Jan. 17 CALIFORNIA----new execution date Michael Morales has been given an execution date of Feb. 21; it should be considered very serious. (sources: Sacramento Bee & Rick Halperin) ****************** 5 with local ties on death row After this morning's execution of Clarence Ray Allen, more than 600 inmates still remain on California's death row. 4 were convicted of murders in Calaveras or Tuolumne counties and another disposed of three victims' bodies near Long Barn and Don Pedro reservoir. All five are housed at San Quentin State Prison in San Rafael California's oldest prison and the only one in the state where death sentences are carried out. Inmates sentenced to die remain on death row while their convictions are being appealed, which is automatic in capital cases. Death row inmates convicted of crimes in Tuolumne or Calaveras counties: - Keith Adcox, convicted of killing a Mi-Wuk Village fisherman in 1983. - Charles Ng, 44, convicted of torturing and killing 11 people, including men, women and children, in the 1980s in a remote cabin near Wilseyville. - Wesley Shermantine, 39, convicted of killing 2 men in 1984, a 16-year-old woman in 1985 and a 25-year-old woman in 1998. - George Smithey, 65, convicted of raping, robbing and killing a Glencoe woman in 1988. - Cary Stayner, 44, convicted of murdering 2 women and 2 girls - a 14-year-old and a 15-year-old - in the Yosemite area in 1999. According to the California Department of Corrections and Rehabilitation Web site, convicts receiving the death penalty average 17.1 years on death row before execution. The average age at execution is 47. Since 1978, 14 California inmates have been executed, including Allen. The 13 executed before this morning's lethal injection of Allen were convicted of murdering 41 people, including 25 males and 16 females. At least 15 of the murder victims were between the ages of 11 and 18. (source: Union Democrat) OHIO----impending execution Condemned killer blames crime on 'power of drugs' A man scheduled to die by injection Feb. 7 for raping and murdering two women 20 years ago said Tuesday that his crime reflected "the power of drugs." Glenn L. Benner II, 43, of Tallmadge near Akron, rejected media interview requests. He said that out of respect for his victims and their families, those he loved and others he had hurt, he wouldn't comment beyond a 2-sentence statement relayed by the state prison system. "I will not comment further other than I underestimated the power of drugs and in doing so I committed horrific crimes and caused untold and unimaginable pain to many people - both to people who knew and loved me, and to people to whom I was a terrifying, dangerous stranger," Benner said. "I will address the Bowser and Sedgwick families at my execution," said Benner, referring to the families of his victims. Benner was convicted of kidnapping, raping and murdering Cynthia Sedgwick, 26, in August 1985 in woods at the Blossom Music Center near Akron where she had attended a concert. He also was convicted of raping and murdering a friend, 21-year-old Trina Bowser, in Akron in January 1986. Benner also was convicted of raping and trying to kill 2 other women in the months between the killings. (source: Associated Press)
