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Post by Anja on Jul 3, 2006 19:04:28 GMT -5
After his 24 years on Mississippi's death row, the state Supreme Court has issued a warrant of execution and set an execution date of July 11 for Bobby Glen Wilcher, 44, of Scott County.
Barring the production of a legal rabbit out of an unseen hat, it appears that Wilcher's execution will be carried out on schedule. But the inmate's long odyssey in the appeals process demonstrates some of the frustration society feels with the death penalty in Mississippi.
Wilcher received two death sentences for the 1982 murders of Katie Belle Moore and Velma Odell Noblin in Scott County.
After the women agreed to give Wilcher a ride home from a Forest bar because they knew his mother, he diverted them down a U.S. Forest Service road and stabbed them at least 20 times each.
Wilcher was convicted in separate trials in 1982, receiving the death sentence in each case. Both of Wilcher's convictions were vetted through the federal and state appeal processes.
APPEALS STARTED OVER
In 1993, new sentencing trials were ordered for Wilcher following a U.S. Supreme Court ruling that suggested the jury instructions in many Mississippi death penalty cases were unconstitutionally vague. Essentially, the high court ruled that the average Mississippi juror was too ignorant to know the meaning of the phrase "heinous, atrocious and cruel" in describing the act of murder.
The ruling gave the inmate new trials and also gave him a new round of appeals in both state and federal court venues.
Wilcher was re-sentenced to death in 1994 in both cases. In 2003, the Mississippi Supreme Court ruled Wilcher presented no post-conviction claims that could lead to a new trial.
Mississippi is one of 38 states that utilize the death penalty. There are 3,370 death row inmates in the U.S. - with 70 in Mississippi.
$2.2 MILLION EACH?
Duke University and other studies in North Carolina and in Texas suggest that the cost of the average death penalty case is about $2.2 million - with most of those costs incurred in the trial and appeals process.
Nationally, the Death Penalty Information Center reports that 57 percent of the 1,026 inmates executed since 1976 were white while 34 % were African-American. Some 45 % of the current U.S. death row inmates are white while 44 % are African-American.
In Mississippi, 50 % of the death row inmates are white, 49 % are African-American and 1 percent is Asian, according to the Department of Corrections.
Is the system totally reliable? No. Since 1973, 123 people have been released from death row with evidence of their innocence, U.S. House of Representatives' reports show. But the circumstantial evidence, the forensic evidence, and Wilcher's multiple confessions make these convictions impregnable.
While some $2.2 million and 24 years were expended protecting Wilcher's rights, the majority of the family members of both Mrs. Noblin and Mrs. Moore have died awaiting some measure of justice in the murders of their loved ones.That's not right.
After a quarter century, Wilcher's case is a tragic reminder that victims' rights increasingly get trampled in the appeals process.
(source: Clarion Ledger)
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Post by SoulTrainOz on Jul 4, 2006 1:49:10 GMT -5
The nation's highest court has denied a request from convicted killer Danny Rolling to review his death sentence.
But, although the decision exhausts Rolling's ordinary federal appeals, a death warrant for the man who pleaded guilty to killing 5 Gainesville college students in 1990 remains indefinitely on hold while questions about lethal injection continue in the courts.
Earlier this month, the U.S. Supreme Court reviewed a case from another Florida death row inmate and unanimously ruled that inmates can file last-minute appeals on the method of execution. It then sent the matter back to the lower federal courts to consider civil rights issues that the same case raised over lethal injection.
Before the decision, Gov. Jeb Bush had postponed all executions while the U.S. Supreme Court reviewed the issue. That stay will remain in place while the case is in the lower courts, in spite of the decision on Rolling, a spokeswoman for Gov. Jeb Bush's press office said Tuesday.
State Attorney Bill Cervone applauded the U.S. Supreme Court decision, handed down Monday, on Rolling, 52.
And, Cervone said, he had not anticipated any immediate action by the governor's office regarding a death warrant because of pending matters involving lethal injection.
"I would be surprised if he would sign it before that issue would get resolved," Cervone said.
"But for (the lethal injection issue), I would have thought that this may well clear the way for the governor to file the warrant," he said.
Cervone also stressed that the U.S. Supreme Court's refusal to hear Rolling's case is another victory for prosecutors and the state in a string of appeals the inmate has filed.
"It is very good news. It eliminates one more potential series of delays," he said.
The speed of the U.S. Supreme Court refusal to hear Rolling's request surprised the state.
