June 27 TEXAS----stay of impending execution The Texas Court of Criminal Appeals has stayed the June 30 execution of Charles Hood. GEORGIA----new and imminent execution date Execution set for parolee in 1984 slaying An Illinois parolee who dismembered his former lover in a Sandy Springs apartment and then tossed 10 plastic bags of his remains into a trash bin is scheduled for execution on July 12. Robert Dale Conklin, 44, was given the death penalty for the 1984 mutilation murder of Smyrna attorney George Grant Crooks. Crooks, 28, was a University of Georgia Law School graduate working for Hyatt Legal Services in Marietta. Crooks also had been an aide at one time to former Atlanta-area Congressman Elliott Levitas. Conklin, on parole after serving half of a 6-year burglary and armed robbery sentence in Illinois, met Crooks and the 2 had a brief affair. Conklin stabbed Crooks in the ear with a screwdriver during an apparent argument on March 28. He admitted stabbing Crooks, but said it was self-defense to fend off a sexual assault. Conklin later disposed of the body in the garbage behind his Copeland Road apartment off of Roswell Road near I-285. A man rummaging for recyclable cans found the bags and police quickly tied Conklin to the murder. Conklin, who worked briefly as a fast-food management trainee in Sandy Springs, evaded police for several days. He returned to the apartment after Crooks' murder, where he dined, rested and watched television. Police got a tip he had come back, but Conklin escaped through a hole he had cut under the stairs. He was arrested the next day by Fulton County police in a parking lot on Roswell Road. At Conklin's trial, prosecutors told jurors they found a book describing how to gut an animal on Conklin's nightstand. Former Fulton County Medical Examiner Dr. Saleh Zaki said upon his retirement in 1997 that Crooks' murder was one of the most gruesome he had worked in his career as a pathologist. The execution by lethal injection is scheduled for 7 p.m. at the Georgia Diagnostic and Classification Prison in Jackson. It would be the 2nd execution in Georgia this year. (source: Atlanta Journal-Constitution) CONNECTICUT: Death penalty opponent set to retire One of Connecticut's most unique death penalty opponents is retiring as a minister this week and moving to Pennsylvania but he's not going to give up the fight. What makes Walter Everett so unique is that his own son was murdered and now he calls the murderer a friend. 70-year-old Reverend Walter Everett leaves Connecticut this week after 28 years as pastor here at the United Methodist Church of Hartford and at a church in Easton. In the recent past he has been seen many times on television as an outspoken opponent of the state's death penalty, but his opposition places him among a unique group of people. In 1987 his son, Scott, was murdered in Bridgeport. "I had always been opposed to the death penalty but this became a very personal issue and Ii became strongly active in the effort to abolish the death penalty," says Everett. He befriended his son's murderer, Michael Carlucci, who at his sentencing, said he was sorry for the crime. He visited him in prison, forgave him and eventually spoke for him at a parole hearing and officiated at his wedding ceremony. "I'm convinced that when we forgive other people, it's not just for the good of the other person, but for our own good because it was that that allowed me to begin to heal. I could not have healed if I had continued to hold on to that anger." He believes that the execution last month of Michael Ross was not stopped by the governor or the legislature because no one wanted to be politically associated with a vote to save the serial killer's life. "I believe that there will be people who will think more rationally about the death penalty now that Ross has been executed. I'm sorry that the state took that step in order to do it but ultimately, we will abolish the death penalty." Walter says he's not retiring from the ministry, just from being paid for it. The Methodist Church has mandatory retirement at age 70. Walter and his wife are moving to a small farm in Pennsylvania but he told me today he will continue to fight against the death penalty in that state. (source: WTNH News) ILLINOIS: Former death row inmate may be excluded from trial, judge warns Former death row inmate Aaron Patterson may be excluded from his own trial on gun and drug charges if he continues to interrupt court proceedings with loud and at times profane outbursts. A federal judge warned Patterson today that if he continues to ignore courtroom rules and loudly accuse the government of framing him he will be excluded from the courtroom. The 40-year-old Patterson is facing a potential life sentence on charges of attempting to buy 4 guns and selling drugs. Patterson contends that he was investigating police corruption when he was arrested. Jury selection in the case is scheduled to begin on Thursday. Patterson served 17 years in state prison for murder, despite his claims that he was tortured and framed by police. (source: Associated Press) IOWA: Study panel gives forum to renewed death sentence debate A new study committee will serve as a forum for the debate over restoring the death penalty in Iowa. Legislative leaders approved today nine study committees that will examine various issues, including the death penalty and the state's sex offender laws. The committees were approved by the Legislative Council, a bipartisan panel of leaders that conduct legislative business between sessions. (source: Associated Press) IDAHO: Idaho Supreme Court upholds Leavitt death sentence The Idaho Supreme Court has upheld the death sentence of Richard Albert Leavitt. The 46-year-old man was sentenced to death in 1985 for the murder of Danette Jean Elg in Blackfoot. He stabbed the 31-year-old 15 times and mutilated her corpse. Elg's body wasn't found for several days. Leavitt argued that his death sentence should be reversed because it was imposed by a judge instead of a jury. But in a ruling this month, the Idaho Supreme Court rejects his arguments, saying he had already brought up that matter on previous appeals and lost. (source: KTVB News)
