Location |
Defendant(s) |
Date of Alleged Crime |
Mobile County, AL |
Michael Pardue |
May 22, 1973 |
After days of police
interrogation at the Saraland Police Department, Michael Pardue, 17, confessed to
brutally murdering Ronald Rider, 20, and Harvey Hodges, 68, attendants at
two gas stations 16 miles apart in Mobile and Baldwin counties. He also
confessed to the murder of a skeleton, which happened to be found in a
Mobile County ditch during the interrogation. The skeleton was later
identified as Theodore White, 43, and his cause of death is officially
listed as unknown. Using similar tactics the police coerced Pardue's
associates John Brown, 21, and Theresa Lanier, 15, to sign confessions,
although Brown could not read and the three confessions contradicted each
other as well as the forensic and physical facts of the cases.
Read More by Clicking Here
|
Pima
County, AZ |
El Grande Innocents |
June 24, 1992 (Tucson) |
Chris
McCrimmon, Andre Minnitt and Martin Soto-Fong were sentenced to death for
the shooting murders of
three people at the El Grande Market in Tucson. The victims were Fred
Gee, 45, the store manager; his uncle, Zewan Huang, 75, who also worked
there; and Raymond Arriola, 31, a store clerk. After being arrested
for a parole violation, an informant, Keith Woods, fingered the three.
At the trials of the three, police detective Joseph Godoy testified that he
first learned of the three from Woods, testimony which was later proven to
be perjured. It seemed likely that the names were supplied to Woods by
the police. DA Kenneth Peasley was later disbarred for intentionally
presenting this false evidence.
Peasley had twice been selected as state prosecutor of the year.
McCrimmon and Minnitt have since been exonerated, but Soto-Fong is
reportedly still on death row. (New
Yorker) [3/07] |
Crittenden
County, AR |
West Memphis Three |
May 5, 1993 (West Memphis) |
Jesse
Misskelley Jr., Damien Echols, and Jason Baldwin were accused as teenagers
of killing three eight-year-old boys. Misskelley, who is mentally
handicapped, gave an error filled confession after 12 hours of police
questioning, which he soon recanted. Misskelley confessed that he witnessed
the murders taking place around noon when, in fact, the victims were all in
school. The victims did not disappear until after approximately 5:30 p.m.
Numerous alibi witnesses testified that at the time the three victims
disappeared and for the next five hours (during which the murders probably
occurred), Misskelley was at a wrestling competition in a town forty miles
away from the crime scene. With no physical evidence, murder weapon,
motive, or connection to the victims, the prosecution resorted to presenting
black hair and clothing, heavy metal T-shirts, and Stephen King novels as
proof that the victims were sacrificed in a satanic cult ritual. The
defendants were convicted and sentenced to life plus 40, death, and life
without parole, respectively. A book about the case was written
entitled Devil's Knot: The True Story of
the West Memphis Three by Mara Leveritt. (www.wm3.org)
[9/05] |
Los Angeles
County, CA |
David Allen Jones |
9-30, 11-16, 12-16-1992 |
On second day
of interrogation, David Allen Jones who has IQ of 60 to 73, was apparently ready to
confess to the murders of three prostitutes about which he was questioned.
However, investigators apparently did not want the mentally challenged
suspect to confess as such a confession would look coerced. Instead, they
had him make incriminating statements about the deaths while permitting him
to deny murdering anyone. On the interview tape, detectives correct Jones
when he wrongly remembers what he is supposed to say. On the strength of
such incriminating statements, a jury convicted him of the murders of Tammie
Christmas, Debra Williams, and Mary Edwards.