In February, the 11th Circuit Court of Appeals in Atlanta denied Rolling's appeal. It took almost 5 years for the appeal to work its way through the lower federal courts.
Rolling had been convicted of killing 5 college students at the start of the 1990 fall semester in Gainesville. His victims were Sonja Larson, 18, of Deerfield Beach; Christina Powell, 17, of Jacksonville; Christa Hoyt, 19, of Archer; Tracy Paules, 23, of Miami; and Manuel Taboada, 23, of Miami.
At this point, Cervone said, Rolling's sentence apparently rests on what happens with legal issues raised over lethal injection.
"It's got everything on hold in essence," he said.
(source for both: Gainesville Sun)
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Post by SoulTrainOz on Jul 7, 2006 0:08:52 GMT -5
24 years ago Forest police officer Henry Williams Jr. pulled over a speeding Datsun on Oak Street, driven by a 19-year old Bobby Glen Wilcher who was trying to beat a train to a crossing.
Approaching Wilcher and observing him wearing blood-soaked clothes, Williams knew this was more than a routine traffic stop.
"It was on my mind that something bad had happened," Williams, now a Jackson businessman, said last week. "A light went off in my mind that something was not right."
Williams proved to be the first law enforcement official that encountered Wilcher on March 6, 1982, just a few hours after he stabbed Velma Odell Noblin and Katie Belle Moore to death. Convicted of both murders and twice sentenced to death, Wilcher is scheduled to be executed Tuesday after dropping his few remaining appeals, the end of a legal process that kept him alive on death row since the murders.
Williams, who left Forest in October 1982 and worked for the Jackson Police Department until his retirement from law enforcement in 1990, said he is relieved that the case is close to a conclusion.
"It's been a long time. Two people died and I feel bad. My heart goes out to the families," Williams said. Referring to Wilcher dropping his appeals, Williams said, "Maybe he just knows it's time."
Williams said he knew Wilcher back then as a regular troublemaker and the night of the murders was his fourth encounter with Wilcher. After the murders, Williams said he has remained convinced of Wilcher's character.
"He's a threat to society," Williams said. "He's a threat to anybody he's around."
Recalling that night, Williams said he felt his own life was in danger, even before knowing the reason why Wilcher was covered in blood.
After stopping Wilcher for speeding moments after Wilcher was nearly struck trying to beat a train to a crossing, Williams said he kept his eyes on Wilcher at all times. He had also observed the victims' purses and a bra in the car Wilcher was driving, hours before the victims' bodies were found.
"He had a knife in his hands, telling me how he had cut his thumb while cleaning a possum," Wilcher said. "It was his demeanor. He never closed the knife."
Williams said other officers might have turned their back to returned to their patrol car, but "I kept facing him at all times. I felt that I was in danger. If I had turned away, I might have been the 3rd victim that night."
"I told them we need to hold on to this guy," Williams said. However, he was told to allow Wilcher to leave. Williams said Wilcher only allowed hospital personnel to place a bandage on his wound and left the hospital while Williams was on the phone with his supervising officer.
"I didn't sleep at all that night," Williams said of the time spent thinking of Wilcher after his shift ended that night.
After then-Sheriff Glenn Warren arrested Wilcher for petty larceny and the victims had been found, Williams said he saw Wilcher being escorted in police custody.
"I told them, 'you got your man on those murders,'" Williams said. However, after giving a statement on his encounter with Wilcher, Williams said he was not allowed further contact with the case.
Called as a witness throughout each of the trials held, Williams said he has followed Wilcher's case through the years.
"When we were in Biloxi for one of the trials, he told me there on the coast that if he ever got out, I'd be the first one he'd look up," Williams said.
Scott County Circuit Judge Marcus Gordon, who presided over all 4 of Wilcher's trials, said he is most disturbed that 24 years passed before Wilcher's sentence is expected to be carried out.
"I think that if we have the death penalty, there has to be a finality to it," Gordon said. "It's a mark on the justice system to bring this case to conclusion this many years later."
Gordon said pronouncing a death sentence is not one of his favorite duties, but one that he takes seriously.
"It is never a pleasant duty to issue a death sentence," Gordon said. "I am not happy with anyone's execution, but I am glad it is coming. The facts on this case were so overwhelming. Not one time did I notice emotion on (Wilcher's) face."
Robert N. Brooks, now an assistant district attorney since 2003, served as Wilcher's defense attorney for his original trials and handled his 1st appeal.
