"No, I insist. Let ME pick up the soap!"
Posted on 12/14/2002 8:19:27 AM PST by new cruelty
SUMMARY: Jay Wesley Neill, a 37-year-old gay man, died by lethal injection in Oklahoma on Thursday evening, despite last-minute appeals.
Jay Wesley Neill, a 37-year-old gay man, died by lethal injection in Oklahoma on Thursday evening, despite a last-minute appeal to the U.S. Supreme Court (news - web sites) to stay the execution.
Neill was one of two men who robbed a bank in Geronimo, Okla., in 1984. During the robbery, Neill and his partner Robert Johnson stabbed three bank employees to death, and also shot four customers, one of whom also died. Neill was 19 at the time, while Johnson was 21.
Opponents of capital punishment decry all executions, but in this case, advocates like Amnesty International have an additional reason to plead for clemency: anti-gay bias. Addressing the jury during the sentencing phase of Neill's trial in 1992, the prosecutor said:
"I want you to think briefly about the man you're sitting in judgment on and determining what the appropriate punishment should be ... I'd like to go through some things that to me depict the true person, what kind of person he is. He is a homosexual. The person you're sitting in judgment on -- disregard Jay Neill. You're deciding life or death on a person that's a vowed (sic) homosexual ... But these are areas you consider whenever you determine the type of person you're sitting in judgment on. ... The individual's homosexual."
Neill was sentenced to death, despite evidence of an abusive childhood and despite his genuine contrition. At his sentencing trial, Neill told the families of his victims: "I am sorry. I am sorry. It's eating me, and I believe that's part of my punishment. I'm sorry. I don't know what to say to you. I wish there was something I could say to make it better but there's not."
In a separate trial, Robert Johnson was sentenced to life in prison.
Neill's death sentence was appealed to the U.S. Court of Appeals for the 10th Circuit, where a 2-1 majority upheld the decision. Writing in dissent, Judge Carlos Lucero said the prosecutor's "blatant homophobic hatemongering … has no place in the courtrooms of a civilized society."
Neill declined an opportunity to plead for his life before the Pardon and Parole Board. "Amnesty International understands that this is in order to spare the murder victim's families more suffering," the watchdog group wrote.
According to the Associated Press, Neill's attorney, Jim Hankins, filed a motion to the Supreme Court on his behalf on Tuesday, but it was denied.
Yeah I didn't get what that had to do with anything either. Seemed like wasted wording to me.
Another execution earlier this week of a man who had clearly converted to Christianity was a front-page article in the Tulsa World. After he converted, he set the story straight and told that he had been lying in previous efforts to get his sentence reversed. He admitted that he deserved to die for the actions he committed. He was clearly a changed man.
Too bad that one didn't get national publicity, but of course that would glorify Jesus instead of glorifying queerness.
If a black and white man killed people during a hold up, were given separate trials, and the prosecutor summed up the case for the black guy, by pointing out he was black, etc... this would be a no brainer.
No matter what you think of homosexuality, it had no relevance to the crime committed. If this guy lusted after some straight bank teller, and blew him away, maybe.
This is not a truly conservative position. This defendant was treated unequally visa vis his co-criminal partner.
"No, I insist. Let ME pick up the soap!"
Perhaps, but if so it looks like he wasn't sucessful.
Read the original article here.