Other detectives investigating serial killer, Chester Dewayne
Turner, thought Turner might be responsible for Jones's alleged murders and
had DNA tests performed which implicated Turner in two of the murders. The
evidence in the third murder had been destroyed, but detectives felt that
Jones was innocent and that Turner was the likely suspect. Detectives
helped to obtain Jones's release. (IP)
(Justice: Denied)
[6/05] |
Monterey County, CA |
Lorenzo Nuñez |
Nov 16, 1994 (Salinas) |
“A jury convicted Lorenzo Nuñez
of murder for supplying rifles used in a gruesome slaying, even though scant
evidence showed Nuñez knew of the assailants’ intent. The 6th District
Court of Appeal upheld the conviction, but a federal judge overturned it
because the jury was shown a videotape in which police lied to Nuñez about
the strength of the evidence.”
Read More by Clicking Here |
Siskiyou
County, CA |
John & Coke Brite |
Aug 30, 1936 (Horse Creek) |
John and Coke Brite, brothers,
were convicted of the murders of deputy sheriffs Martin Lange and Joseph
Clarke, as well as the murder of Captain Fred Seaborn, a U.S. Navy officer. The Brites, who were gold prospectors, returned to a cabin on their rented
land, where their parents stayed, and then headed out again. At nightfall
they set up camp on the land of a neighbor, B. F. Decker, and went to bed. Two intruders then entered their camp, another neighbor, Charley Baker, and
his friend, Fred Seaborn. At trial, Baker alleged they were looking for a
strayed horse that Baker owned. It was later learned that Baker had been
using the cabin on the Brites' property for rent-free storage and had motive
to drive the Brites from their land. Baker and Seaborn picked a fight with
the Brites, which proved to be a mistake as the Brites made quick work of
them. Baker then went to a judge and talked him into issuing warrants
charging the Brites with assault.
Read More by
Clicking Here
|
Stanislaus
County, CA |
George Souliotes |
Jan 15, 1997 (Modesto) |
George
Souliotes was convicted of arson and triple
homicide stemming from a 3 a.m. fire at 1319 Ronald Ave. in Modesto that killed his tenant, Michelle Jones,
30, and her two children, Daniel Jr., 6, and Amanda, 3. At the time of the fire, Souliotes
was trying to evict the Jones family from the house. Investigators claimed
that Souliotes set the fire to collect insurance money. Investigators also
claimed that medium petroleum distillates, a class of sometimes-flammable
substances, were found on both Souliotes's shoes and a carpet in the home.
At trial many defenses witnesses testified that Souliotes had no financial
motive to set the fire. The defense also presented its own arson expert who
testified that the fire could have been an accident, possibly caused by a
faulty stove. The trial ended in a hung jury.
At the second trial, in 1999, Souliotes was represented by the same trial
attorney. The prosecution presented the same witnesses, but this time the
defense counsel presented no witnesses at all. Souliotes was convicted and
sentenced to life in prison. Since his second trial, arson investigators
have reanalyzed the evidence, and found that the medium petroleum distillate
found on Souliotes's shoes is not the same substance that was found at the
scene. (IP Arson) [12/07] |
New Castle County, DE |
Mark Kirk |
Dec 5, 1996 (New Castle) |
Mark Anthony Kirk was convicted of triple
homicide for allegedly starting an apartment house fire that killed three
people. The fire began on a stove in Kirk's apartment in Building 8 of the
Beaver Brook Apartments. Police interrogated Kirk for hours, and engaged in
psychological manipulations including threatening him with a death
sentence. Kirk eventually confessed to accidentally starting the fire. He
said he was using an electric burner on the stove to light a cigarette when
he spilled a bottle of Captain Morgan's Spiced Rum on the burner, causing
the fire.
Read More by
Clicking Here
|
Washington, DC |
Ziang Sung Wan |
Jan 29, 1919 |
Ziang Sung
Wan, a Chinese NYU student, was
convicted of the murder of Ben Sen Wu, an undersecretary of the Chinese
Educational Mission. Wu was murdered along with two other members of
the Mission, Dr. Theodore T. Wong and C. H. Hsie. Wan was sentenced to death.
