Posted on 08/27/2006 5:40:16 PM PDT by Graybeard58
SIOUX FALLS, S.D. -- As executions approach, loved ones of the condemned inmate and the victim's family anxiously wait and wonder whether a judge or governor will intervene before the appointed hour.
But for Elijah Page, the drama likely will play out in his own heart and mind.
After a childhood of abuse and bouncing between foster homes, the 24-year-old from Athens, Texas, is where he wants to be: days away from dying by injection for his role in the hours-long torture slaying of Chester Allan Poage, 19, of Spearfish.
Page is in charge -- and likely will be able to decide his own fate, because Gov. Mike Rounds has said he is not inclined to step in. There is no court route because Page has ended all appeals.
The phone in the execution chamber probably won't ring, although the warden could use it if Page calls off the execution before the lethal drugs start flowing into his body.
Page has been housed in a newer wing of the South Dakota State Penitentiary but will be taken to a cell at the old death row in an older part, on a hill overlooking the state's largest city.
The chamber has been remodeled since the last execution in the state, although there are still holes on the floor from where the electric chair was bolted down for George Sitts' 1947 execution for killing two lawmen.
Besides being the first person executed in South Dakota in 59 years, Page would be among just eight inmates younger than 25 put to death since capital punishment was reinstated in 1976. His case is also unusual because a judge, not a jury, imposed a death sentence -- and he has asked to die.
State law does not allow the exact date and time of execution to be released until 48 hours beforehand, although the judge set it for the week of Aug. 28.
Page's path to death row started March, 13, 2000, with a plan to steal from Poage, who thought he was with friends but was killed so there wasn't a witness to the theft.
Page and Briley Piper, 25, of Anchorage, Alaska, were sentenced to death after they pleaded guilty. The third man, Darrell Hoadley, 26, of Lead, opted to stand trial. He was convicted, and a split jury sentenced him to life in prison without a chance of parole.
Judge Warren Johnson of Deadwood, who imposed the death sentences and granted Page's request to die, called the killing vile and depraved. Even Hoadley said he grew weary of all the blood.
Hoadley testified that Page and Piper planned to steal a stereo, a television and other property from the house of Poage's mother in Spearfish.
The trio took Poage to a nearby gulch, and as he begged for his life, made him remove most of his clothing and forced him into the snow and an icy creek.
Piper stabbed Poage three times in the head and neck, and Page kicked Poage 30 to 40 times on the head, tearing his ears off, then hit him on the head with large rocks. He was also forced to drink hydrochloric acid.
Hoadley said he hit Poage with two large rocks near the end of the attack, which lasted at least two hours. He said he was afraid Piper and Page would kill him if he interfered or tried to leave.
Johnson granted Page's request to die only after concluding he was mentally competent. Johnson earlier had acknowledged Page's difficult childhood, which included physical and sexual abuse.
Page's sister, Desiree Page, said friends and family knew him as "a big teddy bear with a huge heart" -- one who is now remorseful.
"Elijah's very, very sorry," she told the Rapid City Journal. "He told me, 'I see that poor boy's (Poage's) face every minute of every day, and I dream about him every night."'
Page is entitled to appeals that could last several more years but earlier this year wrote a letter to court indicating he wanted to die.
"I am writing this because I have decided to end my appeals and face execution," said the handwritten letter.
His lawyer, Mike Butler of Sioux Falls, has said he thinks Page is so depressed that his decision to end his appeals might be equivalent to a suicide attempt.
South Dakota had the death penalty when it became a state in 1889 but abolished it in 1915. Capital punishment was reinstated in 1939 but abolished again from 1977 to 1979 after the U.S. Supreme Court ruled existing death penalty laws unconstitutional.
Another death penalty statute has been in place since 1979, and two other men are on death row besides Page and Piper. Those cases are in various stages of appeal, as is Piper's.
One of the people who plans to witness Page's execution is Poage's mother, Dottie Poage of Rapid City, but not out of bitterness or anger, she told The Associated Press.
"It's just a peaceful feeling knowing that the consequence for committing such a crime is this severe, and it should be this severe for these types of crimes," she said.
I wish more cretins on death row would stop appealling their fate. They know they are guilty & so do we. Just die already.
"Piper stabbed Poage three times in the head and neck, and Page kicked Poage 30 to 40 times on the head, tearing his ears off, then hit him on the head with large rocks. He was also forced to drink hydrochloric acid."
Death penalty is too kind for this scum.
The ONLY justice: Release them to the relatives of the victims. let them decide!
Page's path to death row started March, 13, 2000...
Alright. I want to know why this has not been reported on the front pages of the New York Times and followed by every major network and featured by Greta for the last six years.
