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Convicted killer in gay-bashing case set to die 02/06/2003 Associated Press HUNTSVILLE, Texas - Convicted killer Henry Dunn Jr. says a murder conviction that earned him a trip to Texas' death row wasn't a gay-bashing hate crime, at least not on his part. Dunn, 28, doesn't deny being present when 23-year-old Nicolas West was gunned down during an abduction and robbery near Tyler more than nine years ago, but says the man primarily to blame was a companion also condemned for the slaying. "I did admit to being at the crime scene," Dunn said from a cage in the...

It did not appear to have been covered today but, yesterday, February 4, 2003, the state of Texas executed the murderer John Elliot. He was the 7th evil doer that Texas has disposed of so far this year.Elliot's case brought out the usual leftest whackos protesting his punishment. These whackos always pick some sort of particular fact in the murderer's makeup on which to base a claim that he should not be executed. "He was under age18 when him murdered all those people," "he is border line retarded," "he has found religion and is a different person," and "the jury...

FREDERICK ANTHONY Romano remembers the night. More than 15 years later, he remembers it as if it happened within the last week. It was Sunday night, Nov. 1, 1987. Seventeen-year-old Romano had gone to bed. His mother, Betty Romano, was in the house with him and his father, Frederick Joseph Romano. Soon the father received a call from his son-in-law Keith Garvin, a Navy petty officer who had returned to his base in Oceana, Va. Garvin had called his wife, Dawn Garvin, to let her know he had arrived back safely. But there was no answer. After two calls to...

Convicted killer with U.S.-British citizenship set to die 02/03/2003 Associated Press LIVINGSTON, Texas - John Elliott already was a convicted murderer and burglar but was out of prison on early release and on probation when he was arrested for participating in a gang rape and then using a chain to fatally beat an 18-year-old Austin woman. "If that happened today, what kind of firestorm would there have been in the media?" Juan Gonzales, an Austin homicide sergeant in 1986 who investigated the slaying of Joyce Munguia, said Monday. "He had no business being out in society again, at least...

Inmate executed for 1988 burglary-slaying 01/31/2003 Associated Press HUNTSVILLE, Texas - Delivering his final statement in French and English, a burglar who authorities said began his career while in elementary school was executed Thursday for fatally bludgeoning an Amarillo man with a tire iron during a home burglary. "I love all of you," Granville Riddle said, speaking first in French and then in English. "I have no grudges against anyone and I would like to say to the world I have always been a nice person. "I've never been mean-hearted or cruel. I wish everybody well." With his Swiss...

Convict to die for burglary-slaying 01/30/2003 Associated Press HUNTSVILLE, Texas - Convicted killer Granville Riddle describes himself as ordinary. "I'm just a normal small town boy," he says on an Internet Web site devoted to prisoners seeking pen pals. "I am caring and I am considerate." His record disputes that, culminating with a capital murder conviction and a scheduled trip to the Texas death chamber Thursday evening. AP Granville Riddle "He's been a problem for law enforcement since he got old enough to even think about being a problem for law enforcement," says Randall Sims, an assistant district attorney...

Execution set for killer of two nurses 01/29/2003 Associated Press HUNTSVILLE, Texas - It was a smoke alarm that brought emergency workers to a Beaumont massage therapy clinic, but when they arrived they discovered no evidence of a fire. Instead, they found two women, both fatally shot. A former clinic patient, Richard Dinkins, faced execution Wednesday night for their deaths. His appeals were exhausted and the Texas Board of Pardons and Paroles this week refused to spare him from becoming the fifth Texas inmate to receive lethal injection this year and the second of three on consecutive evenings this...

Killer of Austin store clerk set for execution 01/28/2003 Associated Press HUNTSVILLE, Texas - Former gang member and drug dealer Alva Curry remembers when he and a companion burst into an Austin convenience store more than 11 years ago and fatally shot the clerk during a robbery that netted them $220. "I don't think I even had a goal," Curry says. "I had been drinking but I'm not using that as an excuse." The attack was caught on tape by the store's security camera. AP Alva Curry A week later, Curry and friend Mark Davis were at it again,...

Supreme Court to allow execution of mentally ill inmate 01/25/2003 The Associated PressCONROE, Texas — The U.S. Supreme Court has cleared the way for a new execution date to be set for a convicted killer granted a last-minute stay in late 2002 because he is mentally ill.The high court quietly lifted its Nov. 6 stay last Tuesday for James Colburn, a diagnosed paranoid schizophrenic who has spent time in a prison psychiatric ward several times.The former carpenter and bricklayer confessed to police and, last year, to reporters that he choked and stabbed 55-year-old Peggy Louise Murphy to death on June...

Execution halted; lawyer says FW man is retarded County court to determine killer's mental capacity 01/22/2003 By JASON TRAHAN / The Dallas Morning News The Texas Court of Criminal Appeals on Tuesday stayed the execution of a 41-year-old Fort Worth murderer after his attorney argued that the man is retarded. Elkie Lee Taylor, 41, a former laborer, had been scheduled to die Thursday for using a coat hanger to strangle retiree Otis Flake, 64, to death in 1993 in Fort Worth. Mr. Taylor and an accomplice robbed the man's home of a television, pots, pans, dishes and other items....

