NCADP: National Coalition to Abolish the Death Penalty
Do Not Execute Kenneth Lee Boyd! NORTH CAROLINA Take action at www.demaction.org/dia/organizations/ncadp/campaign.jsp?campaign_KEY=1582 Kenneth Lee Boyd December 2, 2005 Kenneth Lee Boyd, a white man, faces execution in North Carolina for the shooting deaths of his wife, Julie Curry Boyd, and her father, Thomas Dillard Curry, on March 4, 1988 in Rockingham County. Boyd dropped out of school in the ninth grade. He later volunteered to serve in the army and went to Vietnam. He suffers from a history of alcohol abuse. His first marriage ended in divorce and his marriage to Julie Boyd involved a history of arguments, separations, and reconciliations. At the time of the murders the two were separated. Boyd also suffered from an intestinal illness that had resulted in the removal of both his stomach and his gall bladder on two separate occasions. At Boyd's trial, expert witnesses testified as to Boyd's psychiatric state of mind. Dr. Patricio Lara testified that Boyd suffered from adjustment disorder with psychotic emotional features, alcohol abuse, and personality disorder with predominate compulsive dependant features. Dr. John Warren testified that Boyd suffered from chronic depression, alcohol abuse disorder, dependant personality disorder, and a reading disability. Dr. Warren also stated that Boyd did not act with a "cool state of mind" at the time of the murders. After an explanation by the court of the legal meaning of a "cool state of mind," Warren conceded that the medical and legal uses of the terms differed. However Warren stated that Boyd did not act with a "cool state of mind" in the medical sense. Although the witness clarified his testimony, that part of his testimony was ruled inadmissible. Additionally, Boyd's trial judge allowed a conversation on mitigating circumstances between the attorneys and the judge to take place outside of Boyd's presence. According to the law the defendant has a right which can not be waived to be present at all parts of his capital trial. In this instance the appellate court ruled that Boyd's absence was "harmless" because his lawyer was present. Unfortunately there is also question as to whether Boyd received effective assistance of counsel. During closing arguments, trial counsel responded to the prosecutor's closing argument that the jury should look at the ten minutes of the crime and return a death sentence. The defendant's counsel responded by arguing that the jury "take the ten minutes to find the aggravating circumstance." He continued by telling the jury to rule on all of the information in the case, not just that ten minutes. Unfortunately such a statement by the trial counsel both concedes that such an aggravating circumstance exists and concedes the guilt of the defendant. The statement concedes guilt because the aggravating circumstance in this case was whether each murder was committed during the commission of another murder. The appellate court ruled that this did not warrant a mistrial because the defendant did not voice his problem with his trial counsel's statements before the appeal. Of course, a defendant is not likely to object before appeal to the statement of his own counsel. Boyd has a number of mental and emotional problems. He suffers from an addiction to alcohol and was intoxicated at the time of the crimes. He has been cooperative with authorities and has no prior criminal record. Please write Gov. Michael Easely requesting that Boyd's sentence be commuted to life in prison. Source: NCADP
