Posted on 11/18/2002 2:58:52 AM PST by Chapita
Jessie Derrell Williams is expected to be the second inmate in the state to die by lethal injection this year. Other death row inmates talked about the day of an execution in letters to The Sun Herald. Below is a list of the inmates we quoted, followed by an explanation of their crimes:
Alan Dale Walker - On Sept. 8, 1990, Walker kidnapped, raped and drowned Konya Rebecca Edwards, 19, of Long Beach, at Crystal Lake in Harrison County.
Stephen Virgil McGilberry - McGilberry, at 16, used a baseball bat to kill his family as they slept in their St. Martin home on Oct. 23, 1994. Killed were McGilberry's mother, Patricia Purifoy, his stepfather, Keesler Air Force Base Tech. Sgt. Kenneth Purifoy, his stepsister, Kimberly Self, and her 3-year-old son Christopher.
Howard Monteville Neal - Neal, who is mildly mentally retarded, raped and shot to death his niece, Amanda Joy Neal, 13, on Jan. 24, 1981, after kidnapping her from her father's home in Lawrence County. He also kidnapped and killed his half brother, Bobby Neal, and a 12-year-old cousin, Melanie Sue Polk. Neal was sentenced to life for killing his brother and was never tried for killing Polk.
Thomas E. Loden Jr. - A former Marine recruiter in Vicksburg, Loden repeatedly raped and then murdered Leesa Gray, 16, of Itawamba, on June 23, 2000. Gray's body was found the following day in Loden's minivan. COMPILED BY MARGARET BAKER As state prison officials strapped Tracy Alan Hansen to a gurney and executed him in July, friend and fellow death row inmate Alan Dale Walker stayed locked in a jail cell, trying to find comfort from visiting chaplains he hasn't seen since.
He had to reach out to the visitors through the steel bars that contain him and remind him of the freedom he has lost and the death that likely awaits him.
"On the day of the execution, some chaplains came around and shared with the guys who wanted to talk," Walker wrote shortly after Hansen's July 17 execution. "I spoke with one, but really it does no good to talk to them.
"They're strangers, and just because they are chaplains and they're listening to you doesn't help me at all. When I am hurting and sad, it does me no good to talk to a stranger. I have to deal with my pain and sadness in my own way."
Walker and other death row inmates wrote about the experience in never-before published letters to The Sun Herald.
Now, he and other inmates are trying to prepare themselves for a second execution; this time around, it's convicted killer Jessie Derrell Williams, 51, who is expected to be strapped to the gurney and killed now that the U.S. Supreme Court has rejected his final appeal.
Williams, however, filed court papers Friday asking the state Supreme Court for a stay of execution. In court documents, he said he should have been appointed new attorneys during the appeal process and also that the state never proved that he had killed someone in the commission of another crime, which is mandatory for a death sentence. Williams has told The Sun Herald that he is innocent of the crime.
Attorney General Mike Moore asked that Williams be put to death some time before Dec. 4 for the 1983 rape, stabbing and mutilation death of Karon Ann Pierce, 18, of Escatawpa. The execution date is expected to be set some time this week.
Walker expects life on death row to change for the day when Williams is put to death. He can only compare the experience to Hansen's execution in July because it was the first carried out in the state in 13 years.
"Not a lot goes on before an execution (for us)," he said. "I'm sure the prison is doing a lot of stuff, but we are not aware of this. We are locked down." The following day, he said, "everything is the same as always."
Walker said Hansen's death was particularly hard for him because the two men had forged a friendship over the years that prison officials were aware of and even acknowledged just two days before Hansen's death when they allowed the two men to say their goodbyes in private.
"I am not going to tell you what we spoke about," Walker wrote, "but I will say I had time to say goodbye face to face, and I loved it. Being able to say goodbye... was the nicest act of kindness anyone has ever shown me since I have been here."
Much like the remaining 65 death row inmates, Walker didn't know what to expect the day Hansen was executed for the April 1987 shooting death of state Trooper Bruce Ladner in Harrison County. This time around, he said, he and other inmates expect to be locked in their cells for the day without their usual hour of outdoor recreation in the prison yard.