| Killer begs forgiveness |
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| With an emotion-wracked voice, Jay Wesley Neill apologized to his victims' families, begged forgiveness and said his co-defendant had nothing to do with killing four people in a Geronimo bank 18 years ago. |
| But the victims' families didn't believe him. "He died the way he lived - as a liar," said Charlene Blevins, a relative of one of the murder victims. Neill, 37, was pronounced dead at 6:18 Thursday night, the sixth state inmate executed this year and the 54th since the state resumed executions in 1990. "I want everyone to know I'm really sorry for what I did to you," Neill said when the blinds to the state's execution chamber were raised at 6:14 p.m. "I'm not sorry for dying here today. I'm not sorry for lying here. "I'm sorry for the horrible, horrible thing I did. "I hope you find some comfort in that." But for some family members, there was no comfort in Neill's words or his death. Calvin Bowles, whose daughter was killed in the robbery, said although he felt he received some measure of justice with Neill's execution, the convicted murderer and bank robber died too easily. "He died easy, like the coward he is - crying," Bowles said. "I walked into that bank and saw my daughter, Joyce, Kay and Ralph, and they were butchered." "I think he died a lot easier than my daughter died," said Faye Tanner, whose daughter, 25-year-old bank teller Joyce Marie Mullenix was stabbed 27 times and nearly decapitated in the robbery. "She died on the floor with a knife in her back." Tanner's voice broke as tears streamed from her eyes. "I not only lost her, I lost my grandbaby too." Mullenix was seven months pregnant with a daughter when she, 19-year-old teller Jeri Annette Bowles and 42-year-old bank branch manager Kay Bruno were herded into a back room of the First Bank of Chattanooga shortly after 1 p.m. on Dec. 14, 1984, and ordered to lie on the floor. Between them, the three women suffered a total of 75 stab wounds and each had her throat cut. Four customers who entered the bank shortly after the women were stabbed, 33-year-old Ralph Zeller, 15-year-old Bellen Robles, 20-year-old Ruben Robles and 24-year-old Marilyn Roach, were each shot in the head by a 32. caliber revolver. Zeller died from his wounds. The other three survived. At Neill's trial, Ruben Robles said he saw Neill point the gun at the head of his 14-month-old daughter and the weapon's hammer click on an empty chamber. Questions about whether Neill acted alone while committing the murders still linger on in the minds of some of his victims' family members, despite statements that he did from the Federal Bureau of Investigation, co-defendant Robert Grady Johnson and a deathbed statement from Neill himself. "Robert Johnson wasn't in that bank," Neill said shortly before a lethal mixture of drugs began flowing into his veins through two intravenous lines at 6:15 p.m. "I know some of you think he was, but he wasn't." But family members of the murder victims don't believe one person could have caused so much carnage. In addition, Roach testified at trial that she heard two men talking after she was shot. Discharged from the Army because he was homosexual, Neill was living with Johnson in a Lawton apartment at the time of the murders. Court documents indicate he and Johnson purchased two hunting knives several days before the robbery and bought a .32 caliber revolver on the day of the robbery itself. Neill escaped the bank with almost $17,000. Most of the money was gone when FBI agents caught up with them in San Francisco three days later. The two men were initially tried together, with both receiving death sentences, but an appeals court overturned the sentences in 1992, saying the men should have been tried separately. Later that year Neill was again sentenced to die. Johnson was sentenced to life without parole. In the hours leading up to his execution, Neill was served a last meal of a double cheeseburger, a large order of french fries, cranberry-grape juice, cobbler and a pint of vanilla ice cream. Two other death row inmates have execution dates scheduled for this month, but one is unlikely to be carried out. Earnest Marvin Carter is scheduled to die Tuesday for killing a security guard while stealing a wrecker from an Oklahoma City auto yard. The state pardon and parole board recommended clemency for Carter earlier this month, a recommendation that is under consideration by Gov. Frank Keating. John David Duty, who was already serving life sentences when he asked for the death penalty for killing his cellmate, is scheduled to be executed Thursday. Duty still has a mandatory appeal pending before the Oklahoma Court of Criminal Appeals. |
| ©McAlester News-Capital & Democrat 2002 |
State puts Geronimo bank robber to death
By Julie E. Bisbee Associated Press Writer
McALESTER -- Jay Wesley Neill's execution helped a community heal from a crime that has haunted them for nearly 18 years.
About 24 people from the small town of Geronimo, 10 miles south of Lawton, traveled to the Oklahoma State Penitentiary to watch Neill take his last breaths Thursday evening.
Neill was convicted of killing four people during a Dec. 14, 1984, bank robbery. Three other people were injured during the robbery.
''Let me tell you what, I came here tonight to get and I got some measure of revenge,'' said Gerald Morgan, the uncle of 19-year-old victim Jeri Bowles.
