Post by Anja Nieser on Sept 19, 2006 16:25:49 GMT -5
stay of impending execution
Federal appeals court stops electric chair execution in Tennessee
Convicted murderer Daryl Keith Holton, who confessed to the assault rifle
slayings of his 3 young sons and their half-sister, was granted a stay of
execution Monday from the 6th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals.
Holton also resumed appealing his death sentence, stopping plans for
Tennessee's 1st electric chair execution in 46 years.
Kelly Gleason, a post-conviction defender working with Holton, confirmed
the stay and also acknowledged she typed and sent a handwritten petition
from Holton to the U.S. Supreme Court requesting that his execution be
stopped.
"We discussed it and I filed it over the weekend," Gleason said.
Holton, who turned himself in within hours of the 1997 slayings, was
scheduled to be executed at 1 a.m. CDT Tuesday at Riverbend Maximum
Security Institution.
Holton, 44, chose earlier this year to stop appealing his death sentence.
He also chose to be put to death in the electric chair rather than by the
state's preferred method of lethal injection. Tennessee allows death row
inmates to choose between the two execution methods if their crimes were
committed before 1999.
In granting the stay, the 6th Circuit said it was needed "to permit
briefing on the issue for which the district court granted a certificate
of appealability, that is, its finding that 'the Federal Defender Services
has failed to demonstrate reasonable cause to believe that Mr. Holton is
not competent to make a rational decision to dismiss his pending federal
habeas corpus petition.'"
The court also noted the stay was necessary in light of Holton's filing to
the U.S. Supreme Court.
In that petition, Holton claims he was "denied a fair trial due to the
ineffective assistance of trial counsel."
Holton apparently sidestepped his attorney and also asked the Supreme
Court to "order an evidentiary hearing to resolve any disputed facts, and
grant relief from ... convictions and sentences."
Stephen Ferrell, Holton's federal public defender, was appealing a ruling
earlier this month from a federal judge in Knoxville that his client's
case didn't merit a full evidentiary hearing on his competency.
From 1916 until 1960, 125 people were executed by electrocution in
Tennessee, according to the Correction Department. In 2000, lethal
injection replaced electrocution as the primary method of execution.
Ferrell said attorney-client privilege prohibits him from talking about
why Holton chose the electric chair. Gleason also wouldn't say why Holton
decided to resume his appeals.
When he quit appealing, the state Supreme Court ruled that his lawyers
couldn't pursue trying to get his sentence overturned without his
cooperation.
That's when Ferrell turned to the federal courts.
Holton has said he was severely depressed when he committed the murders.
His lawyers maintain Holton has a long history of mental illness and may
suffer from post traumatic stress disorder from his military service in
the 1991 Gulf War.
Despite the stay, Tennessee Department of Correction spokeswoman Dorinda
Carter said Monday afternoon that Holton was still in the death watch
cell, where inmates are kept during the three days leading up to their
planned execution, and the state was ready to move forward if necessary.
"We're just going to stand by," Carter said.
9 states allow some or all condemned inmates to choose between lethal
injection and another execution method, according to the Death Penalty
Information Center. Ten states have the electric chair but only Nebraska
uses it exclusively.
Virginia inmate Brandon Hedrick, 27, chose to die in the electric chair in
July, the first U.S. execution by that means in more than 2 years.
The last time the electric chair was used in Tennessee was Nov. 7, 1960,
when inmate William Tines was executed for rape. Tennessee did not execute
another inmate until Robert Glen Coe by lethal injection in 2000 and then
Sedley Alley by lethal injection in June.
On Nov. 30, 1997, Holton told the 4 children - sons Steven, 12, Eric, 6,
Brent, 10, and their half-sister Kayla, 4 - that they were going Christmas
shopping. Instead, they stopped by the auto body repair shop where he
worked, according to police reports.
There, Kayla wrote a letter asking Santa Claus to bring her a "Tickle Me
Elmo" doll for Christmas and Eric waited with her while Holton took his
older sons to the back of the shop.
Holton told the boys to stand front to back and close their eyes. He then
shot them with a semiautomatic assault weapon.
Holton hid the bodies under a tarp, then brought the younger children to
the back and shot them in the same manner, police said. He stacked their
bodies on top of the others under the tarp.
Holton turned himself into the Shelbyville Police Department about 5 hours
later after he went looking for his former wife and her boyfriend but
couldn't find them. He was found guilty in 1999 of 4 counts of 1st-degree
murder.
Holton's lawyers cited his depression in arguing against the death
penalty.
Prosecutors, however, told jurors that Holton was mad at his ex-wife and
simply wanted to get back at her by shooting her children.