In 1926, Wan's conviction was vacated by the U.S. Supreme Court because the
government failed to show that his confession to the crime was voluntary and
the testimony of its own witnesses indicated the contrary. Jurors in
two later trials refused to reconvict Wan and the indictment against him was
dropped. (Google)
(MJ) (Wan
v. U.S.) (NY Times)
[7/05] |
Cook County,
IL |
Bill Heirens |
June 1945 - Jan 1946 |
Bill
Heirens, a
17-year-old University of Chicago student, pleaded guilty to three separate
murders in exchange for three life sentences when it became apparent that he
would not get a fair trial and could be executed within weeks. The victims
were two adult women, and 6-year-old Suzanne Degnan, who was found
dismembered. Heirens was a thief who was caught burglarizing a home in the
neighborhood of the murders months after they occurred. No Miranda rights
or appeals process then existed. Heirens withstood being tortured by police
and said he could have withstood more, but he succumbed after the Chicago
Tribune published a false story that gave a purported confession by
Heirens. Heirens and his lawyers felt that that story, which was picked up
by other newspapers, would hopelessly taint any jury pool. Heirens is still
imprisoned after 63 years at age 80 in 2009. Two books were written about the case, the pro-prosecution,
Before I Kill More..., and the pro-defense, William Heirens: His Day
in Court. (Life)
(American Justice) (Video) (Crime
Library) (JD10)
(CNN) [10/07] |
Cook County,
IL |
Kenneth Hansen |
Oct 17, 1955 |
Kenneth Hansen was charged in 1994 with
the famous unsolved murders of three 11 to 13 year old boys that occurred in
1955. The victims were John and Tony Schuessler and their friend Robert
Peterson. They had traveled downtown to attend a matinee at a Loop theater
and were found dead two days later in Robinson's Woods, outside of Chicago.
Hansen was on
his honeymoon in Texas at the time of the murders, but he found his
40-year-old alibi impossible to confirm. Four witnesses claimed he
confessed to them separately and alone in 1955, 1964, 1968, and 1976. There
was no other evidence. Three witnesses were paid informants. Hansen was
convicted and sentenced to 200 to 300 years of imprisonment.
After the
trial, the fourth witness admitted his testimony was fabricated. None of
the witnesses mentioned the confessions to anyone before 1993. In addition,
after the trial, a woman came forward and claimed her dead husband, Silas
Jayne, confessed to her to performing the murders in 1956. She left her
husband the next day. Other witnesses and some physical evidence
corroborated her story. Despite there being no evidence that the boys were
molested, the trial judge allowed evidence of Hansen's homosexuality and
deviate lifestyle to be presented. The 2002 retrial with new evidence and
the widow witness also resulted in conviction. Hansen died in prison
in 2007. (TruthInJustice) |
Allen County, IN |
Ralph Lobaugh |
1944-45 |
Ralph Woodrow Lobaugh was
sentenced to death for the murders of three women. Within an 18-month
period of time, four women were abducted and killed in the Fort Wayne area:
Wilhelmina Haaga, 38, on Feb. 2, 1944, Anna Kuzeff, 20, on May 22, 1944,
Phyllis Conine, 17, on Aug. 6, 1944, and Dorothea Howard, 36, on Mar. 6, 1945.
The murders of these women were all committed during inclement weather.
They were possibly the work of a single serial killer dubbed “The Killer in
the Rain.” There were some differences between the first three
murders and Howard's murder, suggesting a different killer had murdered
Howard.
Read More
by Clicking Here
|
Floyd County, IN |
David Camm |
Sept 28, 2000 (Georgetown) |
David
Camm, a former
Indiana state trooper, was convicted in 2002 of the murders of his wife Kimberly, daughter Jill,
5, and son Bradley, 7. Inside the garage
of the Camm residence, the children had been shot to death while sitting in
the back seat of the family's Ford Bronco. Kim was shot to death next
to the Bronco.
The residence was on Lockhart Road in Georgetown, IN.
