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Anthony Banks Oklahoma Execution

Anthony Banks was executed by the State of Oklahoma for a sexual assault and murder. According to court documents Anthony Banks would kidnap Sun Travis who would later be sexually assaulted and murdered. Anthony Banks who was in prison at the time would be tied to the murder of Sun Travis by DNA. Anthony Banks would be convicted and sentenced to death. Anthony Banks would be executed by lethal injection on September 10 2013

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Oklahoma executed a man on Tuesday for the rape and murder of a Tulsa woman in 1979, a crime that went unsolved for 18 years until new DNA techniques led to his conviction.

Anthony Banks, 60, was pronounced dead at 6:07 p.m. (2307 GMT). Banks was convicted and sentenced to death for the June 6, 1979, murder of Sun I. Kim Travis, a 24-year-old Korean woman who he had raped, beaten, shot in the face and dumped in a ditch, according to court documents.

“God bless you, I love you and I will see you again,” Banks said before he died of lethal injection, according to Oklahoma Department of Corrections spokesman Jerry Massie.

Banks had three apple-filled rolls and two bottles of water as his last meal, Massie said.

His prior death sentence for the killing of a convenience store clerk was overturned on appeal and converted to life with possible parole in a plea deal. But his bid to appeal his death sentence in the killing of Travis failed, and he had been on death row since November 14, 1999.

The crime was unsolved for almost two decades until the Tulsa Police Department used new DNA investigative techniques to tie Banks to the crime, court documents said.

With DNA evidence found on the victim’s body and clothes, police were able to charge Banks and co-defendant Allen Wayne Nelson with Travis’ murder in 1997.

Banks was the fourth person put to death in Oklahoma this year and the 24th in the United States, according to the Death Penalty Information Center, which tracks capital punishment statistics.

https://www.reuters.com/article/us-usa-execution-oklahoma-idUKBRE9891J420130911

Brian Davis Oklahoma Execution

Brian Davis was executed by the State of Oklahoma for a sexual assault and murder. According to court documents Brian Davis returned home to find his girlfriend and daughter missing. Brian Davis would call his girlfriends mother to ask about their whereabouts. The mother could not reach her daughter and would go over to her daughters apartment. When she arrived the woman would be sexually assaulted and murdered. The woman’s daughter would find her body the next day. Brian Davis would be arrested, convicted and sentenced to death. Brian Davis would be executed by lethal injection on June 25, 2013

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A man convicted of raping and murdering his girlfriend’s mother in 2001 was put to death on Tuesday, despite a recommendation by Oklahoma’s pardon and parole board to commute his death sentence after he apologized.

Brian Darrell Davis, 39, received a lethal injection Tuesday at the Oklahoma State Penitentiary in McAlester. Davis was the third inmate to be executed by Oklahoma this year and the second in as many weeks.

Davis read a biblical-themed statement that included psalms and scripture-based references.

“I shall not die but live. His word is will, and let His will be done,” Davis said. “I give God the last word. Thank you.”

Moments later, Davis looked up at the ceiling as the lethal drug was injected. His eyes slowly closed and his left shoulder began to twitch as the lethal drug took effect.

Davis was pronounced dead at 6:25 p.m., five minutes after the lethal drug was administered.

The state’s parole board had suggested to Gov. Mary Fallin that she cut Davis’ sentence to life without parole. Fallin rejected the board recommendation, with spokesman Aaron Cooper saying the governor reviewed Davis’ file and was “satisfied that justice is being served in this case.”

A jury convicted Davis in 2003 of first-degree murder and first-degree rape in the death of his girlfriend’s mother, Josephine Sanford, 52. Davis was sentenced to death on the murder conviction and 100 years in prison for rape.

The victim’s daughter, Stacey Sanford, discovered her mother dead in November 2001 in the Ponca City apartment she shared with Davis. Prosecutors said Josephine Sanford had six stab wounds, a broken jaw and marks around her neck. DNA evidence showed Davis had sex with the victim.

Davis went to the parole board this month, took responsibility for the victim’s death and apologized. He said the sexual contact was consensual and that a fight broke out after he remarked about its quality.

“I was rude at the end,” Davis said, appearing before the panel by video. “We were mad at each other after my comment. And one thing led to another. It just happened so quick.”

The board voted 4-1 in favor of clemency, prompting Attorney General Scott Pruitt to say the board was usurping the jury that convicted Davis and that the inmate deserved to die for a brutal crime.

Davis’ defense attorney, Jack Fisher, said as the execution date approached that justice was not being served.