Brooks agreed with Gordon concerning the legal system. Wilcher was 1 of Brooks' only 2 death penalty cases.
"Whether you are for or against the death penalty, it is ridiculous that it took more than 20 years to get here," Brooks said last week. "There needs to be something done to make the system run better."
Brooks said his part of his main focus in the original trials was trying to avoid the death penalty. Wilcher, however, kept secrets from his own defense team.
"He was very intelligent," Brooks said of Wilcher. "Back then, there was no question he was mentally competent. He was very involved in his defense. Of course, he didn't tell us everything."
Brooks described Wilcher as emotionless during most of the trials.
"I never saw him break down and cry in front of us," Brooks said. "He was pretty straight-forward. He took a tough-person approach to us."
Mark Duncan, now Scott County's district attorney who served as an assistant prosecutor at Wilcher's re-sentence trial in 1994, said he agrees with Wilcher's fate by execution.
"I couldn't agree more. Those were senseless deaths," Duncan said of Noblin and Moore. "He had 4 trials. That's 48 jurors and any one of them could have prevented him from getting convicted and sentenced. It's hard to get 48 people to agree on anything."
(source: Scott County Times)
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Post by SoulTrainOz on Jul 9, 2006 6:10:40 GMT -5
By TAMI K. PHILLIPS, Scott County Times FOREST--Penny Easterling remembers watching the Smurfs with her big brother, Bobby Wilcher, the day he was arrested for murder. "My parents were actually asleep that morning and me and Bobby were watching cartoons together in the living room when they (police) came and picked him up," Easterling said about Wilcher's March 6, 1982, arrest. "He acted as if he knew they were coming. He told me not to wake daddy and mama up, that he was going to be at the Forest Police station." Forest police charged Wilcher with larceny of a pistol that morning. Later that day, three teenagers found the murdered bodies of two local mothers, Katie Belle Moore and Velma Odell Noblin, and authorities charged Wilcher with murder. Family members found it hard to believe that Wilcher was entirely responsible for the murders though others were not surprised that the "little boy lost" was guilty of such heinous crimes. Wilcher was later sentenced to death for the murders and has spent the past 24 years on the death row at the Mississippi State Penitentiary at Parchman. Troubled childhood Easterling remembers her brother as caring and attentive, often attending her birthday parties and engaging in children's activities when he could have been doing other things with youth his age. Documents shared with The Times show Wilcher's caring nature as a child. Inside the card he created at Vacation Bible School, Wilcher wrote a story entitled "A boy saves a man from a shark." A homemade Mother's Day card features a stick-figure portrait of Wilcher's mother and the following poem: "I love you, Mom/ I love you, Mom, indeed I do, I love you more each day, when dim (I'm) at work or play." But Wilcher's younger years also foreshadowed a troubling future. L.C. Brown Jr., who taught Wilcher English in middle school, remembers Wilcher as "a tough little boy" who was "different from everybody." "Bobby had a chip on his shoulder," Brown said. "He was always wanting to fight somebody. He wasn't interested in learning anything." Brown did not recall if Wilcher had any friends in school, though he may have hung around other troublemakers from time to time. "He was just mad all the time," Brown said. "He was mean. That's the only thing I can say. I feel sorry for the boy because he grew up to be a man. The murders he committed, that really disturbed me." Records show that Wilcher attended school in Lake and Forest and made it through the eighth grade. Wilcher's third grade report card included unsatisfactory marks in language, spelling, science and geography. In a 1985 interview with former Times publisher Sid Salter, Wilcher spoke about his experiences in school, noting that sports were the only enjoyable aspect. "The best thing I can remember about school was that I played football. I enjoyed that. That's one thing after I moved to Forest, they wouldn't let me play." Easterling, 30, agreed that Wilcher, now 44, as well as their eldest brother Danny, now 46, had early criminal records. The brothers once broke into a local restaurant to cook themselves a meal when they didn't have any money. Other crime stints included stealing a car. Records show that Wilcher was admitted to Columbia Training School and Oakley Training School during his adolescent years. A glimpse of life behind bars Wilcher's family visited him in Parchman at least a few times a year in the beginning, depending on their monetary situation at the time. During his first few years in prison, Wilcher appeared to believe that he would one day be released. In a letter dated Jan. 1, 1987, Wilcher wrote: "What was Christmas like down there!!? I wish I could have been there!! And I was in my dreams and someday