(Editor's Note: The following is a reprint of an award-winning column originally published June 20, 2000, in light of this past weekend's actions by Illinois governor George Ryan, who commuted the sentences of every Illinois death row inmate.) Breakfast conversation ranges far and wide at Sparky's Diner, where the problems of any given day are dispatched with the finest Texas wisdom. Or not. So, I should not have been surprised to find myself in the middle of the current death penalty debate. A study out of Columbia University found 68 percent of all death penalty cases appealed between 1973 and...

Man who killed child set to be executed 01/15/2003 Associated Press HUNTSVILLE, Texas - Arturo Marines remembers going to bed after eating pizza and drinking milk with his 5-year-old daughter, Adriana, who remained curled up on the family's couch with her cousin to watch a fairy tale: "Sleeping Beauty." Shortly after falling asleep, the father awoke to the sound of the front door of his Corpus Christi home being kicked in, then gunshots. He held his daughter's lifeless body. It was a nightmare, Arturo Marines says. But he hopes to close one chapter on Wednesday night when he witnesses...

Killer of 3 to be first execution of 2003 01/14/2003 Associated Press HUNTSVILLE, Texas - Death row inmate Samuel Gallamore says the bloody 1992 slayings of a partially paralyzed woman, her husband and their daughter didn't have to happen. "Things went wrong, terribly wrong," Gallamore said last week from death row. "I am sorry. I have no problem giving my life in payment, but I only have one life and I take responsibility for all three." Gallamore, scheduled to be executed Tuesday night, would be Texas' first execution of the new year. Six others also are set to die...

January 14, 2003 Well, Illinois Governor George Ryan did it. He commuted the sentences of 167 convicted murderers from death to life imprisonment. To really understand the depravity of what Ryan has done you need to examine his likely motivation. To do this, though, you need a little background. Ryan is a profoundly corrupt and unpopular governor who's been known as a behind-the-scenes dealmaker his entire career. It was during his tenure as Illinois' Secretary of State that driver's licenses were routinely given to unqualified applicants in return for bribes. Driver's tests were fixed and licenses were given to hundreds...

The more you look at James C. Kopp, the less he looks like a loner. Authorities say they have no proof that anyone joined Kopp in plotting the October 1998 murder of Dr. Barnett A. Slepian of Amherst, or that a wide conspiracy aided Kopp during his 21/2 years on the lam. Nevertheless, investigators and abortion rights advocates said Kopp had help, maybe before the shooting and certainly afterward. "There must have been a support network that moved him to Mexico to Heathrow to Manchester to Scotland to Ireland," and finally to France, where he was captured in March 2001,...

UNIONTOWN, Pa. -- A 12-year-old boy was shot and killed by state troopers after he led them on a chase in a stolen car, authorities said. Michael Ellerbe led troopers on a chase Tuesday afternoon, crashed the car and then tried to run away, state police said. While chasing the boy, the troopers shot him, police said. He was pronounced dead at a hospital. Troopers Juan Curry and Samuel Nassan have been placed on administrative leave, pending an internal investigation. Police declined to discuss the incident further, citing the probe. Uniontown is located about 40 miles south of Pittsburgh.

JARRATT, Va. (AP) -- A Pakistani man who gunned down two CIA employees outside the agency's headquarters was executed under tight security in Virginia, while armed soldiers patrolled the streets in his hometown in Pakistan to guard against retaliation. No violence had been reported by Friday evening. Aimal Khan Kasi, given a lethal injection, softly chanted "There is no God but Allah" until he lost consciousness Thursday night at the Greensville Correctional Center. His execution focused international attention on the tiny town of Jarratt, where security around the prison was greatly increased in response to warnings from the State Department...

Pakistan fears backlash for US execution of killer By Phil Reeves in Lahore 15 November 2002 Pakistan was bracing itself for a backlash over the execution in America of Aimal Khan Kansi, a Pakistani who admits murdering two CIA agents, and who said yesterday that he would do it again. As the hour of his death by lethal injection drew closer – it was scheduled for 2am today, British time, the 38-year-old's only hope was a last-minute intervention from the Supreme Court or the Governor of the state of Virginia. Yesterday, calm and composed, he gave an interview in his...

Trantino beginning transition to normal life Sunday, January 28, 2001 By RANDY DIAMOND Trenton Bureau There are no bars on the windows of the four-story house in a residential section near Newark's downtown. The front door isn't locked. But the wiring on the windows, which is connected to an alarm system, is a reminder to the 90 men who live in this building and several adjoining brownstones that they are not yet entirely free. They are state prisoners living in a halfway house. And before they can shed the role of inmate, they must complete an intense, rule-oriented, therapeutic six- ...