Posted on 10/12/2004 7:31:59 AM PDT by Graybeard58
Kin fights for man sentenced to die
He was a child who ran with drug dealers and pimps. And he was only 18 when he killed a man.
Adremy Dennis put a shotgun to Kurt Kyle's head during a robbery and tripped the trigger when he thought Kyle moved against orders.
Ten years later, Dennis is scheduled to be executed Wednesday, the youngest inmate executed in Ohio in 42 years and the seventh this year. But one question remains: Should we excuse Adremy Dennis because of his miserable, unsupervised childhood?
His cousin says yes; Dennis made a mistake but should not pay for it with his life. But Martin Eberhart, who watched Dennis kill his friend, is resolute.
"A lot of people have bad childhoods, but that doesn't give you a blank check to go out and kill someone."
Dennis has exhausted all state and federal appeals regarding his conviction and is waiting to see whether Gov. Bob Taft grants clemency.
The Ohio Pa role Board, in a 5-3 vote, recom mended against it. The majority cited Dennis' "lack of sincere remorse," al though some members were moved by his sad circumstances.
He was born to Marquita Dennis, a 19-year-old whose mother had died when she was young. Marquita loved Adremy and his brother, Brian, but did not know how to nurture them, said Ynez Jones, Adremy Dennis' cousin. Marquita did not go to school beyond eighth grade, Jones said.
Dennis' father, Leroy, beat Marquita and left the family when his son was 5, Jones said.
The children were never encouraged to attend school. In a recent interview, Dennis said he attended to ninth grade, but his lawyer said Dennis failed many grades and often missed school, beginning in kindergarten.
Instead, Dennis found friends on the street. By 13, he was smoking marijuana, drinking and hanging out with older boys who were selling drugs, lawyer Stephen Ferrell said. Dennis followed their lead.
At 15, Summit County Children Services put him in a foster home because his mother was using drugs and his home's utilities were disconnected, Jones said.
Annie Epps, his foster mother, was "an angel," Dennis said. But Dennis was too wild to hold back.
"She would tell me ain't nothing out there but trouble, but I thought I knew everything, you know?" he said. "My role models were drug lords and pimps, and they was filling my head up with this nonsense. . . . Things was stacked against me, man, people I was around."
Dennis had juvenile convictions for throwing a brick through a window and for driving a stolen car. He sold drugs but was not caught, he said.
Then came June 5, 1994.
Dennis and friend Leroy Anderson, 17, planned to rob a drug dealer who had tried to have Dennis killed. In another Akron neighborhood, Kurt Kyle, 29, was hosting a barbecue to celebrate his first car-racing victory in a 10-lap event at Barberton Speedway.
Eberhart, 19 at the time, had met Kyle two years earlier at the track. "He was a genuinely nice guy," Eberhart said. "He was someone who was going somewhere in life."
About 1:30 a.m., Eberhart told Kyle he had to leave so he could be at work in a few hours. Kyle walked him to his car as the party continued behind Kyle's Bloomfield Avenue home.
Eberhart sat in the car, and Kyle leaned against the door, talking through the open window.
Meanwhile, Anderson, with a handgun, and Dennis, with a sawed-off shotgun, roamed the streets. They had been drinking in a bar and smoked marijuana dipped in embalming fluid, which makes the drug more potent and can cause delusions.
The teenagers encountered Dean Pizer, 35, in an alley near West Market Street and South Highland Avenue. Dennis demanded Pizer's money and warned: "You are going to die tonight, you are going to die."
Pizer moved backward, slid down a hill and ran away unharmed, he testified at Dennis' trial. He heard a gunshot "just left of me. There was a trash can or something got hit."
Eberhart and Kyle heard a noise, too. It sounded like a firecracker, but Kyle told his friend it might be a shot.
About three minutes later, two men approached on foot. Anderson pointed his gun at Eberhart and demanded money. Eberhart reached for his wallet under the seat. "All I had was $15 and handed that and my watch to Leroy," Eberhart said.
Kyle told Dennis he had no money but would go to the house to get some. Dennis didn't answer. But Eberhart heard a gunshot, and the robbers ran.
"I got out of the car and saw him lying there," Eberhart said. Kyle had been shot in the face.
Dennis and Anderson were arrested days later. A jury convicted Dennis of aggravated murder. Anderson pleaded guilty to several counts, including aggravated murder. He is serving a life sentence.