I will be there in person, you all just remember all the birthdays and Christmases that I miss and when I get out, I will be looking for all the gifts that I missed out on!!" Other letters send encouragement to his little sister back at home. On Feb. 21, 1987, Wilcher wrote to his sister: "I know you get upset when mom and dad fight. And when Daddy drinks. But you are going to have to understand that daddy is sick and he needs help. So love him even if you don't like what he does ... I could have stayed at home and maybe Dad wouldn't be drinking now, but I didn't." The letter was lovingly signed, "Your Bubba." Wilcher apparently worked in the prison serving meals to inmates over the years. In some letters to his family, Wilcher documented how he spent his time, sometimes passing the days by drinking 20 cups of coffee per day. In one letter, Wilcher said he rented his television set to other inmates for $1.50 a day. In the 1985 interview, Wilcher complained of being "like a cooped up animal" when asked by Salter if the time waiting bothered him. "If it rains, you don't get to go nowhere, you sit in your cell. You receive your shower when you're told to shower, you phone when you're told to use the phone, you get medication when you're told you'll get it, you feed when they tell you to feed . . . Just like you cage up a hog or cow set up for slaughter." Some letters show the depression that Wilcher experienced in prison. He wrote on July 1, 1985, "The reason I didn't call or write for a while is because I have been hurting here lately and I didn't want to hurt you all, just because I am hurting! I am 22 years old and it aint one thing I can think of that I can say I did to make you proud of me. When (daughter) Marcha gets older, what will you tell her?? She will hate me. I can never blame her, because look at all I have done. So many of my people have turned away from me; I wonder will any of them come to my funeral?" When Salter asked him how he felt about dying in 1985, Wilcher said, "Everybody's got to die. When you go to fearing it, you've got to live with your death. You've got to understand it. Feel it." Wilcher will be executed for the murders of Moore and Noblin on July 11, 2006. Source : Scott County Times www.sctonline.net/articles/2006/07/05/news/local/news73.txt
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Post by SoulTrainOz on Jul 9, 2006 20:26:51 GMT -5
Families of Katie Moore and Odell Noblin may have to wait longer after all to see Bobby Glen Wilcher executed for the murder of their loved ones.
It was reported by The Clarion-Ledger and wire services Saturday that Wilcher has asked a federal court to stay his execution.
After 24 years on death row, a federal judge last month granted Wilcher's request to end his appeals and proceed with the execution, set for 6 p.m. Tuesday, July 11.
Cliff Johnson of Jackson, Wilcher's attorney, said Wilcher, 44, called him Friday afternoon and said he wanted to pursue all appeals available to him.
"I think that the interests of justice will better be served by letting his claims work their way through the normal appeals process," Johnson told the media.
Jacob Ray, a spokesman for Attorney General Jim Hood, said "at this point we are preparing our response to the actions taken by Wilcher."
On Monday, Johnson filed a petition before the 5th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals in New Orleans. He does not expect the court to decide until Monday or possibly even Tuesday - the day Wilcher is scheduled to die.
"At this point, the execution will go on unless the 5th Circuit Court of Appeals honors the motion to withdraw Bobby's request," he said.
Last week, Johnson asked U.S. District Judge Henry T. Wingate to block Wilcher's execution, saying Wilcher had been diagnosed with bipolar disorder and was in no mental condition to make a decision that would ultimately end his life.
Wingate denied that motion, saying Wilcher's medical history had not shown that the inmate is incompetent to make a decision about appeals in the case.
But Johnson claims Wilcher's indecisive nature over his own life shows he is not capable of making a rational decision.
"Certainly when someone who has been diagnosed with bipolar disorder shows indecision in such an important area it raises questions as to whether he was able to make a rational decision to waive his appeal in the first place," Johnson told The Associated Press.
The Mississippi Supreme Court also has refused to delay the execution.
(source: Scott County Times)
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Post by SoulTrainOz on Jul 10, 2006 20:30:25 GMT -5
Unless a court grants a reprieve, Mississippi's 71st execution will happen next week.
Bobby Glen Wilcher is scheduled to be put to death by lethal injection at 6:00 p.m. Tuesday. It's the 1st execution since December.
Wilcher was convicted of killing 2 Scott County women in 1982. Each woman had been stabbed more than 20 times according to authorities.
Wilcher told a federal judge that he wanted to drop his appeals, but changed his mind last week and asked a federal appeals court to stop the execution.