“By the end of the clemency hearing, four of the five board members were convinced that justice could only be served by a sentence of life without parole,” Fisher said. “Why Governor Fallin would substitute her judgment for four members of the board is a mystery to me.”

Death penalty opponents, who rallied Monday at the state Capitol to urge Fallin to show mercy, argued that Davis deserved life in prison, not death, after he showed remorse.

They also suggested that since Davis, who is black, was convicted by an all-white jury in Kay County that it wasn’t truly a jury of his peers and there could have been bias.

“Our governor is in a position to make a wrong right,” said Garland Pruitt, president of the Oklahoma City chapter of the NAACP. “Wrongs can be righted, hearts can be changed, but it takes those in office to help make those changes take place.”

Last week, the state executed James Lewis DeRosa, 36, for his part in the brutal killings of a LeFlore County ranch couple in 2000.

https://www.usatoday.com/story/news/nation/2013/06/25/oklahoma-execution-davis/2458203/

James Derosa Oklahoma Execution

James Derosa was executed by the State of Oklahoma for a double murder. According to court documents James Derosa and John Castleberry would go to a ranch where James worked. The two men would talk themselves into the home where they would murder the elderly couple and rob the home. John Castleberry would quickly plead guilty and be sentenced to life and James Derosa would go to trial where he was convicted and sentenced to death. James Derosa would be executed by lethal injection on June 19, 2013

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Oklahoma executed a man Tuesday for the stabbing deaths of a couple on whose ranch he had worked.

James Lewis DeRosa, 36, was killed by lethal injection at the Oklahoma State Penitentiary in McAlester. He was the second inmate the state executed this year.

Prosecutors say DeRosa and John Eric Castleberry, 33, went to the home of Curtis and Gloria Plummer in the LeFlore County town of Poteau on Oct. 2, 2000, and persuaded the couple to let them inside. DeRosa had worked at the couple’s ranch.

Authorities say DeRosa and Castleberry stabbed the couple, who were in their 70s, and slashed their throats. Prosecutors say the two made off with $73 and the Plummers’ pickup. Castleberry pleaded guilty to first-degree murder and testified against DeRosa as part of a deal that included a no-parole life prison term.

Although it’s been nearly 13 years since the killings, the Plummers’ relatives say they still feel the void their deaths created.

“I miss having a sister. I struggle when someone asks if I have a sister,” Jo Milligan wrote in an April 24 letter to the Oklahoma Pardon and Parole Board. “Glo was my big sister – my only sister – my only sibling. And Curt became my brother when I was 5 years old,” Milligan wrote. “When shopping and I pass birthday cards, Valentine cards, etc., always the ones for ‘Sister’ reach out to me. And I cry in the card aisle.”

Janet Tolbert, the victims’ daughter, wrote that she still has nightmares after discovering her parents’ bodies.

“I saw my 70- and 73-year-old parents laying in pools of blood that went through the carpet to the cement foundation, with both of their throats slashed from ear to ear and stab wounds all over,” she said.

The Pardon and Parole Board voted 3-2 last month to reject DeRosa’s request for a commutation. Speaking at the hearing via teleconferencing from prison, DeRosa apologized.

“I can’t express how truly sorry I am for the pain I’ve caused the Plummer family,” he said. “I take full responsibility for their deaths. If not for me, they wouldn’t have died that night.”

DeRosa told the board he had since turned to religion and urged the board to set aside his death sentence so he could be a positive influence on other prisoners.

DeRosa was one of two Oklahoma death row inmates set to be executed this month.

Brian Darrell Davis, 39, is scheduled to be executed June 25 for the rape and murder of his girlfriend’s mother nearly 12 years ago in Ponca City. The Pardon and Parole Board recommended June 6 that Davis’ death sentence be commuted to life in prison, a recommendation that was rejected by Gov. Mary Fallin.

Another death-row inmate, Anthony Rozelle Banks, 60, is scheduled to be executed Sept. 10 for the June 6, 1979, killing of Sun “Kim” Travis, 24.

Travis was abducted from a parking lot at her Tulsa apartment complex, raped and shot in the head.

https://tulsaworld.com/news/state-and-regional/killer-executed-for-deaths-of-leflore-county-couple/article_75f7a395-70d0-5274-9acb-fd7b17f9d59d.html

Steven Smith Ohio Execution

Steven Smith was executed by the State of Ohio for the sexual assault and murder of a six month old infant. According to court documents Steven Smith would sexually assault the six month old girl who would die from her injuries. Steven Smith would be convicted and sentenced to death. Steven Smith would be executed on May 1, 2013 by lethal injection

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Steven Smith, a man convicted of killing a 6-month-old infant as he raped her, was executed Wednesday morning despite his arguments that he never meant to hurt her.