Dennis' lawyer and his cousin say Dennis was an immature 18-year-old and should not be executed. "I think this case, given his age and lack of development and his lack of anyone taking a hand to shape him, is a type of case that just calls out for mercy," lawyer Ferrell said.
Eberhart, a Barberton police officer, said Dennis should die. "He was responsible for his actions and knew right from wrong."
And Dennis? He is prepared for his fate.
"They can kill me right now. It don't matter," he said. "I'd love to stay, but like I say, 'Everything has its time.' "
Related story, also from the Plain Dealer:
A U.S. District judge refused to stop the execution while the lawsuit goes forward. But lawyers have appealed to the 6th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals.
Taft will decide whether Dennis should die or spend the rest of his life in prison shortly before the execution, state officials said.
Taft has only stopped one execution, reducing the sentence of Jerome Campbell to life in prison in 2003 because of evidence kept out of his trial.
Kathy Soltis, chairwoman of the Cleveland Coalition Against the Death Penalty, said those who oppose the death penalty have sent petitions and e-mails to the governor, asking him to grant clemency.
She said that while coalition members send their sympathy to the family of the victim, Kurt Kyle, Dennis should not have his life taken as revenge.
"Society abandoned this guy almost at birth," she said of Dennis.
"What happened was almost inevitable. We are never saying 'Pity the poor inmate' and are not excusing murderers but there are cause and effect relationships."
The coalition plans to hold a protest gathering at 5 p.m. today and 9:30 a.m. Wednesday in front of Old Stone Church on Cleveland's Public Square.
There will also be protesters Wednesday morning outside the Southern Ohio Correctional Facility at Lucasville, where the execution is scheduled to take place.
Wow--what a terrible sob story. Fry him.
Kill him and be done with it. He and those like him who have no regard for human life no longer deserve to be here.
Adremy Dennis has already lived 10 years too long.
I really feel for kids whose mothers don't know what it means to be a parent. My SO grew up with the mother from HELL. He had a similar childhood, except for instead of foster homes, he was shuttled off to live with various relatives. HOWEVER, he never turned to violence or stealing to get over it. He's a good kind-hearted person who learned to be a better person than his parents.
""Society abandoned this guy almost at birth," she said of Dennis. "
It's not HIS fault.
It's SOCIETIES! (Meaning you and me)
Boofrigginhoo! Let him make his case with God.
Nuff said.
The author of this article has no idea why Adremy Dennis pulled the trigger -- which is why any "mitigating circumstances" should be tossed out the window in a criminal case where the only one who has any credibility to ask for clemency (the victim of the crime) isn't around to do so.
I read a book growing up (I will turn 50 next month,) titled "Knock on any Door". Same story. Same ending. Young man kills another, is tried, sentenced and executed. Broken home, reform school, a chronicle of life of petty crime spiraling into chaos, in the end, into murder-and, still not his fault somehow. Who's to blame?
Not you, not me, not society, surely not the victim. Who committed the act, who made the choice? Who must pay?
I tire of hand-wringing. Life is hard; tough decisions have to be made, and standards have to be defended, or we all fall prey to the least disciplined, the least caring, and the most violent. I would not be human to not grieve for a wasted life-and an unrepentant life at that. Life is not a lottery, it's a path we choose. In the end, only the most fallen, the most depraved, fail to seek after justice, "fairness" if you will, at least as it applies to themselves. Justice is meted out as we see fit, guided by a constitution that defends us all, and the sure knowledge that without justice we are all at risk. 'Tisn't fair! cried the chancre to the surgeon". Well...
Uh, no.
So the turd had a terrible childhood. I'm sure that makes Kurt Kyle less dead or something. /s
This is the kind of crime that represents an ideal capital case. When even the killer's strongest advocates aren't contesting the guilty verdict in the case, I'd say it's long past time to send him off to eternity.
A terrible upbringing might at best be an explanation - it is not an excuse. There are plenty of folks out there brought up badly; take your medicine, laddie.
Putting a shotgun to someones head and pulling the trigger is not a "mistake".
I've seen it time after time. Kids from homes with loving caring parents and they turn to drugs and crime. Kids that were brought up in terrible circumstances who turn out to be good citizens. Of course the reverse of that is true as well.
As I tried to drum into my kids when they were growing up, it's all about decisions we make and taking responsibility for those decisions.
All we can do as parents is teach our kids moral values and guide them. Ultimately the decisions and responsibilities are their's.
If his victum can come back and live the life he was denied from this killer than release this man. If not, fry him. He deserves the same future as his victum, none.
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