(source: WLBT News)
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Post by SoulTrainOz on Jul 10, 2006 23:43:02 GMT -5
3 families will make a 2 1/2-hour trek to the Parchman penitentiary this week - 2 to witness the execution of the man responsible for killing their loved ones, the third to say goodbye to a relative who has been on death row for 24 years.
All 3 families hope to put to rest a lifetime of waiting, grief, loathing - the gamut of emotions. Unless a court grants a reprieve, Bobby Glen Wilcher is to be put to death by lethal injection at 6 p.m. Tuesday.
It will be Mississippi's 1st execution since December.
"It's been a roller coaster ride without the joy," said Sue May, the youngest sister of Katie Belle Moore, 1 of 2 women killed by Wilcher.
May describes her sister as "a very sweet, petite person."
Penny Easterling, Wilcher's younger sister, shares a sense of emptiness, only from a different perspective.
"I feel I lost a very important part of my childhood because lost a brother that I was used to having there," said Easterling, who was 6 when Wilcher was arrested.
"My parents lost a child; his daughter, a father. My kids lost an uncle they will never be able to know," she said.
Wilcher, now 44, was convicted in the 1982 killings of 2 Scott County women - Moore and Velma Odell Noblin. After meeting them at a Forest bar, Wilcher persuaded the women to drive him home and diverted them down a deserted road.
Their blood-soaked bodies were found sprawled along the muddy banks of the dirt road. Each woman had been stabbed and slashed more than 20 times, according to authorities.
Wilcher told a federal judge recently that he wanted to drop his appeals. He backtracked on Friday, his attorney said, and now has asked a federal appeals court to stop his scheduled execution.
Unless a stay is granted before Tuesday, Wilcher will become the 4th person executed by legal injection since Mississippi adopted the procedure in 1984.
Wilcher's case has gone through two trials, two re-sentencing hearings and countless appeals.
Moore said in an interview with The Associated Press that the execution shouldn't have taken so long.
"Thanks to the candlelighters and all those people like that ... they managed to pull sympathy and get things twisted around their way," Moore said. "It's just about time. Twenty-four years is definitely way too long. No family should have to go through that."
On that point, Easterling agrees. However, she said the attention her brother's pending execution has attracted has been disturbing. Scott County, with a population of about 28,700, is a mostly rural area where families have deep roots and everyone knows everyone else.
"Everything in the news, from the community we live in has been that everybody's excited and so happy and a lot of people are celebrating his death," Easterling said. "He does have a family that is grieving. We were victims in a sense, too ... not as they were, I understand that, but we have lost too."
Easterling said she never saw a side of her brother that would make her think he was capable of the murders.
"This is not the Bobby that I knew. This was somebody different. He was a very attentive brother to me," Easterling said.
The Moore and Noblin families will witness the execution, May said. Easterling said Wilcher's family will not.
Easterling said the family will visit with Wilcher during the time allotted Tuesday and then leave. She said her brother didn't want relatives to witness the execution. She said a funeral home will take her brother's body to an undisclosed location for a private burial.
Mississippi Department of Corrections officials began preparations for the execution over the weekend.
(source: Associated Press)
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Post by SoulTrainOz on Jul 10, 2006 23:47:56 GMT -5
Bobby Glen Wilcher, 44, has spent over 24 years on Death Row for the March 5, 1982 murders and robberies of two Scott County women. His appeals exhausted, Wilcher is scheduled for execution by lethal injection on Tuesday, July 11 at the Mississippi State Penitentiary at Parchman.
A quarter of a century ago, when lawmen came to arrest him for the murders of Odell Noblin and Katie Belle Moore, Bobby Glen Wilcher said he was watching cartoons with his father and little sister.
Hours earlier, on March 6, 1982, Wilcher had been stopped for speeding in Forest by a city police officer. Wilcher was covered in blood and had a knife in his hand.
Court records reflect that Wilcher told the officer he'd cut his finger cleaning an opossum. The officer took him to the hospital for treatment, but noticed 2 purses and a black brassiere on the back seat of the car. The car would later be identified as Mrs. Noblin's brown 1978 Datsun.
Wilcher was released from the hospital and went home. When police came to the Wilcher home later after three teenagers found the bodies of his victims in the Bienville National Forest, Wilcher's father led them to his son's bedroom. There, officers discovered a styrofoam cup that contained a watch, two rings and a necklace belonging to Mrs. Noblin. The purses and the bra belonged to the victims, too.
As murder/robbery cases go, it was pretty straightforward. Wilcher confessed. In 4 separate murder trials over the next 12 years, 48 jurors agreed unanimously to his guilt.
