Everyone pays a hefty price on death row
Florence prison
There are 127 inmates currently are on death row awaiting or appealing their execution in the Arizona Department of Corrections system. Of those, 20 inmates have been on death row 20 years or longer, racking up costs into the millions of dollars to taxpayers as public and federal defenders file flurries of appeals for decades trying to block their executions.
Murray Hooper
(Sentenced to death: Feb. 11, 1983) On the evening of Dec. 31, 1980, Murray Hooper and William Bracy (both of whom were from Chicago), and Edward McCall (a former Phoenix police officer) went to the home of Patrick Redmond in Phoenix. Redmond, his wife and his mother-in-law, Helen Phelps, were at home preparing for a New Year’s Eve party. Bracy, Hooper, and McCall entered the house and forced the Redmonds and Phelps at gunpoint into the master bedroom. After taking jewelry and money, the intruders bound and gagged the victims. They then shot each victim in the head and also slashed Redmond’s throat. Redmond and Phelps died from their wounds, but Redmond’s wife survived and later identified all three killers. Bracy and Hooper were convicted of the murders following a joint trial. McCall and Robert Cruz (who was alleged to have hired the killers) were also convicted of the murders following a joint trial. Cruz won a new trial on appeal, was convicted again, won another new trial on appeal, and was ultimately found not guilty. Joyce Lukezic (the wife of Redmond’s business partner) also was charged with the murders, and was convicted in a separate trial. After obtaining a new trial, she was found not guilty.
Steven James
(Sentenced to death: Nov. 23, 1982) On Nov. 16, 1981, Juan Maya picked up 14-year-old Marty Norton and made homosexual advances towards him. Norton rebuffed Maya, but suggested that he might find a more hospitable reception in a trailer belonging to Steven James. When Maya followed Norton into the trailer, James, Lawrence Libberton and Norton took turns beating him. The three then forced Maya into the back seat of his own car and drove toward Salome, where James’ parents owned some property with an abandoned mine shaft on it. En route, a police officer stopped them but Libberton threatened to kill Maya if he attempted to draw the officer’s attention. After arriving at the Salome property around dawn, James ordered Maya to step up to the mine shaft. As Maya pleaded for his life, James fired directly at him from a distance of less than 5 feet. Maya charged James and tried to get the gun, so Libberton and Norton began striking Maya with large rocks and a board. After Maya fell to the ground, they fired point blank at him three more times. Nothing came out of the pistol because the barrel was fouled with debris. They then dragged Maya to the mine shaft and threw him in, dropping rocks and railroad ties on top of him. Norton pled to several charges as a juvenile and testified against Libberton and James.
Robert Moorman
(Sentenced to death: May 7, 1985) Robert Moorman has been in prison the longest among death row inmates — 39 years. He was sentenced to life in prison on May 3, 1972 on a kidnapping charge out of Coconino County, but 13 years later was sentenced to death. While serving his life sentence in a DOC prison in Florence, Moorman was given a 72-hour compassionate furlough to visit his mother. The two stayed at the Blue Mist Motel across from the street from the prison. On Jan. 13, 1984, Moorman bound and gagged his mother in Room 22 and then strangled and stabbed her. Moorman chopped the body into many parts and disposed of them in at the motel and Dumpsters throughout Florence, according to prison records. The crime brought an end to compassionate furlough visits.
Edward Schad
(Sentenced to death: Jan. 2, 1980) Edward Schad was sentenced to death for the 1978 murder of Lorimer Graves, 74, of Bisbee. On Aug. 1, 1978, Graves left Bisbee in a new Cadillac on a trip to Everett, Wash., to visit his sister. Eight days later, Graves’ badly decomposed body was discovered hidden in the brush just off U.S. 89 south of Prescott. Graves had been strangled with a rope that was still knotted around his neck. A month later, Schad was stopped for speeding in New York driving Graves’ Cadillac. Many of Graves’ personal belongings were in the car, according to prison records.
Robert Smith
(Sentenced to death: May 27, 1982) Sometime between March 11 and 14, 1980, Robert Smith, Joe Leonard Lambright and Kathy Foreman picked up Sandra Owen, a young woman with mental problems who was hitchhiking in the Tucson area. Smith raped Owen twice, and the group took her to a remote area in the mountains outside Tucson. Lambright and Smith then killed the victim by choking her, stabbing her and hitting her in the head with a large rock. They concealed her body by covering it with rocks, and the body was not discovered until a year later. Lambright and Smith were tried in a joint trial before two separate juries. Foreman testified against them in exchange for a grant of immunity.