The entire experience is an eerie one, said inmate Tom Loden. "To fully understand this, one must comprehend that there are but 65 of us, a rather small group. Sure, we come from many different backgrounds, races, even religions, but we all have a common interest; therefore the passing of one, we all feel... Tracy was an alarm to most here, the clock ticks on for all... ."
Still, some inmates, including quadruple killer Stephen McGilberry, wrote about the execution as if it were nothing more than an inconvenience because prisoners weren't allowed their usual hour of oudoor recreation time.
"Everything else," McGilberry wrote, "was the same."
For inmate Howard Neal, life on death row changed shortly after Hansen's execution date was set. He still has memories of the nights leading up to the killing when he heard Hansen crying in his cell because he didn't want to die.
"Tracy was my friend," Neal wrote. "I didn't want them to kill Tracy. It hurt me to hear Tracy (was) killed. "
The day of the execution, Neal said he didn't want to talk to anyone.
"I was thinking that could be me they killed that day."
Walker said he was somewhat surprised by how some of the prison guards reacted to Hansen's death. He said they, too, suffered much like the remaining death row inmates.
"The prisoners who had love for Tracy were deeply affected and this hurt us all," Walker said. "Some of the nicer guards hated to see it and were sad that it took place. Some didn't know what to think, and others didn't... get close enough to the inmates to really care one way or the other. Some of the guards wanted no part of it. I spoke to one or two (guards) who wanted to get away from this place. They didn't want to be this close to death."
Loden said the majority of people seem to forget one very important point when it comes to the executions.
"Yes, we all have justly been sentenced," he wrote, "but would it surprise anyone that we still feel, that we still are human?
"As far as being aware of who is next, we all are, but this is something that's not really openly discussed. We do try to show respect to one another.
(But) overall... the hardest part of the row isn't the end, it's the dying a little each day... knowing you're but one day closer to death."
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Margaret Baker can be reached at 818-4517 or at margaretbaker1@aol.com.
Not one word was written as an expression of compassion for the families of the victims.
How very liberal of her!
I would be worried if any guard liked the fact that there are some criminals that must be executed.
I don't see how anyone can get any satifaction in the killing of another person. Execution is simply the only way to ensure that murders don't murder innocent people again.
I'm sorry they have to die and think about their immenent death every day of their stay on deathrow, but they should have thought about that when they killed their innocent victims. They weren't even given an appeal.
It has been 13 years and 6 months since my Jeremy was murdered by a sociopath wanting to see what it felt like to kill.
There is not a day that goes by that I don't hurt, that I don't think of my child, and all that he could have been.
These creeps are going in a humane painless way, something they didn't give to their victims.
IF YOU AREN'T GONNA EXECUTE THEM THEN KEEP THEM LOCKED UP. (I PERFER THE DEATH PENALTY AS THERE IS NO RECIDIVISIM THEN) petitions to help block early parole of killers THROW AWAY THE KEYS
However, my response to this article is that it's too bad it takes so long to rid the earth of these creatures!
Cc: letters@sunherald.com
I can tell you that I did interviews with two death row inmates facing imminent executuions, and guards at the institutions where they were held with whom I spoke were convinced that one, at least, was certainly innocent of the charges against him, and the other was convicted after his lawyer sold him out, then to leave private practice as a state employee. And the guards I met certainly seemed to have pretty good instincts about such things.
Another, the murderer of a 12-year-old girl, had his sentence commuted to life imprisonment after his victim's father testified that he was in favour of that sentence reduction, which was at least a blessing to the taxpayers. But there was no doubt as to his guilt, and he was certainly more deserving of a fair death penalty than the other two were. And the guards and other convicts alike despise him.
-archy-/-
Sure. Try locking them up in one big prison cell together, they'll be putting each other to death. Actually that might be a good idea and would save taxpayer dollars. These men are brutal killers, they'd be slicing each other's throats in a heartbeat.
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