(source: Associated Press)
Federal appeals court stops electric chair execution in Tennessee
Convicted murderer Daryl Keith Holton, who confessed to the assault rifle
slayings of his 3 young sons and their half-sister, was granted a stay of
execution Monday from the 6th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals.
Holton also resumed appealing his death sentence, stopping plans for
Tennessee's 1st electric chair execution in 46 years.
Kelly Gleason, a post-conviction defender working with Holton, confirmed
the stay and also acknowledged she typed and sent a handwritten petition
from Holton to the U.S. Supreme Court requesting that his execution be
stopped.
"We discussed it and I filed it over the weekend," Gleason said.
Holton, who turned himself in within hours of the 1997 slayings, was
scheduled to be executed at 1 a.m. CDT Tuesday at Riverbend Maximum
Security Institution.
Holton, 44, chose earlier this year to stop appealing his death sentence.
He also chose to be put to death in the electric chair rather than by the
state's preferred method of lethal injection. Tennessee allows death row
inmates to choose between the two execution methods if their crimes were
committed before 1999.
In granting the stay, the 6th Circuit said it was needed "to permit
briefing on the issue for which the district court granted a certificate
of appealability, that is, its finding that 'the Federal Defender Services
has failed to demonstrate reasonable cause to believe that Mr. Holton is
not competent to make a rational decision to dismiss his pending federal
habeas corpus petition.'"
The court also noted the stay was necessary in light of Holton's filing to
the U.S. Supreme Court.
In that petition, Holton claims he was "denied a fair trial due to the
ineffective assistance of trial counsel."
Holton apparently sidestepped his attorney and also asked the Supreme
Court to "order an evidentiary hearing to resolve any disputed facts, and
grant relief from ... convictions and sentences."
Stephen Ferrell, Holton's federal public defender, was appealing a ruling
earlier this month from a federal judge in Knoxville that his client's
case didn't merit a full evidentiary hearing on his competency.
From 1916 until 1960, 125 people were executed by electrocution in
Tennessee, according to the Correction Department. In 2000, lethal
injection replaced electrocution as the primary method of execution.
Ferrell said attorney-client privilege prohibits him from talking about
why Holton chose the electric chair. Gleason also wouldn't say why Holton
decided to resume his appeals.
When he quit appealing, the state Supreme Court ruled that his lawyers
couldn't pursue trying to get his sentence overturned without his
cooperation.
That's when Ferrell turned to the federal courts.
Holton has said he was severely depressed when he committed the murders.
His lawyers maintain Holton has a long history of mental illness and may
suffer from post traumatic stress disorder from his military service in
the 1991 Gulf War.
Despite the stay, Tennessee Department of Correction spokeswoman Dorinda
Carter said Monday afternoon that Holton was still in the death watch
cell, where inmates are kept during the three days leading up to their
planned execution, and the state was ready to move forward if necessary.
"We're just going to stand by," Carter said.
9 states allow some or all condemned inmates to choose between lethal
injection and another execution method, according to the Death Penalty
Information Center. Ten states have the electric chair but only Nebraska
uses it exclusively.
Virginia inmate Brandon Hedrick, 27, chose to die in the electric chair in
July, the first U.S. execution by that means in more than 2 years.
The last time the electric chair was used in Tennessee was Nov. 7, 1960,
when inmate William Tines was executed for rape. Tennessee did not execute
another inmate until Robert Glen Coe by lethal injection in 2000 and then
Sedley Alley by lethal injection in June.
On Nov. 30, 1997, Holton told the 4 children - sons Steven, 12, Eric, 6,
Brent, 10, and their half-sister Kayla, 4 - that they were going Christmas
shopping. Instead, they stopped by the auto body repair shop where he
worked, according to police reports.
There, Kayla wrote a letter asking Santa Claus to bring her a "Tickle Me
Elmo" doll for Christmas and Eric waited with her while Holton took his
older sons to the back of the shop.
Holton told the boys to stand front to back and close their eyes. He then
shot them with a semiautomatic assault weapon.
Holton hid the bodies under a tarp, then brought the younger children to
the back and shot them in the same manner, police said. He stacked their
bodies on top of the others under the tarp.
Holton turned himself into the Shelbyville Police Department about 5 hours
later after he went looking for his former wife and her boyfriend but
couldn't find them. He was found guilty in 1999 of 4 counts of 1st-degree
murder.
Holton's lawyers cited his depression in arguing against the death
penalty.
Prosecutors, however, told jurors that Holton was mad at his ex-wife and
simply wanted to get back at her by shooting her children.
(source: Associated Press)