June 8 OKLAHOMA----impending execution Murder victim's daughter hoping for relief from execution Linda Daley knows her mother would be traveling for pleasure and visiting people in hospitals and nursing homes if she were still alive. "She was a wonderful Christian lady, very loved by all," Daley said of Mildred Inabell Bryan, who was killed about 11 years ago at age 69. Bryan's nephew, Robert Leroy Bryan from near Elk City, was convicted in 1995 in Beckham County District Court of fatally shooting his aunt in the head in September 1993. He is scheduled to be executed Tuesday night in McAlester. The Oklahoma Pardon and Parole Board denied Robert Leroy Bryan, 63, clemency on May 20. The 10th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals denied his appeal Monday afternoon, said Charlie Price, spokesman for the Oklahoma attorney general's office. Bryan's attorney, Benjamin McCullar, plans to ask for a stay of execution Tuesday morning. McCullar is also considering filing a civil rights lawsuit alleging Bryan is mentally incompetent and should not be executed. "We feel an injustice has been done," McCullar said. "I think he never should have gotten a death sentence because of his mental health." Six months after Bryan was arrested for the first-degree murder of his aunt, he was determined to be incompetent to stand trial, according to court documents. Shortly thereafter, he was found competent. McCullar said Bryan's physical and mental conditions have deteriorated and Bryan is no longer competent. Bryan's sister, Wilma Wyckoff of Mustang, has mixed feelings about her brother's scheduled execution. She spent about 3 hours with him Monday and plans to spend Tuesday morning with him. She thinks he would end up living in a prison mental ward if the execution is canceled. If he gets out of prison, he would probably have to live in a nursing home, she said. "He said, 'Maybe this (execution) would be a blessing. I was just hoping I could get my name cleared,'" Wyckoff said. Still, Wyckoff is disappointed appeals courts have not decided to reconsider her brother's case. She and McCullar said circumstantial evidence admitted at Bryan's trial would no longer be allowed by the FBI. For Daley, the execution would provide relief. "It's a form of closure, but there will never really be true closure because of the premeditation and brutality," she said. Inabell Bryan disappeared Sept. 10, 1993, and was found Sept. 16, 1993, near a combine on Robert Leroy Bryan's parents' property near Elk City. "We've always wondered what she was put through: if she was tortured, if she was fed or if she was just left out in the field," Daley, of Benton, Ark., said. A medical examiner testified Inabell Bryan was found with bruises in seven places from blunt force trauma. Daley tries not to think about her mother's death too much, but she is sad her mother, of Sweetwater, never knew her 3 great-grandsons. Inabell Bryan also didn't see her three granddaughters grow up, Daley said. Witnesses testified in Leroy Bryan's trial that he and Inabell Bryan did not have a relationship, even though they were related. "Leroy Bryan ... tried to force her to sign over everything she and Daddy had worked so hard for," Daley wrote in a letter to the Pardon and Parole Board May 10. Larry Peters, a document examiner in Fort Worth, Texas, testified at trial that Leroy Bryan wrote a promissory note to himself for $1,800 and forged Inabell Bryan's signature. Peters also testified Inabell Bryan signed several personal checks and Leroy Bryan filled out the top portions of the checks. One of the checks was made out for $1,200 to Leroy Bryan, and another was made out for $1,680 to him. (source: Associated Press) *********************** Andrew trial to begin Monday With her lover convicted and facing the death penalty, Brenda Andrew goes on trial Monday, accused in the 2001 shotgun killing of her husband, Rob Andrew. On Nov. 20, 2001, Rob Andrew, 39, was shot to death in the garage of the northwest Oklahoma City home he once shared with his estranged wife. Brenda Andrew, who was shot in the arm during the attack, told police 2 masked men fired the shots. In the weeks and months that followed, Brenda Andrew and James Pavatt were charged with murder. They fled the country with the Andrew's 2 children, Tricity, 13, and Parker, 9, and were arrested trying to re-enter the country from Mexico. Police reports filed by Rob Andrew in October and early November show he suspected his life was in danger. In one report he told police his wife and Pavatt were trying to kill him for $800,000 in life insurance. The case garnered national attention when Pavatt and Brenda Andrew left the country. Oklahoma City attorney Irven Box said the amount of time that has passed after Pavatt's trial -- which ended in September -- should quell some of the case's publicity. "If she (Brenda Andrew) had been tried a year ago, it probably would have been almost impossible to get a jury that could be fair and impartial," he said. "With the lapse of time, they have more of a chance of getting a fair and impartial jury than they did before." Jury selection is expected to begin Monday at 9 a.m. The trial could last anywhere from 4 to 8 weeks. (source: The Oklahoman) FLORIDA: Panhandle death row inmate pleads guilty to attempted murder A death row inmate who kept part of victim's leg has pleaded guilty to attempted murder after winning a new trial for a separate drive-by shooting. Jeremiah Rodgers, who earlier pleaded guilty to two murders, told Circuit Judge Paul Rasmussen on Monday he just wanted the matter to be over. He had earlier been convicted of shooting Leighton Smitherman in 1998, but the conviction was thrown out on appeal. "I think there's more to it, but I don't know his reason for it," said Smitherman, who added that he was happy the case would not be retried. The 1st District Court of Appeal ordered the new trial because the original judge, Kenneth Bell, now a Florida Supreme Court justice, had erred by refusing to disqualify himself from the case. Rasmussen gave Rodgers, 27, the same prison sentence - 13 years, 5 months - he had received after the 1st trial. He was convicted of shooting Smitherman, then 62, as he watched television at his home in nearby Pace. Rodgers and Jonathan Lawrence, 29, both former mental patients from Pace, were sentenced to death after pleading guilty to killing 18-year-old Jennifer Robinson and then cutting off part of a leg and storing it in a freezer. Both are serving life sentences for killing Lawrence's mentally disabled cousin, Justin Livingston, 20. The bodies were found in shallow graves a few miles apart in northern Santa Rosa County in May, 1998. Investigators found replicas of human skulls and Satanic and Ku Klux Klan materials in a trailer the 2 men shared. (source: Associated Press)
