| Upcoming Execution September 16 |
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| Friday, August 27, 2010, 10:13 am | |
Gov. Steve Beshear set a Sept. 16 execution date for convicted rapist and murderer Gregory L. Wilson on Wednesday, but held off signing two other death warrants because there is a shortage of a key drug used in executions. Beshear signed the warrant for Wilson, 53, saying all his appeals “as a matter of right” had been exhausted. “I have reviewed the facts of this case in detail, and I do not find any such strong extenuating circumstances in this case,” Beshear said in a statement. Wilson was sentenced Oct. 31, 1988, to die for his part in the 1987 kidnapping and murder of Deborah Pooley a year earlier in Kenton County in Northern Kentucky, just across the Ohio River from her hometown of Hamilton, Ohio. A co-defendant in the case, Brenda Humphrey, is serving a life sentence. Wilson and Humphrey forced Pooley, who was living in Northern Kentucky, into the back seat of her car May 29, 1987, and Wilson raped and later strangled her while Humphrey drove. Wilson was arrested two weeks later. Beshear selected Wilson's case from among three recommended for execution warrants by Kentucky Attorney General Jack Conway because it was the oldest. Requests for execution dates are pending for Ralph Baze, convicted of killing a sheriff and a deputy in 1992, and Robert Carl Foley, convicted in 1993 and 1994 of killing six people in two incidents. Beshear said the state has enough sodium thiopental for just one execution. Kentucky's stock expires Oct. 1; a new supply of the drug isn't expected until early 2011. “The Cabinet's repeated attempts to obtain additional thiopental have so far been unsuccessful,” Beshear said. Allison Gardner Martin, a spokeswoman for Conway, said he was notified Wednesday of the decision to sign the warrant for Wilson. She declined further comment, saying the attorney general's office will represent the state in any appeals Wilson files. Wilson's attorney, Dan Goyette of Louisville, did not return an e-mail seeking comment. Wilson's execution would be the first since Kentucky readopted its lethal injection protocol in May, seven months after the Kentucky Supreme Court halted all executions, ruling there were problems with the way the protocol was put in place. -Brett Barrouquere
Three other inmates are challenging the way the protocol was readopted, but a judge in Frankfort has not ruled in the case. Wilson also has filed a federal lawsuit challenging multiple aspects of Kentucky's execution protocol. That lawsuit, which claims the state uses a sedative on the day of execution that interferes with the drug cocktail used in lethal injections, is pending before a federal appeals court. Wilson's spiritual adviser, Gerald Otahal, of Owensboro, said the inmate had recently come around from wanting to be executed after spending more than two decades on death row. “Oh God,” Otahal said. “Sept. 16, that's the date I'll be praying for.” Attempts to reach Pooley's family in Hamilton, Ohio, were unsuccessful. Wilson, who previously served a prison sentence in Ohio for rape, claimed on appeal he was forced to represent himself at trial after a dispute with his lawyers. The U.S. 6th Circuit Court of Appeals rejected that claim, saying Wilson effectively waived his right to his court-appointed lawyer by agreeing to represent himself when a judge would not appoint a new attorney. Wilson also claimed his right to a fair trial was violated because Humphrey was having a sexual affair with another Kenton County judge before and during the trial. The affair became public during Humphrey's appeals in 2001. Humphrey testified at trial and shifted much of the blame for the kidnapping and murder to Wilson. The court ruled that Wilson had an opportunity to question Humphrey, but declined to, even if he didn't know about the affair. Kentucky has executed three people since 1976. Harold McQueen was executed in the electric chair in 1997 for killing a convenience store clerk in 1981. Eddie Lee Harper was executed by lethal injection in 1999 for the 1982 killings of his adoptive parents. Marco Allen Chapman was executed by lethal injection in November 2008 for a 2002 knife attack that left two children dead and their mother and sister injured.
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