I don't think so. I think his path to death row started much earlier. He may have been born a monster, or the people who abused him as a child may have turned him into one (and I hope those people were punished as well). But he is a heartless monster, and this is unfortunately the best solution.
Because his victim wasn't a pretty, young, blonde, mother to be.
(No more Olmert! No more Kadima! No more Oslo! )
Piper, Page and Hoadley, all of whom were friends with each other and with Poage, met up with Poage at approximately 8:00 p.m. on March 12, 2000.
Piper had informed another friend that Poage would give him a ride to the Job Corps facilities. Poage complied with the request for the ride, and he, along with Piper, Page and Hoadley, picked the friend up and dropped him off at Job Corps.
The remaining four then went to Poage’s house and played PlayStation games. Poage’s mother and sister were on vacation in Florida at this time. While there, Piper, Page and Hoadley convinced Poage to leave his house, and the four left in Poage’s 1997 Chevrolet Blazer.
Testimony as to the origin of the plot to kill Poage and steal his property varies.
It is unclear whether all three of the assailants planned on stealing items in the house so they could buy LSD, or whether Piper pulled Page outside to inform him he was going to steal stereo equipment from Poage’s vehicle.
It is also unclear whether they initially planned to kill Poage, or just beat him up.
However, it is clear that the initial discussions as to killing Poage were limited to Piper and Page, and only after it was decided to kill him was Hoadley informed of the plan.
All four ended up at the house in which Piper, Page and Hoadley had been staying. Once there, Page exposed a .22 caliber pistol, which he had stolen from Poage’s mother’s room at the Poage residence, and ordered Poage to get on the floor.
Once Poage was on the floor, Piper kicked him in the face, knocking him unconscious. While Poage was unconscious, he was tied up with a cord and sat upright in a chair.
After he regained consciousness, Piper laid a tire iron across his feet to prevent him from moving, while Page made him drink a mixture containing crushed pills, beer and hydrochloric acid.
During this time, Poage begged for an explanation as to why his alleged friends were doing this. In response, Page hit him in the face and told him to “shut up.” While Piper and Page discussed their plan to kill Poage, which included slitting the victim’s throat, Poage pleaded for his life and offered to give them everything he owned in exchange for his release.
At this point, Page asked Poage for the personal identification number for his ATM card, and Poage gave it to him. Next, the group escorted Poage to his own vehicle, placed him in the back seat and threatened his life if he attempted to escape. Piper got in the driver’s seat.
The group stopped at a gas station, and then Piper drove the group to Higgins Gulch in the Black Hills, a wooded area about seven miles away from the house where Piper, Page, and Hoadley had been staying
. Upon arriving at Higgins Gulch, the group forced Poage out of his vehicle into twelve-inch deep snow. Poage was forced by Piper and Page to take off all of his clothes, except his tank-top style undershirt, shoes, and socks in temperatures of about twenty-five degrees Fahrenheit.
The three young men then took Poage’s wallet. Thereafter, the three tried holding Poage down and covering him up with snow. Poage was then escorted to an icy creek, just over fifty feet from the road they had driven on to reach the gulch.
Page and Piper admitted kicking him numerous times in various parts of his body and head.
Page said he kicked Poage in the head so many times it "made his own foot sore." At one point in the 3-hour attack, Poage did try to escape, but upon Piper’s urging, Page recaptured him and continued to beat his near-naked body in the freezing temperatures.
Poage was also made to lie in the icy creek water for a lengthy period of time. Piper later stated he had kicked Poage at the gulch a couple of times in the body and a couple of times in the head.
Throughout the beatings, Piper laughed and said things like “Ohh ... like that would suck” and “Ah, that’s got to hurt.” At one point, Poage asked to be let into his vehicle to warm himself.
The record indicates that Poage said he preferred to bleed to death in the warmth rather than freeze to death in the cold.
Piper agreed to grant his request, so long as he washed the blood off of his body in the creek. After rinsing in the icy waters, Piper refused to let him warm himself in the vehicle.
Instead, they continued beating and taunting Poage. Next, Poage was dragged back into the creek, where Piper and the others attempted to drown the victim. The co-defendants’ stories diverge somewhat on the final fate of Poage.
One witness stated that Piper admitted standing on Poage’s neck to help Hoadley drown him, then Piper stabbed him twice or more -- once by the ear and then under the chin.
Piper’s brief contends he did not participate in the drowning attempts or stabbings, but instead that he went back to Poage’s vehicle.
After the drowning attempts, stabbings, beatings and stoning, Poage was still moving. According to Piper, Hoadley threw the final basketball-sized rock that killed Poage, but at that point Piper was not there to personally witness this act.
Both Page and Hoadley admitted they jointly dropped large rocks on Poage’s head, actions which they believed finally killed him.