Read More by
Clicking Here |
Rapides
Parish, LA |
Amanda Hypes |
Jan 2001 (Tioga) |
Amanda
Hypes, aka Amanda Gutweiler, was
indicted in April 2002 for the arson murder of her three children, Sadie
Plum, 10, Luke Hayden, 6, and Jessica Gutweiler, 3. A fire “expert,”
John DeHaan, ruled that the Jan. 2001 fire that destroyed her
home on Friar Tuck Road in Tioga was arson. Prosecutors said they would demand the death penalty.
After being held in jail awaiting trial for more than four years, a judge
dismissed the indictment and released Hypes. He ruled that the original
arson finding was based “merely on an old wives tale,” of discredited fire
investigation techniques. (Chicago
Tribune) [3/07] |
Piscataquis County, ME |
Henry Lambert |
May 12, 1901 (Shirley) |
Henry J. Lambert, a French Canadian, was indicted for the murders of J.
Wesley Allen, his wife, Mary, and his 15-year-old daughter, Carrie Louise. Allen's farmhouse and barn were burned to the ground
and all that remained of the family were charred bones.
Authorities did not believe the fire was an accident because it appeared
unlikely that the fire could have spread between the house and the barn.
Also witnesses reportedly had seen the fire from a distance prior to 10
p.m., before the family was likely to be sleeping. However, no one
visited the scene until the next day. Allen's remains were allegedly
found in the barn, although it was never completely clear that these remains
were human.
Lambert was tried
for the murder of Allen
only, presumably to allow the prosecution a chance to convict him of the
other alleged murders should he be acquitted of Allen's murder. The
prosecution alleged as motive for the crime that Lambert was in love with
Allen's daughter who it asserted was raped. Lambert had cut a square
piece of cloth from an area of one of his shirts that was normally tucked in
his trousers. He said he
used the cloth to bandage his foot. The prosecution alleged a charred
piece of cloth found at the murder scene came from this cut in Lambert's shirt.
It is not clear how good the match was or why such a piece of cloth would be
used or left behind at a murder scene. All other presented evidence
against Lambert consisted of attempts to cast suspicion on him, but these attempts were
largely refuted. Nevertheless, Lambert was convicted of Allen's
murder. In 1923, after serving more than 20
years in prison, Lambert was granted a pardon based on innocence. It
was felt that Lambert was convicted on insufficient evidence and that other
evidence showed Allen had had a dispute with a tramp who may have
committed the alleged murders. (News
Articles 1900s) (News
Articles 1920s) (MJ)
[1/10] |
Suffolk County, MA |
Thomas Bram |
July 14, 1896 |
(Federal Case) Thomas M. Bram was sentenced to death
for murdering three people aboard a ship on the high seas. The crime
occurred about 2 a.m. aboard the Herbert E. Fuller, a cargo ship that was 750
miles into a voyage from Boston to Argentina. The victims were the captain, Charles I. Nash, his wife,
Laura A. Nash, and the second mate, August W. Blomberg. All were
hacked to death with an ax in the after house of the ship.
Read More by
Clicking Here
|
Passaic
County, NJ |
Rubin Carter |
June 17, 1966 (Paterson) |
Rubin “Hurricane” Carter, a contender for
middleweight boxing title of the world, was convicted of a triple homicide.
His acquaintance, John Artis, was also convicted. In 1974, while in jail,
Carter published a book entitled The Sixteenth Round, From No. 1
Contender to #45472. The book was discovered by Bob Dylan, who made
Carter a folk hero with the release of the song “Hurricane” and led to a
public outcry that was largely responsible for his retrial in 1976. Carter
was also supported by Coretta Scott King, Muhammad Ali, Joan Baez, and Bobby
Seale as well as by some journalists and lawyers.
