Post by sclcookie on Jun 6, 2006 1:23:09 GMT -5
Killer Dies Awaiting His Execution
In March 1984, just 3 months into Fred Lewis Way's long wait on death row,
he said he felt isolated, bored and horribly, horribly lonely. Way also
maintained he did not kill his wife, Carol, or his 15-year-old daughter,
Adrienne. He said, some day, he would be vindicated.
"If I'm not," he told a Tampa Tribune reporter back then, "I don't intend
to spend 30 or 40 years in this miserable place. This is hell, being
locked up like an animal."
He said, should his death sentence stand, he would rather be executed than
remain in prison.
On May 15, still awaiting appeals, Way died of an apparent heart attack.
He was 61.
Way's son, Fred L. Way Jr., was away from home playing basketball when his
mother and older sister were killed. But 12-year-old Tiffany Way emerged
from her bedroom and confronted her father immediately after their deaths.
Both siblings testified against their father.
Now married and living in Alabama, Tiffany Meeks said a cousin phoned her
about her father's death a couple of weeks ago.
She said she felt saddened, but not because he was gone.
"I was hoping that before he died, I'd find out why he did it," she said.
"He never admitted to it. He just quoted a bunch of Scripture and told
lies."
During the trial, prosecutors offered a gruesome tale.
Way, 38 and an engineer for the Federal Aviation Administration, wanted to
accept a transfer that would move the family to Central America. Carol Way
adamantly opposed the move. Adrienne, his oldest daughter, did not want to
leave her friends.
On July 11, 1983, Way and his wife argued in the garage of their Town 'N
Country home. He struck her several times with a hammer. Then, he called
Adrienne into the garage and struck her.
Way doused them in gasoline.
Autopsy reports suggested the 15-year-old had not yet died when she and
her mother were set ablaze.
Meeks said she remembers playing Parcheesi with Adrienne when her father
told Adrienne to come with him into the garage. He told Meeks to stay in
her room.
When Meeks heard a scream, she walked into the hall. Her father, she said,
walked past her, smiled and winked. Moments later, he walked outside and
started to smoke a cigarette.
When Meeks tried to open the door to the garage, her father told her not
to. She saw smoke and asked him if he was going to call the fire
department. He said nothing, and she ran to a neighbor's house.
"That night, he wasn't upset, it didn't seem," Meeks said. "He didn't show
any emotion to me."
Way's defense argued to the jury that his wife and daughter fought each
other and, in the melee, accidentally spilled chemicals that caught fire.
After 11 hours of deliberations over two days, the jurors unanimously
found him guilty. They recommended the death penalty by a vote of 7-5.
In 1988, a month before Way was to be executed, he received an emergency
stay while the courts studied one of his many appeals. The U.S. Supreme
Court eventually upheld the conviction but ordered a new sentencing
hearing.
In 1990, Way again was sentenced to death. He died as his appeals
continued.
Mike Benito, the former assistant state attorney who prosecuted the case,
said Way got everything he deserved.
"The killing of his daughter was as cold-blooded and cowardly as it gets,"
he said.
Not everyone saw it that way.
Defense attorney David Rankin, who learned of Way's death Thursday, said
he always thought Way was innocent. There were several pieces of evidence
that never quite sat right with him.
Rankin said he doubted Way could have murdered two people, spoken to his
daughter, then walked outside to smoke all in a short amount of time.
Fred Way Jr., who now lives in Tennessee, said he doesn't know whether his
father was guilty, but he is surprised that prosecutors managed to secure
a conviction on circumstantial evidence alone.
"After years of therapy and 800 pages of depositions that I read, I think
whether or not he did it, he was railroaded through the process," Way Jr.
said. "I'm not professing his innocence or his guilt. I just think
everyone deserves a fair shake."
Way Jr. said he harbors some bad feelings about the way he says law
enforcement used him and his sister in the days after they lost their
mother and sibling.
Although he has not rectified the deaths in his mind, he said he
eventually did learn to forgive his father.
"I guess my perspective is a Christian perspective," he said. "Whether he
killed them or not, it's not my place to judge."