Counting his reform school stints, Wilcher now has spent 30 of his 44 years behind bars - including more than 24 years on death row.
Since 1985, Wilcher has been trying to get the state and federal courts and his own attorneys to stop the appeals process. U.S. District Judge Henry T. Wingate decided to grant the inmate's request and the state Supreme Court has set an execution date for Wilcher on Tuesday, July 11, at Parchman.
In Wilcher's 1982 murder trial in Scott County Circuit Court, Mildred Warren tearfully told the jurors that her son Bobby Glen Wilcher (then 19) was "a normal child" until the age of 12 "when all of a sudden he turned bad."
Following a troubled adolescence rife with offenses serious enough to land him in reform school, Wilcher never made it past the 8th grade at Lake Attendance Center in eastern Scott County.
Next came auto theft convictions in Rankin County for which he did time in Parchman.
Wilcher was married briefly and the couple had a daughter, Marcia, who was 9 months old at the time of the murders.
Wilcher's 1982 murder convictions began a 24-year stretch of time when Wilcher's only trips off death row came for court appearances.
After a quarter century, Wilcher's father is now seriously ill and hospitalized; his little sister is now a respected public school teacher; his daughter is grown and moving on with her life. Wilcher's mother is in prison at the Central Mississippi Correctional Facility in Rankin County serving 5 years on a drug sale charge in Scott County.
Wilcher is a man of average intelligence whom a state-paid forensic psychologist once described as having "elements of psychopathic personality" with a history of drug and alcohol abuse.
Wilcher seems to have made his peace a long time ago with the fact that he would ultimately be executed for the brutal 1982 murders of 2 Scott County women.
In a 1994 psychological evaluation conducted by Dr. Carlton S. Stanley of Jackson, it was noted that Wilcher "understands the concept of retribution" and that Wilcher "does believe that he is a sinner."
During a 1985 Death Row interview, Wilcher said that he "likes to read westerns because they take me away from this place here."
Wilcher indicated during a 1988 death row interview that he believes he "had it coming."
"I feel that they should have put me to death a long time ago and wouldn't have had to go through all this misery to begin with," he said. "They convicted me of it. And they have upheld it several times. So what's the holdup?"
The family of Wilcher's victims have been asking the same question since 1982. Crime scene photos of the victims' bodies show the sheer brutality of Wilcher's crimes.
Moore, a small woman, was found fully clothed and flat on her back with her arms and legs grotesquely splayed. Her small hands showed obvious defensive wounds.
Her eyes were wide open, her facial expression looking upward to the heavens in the posture of the supplicant.
Noblin's body was partially in a muddy ditch. Her body was turned on her right side, and her blouse had been cut and ripped. She appeared to have fought a fierce and protracted battle for her life against her attacker.
Her shoes were found near her body. Wilcher would later say Mrs. Noblin tried to beat him with those shoes as he slashed at her.
Moore, 47, was the mother of four children. Noblin, 52, was the mother of 10 children.
They had been reported missing after being seen at a Forest bar called Robert's Drop Inn late on the night of Friday, March 5, 1982.
Their blood-soaked bodies were found sprawled along the muddy ditch banks of the dirt road. It had rained all Friday night before the discovery on Saturday afternoon. Medical examiners would determine that each victim had been stabbed and slashed more than 20 times.
In separate trials in 1982, Wilcher was convicted of capital murder for both killings and sentenced to death in both cases. Wilcher has been in Parchman since 1982 while his convictions were appealed.
Wilcher's death sentences have been reviewed in whole or in part by eight different courts.
Those appeals bore fruit when Wilcher won new trials in 1994 after the U.S. Supreme Court ruled that Mississippi juries couldn't comprehend the words "heinous, atrocious and cruel" in instructions given them in the 1982 trials.
Wilcher was again convicted in 1994 and again sentenced to death in both cases by juries in Rankin and Harrison counties.
A quarter century after Noblin and Moore were murdered, Wilcher now faces execution in 48 hours.
Wilcher's been actively seeking to drop his appeals of the convictions and the death sentences off and on since 1985. But the legal system - and death penalty opponents - made the inmate's stated desire to be executed in a timely fashion a moot point.
Wilcher's obvious torment over serving the quarter century on death row may well have been for him the harshest punishment - an irony of his final reckoning.
