Nov. 3 DELAWARE----impending execution U.S. Supreme Court turns down Steckel Just before 2 p.m. today, the U.S. Supreme Court refused to hear Brian D. Steckels request to delay his execution for the rape and murder of 29-year-old Sandra Lee Long. Steckels attorneys wanted to challenge the constitutionality of Delawares death penalty system where a judge, not a jury, makes the final decision on death sentencing. Steckel, 36, is scheduled to die by lethal injection between 12:01 a.m. and 3:01 a.m. Friday. The only thing that could stop the execution now is a decision by Gov. Ruth Ann Minner to delay the execution for six months or a last-minute court filing that convinces a judge to intervene. The Board of Pardons already has recommended against a pardon, and the governors office has not issued any statement about the case. Steckel was staying with friends across the hall from Long in the Driftwood Club apartments at Prices Corner. On Sept. 2, 1994, around lunchtime, he talked his way into her apartment, saying he needed to borrow her phone. Once inside, according to court papers, he unplugged the phone and attacked Long, punching her and assaulting her with a screwdriver. He then choked her into unconsciousness with a tube sock before sexually assaulting her. As Steckel left, he set Longs apartment on fire with her unconscious body inside. *********************************** Death penalty opponents pray together at St. Josephs Catholic Church Opponents of the death penalty gathered this afternoon at a Wilmington church to pray for convicted murderer Brian D. Steckel, who is scheduled to be executed shortly after midnight. In a unanimous decision earlier today, the U.S. Supreme Court refused to block the execution. "It's important that we pray on a day like this," said Wilmington attorney Kevin J. O'Connell, one of 14 death-penalty opponents who gathered at St. Josephs Catholic Church. "It is a source of hope in a time that something can seem to be hopeless." The group also prayed for Steckels family and his victim, Sandra Lee Long, whom he raped and killed in 1994. She was 29. Steckel, 36, was sentenced to death in 1997. The service was the 1st of 4 events opposing the death penalty, which will be carried out sometime between midnight and 3 a.m. by lethal injection. Other scheduled events protesting the death penalty are: - A rally in front of Legislative Hall in Dover from 3 to 4 p.m. - An interfaith service at the St. Thomas More Oratory, 45 Lovett Ave. in Newark, from 8 to 9 p.m. There also will be a candlelight vigil from 10:15 p.m. to 12:25 a.m. Participants will gather at the Smyrna Rest Area between 10:15 and 11. They will then drive to the demonstration area at the Delaware Correctional Center near Smyrna. (source for both: The News Journal) SOUTH CAROLINA----impending execution Death chamber 'volunteers' aren't that unusual They are called "volunteers" - inmates who choose to give up their appeals and be put to death. Whether they do it out of remorse, boredom or frustration the result is the same. Hastings Wise appears to be one of them, heading to the death chamber Friday to be executed by lethal injection at 6 p.m. for killing 4 workers at an Aiken County plant in September 1997 as revenge for his firing several weeks earlier. Wise, who tried to commit suicide in the plant after the shootings by drinking insecticide, has asked to die since his arrest. He refused to let his lawyers call any witnesses to ask the jury to spare his life and has brushed off any attempts to appeal since he was sent to death row. "At almost every opportunity he has expressed his wish to die," said attorney Joseph Savitz, who also has represented other volunteers. "Once you get someone whose convinced they want to die, it's difficult to change their minds." Wise was sentenced to death for killing 4 workers during a shooting rampage he planned to coincide with shift change at the R.E Phelon plant, which makes ignition parts for lawnmowers. All 4 people killed either had something to do with Wise getting fired or took jobs he wanted, prosecutors said. As he stood before the judge to have his sentence formally read after his 2001 trial, Wise said he was ready to receive his punishment. "I do not wish to take advantage of the court as far as asking for mercy. It was a fair trial. I committed these crimes," he said in a voice so soft few in the courtroom could hear. Wise will be the 6th person put to death in South