Post by sclcookie on May 31, 2006 2:15:40 GMT -5
Sept. 19 execution date set for child-killer Holton----Shelbyville man won't appeal death sentence in 'homicide times 4'
The Tennessee Supreme Court yesterday set an execution date of Sept. 19 for Daryl Keith Holton, a Shelbyville man who killed his 3 sons and their sister 9 years ago and has given up his appeals.
Holton, 44, made news earlier this month when the state's highest court said lawyers could not go forward with appeals in state court without his permission.
After the May 4 ruling, lawyers for the state asked the Supreme Court to reset his execution date. On May 15, Holton filed a motion on his own saying he "does not oppose the state's motion to reset an execution date."
The Supreme Court opinion, which addressed Holton and seven-time convicted murderer Paul Dennis Reid, did say that a "next friend," a family member or friend acting in his best interest, could go forward with the appeals for him if Holton is not competent.
Death penalty advocates have applauded the Supreme Court's ruling, saying lawyers shouldn't be able to keep the appeals going even when the inmate wants them to stop.
Others say that the opinion could allow the mentally ill to be executed because they may not be competent to make the decision to give up the legal battle and may be so isolated that they neither have a friend nor family member to come forward on their behalf.
Holton, a Gulf War veteran and mechanic, lined up the four children, ages 13 to 4, and shot them with a semiautomatic rifle before calling police and reporting a "homicide times 4."
He had just picked up the children from his ex-wife and told them he was going to take them Christmas shopping.
After the slayings, he told police that he killed them to get revenge on his ex-wife because she had not let him see the kids for several months.
Their bodies were found stacked together under a tarp in an apartment inside an auto repair shop where Holton worked.
(source: The Tennessean)
The Tennessee Supreme Court yesterday set an execution date of Sept. 19 for Daryl Keith Holton, a Shelbyville man who killed his 3 sons and their sister 9 years ago and has given up his appeals.
Holton, 44, made news earlier this month when the state's highest court said lawyers could not go forward with appeals in state court without his permission.
After the May 4 ruling, lawyers for the state asked the Supreme Court to reset his execution date. On May 15, Holton filed a motion on his own saying he "does not oppose the state's motion to reset an execution date."
The Supreme Court opinion, which addressed Holton and seven-time convicted murderer Paul Dennis Reid, did say that a "next friend," a family member or friend acting in his best interest, could go forward with the appeals for him if Holton is not competent.
Death penalty advocates have applauded the Supreme Court's ruling, saying lawyers shouldn't be able to keep the appeals going even when the inmate wants them to stop.
Others say that the opinion could allow the mentally ill to be executed because they may not be competent to make the decision to give up the legal battle and may be so isolated that they neither have a friend nor family member to come forward on their behalf.
Holton, a Gulf War veteran and mechanic, lined up the four children, ages 13 to 4, and shot them with a semiautomatic rifle before calling police and reporting a "homicide times 4."
He had just picked up the children from his ex-wife and told them he was going to take them Christmas shopping.
After the slayings, he told police that he killed them to get revenge on his ex-wife because she had not let him see the kids for several months.
Their bodies were found stacked together under a tarp in an apartment inside an auto repair shop where Holton worked.
(source: The Tennessean)