In a climate of
racial tension, Carter was alleged to have killed white people to avenge the
death of a black man who had been killed by a white man that same night in
Paterson, NJ. The triple homicide occurred at Bob's Lafayette Grill at
18th and Lafayette Sts. Against evidence, Carter was reconvicted in 1976, in part
because a first trial witness, who recanted his testimony, recanted his
recantation and testified again. Later Carter's conviction was overturned
because Judge H. Lee Sarokin declared that both of Carter's two previous
convictions had been based on “racism rather than reason, and concealment
rather than disclosure.” Carter was freed in 1985, but it took another
three years for charges to be completely dismissed. His co-defendant, John
Artis, was paroled in 1981. Carter later headed a Toronto-based lobbying
group, AIDWYC, the Association in Defense of the Wrongly Convicted. (JD01)
(Carter
v. Rafferty)
[6/05] |
Cumberland County, NC |
Dr. Jeffrey MacDonald |
Feb 17, 1970 |
(Federal Case) Army Captain
Jeffrey MacDonald was convicted of the murder of his wife
Collette, 26, and the murders of two daughters, Kimberly, 5, and Kristen, 2.
According to MacDonald, he and his family were attacked by intruders to
their home at 544 Castle Drive in Fort Bragg, a U.S. military base. MacDonald survived with wounds including a collapsed lung.
MacDonald was acquitted of the murders at a Ft. Bragg Army hearing and probably
would not have been tried again had he not angered the prosecution by
criticizing them during interviews on national TV. MacDonald's Army
acquittal meant that he could not be court-martialed, but he could still be
tried in federal court and he was. Before his federal trial MacDonald
invited author Joe McGinniss on his defense team to write a book and
hopefully help to establish his factual innocence. At that trial MacDonald
was unfortunately convicted.
Read More by Clicking Here
|
Cumberland
County, NC |
Timothy Hennis |
May 9, 1985 |
Timothy B.
Hennis was
sentenced to death for the rape and murder of Kathryn Eastburn and the
murder of her daughters, Kara, 5, and Erin, 3. Hennis was an Army
sergeant stationed at Fort Bragg. He had been given the Eastburn
Family dog two days before the murder because the Eastburns were being
transferred to England. The authorities tested blood, semen and hair
samples, but none of the tests matched Hennis. The prosecution's case
rested on two eyewitnesses who came forward well after the crime, one of
whom dramatically altered a description of the perpetrator over time. The
prosecution also introduced nearly 100 photographs of the victims'
bodies – an inflammatory tactic that led to reversal of the conviction. Upon
retrial in 1989, the flaws in the witnesses' testimony were exposed and the
jury acquitted Hennis of all charges. (PC) (ISI) [7/05] |
Oklahoma County, OK |
Clifford Bowen |
July 6, 1980 |
Clifford Henry
Bowen was convicted of murdering Ray Peters, Marvin Nowlin and Lawrence
Evans. The victims were killed as they sat around a poolside table at
a Guest House Inn motel in Oklahoma City. Bowen was given three death sentences. On
appeal, the Tenth Circuit Court overturned his conviction in 1986. The
Court held that prosecutors in the case failed to disclose information about
another suspect, Lee Crowe, a South Carolina police officer. The Court
ruled that had the defense known of the Crowe materials, the result of the
trial would probably have been different. Crowe resembled Bowen, had
greater motive, no alibi, and habitually carried the same gun and unusual
ammunition consistent with that used in the murders. Bowen, on the other
hand, maintained his innocence, provided twelve alibi witnesses to confirm
that he was 300 miles from the crime scene just one hour before the crime,
and could not be linked by any physical evidence to the crime. Charges
against Bowen were dropped in 1987. |
Dauphin County, PA |
Jay Smith |
June 24, 1979 |
Dr. Jay Charles Smith was
sentenced to death in 1985 for the 1979 murders of Susan Gallagher Reinert and her two
children. Smith was the principal of Upper Merion Senior High School
(in Montgomery County) from 1966 until 1978 and Reinert was a
teacher there. He had a PhD and was also an Army Reserve colonel.
In 1978, he was promoted from his principal's position to work directly for the Upper Merion Area School
District.
