I guess now would be the time to convert to Islam and at least reap the reward of the 72 virgins.
Posted on 06/16/2006 2:10:32 PM PDT by RWR8189
BURLINGTON, VERMONT (AP) -- A man who kidnapped a supermarket worker and killed her as she prayed for her life was sentenced Friday to die, the first person to get the death penalty in Vermont in almost a half-century. Donald Fell, 26, was sentenced by a federal judge who once ruled the death penalty unconstitutional.
Speaking in court for the first time after years of court appearances, Fell apologized twice in a brief statement for stomping 53-year-old Terry King to death in November 2000 on a roadside in Dover, New York.
"The words are inadequate," Fell said, his voice barely audible in court. "I truly am sorry for my crime. What I did was horrible and wrong. I know the wounds will never heal. If it comes down to it in the end that I do die, I understand that it's no less than what I deserve. I truly am sorry."
U.S. District Judge William Sessions III imposed the sentence, which was issued nearly a year ago by the same jury that found Fell guilty. King's sister, Barbara Tuttle, criticized the judge at the sentencing for the amount of time that has passed since the killing.
Sessions's ruling that the death penalty was unconstitutional was overturned on appeal.
"For almost six years this family has been held hostage by this court," Tuttle said. Then she turned to Fell and said, "There is no way you will ever comprehend what you did to this family, not for lack of intelligence, but because you are less than human."
Fell was the first person sentenced to death in Vermont since 1957, and no one has been executed in the state since 1954. The state abandoned the death penalty in the mid-1960s, although the law remained on the books for another 20 years. Federal prosecutors brought charges under a U.S. law that allows the death penalty for a carjacking that results in a death.
Then-Attorney General John Ashcroft rejected a plea bargain that would have given Fell life in prison.
Death-penalty opponents -- who held a rally against capital punishment Thursday -- appeared in the courtroom Friday, and denounced the federal government for pursuing the case.
Fell's lawyer, Alexander Bunin, said he did not argue against the sentence because federal law required that it be imposed. But he filed an immediate appeal, which he said would lead to the first direct appeal in 40 years of the death penalty in the judicial district covering Vermont, New York, and Connecticut.
"We will continue to defend and stand by Donnie in the years ahead," Bunin said in a statement. Bunin also thanked King's family for "the courtesy they have shown us."
King was 53 when she arrived at work and was abducted by Fell and his co-defendant, Robert Lee. The two had just killed Fell's mother and her friend after a night of heavy drinking. In a confession played at his trial, Fell said he killed King because she could identify him and Lee.
The two were arrested in Arkansas three days later. Lee died in prison by accidental hanging in 2001. Fell's attorneys didn't contest his guilt, instead asking jurors to spare his life because he grew up in a violent household with alcoholic parents.
The judge assigned the execution to be carried out in Indiana, the site of the federal Bureau of Prisons' death chamber, but said it could be moved to New York state, near where the crime happened.
Irony is so, like, ironic.
No excuse. TFB bucko.
bump
"Lee died in prison by accidental hanging in 2001"
say what?
Lee died in prison of accidental hanging? How does one die of an accidental hanging?
"Oops, I almost died by hanging again!"
Umm, let's see. He accidently decided to tie a bedsheet around his neck, loop the other end around a ceiling pipe, and jump off a chair. I know, he thought his feet would hit the floor.
"Lee died in prison by accidental hanging in 2001"
This statement strains credulity. How on earth does someone get hanged, in prison ... by accident?
There's something you don't see everyday. A criminal accepting responsibility for his actions.
Wonder how long the appeals process will take, given Mr. Fell's confession and court room statement. I would think it shouldn't take long as the accused is not disputing the charge or the sentence.
It's was an accident when the prison guards on duty say it was accident, get it?
"How does one die of an accidental hanging?"
Maybe his fellow inmates meant to hang some other murderer? Oops.
This execution will never happen. Liberal activists will fight this with money, time etc.
Meanwhile these same people will also fight for the right to kill unborn children till they die.
Stomped her to death.....deserves nothing less than to die.
What that means is that trial judges are guided by appellate rulings. This judge followed the law and directions of the appellate court; he could not do otherwise.
autoerotic asphyxiation
I guess now would be the time to convert to Islam and at least reap the reward of the 72 virgins.
This shows why we need a new mainstream media that it takes itself a little less seriously.
I think we need The Monte Python Dispatch, where such a newsline would be properly edited to read:
accidental [wink-wink, nudge-nudge] hanging.
I've read that oxygen deprivation can enhance the "experience," but with his neck in a noose? How did he plan to get down? I guess if he was good at envisioning the consequences of his actions, he wouldn't have been in prison in the first place. But, I still think "accidental" is a stretch.
Fell's attorneys didn't contest his guilt, instead asking jurors to spare his life because he grew up in a violent household with alcoholic parents.
Awwww Tough Chit
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