Oct. 14 TEXAS----stay of impending execution Execution delayed while IQ considered A judge postponed the execution of a former San Antonio resident Thursday, giving defense attorneys time to present evidence that Pedro Solis Sosa suffers from mental retardation and is therefore ineligible for capital punishment. Convicted of abducting and shooting a Wilson County sheriff's deputy in 1983, Sosa had been scheduled for a lethal injection Oct. 25. The delay came after attorneys argued that the courts had not yet considered evidence of Sosa's limited mental capacity, including an IQ of 66. Sosa, 53, a native of Hidalgo County, also has asked the U.S. Supreme Court to review additional claims that he did not receive a fair trial, partly because authorities withheld evidence that might have aided the defense, his lawyer Cynthia Hujar Orr said. The stay issued by state District Judge Donna Reyes of Jourdanton set a new execution date of April 25. (source: San Antonio Express-News) DELAWARE----impending execution Execution date set for convicted killer----Brian D. Steckel to face death Nov. 4 A judge has set a date for convicted killer Brian D. Steckel to die. Superior Court Judge William C. Carpenter Jr. signed an order last week setting Nov. 4 as the day Steckel, 36, will die by lethal injection at the Delaware Correctional Center near Smyrna. Steckel was convicted in 1996 of breaking into Sandra Lee Long's Prices Corner apartment in 1994 and raping and strangling the woman before setting fire to the unit. Before his capture, Steckel bragged about the killing and during his trial, he sent a copy of the victim's autopsy to her mother with a note saying, "Read it and weep. She is gone forever. Don't cry over burnt flesh." If the execution by lethal injection is not delayed by an appeal, it will be the first in Delaware since May 2001. That day, Abdullah T. Hameen was put to death for the 1991 murder of Troy Hodges during an aborted drug deal. Hameen, 37, was the 13th person executed in Delaware since the state reinstated the death penalty in 1992. Steckel's attorney, Joseph Bernstein, said he's working on a federal court appeal, which could mean a delay to allow the appeals process to exhaust itself. Prosecutors, however, believe the execution date will be met and no further delays will be granted. "We believe that Steckel has fully litigated all his claims and that any effort by the defendant to obtain further review will be unsuccessful," Deputy Attorney General Loren Meyers said Tuesday. Department of Correction spokeswoman Beth Welch said the department has been notified and is taking steps to carry out the court-ordered penalty. The victim's sister, Karen Thomas, said she does not know if she will attend the execution, but another family member may attend. "I don't care if he lives or dies, I just want people to remember Sandra. She was beautiful. An angel," she said. Steckel's latest appeal to the Delaware Supreme Court, arguing that Delaware's death-penalty law was unconstitutional, was turned down in September. He had argued, unsuccessfully, that he had ineffective attorneys at trial. He admitted his crimes and told jurors during the penalty phase of his trial that he deserved to die. "I ask you to hold me accountable for what I did ... I know what I did was wrong: it was selfish [and] despicable," he said. Prosecutors also presented letters Steckel had written to the victim's mother, Virginia Thomas, that read: "I'm not sorry for what I did to your daughter. She deserved everything she got." According to Carpenter's order in the Wilmington court, the execution must be witnessed by at least 10 people, including an adult member of the victim's family or someone designated by the victim's family. (source: DelawareOnLine) ************************** Killer's attorneys try to delay execution Attorneys for convicted killer Brian D. Steckel have filed a motion to delay his Nov. 4 execution. In papers filed Wednesday in Superior Court in Wilmington, defense attorneys argue Steckel needs more time to exercise his pardon and appeals options. The motion for a stay of execution argues Steckel has 90 days from the state Supreme Court's Sept. 7 decision denying his last appeal to file an appeal to the U.S. Supreme Court. His Nov. 4 execution date means Steckel could be dead before then, the motion argues. Steckel, 36, was sentenced to death for the 1994 rape and murder of 29-year-old Sandra Lee Long and the arson of her Prices Corner apartment. At various times, Steckel has admitted his guilt and expressed remorse while at other times he has taunted Long's relatives. During his 1996 trial, Steckel mailed a copy of his victim's autopsy report to her mother with the note, "Read it and weep. She's gone forever. Don't cry over burnt flesh." Steckel has unsuccessfully appealed his death sentence to federal courts before, arguing he had ineffective attorneys at trial. Prosecutors said this week they believe Steckel has exhausted his appeals and that no further delays will be granted before Nov. 4. Steckel's attorneys, Joseph Bernstein and John Deckers, argue in the recent filing that no federal court has heard Steckel's argument that Delaware's death penalty is unconstitutional. (source: The News Journal) NORTH CAROLINA----3 new execution dates Execution dates set for 3 inmates Correction Secretary Theodis Beck has set the execution dates for 3 North Carolina inmates. Steven Van McHone is scheduled to be executed at 2 a.m. on Nov. 11, 2005. The execution is scheduled for 2 a.m. at Central Prison in Raleigh. McHone, 35, was sentenced to death March 7, 1991 in Surry County Superior Court for the June 1990 murders of Mildred Johnson Adams and Wesley Dalton Adams Sr. Elias Hanna Syriani is scheduled to be executed at 2 a.m. on Nov. 18, 2005. Syriani, 67, was sentenced to death June 12, 1991 in Mecklenburg County Superior Court for the summer 1990 murder of Teresa Yousef Syriani. Kenneth Lee Boyd is scheduled to be executed at 2 a.m. on Dec. 2, 2005. Boyd, 57, was sentenced to death July 14, 1994 in Rockingham County Superior Court for the March 1988 murders of Julie Curry Boyd and Thomas Dillard Curry. (source: News & Observer) SOUTH CAROLINA----new execution date Execution date set for co-workers' killer The S.C. Supreme Court set an execution date of Nov. 4 for a 51-year-old man convicted of killing 4 former co-workers at an Aiken County plant in 1997, the state attorney general's office said Thursday. Hastings Wise, who had asked to have his appeals dropped almost immediately after his conviction in 2001, mounted no defense during his trial, the attorney general's office said in a statement. He was within weeks of dying by lethal injection in June 2004 when the state Supreme Court stopped his execution because his lawyer said he wanted to appeal and Wise wrote a letter to the court saying he wanted to die. Wise, 51, killed Charles Griffeth, David Moore, Earnest L. Filyaw and Cheryl Wood and injured three others during a Sept. 15, 1997, attack at the R.E. Phelon lawn mower ignition plant. He had been fired from his job as an assembly line worker 6 weeks earlier. Prosecutors said he picked out his targets and looked for people who he thought had been given jobs he wanted or who helped to get him fired. At his trial, Wise told his lawyers he wanted to take responsibility for the killings and refused to let them call witnesses in an attempt to get a life sentence instead of death. A year later, Wise wrote the attorney general's office, asking for help to hasten his execution. (source: The Sun News)
