the story and he denied committing the crime,” Epps said.

Epps said Puckett requested that his relatives and lawyer not watch the execution. Griffis’ parents were on the witness list.

Thousands of people had signed an online petition in support of Puckett, insisting on his innocence. They had hoped to persuade Bryant to stop the execution.

Puckett has spent much of his time on death row writing letters to friends and family and essays on a variety of topics, including musing about what it will be like to be executed.

“Now picture yourself surrounded by big burly men with firm grips on you as they direct you to the execution chamber. The excitement and base fear course through you like no other time in your life. You sweat, you pant, you want them to stop. They won’t, they can’t, the whole process is inexorable,” he wrote on a website that prints prisoners’ letters. “Ironically, at the moment of your death your body proves to you are the most alive.”

Puckett has requested that his body be released to his mother, Mary Puckett.

Mary Puckett said at Monday’s rally that her son’s treatment was unfair from the start.

“Like a lot of people, I thought if someone was convicted of a crime, they were probably guilty,” Puckett said. “But if this can happen to us, it can happen to anyone.”

Hatten said she’s convinced the right man was convicted in her daughter’s death. Hatten described her daughter as a woman who deeply loved her husband and children and stayed busy taking care of them.

An only child, Griffis was nearly finished with college when she became pregnant and dropped out to make a home. She hoped someday to finish her degree in social work at the University of Southern Mississippi.

“She loved us and helped us and did what she could do for us,” Hatten said. “She was always a joy to us.”

Another Mississippi death row inmate, William Mitchell, 61, faces scheduled execution Thursday. Mitchell had been out of prison on parole for less than a year for a 1975 murder when he was charged with raping and killing Patty Milliken, 38.

Milliken disappeared on Nov. 21, 1995, after walking out of a convenience store where she worked in Biloxi to have a cigarette with Mitchell. Her body was found the next day under a bridge. She had been strangled, beaten, sexually assaulted, and repeatedly run over by a vehicle, according to court records.

https://www.gulflive.com/mississippi-press-news/2012/03/larry_matthew_puckett_executed.html