(source : Tampa Tribune)
In March 1984, just 3 months into Fred Lewis Way's long wait on death row,
he said he felt isolated, bored and horribly, horribly lonely. Way also
maintained he did not kill his wife, Carol, or his 15-year-old daughter,
Adrienne. He said, some day, he would be vindicated.
"If I'm not," he told a Tampa Tribune reporter back then, "I don't intend
to spend 30 or 40 years in this miserable place. This is hell, being
locked up like an animal."
He said, should his death sentence stand, he would rather be executed than
remain in prison.
On May 15, still awaiting appeals, Way died of an apparent heart attack.
He was 61.
Way's son, Fred L. Way Jr., was away from home playing basketball when his
mother and older sister were killed. But 12-year-old Tiffany Way emerged
from her bedroom and confronted her father immediately after their deaths.
Both siblings testified against their father.
Now married and living in Alabama, Tiffany Meeks said a cousin phoned her
about her father's death a couple of weeks ago.
She said she felt saddened, but not because he was gone.
"I was hoping that before he died, I'd find out why he did it," she said.
"He never admitted to it. He just quoted a bunch of Scripture and told
lies."
During the trial, prosecutors offered a gruesome tale.
Way, 38 and an engineer for the Federal Aviation Administration, wanted to
accept a transfer that would move the family to Central America. Carol Way
adamantly opposed the move. Adrienne, his oldest daughter, did not want to
leave her friends.
On July 11, 1983, Way and his wife argued in the garage of their Town 'N
Country home. He struck her several times with a hammer. Then, he called
Adrienne into the garage and struck her.
Way doused them in gasoline.
Autopsy reports suggested the 15-year-old had not yet died when she and
her mother were set ablaze.
Meeks said she remembers playing Parcheesi with Adrienne when her father
told Adrienne to come with him into the garage. He told Meeks to stay in
her room.
When Meeks heard a scream, she walked into the hall. Her father, she said,
walked past her, smiled and winked. Moments later, he walked outside and
started to smoke a cigarette.
When Meeks tried to open the door to the garage, her father told her not
to. She saw smoke and asked him if he was going to call the fire
department. He said nothing, and she ran to a neighbor's house.
"That night, he wasn't upset, it didn't seem," Meeks said. "He didn't show
any emotion to me."
Way's defense argued to the jury that his wife and daughter fought each
other and, in the melee, accidentally spilled chemicals that caught fire.
After 11 hours of deliberations over two days, the jurors unanimously
found him guilty. They recommended the death penalty by a vote of 7-5.
In 1988, a month before Way was to be executed, he received an emergency
stay while the courts studied one of his many appeals. The U.S. Supreme
Court eventually upheld the conviction but ordered a new sentencing
hearing.
In 1990, Way again was sentenced to death. He died as his appeals
continued.
Mike Benito, the former assistant state attorney who prosecuted the case,
said Way got everything he deserved.
"The killing of his daughter was as cold-blooded and cowardly as it gets,"
he said.
Not everyone saw it that way.
Defense attorney David Rankin, who learned of Way's death Thursday, said
he always thought Way was innocent. There were several pieces of evidence
that never quite sat right with him.
Rankin said he doubted Way could have murdered two people, spoken to his
daughter, then walked outside to smoke all in a short amount of time.
Fred Way Jr., who now lives in Tennessee, said he doesn't know whether his
father was guilty, but he is surprised that prosecutors managed to secure
a conviction on circumstantial evidence alone.
"After years of therapy and 800 pages of depositions that I read, I think
whether or not he did it, he was railroaded through the process," Way Jr.
said. "I'm not professing his innocence or his guilt. I just think
everyone deserves a fair shake."
Way Jr. said he harbors some bad feelings about the way he says law
enforcement used him and his sister in the days after they lost their
mother and sibling.
Although he has not rectified the deaths in his mind, he said he
eventually did learn to forgive his father.
"I guess my perspective is a Christian perspective," he said. "Whether he
killed them or not, it's not my place to judge."
(source : Tampa Tribune)