(source: Clarion-Ledger)
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Post by SoulTrainOz on Jul 12, 2006 3:53:16 GMT -5
Confessed killer to die today
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TODAY'S SCHEDULE
3 p.m. Inmate's attorney and chaplain allowed to visit.
4 p.m. Inmate is served last meal and allowed to shower.
6 p.m. Inmate is escorted from holding cell to execution room. Witnesses are escorted into observation room.
**
Barring a last-minute stay by the U.S. Supreme Court, Bobby Glen Wilcher will be the fourth person Mississippi has executed in the past four years.
And Wilcher is fine with that.
The 5th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals late Monday denied his request for a stay, calling it an "11th-hour death row plea for mercy finally elicited from Wilcher by counsel."
In addition, Gov. Haley Barbour denied a clemency request Monday for Wilcher.
"The injustice is that it has taken more than 20 years to carry out this sentence," Barbour said.
Mississippi Department of Corrections Commissioner Chris Epps said Wilcher's family won't be there for his execution. Wilcher said it will be too painful for them, the commissioner said.
Wilcher's attorney, Cliff Johnson, said the situation is very difficult and somber for the victims' families and for Wilcher's family.
Johnson said he will file an emergency appeal with the U.S. Supreme Court.
**
PAST EXECUTIONS
Inmate name Method Dated executed
Jimmy Lee Gray Gas chamber 09/02/1983
Edward Earl Johnson Gas chamber 05/20/1987
Connie Ray Evans Gas chamber 07/08/1987
Leo Edwards Gas chamber 06/21/1989
Tracy Alan Hansen Lethal injection 07/17/2002
Jesse Derrell Williams Lethal injection 12/11/2002
John B. Nixon Sr. Lethal injection 12/14/2005
[sources: Mississippi Department of Corrections, Mississippi State Penitentiary, July 2006]
**
But Epps met with Wilcher on Monday and said the condemned killer wants to die.
"He said 'I hope we can go ahead and get this over with tomorrow,' " Epps said of his conversation with Wilcher on Monday. "This is my eighth execution, but the first one I had where the person said he is ready to die."
Wilcher, 43, is sentenced to death by lethal injection at the Mississippi State Penitentiary at Parchman for the 1982 slayings of Scott County mothers Katie Bell Moore, 47, and Velma Odell Noblin, 52. The 2 women were stabbed and slashed more than 20 times each.
Epps said Wilcher was apologetic about filing an appeal Friday with the Court of Appeals.
"I told him he didn't need to be apologetic to me," Epps said.
Moore's son, Tommy Moore, said he was happy to hear the court's decision.
On Friday, Wilcher reversed his position when he petitioned the 5th Circuit for the stay. Wilcher had told U.S. District Judge Henry T. Wingate he wanted to drop all appeals late last month.
"That able and persuasive counsel was finally successful in convincing Wilcher to do an about-face scant days before his requested execution is not surprising but is without authority under applicable law and is to no avail," the 5th Circuit said.
"I wish I could take credit for that; I didn't get a chance to see him Friday," Johnson said Monday.
He said Wilcher called him late Friday and told him he wanted to file the appeal.
Johnson said Wilcher's change of mind, including telling Epps he wanted to die, is further indication something is mentally wrong with him.
"We need to have Bobby tested," Johnson said.
The appeals court's ruling said in its opinion that Wilcher was present at the hearing before Wingate and was questioned in depth about his mental competency.
"The evidence presented to the court did not raise a bona fide doubt as to Wilcher's competency," the court said. "There was not, for example, evidence of a long history of uncontrolled mental health problems."
State Attorney General Jim Hood said there is no question of Wilcher's competency.
"He confessed to it and told others he did it," Hood said of the crimes for which Wilcher was convicted.
Hood said it was unfortunate again that Wilcher had upset the victims' families by filing last-minute contradictory motions.
"The 5th Circuit has cleared the way for his execution," Hood said. "We anticipate some filing with the U.S. Supreme Court, and we have prepared our responses."
Johnson said he recognizes the U.S. Supreme Court rarely intervenes to stop an imminent execution.
"We have to exhaust all possibilities," Johnson said.
Hood said he doesn't believe the Supreme Court will stop the execution.
Wilcher was convicted in 1984 in separate trials in Scott County and received 2 death sentences. In 1993, new sentencing trials were ordered. Wilcher was resentenced to death in 1994 in both cases.
The last person executed in the state was John B. Nixon Sr., 77, on Dec. 14.