Approximately four hours after the three kidnapped Poage, and about three hours after the beatings began at the gulch, Poage was left for dead in the creek. Piper drove the three away from the secluded area in Poage’s vehicle, and they proceeded to discuss how they would divide Poage’s property.
They went to Poage’s house and stole numerous items. The group then drove to Hannibal, Missouri, together. There, they visited Piper’s sister, but upon her refusal to let them stay, they headed back to South Dakota. The group returned to Rapid City, South Dakota, using Poage’s ATM card for cash and pawning some of Poage’s property throughout the trip. Records from Poage’s bank show the ATM card was used six times in various locations in South Dakota and Nebraska.
Some of Poage’s property was later found at pawnshops in Wyoming and Missouri. When the trio returned to Spearfish, Hoadley’s juvenile girlfriend testified that she saw the three unpack the stolen PlayStation, video games and many other items from Poage’s house.
She also testified that Piper confessed the murder to her in detail. She said Piper laughed about the killing as he told her about it, “and thought it was just like a really cool neat thing.”
Another friend of Piper’s testified that Piper confessed to him as well and confirmed the nonchalant attitude, stating, Piper acted “a bit cocky” while telling the story of the beatings.
Eventually, the three went their own ways.
Piper ultimately ended up in his home state of Alaska. On April 22, 2000, over a month after the three left Poage for dead, a woman who owned land near Higgins Gulch spotted what was later determined to be Poage’s remains in the creek.
His body was found, clad in a sleeveless t-shirt, socks and shoes. A forensic pathologist from the Clinical Laboratory in Rapid City performed an autopsy on the body. He discovered numerous head injuries and stab wounds.
Some examples of the head injuries inflicted included: a stab wound that nearly severed the jugular vein, another stab wound through the skull and into the brain, and a complex, spider-web shaped skull fracture that measured five inches. Poage's ears were almost torn off from being kicked repeatedly. H
e determined the cause of death was the “stab wounds and the blunt force injury to the head.” After the body was discovered, Piper became a suspect.
Law enforcement from South Dakota tracked him down in Alaska, questioned him and arrested him for first degree murder. While still in Alaska, he gave a detailed statement describing Poage’s murder and his participation in it to South Dakota law enforcement.
He was subsequently extradited to South Dakota. Piper was then jailed in Lawrence County, South Dakota. He later pleaded guilty to, and was convicted of, first degree felony murder; kidnapping; robbery in the first degree; burglary in the first degree; and grand theft.
The circuit court ruled that the death penalty would be imposed for the first degree murder conviction. Thereafter, co-defendant Page, who had been arrested in Texas, also pleaded guilty to the same charges, and after an extensive sentencing hearing, he was also sentenced to death by the same judge.
Hoadley then stood trial in front of a jury on the same charges. He was found guilty of the same charges but the jury sentenced him to life in prison. "The sheer brutality of this crime places it among the worst of the worst," assistant attorney general Sherri Sundem Wald stated in written arguments to the high court.
Piper was enthralled when describing the abduction and slaying to fellow jail inmates after he was arrested, deputy attorney general Craig Eichstadt said.
Piper feigned remorse only when he felt it would result in a more lenient sentence, the deputy attorney general said.
While waiting to learn his fate, Piper tried to recruit inmates to help him kill a guard and break out of jail. Assistant attorney general Gary Campbell said said Page was a merciless killer who inflicted the greatest punishment on Poage. "We're not talking about a passive follower here."
The other guy murdered a young man working in a donut shop execution style after robbing the place of a few bucks.
"For his role in the hours-long torture slaying of Chester Allan Poage" -- this is actually the most important part of this article. The sad childhood is sad, but many people have those. The real sad thing is this other guy whose life was ended because of Mr. Sad Childhood.
Because it was not a pretty blond girl that he raped and killed. That is all they care about.
Sad childhood or not...we all make choices in life. He chose...very very badly. It is too bad he won't be forced to drink acid and get stabbed in the head.
"The ONLY justice: Release them to the relatives of the victims. let them decide!"
If they are liberals, you wouldn't like their decision.
Death scares them. They have to face the fact that there is either nothing after this life, or that the judgement their souls will face will not be a kind one.
How true. Many others who also grew up in abusive situations DON'T turn out like this. It's not a matter of *can't help it*; it's a matter of making excuses for your really bad decisions. Others have overcome.
That's what I mean. "Sad childhood" means nothing to me. The heinous act he did, that is all that matters. I might have not made that clear.
Oh, I don't know about that. demoCOMMIEcRATS have a way of squeezing votes from the dead.
(Or...are we going to let only the scum get their way, while decent people must suffer in agony as they fade away?)
The man Page tortured to death didn't get a chance to call off his execution.
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