For the Bowles family, their pain is as real as it was 18 years ago when Jeri Bowles' father, Calvin, entered the bank and saw his daughter stabbed 19 times.
''We got some justice tonight,'' Calvin Bowles said. ''He died like a coward, he was crying and asking for forgiveness. I walked into that bank and saw my daughter and the others butchered, he didn't give them a chance to ask for the Lord for forgiveness.''
Jeri Bowles was stabbed 14 times and her throat was cut during the Dec. 14, 1984, robbery of the First Chattanooga Bank branch in Geronimo. Kay Bruno, 42, the manager of the bank, was stabbed 34 times and her throat was cut. Joyce Mullenix, 25, who was six months pregnant, was stabbed 27 times and nearly decapitated.
Members of Mullenix's family were emotional as they discussed the execution. For Faye Tanner, Mullenix's mother, her daughter's death was magnified by the loss of her unborn child.
''She laid on the floor with a knife in her back,'' Tanner said tearfully. ''I not only lost her, I lost my grandbaby, too.''
Robert Zeller, 33, a bank customer was shot to death during the robbery.
His brother, Danny, thanked the state for carrying out the execution.
''This was not about a minor crime,'' Zeller said. ''This was a heinous crime.''
Before the lethal injection was administered Neill, strapped to a gurney, craned forward looking into a camera that broadcast the execution to family members and apologized.
''I want everyone to know that I'm really sorry, not because I'm laying here dying, but for the horrible, horrible thing that I did,'' said Neill, who became emotional as he spoke.
Neill, 37, was pronounced dead at 6:18 p.m. at the Oklahoma State Penitentiary.
As Neill gave his last statement his voice quivered and he complained of being dizzy.
''Are they starting?'' he asked.
Six people served as witnesses for Neill. When the curtain was lifted, Neill winked at his uncle who witnessed the execution. The man nodded and Neill began his statement, attempting to end years of speculation that his former lover Robert Grady Johnson was at the bank during the robbery.
''I hope that it brings you comfort to know that Robert Johnson wasn't in that bank,'' Neill said. ''I know that you think he was, be he wasn't.''
Johnson was Neill's co-defendant during their initial trial. Some speculated that Johnson, who was given a life without parole sentence in a new trial in 1992, was at the bank and helped Neill.
As the lethal injection was administered, Neill prayed until he lost consciousness. His left shoulder twitched and the color drained from his face. Neill was pronounced dead about three minutes after the execution began at 6:15 p.m.
In Oklahoma City, six people were arrested on misdemeanor civil disobedience complaints during a protest at Oklahoma Attorney General Drew Edmondson's office.
Protester Wes Roberts said murder is the only crime that is duplicated by the state when an execution is carried out.
''You don't rape a raper, rob a robber or mug a mugger,'' Roberts said. ''That would be considered unconscionable.''
Two more men are scheduled to die later this month.
Earnest Marvin Carter Jr., is scheduled to die Dec. 17 for the January 1990 slaying of a night security guard at an auto auction in northwest Oklahoma City.
John Duty, who is scheduled to be executed Dec. 19, asked to be put to death for the murder of his cellmate. He was already serving life sentences for rape and robbery.
Earlier this month, the state Pardon and Parole Board recommended clemency for Carter. Gov. Frank Keating is considering that recommendation.
Yeah, the scumbag needed to die, gay or not.
More likely he, like a certain Senator in the news, is remarkably adept at stepping on his . . . .
In either case, justice was done.
;-)
After all, if it's printed, it's true.
In emphasizing the perps deviant sexual preferences, isn't the lawyer saying that, because of that deviance, the fairy should be spared.
I don't know, maybe it would help in recruiting, "be a fairy; decorate interiors, avoid the death penalty..."
Well, thanks to this prosecutor who felt this lunatic's sexual orientation was relevant to the crime, it sure looks bad, huh?
Both men should have been executed. But thanks to this idiotoc prosecutor, the inequity of the sentences will play into the hands of gay activists.
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