Posted on 12/09/2005 8:35:07 AM PST by WKB
JACKSON, Miss. - Mississippi death row inmate John B. Nixon Sr. has asked Gov. Haley Barbour to spare his life.
Nixon, 77, is scheduled to be executed Wednesday at the Mississippi State Penitentiary at Parchman.
While Nixon's attorneys still have some hope that the U.S. Supreme Court might yet stay the execution, "we recognize that clemency is probably John's best hope for avoiding execution," attorneys David W. Clark of Jackson and Brian F. Toohey of Cleveland said in a clemency request hand-delivered to Barbour's office on Thursday.
An appeal is pending before the U.S. Supreme Court. It seeks to delay Nixon's execution to allow the U.S. 5th Circuit Court of Appeals an opportunity to consider Nixon's claim of ineffective counsel during his 1986 trial in Rankin County Circuit Court.
Nixon's execution by lethal injection would be the first in Mississippi in three years.
"We appreciate that it may require great political courage to grant clemency in the current environment," attorneys said in the clemency request.
Barbour's spokesman, Pete Smith, said Thursday the governor had not seen Nixon's request yet. "Once he receives it, I expect that he will carefully review it," Smith said.
Nixon was convicted of capital murder in the Jan. 2, 1985, murder-for-hire of Virginia Tucker in her Brandon home. Tucker's ex-husband, Elester Joseph Ponthieux of Raymond, is serving a life sentence for hiring Nixon.
Tucker's husband, Thomas, was wounded and identified Nixon as the attacker. Two of Nixon's sons and a friend also were convicted in the killing. Nixon agreed to kill the Tuckers for money and rejected their attempts to pay him to leave them alone, authorities said.
"When John was sentenced in 1986, Mississippi juries did not have the sentencing option of life without possibility of parole," the clemency request says.
"Our belief is that if that sentencing option had been available in 1986 and if John's court-appointed lawyers in Rankin County had the time to learn even a little bit of their client's prior history, no Mississippi jury would have unanimously sentenced him to death."
Mississippi ping
Why spare his life?
He had no mercy for whom he murdered, for money.
Why spare his life?
I don't think Haley Barbour will spare his life.
Shoot he hasn't even written any good books
in the last 20 years.
Why spare his life?
Because he writes children's books... well, actually in his case, he reads them.
Owl_Eagle
"You know, I'm going to start thanking
the woman who cleans the restroom in
the building I work in. I'm going to start
thinking of her as a human being"
>>Why spare his life? He had no mercy for whom he murdered, for money.<<
Damn right. He should have thought about that before committing the murders.
I have two words for him....f**k and you
The guy is scum and deserved what he got
So its his lawyers fault the jury didnt have the option of life...ooooooooooooooooooooook
Haley aint sparing nobody...Arnold might be another story
Hmmmmmm...
Apples and oranges...
I see no mention of a Nobel Prize nomination.
;o)
I just don't see Haley being as squishy as Ahnold.
The people of MS spoke clearly when they rendered their verdict and penalty.
The governor knows those same people elected him and expect him to stay the course, not executions.
Death row inmate should prepare to "meet his Maker"!
(at least one last time... it's going to be hot where he ends up!) :-)
LLS
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