Read More by
Clicking Here
|
Lehigh County,
PA |
Dennis Counterman |
July 25, 1988 (Allentown) |
Dennis Counterman was sentenced to death
for the arson murder of his three children. The children perished in a fire
at their row house home located at 436 Chestnut St. in Allentown. On the
morning of the fire, neighbors reported seeing Dennis in his back yard in
his underwear screaming for help because his kids were inside. The fire
department believed that the fire was set and accelerants must have been
used because of the speed with which the fire spread through the house.
Expert testimony has since shown that the type of sofa that was in the
Counterman's house acts as its own accelerant, and that the fire theories
relied upon by the local fire department were outdated and have long since
been repudiated.
At trial, the
prosecution suppressed exculpatory evidence, although it released some
evidence in the middle of the trial when the defense team was too
overwhelmed to review it. Counterman's six-year-old son, Christopher, had a
history of fire starting and in fact had burn scars from a prior
fire that he had started. Christopher had set fire to the curtains in the
house one month before. The prosecution's lead witness, Counterman's
mentally retarded wife, told investigators at the time of the fire that
Dennis was asleep when the fire started (he had worked the night shift the
evening before) and that she had awakened him to alert him that the house
was on fire. Under the joint influence of police interrogation and heavy
medication for severe burns, she subsequently gave a statement that Dennis
had set the fire. Counterman's conviction was overturned in 2001 because
the state withheld evidence of Christopher's fire starting. Rather than
face the uncertainty of a new trial, Counterman agreed to a time served plea
in which he did not have to admit guilt. He was released in Oct. 2006. (TruthInJustice)
(CounterPunch)
[1/07] |
Philadelphia County, PA |
Harold Wilson |
Apr 10, 1988 |
Harold C. Wilson was
convicted of the ax murders of Dorothy Sewell, 64, her nephew, Tyrone
Mason, 33, and Mason's girlfriend, Cynthia Goines, 40. The murders
occurred in the 1500 block of South Stillman St. in South Philadelphia. Wilson received three death sentences.
Wilson was
retried in 2003, but the trial resulted in a mistrial. At his third trial
in 2005, DNA evidence was presented for the first time. Tests revealed
that blood found at the crime scene came from a person other than Wilson or
the three victims. The jury deadlocked
three times, but then came back with a unanimous verdict. According to
Wilson, one could discern from their faces the three jurors who held out.
“It was some students on the jury that was studying, was going to a college
for DNA.” The jury's verdict was “not guilty” on all charges.
One of the
reasons Wilson got a new trial is because a court found that the prosecutor
at his first trial, Jack Mahon,
had used racial bias to eliminate black jurors. Mahon had made a training
video on jury selection in which he advised prosecutors to keep poor blacks
off juries. He also said, “You don't want smart people, because smart
people will analyze the hell out of your case. They have a higher
standard. They hold you up to a higher standard. They hold the courts up
to a higher standard, because they are intelligent people. They take those
words ‘reasonable doubt,’ and they actually try to think about them. And
you don't want those people. Bad luck with teachers, bad luck with social
workers, bad luck with – intelligent doctors are bad. I always feel doctors
are bad, too.” (DemocracyNow)
(Mahon
Video) |
Gray County,
TX |
Hank Skinner |
Dec 31, 1993 (Pampa) |
Henry Watkins Skinner, also known
as Hank, was convicted of bludgeoning to death his live-in girlfriend, Twila
Busby, and stabbing to death her two sons, Randy Busby and Scooter Caler.
Hank was sentenced to death. The murders occurred at 801 East Campbell Ave.
in Pampa. Hank, then 31, had been drinking earlier in the evening and
passed out after taking codeine to which he was severely allergic. A
friend, Howard Mitchell, arrived to take Hank and Twila to a New Year's Eve
Party at 9:30 p.m., but he could not rouse Hank.
Read More
by Clicking Here
|
Harris County, TX |
Max Soffar |
July 13, 1980 (Houston) |
Max Soffar was convicted of
murdering Arden Alane Felsher, 17, Tommy Lee Temple, 17, and Stephen Allen
Sims, 25, during a robbery of the Fair Lanes Windfern Bowling Center. He
was sentenced to death. Soffar, 24, a mentally impaired individual,
confessed to the murders after hours of police interrogation. No physical
evidence connected him to the crime. A fourth victim, Gregory Garner,
survived a gunshot wound to the head but failed to identify Soffar as a
participant in the robbery.