Ronald Williams
(Sentenced to death: April 23, 1984) On the morning of March 12, 1981, Ronald Williams kicked in the front door of a home in Scottsdale and began to burglarize it. While Williams was inside, a neighbor, John Bunchek, came to the home to investigate. Williams shot Bunchek in the chest, killing him. Williams left Arizona that same day without telling his roommates. Three months later, FBI agents arrested him in New York City. A gun taken from Williams at his arrest had fired the bullet that killed Bunchek. Williams had previously twice been convicted for murder.
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DrJCA1 posted at 8:22 pm on Sat, Jun 11, 2011.
Don't you just love our absurd system of "justice"? A convicted murderer gets free room and board, free medical and dental care, a gym to play ball in, a library to lounge around in, 3 free meal a day, and other goodies. I was a prison doctor for a while until I got fed up with the whole thing. The victims of these crimes get nothing but heartache and grief, while these pieces of trash are treated humanely. They didn't treat their victims humanely, did they?
ofuque2 posted at 8:15 am on Sun, Jun 12, 2011.
In principle, I agree with the appeals process in SOME cases. However, as in the case of Gabrielle Giffords and the others who were killed in Tucson, appeals should be limited. There are numerous witnesses who saw this man kill these people. There is NO doubt who did the killing. Mental illness should not even be considered in a case such as this. If a dog kills someone, it is put down out of fear that it might kill someone else in the future. Humans are no different. In this Bible-thumping age we live in, "an eye for an eye and a tooth for a tooth" should be relevant. If someone, anyone, kills another human being, they should be put to death. If there are eyewitnesses to the crime, there should be NO appeals. Once it is determined that no DNA or other forensic evidence could incriminate anyone else, the date should be set for the execution. NO MORE APPEALS at that point. It has been proven, beyond a reasonable doubt, that the person on trial WAS the one that committed the offense. End of story. End of their life.
Tim0715 posted at 8:31 am on Sun, Jun 12, 2011.
It's a false choice that eliminating the death penalty would save money. In fact, what would happen is the opponents of the death penalty would morph into opponents to "Life without parole." The new billions would be upholding that sentence.
Secondly, the article worries about the cost of appeals but does not consider the amount of plea deals where criminals actually accept life in prison to avoid the death penalty. That is a huge cost savings in both trials and appeals that would simply disappear. Prosecutors would never being to get a plea deal for life in prison because there would be no negative alternative for the criminal.
Eliminating the death penalty wouldn't save any money and would simply result in criminals being released sooner. If that is the cost savings, then we don't need it.
Leon Ceniceros posted at 11:43 am on Sun, Jun 12, 2011.
Even President Barack Hussein Obama (aka...Barry Soetoro, Harrison J. Bounel, et all) is ..........PRO-DEATH PENALTY...........that should shup-up the.....Democrats, Libs, Progressives, Socialists, Left-Wingers, Fellow Travelers and assorted "Purple Kool-Aid" drinkers.
cermaB posted at 1:31 am on Fri, Jun 24, 2011.
Americans remain divided on the death penalty, which is not used in many other nations in the industrialized world. Though the debate over the capital punishment and its morality is one that will continue for a long time, the costs of the capital punishment is considerable. Taxpayers foot hefty bill to have the death penalty but the cost of death penalty cases in which the prosecution manages to get the conviction and sentence correctly is considerable. When prosecuting attorneys get it wrong, it makes things worse.
cermaB posted at 1:41 am on Fri, Jun 24, 2011.
I know that the states that have it on the books are forced to pay a very heavy price in order to use it. It costs working class individuals a whole lot of money to carry it out. But, I'm in favor of death penalty. Its a way to make people think first before doing grave actions such as brutal killings. Its also a way to lessen the population we have today.
DrJCA1 posted at 9:41 pm on Fri, Sep 30, 2011.
Anyone opposed to the death penalty for heinous crimes should have to fork over a percentage of their income to keep these trash bags alive. If you believe in no death penalty so much, put your money where your mouth is.
happyfeet posted at 5:08 pm on Tue, Jan 3, 2012.
I was shocked to learn a couple of years ago that this man ( Murry Hooper) is still alive. I was a juror on his murder trial in Arizona back in the early 80's. We the jury found him and his partner William Bracey guilty on December 24th after deliberating for 4 days. I found out about him because I was contacted by an investigator who wanted to interview me and about the trial and deliberation. He was hired by the Public Defender's office. They are stilling working on another appeal for Mr. Hooper. I was speachless. It has been nearly 30 years since his conviction. I am as sure about his guilt today as I was then.
Poezzie posted at 11:48 pm on Sat, May 12, 2012.
@DrJCA1: so if someone killed your daughter or wife or son and you kill that person, should you be convicted for murder and therefore receive the death-penalty too ? The problem with the USA is gun-control and drug-related crime. But then again, saying this as a european makes me probably a sissy. We dont have the death-penalty here but yet we still have murders.