Oct. 25 MISSOURI----impending execution Appeals Denied; Marlin Gray Execution Scheduled for 12:01am Wednesday The U.S. Supreme Court and Missouri Governor Blunt have denied appeals from death row inmate Marlin Gray, clearing the way for his execution at 12:01am Wednesday. Gray, now 38, was given the death penalty for the 1991 killings of Julie and Robin Kerry, who were pushed off the abandoned Chain of Rocks bridge. The women were also sexually assaulted. Governor Blunt refused to grant clemency, saying he believed justice had been served. The state Board of Probation and Parole had recommended against granting clemency. Gray now claims he wasn't on the bridge at the time of the killings. He says he confessed only after police beat him. Gray says he believes his execution is certain but wrongful. Prosecutor Nels Moss says it was Gray's arrogant testimony that convicted him. He said Gray manipulated the younger and weaker co-defendants. Congressman Lacy Clay urged Missouri Governor Matt Blunt to stay the execution. Gray's attorney agreed, citing serious constitutional violations at Gray's police interrogation. (source: KSDK News) NEVADA----inmate seeks to drop appeals Death-row inmate to waive appeals Nevada death-row inmate Daryl Mack told a judge today that he is ready to waive all of his appeals and be executed. After 2 of 3 psychiatrists evaluated Mack and found him to be competent to waive his appeals, Mack told Washoe District Judge Robert Perry that he no longer wishes to challenge his death sentence. Perry asked Mack whether he understood what will happen by dropping his petition to the court. "I will be put to death," Mack responded. No date was set, but Washoe Deputy District Attorney Gary Hatlestad said the execution by injection at the Nevada State Prison in Carson City could occur as soon as 14 days or up to 90 days. Mack was in prison for the 1994 murder of Kim Parks in a Reno motel when investigators linked him through DNA evidence to the 1988 murder of Betty Jane May. She was sexually assaulted and strangled in her southwest Reno home. Her murder remained unsolved for more than a decade. (source: Reno Gazette-Journal) NORTH CAROLINA: Death row inmate's children to speak The 4 adult children of death row inmate Elias Syriani will speak on faith and forgiveness at two forums in Triangle area churches today and Wednesday. Elias Syriani is scheduled to be executed at 2 a.m. Nov. 18 for the 1990 murder of his wife, Teresa -- mother to Rose, Sarah, John and Janet Syriani -- in Mecklenburg County. The Syriani children saw their father for the first time in a decade in the visitor's room of Raleigh's Central Prison. They have forgiven their father for his crime and have asked the state to spare his life. They will speak at 7:30 p.m. today at University United Methodist Church, 150 E. Franklin St. in Chapel Hill, and again at 7 p.m. Wednesday at St. Francis of Assisi Catholic Church, 11401 Leesville Road, Raleigh. The events are sponsored by People of Faith Against the Death Penalty, a Carrboro-based organization which works to abolish the death penalty in the United States. (source: News Observer) NEW YORK: First LI man on death row taken off The 1st person on Long Island to be sentenced to capital punishment since New York adopted it 10 years ago is now officially off death row, after the state's highest court yesterday upheld the conviction of serial killer Robert Shulman, but vacated his death sentence. Shulman was convicted in 1999 of bludgeoning 3 women to death inside his Hicksville apartment. The bodies of the victims -- Kelly Sue Bunting, 28; Lisa Ann Warner, 18; and a woman who was never identified -- were found dismembered in Melville, Brooklyn and Medford. "There's not a day that goes by that I don't think of the condition that guy left my poor daughter's body," said Bunting's father, John Bunting Jr. of suburban Los Angeles. He said he was "happy" the conviction was upheld, and unfazed by the vacating of Shulman's sentence. "On death row, he's living a peaceful life," he said. "I really hope somebody in prison will kill him." In May 1999, a Suffolk jury sentenced Shulman to death, but his sentence was invalidated last year when the Court of Appeals nullified the state's capital punishment law because of a provision that gave jurors flawed instructions. Shulman was the last remaining of Long Island's 3 death row inmates. Stephen LaValle, who raped and killed a Medford jogger, and Nicholson McCoy, who sodomized and killed a female co-worker in a supermarket bathroom, have both been re-sentenced to life in prison without parole. "We're pleased the court upheld the prosecutors' case against the defendant," District Attorney Thomas Spota said in a statement. "This sordid chapter of Suffolk history will conclude when Shulman is resentenced." That is expected to happen in about 2 months. Prosecutors will recommend life without parole. In their appeal, the Legal Aid attorneys representing Shulman argued that several errors were made by the court that justified a new trial. Among them, they argued that police did not have probable cause to arrest Shulman; that the trial judge, State Supreme Court Justice Arthur Pitts, abused his discretion in denying defense attorneys' challenges to three jurors; and that the jury was incorrectly instructed that the murders were committed in a "similar fashion," when there were significant differences in each. The Court of Appeals rejected the arguments, and noted that in all 3 cases Shulman brought the women home, beat them to death with "a heavy, blunt object" and "used such force that he split the victims' skulls open." Bunting spoke at Shulman's original sentencing six years ago, calling the killer's lack of remorse "despicable." When Shulman returns to a Riverhead courtroom to receive his new punishment, Bunting said he will speak again, "even if I have to drive there." "I want to face him and tell him what I think of him, one more time," he said. (source: Newsday) CALIFORNIA: Golf-Course Ambush Killer Avoids Death Penalty In San Diego, the 3rd defendant accused of killing a Tecolote golf course manager in cold blood managed to avoid a trial -- and the death penalty -- on Tuesday when he pleaded guilty in court. The 3 killers ambushed and robbed William Overson, 70. Overson died in a hail of bullets while he drove away from the golf course on the morning of April 12, 2004. On Tuesday, Motgomery Fritz Bruce pleaded guilty to murder and robbery charges in exchange for life in prison. The other 2 suspects had already pleaded guilty for their roles in the killing. (source: NBC News San Diego)