Carolina without using all their appeals since the death penalty was reinstated in 1976, according to the Death Penalty Information Center. All have died by lethal injection instead of the electric chair, and Savitz said that's not a coincidence. "Lethal injection has changed the dynamic of the whole thing," Savitz said. "These guys are no longer scared to be put to death." Wise will be the 34th inmate put to death in South Carolina since 1976, meaning about 18 % of the state's executions have been volunteers. Nationwide, 117 of the 989 inmates, or nearly 12 %, put to death since the death penalty was reinstated had appeals left, said Richard Dieter, executive director of the Death Penalty Information Center. The numbers fluctuate from year to year. In 2004, 10 of the 59 executions were done on volunteers. In 2003, it was just 4 deaths out of 65, according to the center's statistics. Many more inmates give up for a time, but change their minds, Dieter said. They get discouraged, they lose, lose, lose and give up. But then after a while, they decide to go after at least one more appeal," Dieter said. The 6 volunteers in South Carolina don't hold much in common besides giving up their appeals. 3 of them were executed in 1996, shortly after the state made lethal injection an option, said Mark Plowden, a spokesman with the state attorney general's office. The rush of volunteers also coincided with the arrival of former Corrections Department chief Michael Moore, who moved death row from Broad River Correctional Institution in Columbia, where executions continue to be carried out, to Lieber Correctional Institution in the Lowcountry. Moore also used the move to make conditions harsher on death row, requiring inmates to stay in their cells 23 hours a day and have minimal contact with each other even outside of their cells. The reasons the volunteers drop their appeals varies. Wise and the most recent volunteer, Michael Passaro, planned to commit suicide after their crimes. In Passaro's case, he jumped from his burning van, but left his 2-year-old daughter - the subject of a bitter custody battle - strapped inside. Doyle Cecil Lucas, put to death for killing a Rock Hill couple in a robbery, told his lawyer he was filled with remorse and hoped his death brought his victims' family relief. And Michael Torrence, executed for killing 2 Midlands men in a robbery, asked to drop his appeals because he couldn't see how spending 20 or 30 more years in prison was going to benefit him. "If I could start a euthanasia clinic in downtown Columbia, I'd have more clients than I could handle," Savitz said. "Sometimes life is tough. I've witnessed lethal injection. It's an easy way to die." ********************************* A list of people executed in S.C. after dropping some or all appeals Hastings Wise is set to become the 6th person in South Carolina to be executed after dropping some or all appeals since the death penalty was reinstated. Wise, whose lethal injection execution is set for 6 p.m. Friday, was convicted of killing four workers in September 1997. Here are the other 5 volunteers, who all died by lethal injection: - Robert South, 51, executed May 31, 1996, for killing a 29-year-old West Columbia police officer in his cruiser writing a ticket in April 1983. South dropped his appeals because he couldn't stand a life in prison. - Michael Torrence, 35, executed Sept. 6, 1996, for killing 2 men during a Midlands robbery in February 1987. He killed a Charleston prostitute a month later. Torrence asked to drop his appeals in 1994, saying: "I can't have my family, I can't have my freedom, and I just don't see where spending 20 or 30 more years here is gonna benefit me." - Doyle Cecil Lucas, 41, executed Nov. 15, 1996, for killing a Rock Hill couple during a 1983 robbery. His defense lawyer said Lucas was filled with remorse and hoped his execution would help the couple's family deal with their murders. - Michael Eugene Elkins, 41, executed June 13, 1997, for robbing and stabbing woman who stopped to help him as he pretended to have car trouble near the Georgia state line. His lawyer said Elkins had health problems that made him uncomfortable and likely would have shortened his life. - Michael Passaro, 40, executed Sept. 13, 2002. During a custody dispute, he set fire to a van, killing his 2-year-old daughter who was inside. Passaro had planned to die in the fire, too, but jumped out. (source for both: Associated Press)