Read More by
Clicking Here
|
Harris County, TX |
Frances Newton |
Apr 7, 1987 |
Frances Elaine Newton
was sentenced to death for the of murders of her husband and two children.
The husband, Adrian Newton, was found shot to death in the family's
apartment along with
the couple's two children, Alton, 7, and Farrah, 1. The
apartment was located at 6126 West Mount Houston Road, Houston, Texas. Less than
a month before the murders, Frances purchased a $50,000 life insurance policy
on Adrian and forged his name to complete the deal. She also purchased
a separate $50,000 policy on Farrah. At the time of the murders both Frances
and Adrian were seeing other people.
Read More by Clicking Here
|
Lubbock
County, TX |
Butch Martin |
Feb 25, 1998 |
Garland Leon Martin, also known
as Butch, was convicted of the arson murders of his common law wife, Marcia
Pool, her son, Michael Brady Stevens, age 3, and their joint daughter,
Kristen Rhea Martin, age 1. The three died in a fire at the home they
shared with Martin. The conviction was based in large part on a hypothesis
that accelerants were used to start the fire. Some samples from fire
remnants in the master bedroom reportedly tested positive for Norpar and
deparaffinated kerosene.
Norpar can be
used as lamp oil and deparaffinated kerosene can be found in lighter fluid,
but they are also common chemicals found in numerous household products.
Experts dispute the supposition that these chemicals indicate the presence
of accelerants and are petitioning to check the state's evidence that the
alleged chemicals were even found. A defense investigator thought the fire
started on the back porch rather than in the master bedroom near the back
door. He criticized original investigators for discounting and then
disposing of an electrical cord that was used to connect a refrigerator on
the back porch to an outlet inside the house. He thought the fire marshal
was looking for arson from the outset. (IP
Arson) [7/07] |
McLennan County, TX |
Johnson & Young |
Feb 11, 1922 |
L. C. “Cooper” Johnson and Bennie
Young were convicted of the murders of W. H. Barker, his wife, Loula Barker, and
a boy named Homer Turk, aged about 13. The murders occurred at the
Barker home on Corsicana Rd., seven miles southeast of Waco. Turk had gone over to the
Barkers to play dominoes. Dominoes were found on the table drawn and
separated into hands, as though the parties had been engaged in playing the
game. The body of Mr. Barker was found in the back yard near a woodpile,
shot through the head. The body of Mrs. Barker was found in the house, and
her head was cut to pieces by blows from an axe; Turk was also killed by
blows inflicted with an axe.
Johnson and
Young, who were described as “boys,” were arrested for these murders and confessed to them while in police
custody. In Mar. 1923, another man, Roy Mitchell, was convicted of
murdering five people in five different proceedings, all in the same month.
In a sixth proceeding, Mitchell was convicted of murdering Loula Barker.
The convictions were due, at least in part, to coerced confessions.
The authorities expressed pride that they helped prevent a lynching.
Johnson died in prison a few days before Mitchell's hanging. In 1934
the Texas governor pardoned Young after being informed by the trial judge
and the prosecuting attorney that they did not believe Young was guilty.
(ISI) (FWH)
[5/08] |
McLennan
County, TX |
David Spence |
July 14, 1982 (Waco) |
David Wayne Spence was convicted
of the murder of Jill Montgomery and sentenced to death. Montgomery, 17,
along with Raylene Rice, 17, and Montgomery's boyfriend, Kenneth Franks, 18,
were found murdered in Speegleville Park at Lake Waco. Three other
individuals, Gilbert Melendez, Tony Melendez, and Muneer Deeb were also
convicted in connection to the murders. Truman Simons, a night jailer who
had unsupervised contact with inmates, largely developed the cases against
all four. Simons operated his own perjury factory in that he was able to
get numerous inmates to testify to any story he wanted them to. His only
problem was coming up with believable stories that fit the facts.
