March 11 NORTH CAROLINA----execution Convenience-store clerk killer executed by injection The killer of a convenience-store clerk was executed by injection early Friday despite arguments from death penalty opponents that his crime would receive a less severe punishment in 40 other states. William Dillard Powell, 58, was sentenced to death in 1993 for killing Mary Gladden as he tried to rob her for drug money. Powell was high on cocaine and beat the 54-year-old Gladden to death with a tire iron he found in the Cleveland County store because she fought back, his lawyers said. Powell was pronounced dead at 2:09 a.m., said correction system spokeswoman Pam Walker. The execution came after the U.S. Supreme Court declined late Thursday to review the case. Gov. Mike Easley denied clemency. "Having carefully reviewed the clemency petition, I conclude that there are no compelling reasons to invalidate the sentence recommended by the jury and affirmed by the courts," Easley said in a release. Ken Rose, director of the Center for Death Penalty Litigation in Durham, which is assisting Powell's attorneys, said Powell does not deserve to be executed because he did not premeditate his killing and the only legally aggravating factor is attempted robbery. 40 other states would not allow an execution in such a case, Rose argued. The state Supreme Court rejected a defense argument Wednesday that the courts had not adequately considered a recently lodged complaint claim of prosecutorial misconduct during Powell's trial. Attorneys said Cleveland County District Attorney Bill Young, who prosecuted the case, failed to reveal a deal with Powell's girlfriend, Lori Yelton Donohue, in exchange for her testimony at the 1993 trial. Prosecutors are required to tell the defense about any promises made to witnesses. Powell was moved Wednesday to the death watch area at Central Prison in Raleigh, a spokeswoman for the state Department of Correction said. At mid-afternoon Thursday he had met with his lawyers, spokeswoman Pam Walker said. Powell's sister also was scheduled to visit. At 5:30 p.m., he had his last meal. Powell was the 1st person executed in North Carolina this year and the 35th since the state resumed capital punishment in 1984. No other executions are currently scheduled. Death row in North Carolina is home to 178 men and 4 women. That includes 4 defendants who committed their crimes as 17-year-olds whose death sentences were thrown out last week by the U.S. Supreme Court. Powell becomes the 10th condemned inmate to be put to death this year in the USA and the 954th overall since America resumed executions on January 17, 1977. (sources: Associated Press & Rick Halperin) SOUTH CAROLINA: Convicted killer was abused, starved while growing up A Columbia man who killed 2 people in South Carolina should be spared the death penalty because he was abused, starved and teased at school, defense attorneys say. Quincy Allen, 25, pleaded guilty last week the 2002 shooting deaths of Jedediah Harr, 22 and Dale Evonne Hall, 45 in Columbia. Those killings were part of a monthlong crime spree that also left 2 people dead in North Carolina. Allen already is serving life in prison for those crimes. Prosecutors have asked Circuit Court Judge Thomas Cooper Jr. to sentence Allen to death. North Carolina social worker Deborah Grey testified Thursday that Allen's earliest memories from childhood include watching his stepfather beat his mother. Since Allen's arrest, Grey has interviewed Allen and his family, and collected hundreds of pages of medical and school reports. Grey said Allen's mother viewed her son as a liability and felt detached from him. "I never heard anything about mom coming to school to be an intermediary or an advocate for Quincy," Grey said. When Allen was 6, his mother placed him in a large trash can and shut the lid on him, Grey said. By the time he reached the 12th grade, Allen had changed schools 14 times, she testified. Allen's starvation led to an eating disorder called rumination, which involves chewing and swallowing regurgitated food. That went on for about 10 years, Grey said. Various psychiatric reports from Allen's youth indicated depression and paranoia. Administrators from Spring Valley High School talked about their contact with Allen during the 1997-1998 school year. Hope Spillane described his social skills as "immature." "I never saw him in a friendship situation with anybody," she said. Valerie Schulz, a career information specialist at the school, said Allen was a good student academically. "Was he an A student? No, but he was a solid B student," she said. Her trust in him diminished after she caught him looking at a lewd image on a school computer in her office. (source: Associated Press)