Smith, 46, was executed by lethal injection for the September 1998 killing of his live-in girlfriend’s daughter, Autumn Carter, in Mansfield in northern Ohio.

Smith had recently tried to get his sentence reduced to life in prison, arguing that he was too drunk to realize that his assault was killing Autumn and didn’t mean to hurt the baby. The Ohio Parole Board and Gov. John Kasich unanimously turned him down, with the board calling him “the worst of the worst.”

Smith’s daughter, Brittney Smith, and niece were present at the execution as were Autumn’s mother, aunt and grandfather.

Autumn’s aunt, Kaylee Bashline has said that her family has no reason to doubt that Smith is guilty and that it’s not fair that he had 15 years since the crime to live, visit family and say his goodbyes.

“He got all that, and what did she get?” Bashline said. “She got to be killed and put in the ground where none of us gets to see her anymore. I don’t find it right.”

Brittney Smith, 21, has said she has never believed her father committed the crime.

“I know my dad’s innocent,” she said. “I do not believe he did this, and you know, he raised all my cousins, my sister before I was even born, and he never did anything (sexually).”

Back on the night of September 29, 1998, Autumn’s mother was awoken by Smith, her live-in boyfriend of four months.

Smith, who was extremely drunk and naked, laid a naked and lifeless Autumn on Frye’s bed, according to court records.

Frye rushed the baby and her other 2-year-old daughter to a neighbor’s house and called 911. Autumn was pronounced dead after doctors tried to revive her for more than an hour, and Smith was arrested.

The baby was covered in bruises and welts, had cuts on her forehead and had severe injuries showing she had been brutally raped, though no semen was present.

At the home, there was no sign of forced entry, and police found a large amount of white cloth that came from Autumn’s diaper strewn about; police found the rest of the diaper in a garbage bin outside, along with 10 empty cans of beer and a T-shirt.

A jury found Smith guilty of aggravated murder and sentenced him to death.

https://www.cbsnews.com/news/steven-smith-executed-ohio-man-who-killed-raped-6-month-old-given-lethal-injection/

Steven Thacker Oklahoma Execution

Steven Thacker was executed by the State of Oklahoma for a murder committed in 1999. According to court documents Steven Thacker during a ten day crime spree would murder three people in three different States from December 1999 to January 2000. As well as receiving a death sentence in Oklahoma he was also sentenced to death in Tennessee. Steven Thacker would be executed for the murder of Laci Dawn Hill, 25, who was kidnapped and sexually assaulted. Steven Thacker would be executed by lethal injection on March 12, 2013

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A man convicted of killing three people in three different states was executed Tuesday evening at the Oklahoma State Penitentiary.

Steven Ray Thacker, 42, waived his right to a clemency hearing last month and was put to death by lethal injection Tuesday evening in the prison’s execution chamber.

In the hours before his execution, Thacker visited with clergy and family, prison officials said. He also was served his last meal — a large meat lover’s pizza, a small bag of peanut M&Ms and an A&W root beer — at around noon.

Witnessing the execution were six members of the media; family members of each of Thacker’s three victims; Thacker’s step-father, Donald Johnston, two people from the federal public defenders office, a clergy member on behalf of Thacker; two law enforcement representatives; Oklahoma Department of Corrections Director Justin Jones and three DOC employees.

Before the execution process began, one of the federal public defenders placed his hand in a consoling manner on Thacker’s step-father’s back. The hand remained there throughout the execution.

At 6:02, the blinds between the witness room and the execution chamber were raised. Five additional DOC employees, including OSP Warden Anita Trammell and an attending physician, were with Thacker in the execution chamber.

Thacker then gave his last statement.

“I’d like to apologize sincerely to the families of Laci Hill, Forrest Boyd and Ray Patterson. I don’t deserve it but as God has forgiven me, I hope you will forgive me for the pain I’ve caused.

“I would like to thank my family and friends for your love and support. When my body is gone, my spirit will be with them.

“Jesus Christ died for my sins. God has forgiven me and eternity in heaven is mine.”

Thacker then turned his head slightly and winked at his step-father, who then in turn raised his head to Thacker.

At 6:03, Trammell said, “Let the execution process begin.”

At 6:05, Thacker’s lips bubbled outward and he exhaled heavily. At 6:06 his lips moved slightly and then the color from his face began to drain.

At 6:10, the attending physician pronounced Thacker’s time of death.