Spence was
executed on April 3, 1997. Marvin Horton, the police lieutenant who
supervised the case, said, “I do not think David Spence committed this
crime.” Ramon Salinas, the homicide detective on the case, added,
“My
opinion is that David Spence was innocent. Nothing from the investigation
ever led us to any evidence that he was involved.” One of the inmates who
testified at Spence's trial, Robert Snelson, said, “We all fabricated our
accounts of Spence confessing in order to try to get a break from the state
on our cases.” An “award-winning” pro-prosecution book,
Careless
Whispers by Dallas journalist Carlton Stowers was written about the
murders. It reportedly lionizes Simons who “brought Spence to justice.” (DP
News) (JD08 in
Capital Punishment article)
[1/07] |
McLennan
County, TX |
Muneer Deeb |
July 14, 1982 (Waco) |
Muneer Deeb, a convenience store owner,
had allegedly hired three men to kill a female employee on whom he had a
$20,000 accident policy. However, Deeb had such policies on all his
employees as a hedge against worker compensation claims. The prosecution
alleged that the three men then mistakenly killed a woman who was not an
employee. The murdered woman did not seem to be the victim of a contractual
killing as she was raped and tortured, as were two of her friends. None of
his three alleged co-conspirators testified against Deeb even though they
were charged with capital murder like Deeb and were in a position to
negotiate for a reduced sentence. One trial witness testified that Deeb had
acknowledged he would receive insurance money if one of his employees ever
was murdered. Deeb was convicted and sentenced to death.
Deeb's
conviction was overturned because the judge allowed a jailhouse informant to
give hearsay testimony about statements allegedly made by one of Deeb's
alleged co-conspirators. This informant described a murder for hire scheme
in detail. Deeb was acquitted at retrial in 1993. (CWC) |
Navarro
County, TX |
Todd Willingham |
Dec 23, 1991 (Corsicana) |
Cameron Todd Willingham was
convicted of murdering his three daughters by setting his house on fire.
Under police interrogation, Willingham said that his wife, Stacy, had left
the house around 9 a.m. After she got out of the driveway, he heard
his one-year-old twin daughters cry, so he got up and gave them a bottle.
The children’s room had a safety gate across the doorway which his
two-year-old daughter, Amber, could climb over but not the twins. He
and Stacy often let the twins nap on the floor after they drank their
bottles. Since Amber was still in bed, he went back into his room to
sleep. Willingham's house was warmed by three space heaters, one of
which was in the children's bedroom. This heater had an internal
flame. Amber had been taught not to play with the heater though she
reportedly got “whuppings every once in a while for messing with it.”
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King County, WA |
Rafay & Burns |
July 12, 1994 (Bellevue) |
Atif Rafay and Glen Sebastian Burns were convicted of the murders of Rafay's
father, Dr. Tariq Rafay, his mother, Sultana, and his sister, Basma.
The victims were bludgeoned in their home in the Seattle suburb of Bellevue,
WA. The walls, floor, and ceiling of Dr. Tariq's bedroom were covered in blood,
bone, teeth, and tissue. In addition, tremendous amounts of blood were tracked
throughout the property. Rafray and Burns, then both 18, reported the murders when
they returned to Rafray's home at 2 a.m. following an evening out.
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Australia (NSW) |
Ananda Marga Trio |
Feb, June 1978 |
At 12:40 a.m. on February 13, 1978, a bomb exploded outside the Hilton Hotel
on George St. in Sydney, Australia. The explosion occurred during a prime ministers' conference
attended by 12 prime ministers
of Asian and Pacific British Commonwealth countries. All were staying at the hotel. The
bomb had been placed in a trash bin in front of the hotel and exploded after
it was emptied into a trash truck. It killed two trash collectors and
a policeman who was standing in front of the hotel. It also injured
eleven others.
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