Thacker was the first person to be executed in Oklahoma in 2013. The last execution in the state took place at OSP on Dec. 4, 2012, when George T. Ochoa was put to death for the 1993 first-degree murders of Francisco Morales and Maria Yanez. Thacker was the 186th person to be put to death in Oklahoma since 1915.

Following his execution, Laci Hill’s best friend, Marnie Reed, gave a statement on behalf of her family.

“On behalf of Laci’s family and friends I want to thank everyone for the enormous support and love we have received the last 13 years. There are too many people to name individually. Laci impacted many.

“They say time heals all wounds, which I guess is true, but Laci’s murder has left a huge scar to remind us all daily of what we have lost, what we will never have again.

“It was time, justice needed to be served, 13 years was long enough. We believe Steven Thacker deserved to be punished. His selfish act 13 years (ago) destroyed a family and took away a person who was just starting her young life.

“His death won’t erase what happened but hopefully we can now focus on happier memories — memories of the joy Laci brought to our lives. Now we can truly celebrate and remember what an amazing person she truly was.”

When asked her thoughts about the execution, another one of Laci Hill’s friends spoke: “So humane,” Nikki Hodgson said, “He just got to go to sleep .. it’s nothing like what the victims endured.”

The condemned killer arrived at OSP on Feb. 12. Prior to his arrival, Thacker was being held on death row in Tennessee at the Riverbend Maximum Security Institution in Nashville.

The request for an execution date for Thacker was made on Jan. 7 by Oklahoma Attorney General Scott Pruitt immediately following the U.S. Supreme Court denial of the killer’s final appeal.

“Steven Thacker was sentenced to death for savagely ending the life of an innocent young woman,” Pruitt stated in a press release on Tuesday. “My thoughts are with the families of Laci, Forrest and Ray, who all lost loved ones due to Thacker’s heinous killing spree.”

Thacker was convicted of going on a 10-day killing spree over the Christmas and New Year holidays between December 1999 and January 2000. He killed three people in three states, according to court records.

“In December 2002, Thacker pleaded guilty to the kidnapping, rape and first-degree murder of Laci Dawn Hill, 25, of Bixby,” according to Pruitt.

“Thacker met Hill in her home on Dec. 23, 1999, after answering an ad Hill placed to sell a pool table,” Pruitt said. “When his attempt to rob Hill failed, Thacker kidnapped her and took her to a rural cabin and raped her. Thacker attempted to strangle Hill, but eventually stabbed her in the chest and neck.”

In a videotaped confession, according to police, Thacker told authorities he raped Hill and returned to kill her after realizing she could turn him in.

Thacker then fled to Missouri where he killed 24-year-old Forrest Reed Boyd, stealing his car and credit cards, Pruitt said.

Thacker then drove to Tennessee “where the car ultimately broke down, and he called a tow truck,” according to Pruitt. “Thacker murdered Ray Patterson (age 52), the tow truck driver, after being confronted for using a stolen credit card.”

Thacker was arrested at a Super 8 Motel in Union City, Tenn., after being located by police, according to court documents. After searching Thacker’s motel room, police found several items belonging to Patterson, including credit cards, according to court records. Police also found a pistol, hair dye, two bloodstained coats and two knives, court records state.

Police also searched Thacker’s vehicle and found a third knife, which was covered in Patterson’s blood, court records state. While in police custody, Thacker told authorities “how he had left his home in Chouteau, Okla., on about December 28, 1999, and traveled to Springfield, Mo.,” court records state.

“He left Springfield on December 31 and traveled toward Dyersburg, Tenn., but his car broke down ‘two-and-a-half miles this side of the Mississippi River.’ An unidentified man gave the defendant a ride into Dyersburg and dropped him off at a truck stop,” where he obtained a name and phone number for a local tow-truck driver.

“While at this truck stop, (Thacker) called the victim and asked him to tow his vehicle into the service station,” court records state. “Once they arrived back at the victim’s service station, (Thacker) attempted to pay the victim (Patterson) with the stolen credit card, but the card was rejected.

“According to (Thacker), ‘he wasn’t gonna give my credit, my card back ‘cause I couldn’t pay the bill … And I knew I was wanted in other states, so I just stabbed him and took off.’”

Along with his Oklahoma death sentence, Thacker was serving 10 years for kidnapping and 50 years for first degree rape in Oklahoma. He was sentenced to death in Tennessee for first degree murder and was sentenced to life for a murder charge in Missouri.

https://www.mcalesternews.com/news/three-state-killer-was-executed-tuesday-night-at-osp/article_1910b0bf-5285-5e62-9a1b-f84705d77aa5.html