As with prior executions, the 4,529-bed state Penitentiary was placed on lockdown at 6 p.m. Monday and will stay that way until after the scheduled execution, Epps said.
(source: Clarion-Ledger)
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Post by SoulTrainOz on Jul 12, 2006 3:54:57 GMT -5
A federal appeals court has refused to block the execution of Bobby Glen Wilcher, who is waiting out his final hours in a holding cell at the state penitentiary at Parchman.
Unless the U.S. Supreme Court grants a stay, Wilcher, 43, will die by lethal injection shortly after 6 p.m. Tuesday. He was moved Sunday to the holding cell next to the execution room.
The 5th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals in New Orleans on Monday turned down petitions by Wilcher and his attorney, Cliff Johnson of Jackson. Johnson said appeals were filed immediately with the U.S. Supreme Court.
Mississippi Corrections Commissioner Chris Epps said he talked with Wilcher for about an hour Monday.
"He was upbeat and very talkative," Epps said. "He said he was ready to get this over with."
Epps said Wilcher apologized for filing last-minute appeals.
"He said he had gotten upset with somebody but wouldn't tell me who," Epps said. "I told him he didn't need to apologize to me."
The commissioner said Wilcher confirmed that no member of his family will witness the execution.
"He said it was too painful for any member of his family," Epps said.
Wilcher, 43, was convicted in the 1982 killings of 2 Scott County women: Katie Belle Moore and Velma Odell Noblin. After meeting them at a Forest bar, Wilcher persuaded the women to drive him home and diverted them down a deserted road.
Their blood-soaked bodies were found sprawled along the muddy banks of the dirt road. Each woman had been stabbed and slashed more than 20 times, according to authorities.
Members of the families of Moore and Noblin are expected to witness the execution, said Sue May, Moore's sister.
Unless a stay is granted, Wilcher will become the 4th person executed by legal injection since Mississippi adopted the procedure in 1984. The state's most recent execution was in December.
(source: Associated Press)
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Post by SoulTrainOz on Jul 12, 2006 5:08:25 GMT -5
The U.S. Supreme Court halted the execution of Bobby Glen Wilcher on Tuesday just minutes before the condemned inmate was scheduled to die by lethal injection.
Mississippi Department of Corrections Commissioner Chris Epps said Wilcher, who was scheduled to die at 6 p.m. at the Mississippi State Penitentiary at Parchman, had come closer to death than any inmate under his care before being issued a stay.
The commissioner said Wilcher would be given counseling because he was upset and crying because "he really wanted to die this afternoon."
"I've never seen an individual so upset that he didn't get executed," Epps said.
It was not immediately clear how long the delay would be. Wilcher attorney Cliff Johnson of Jackson told The Associated Press in a telephone interview from the prison that the U.S. Supreme Court would take the issue up with its normal order of business.
The stay was approved on a 6-3 vote, with Chief Justice John Roberts and Justices Antonin Scalia and Samuel Alito voting against the delay.
Such last-minute delay orders are rare, and justices could decide to hear oral arguments. The soonest that could happen is this fall.
"In all likelihood, there won't be anything further decided on it until the Supreme Court comes back into session in early October," said Jan Schaefer, spokeswoman for the Mississippi attorney general's office.
Leonard Vincent, attorney for MDOC, said after the Supreme Court disposes of the appeal, the attorney general's office must ask the Mississippi Supreme Court to reschedule Wilcher's execution.
Some were angered by the decision.
"The only injustice here is that 24 years have already passed since this murderer earned the death penalty," Gov. Haley Barbour said in a statement. "It is hard for me to believe that a majority of the United States Supreme Court has granted this stay. Nevertheless, that is within the court's power, and I am required to abide by their decision, as bad as I think it is."
Wilcher, now 43, was sentenced to death for the 1982 slayings of 2 Scott County women.
Late Tuesday afternoon, he ate what was supposed to be his last meal.
Epps said Wilcher would be placed on suicide watch after he was moved back to death row late Tuesday. He described the procedure as a precaution.
"I think Bobby knows he's going to be executed. He, like me, doesn't know what day," Epps said.
The 5th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals on Monday had refused to stop Wilcher's execution. The court said Wilcher's appeal was an "11th-hour death row plea for mercy finally elicited from Wilcher by counsel."
Barbour also had denied a request for clemency on Monday.
Epps said Wilcher had 6 visitors on Tuesday, none of them family.
Wilcher was convicted in the 1982 killings of 2 Scott County women - Katie Belle Moore and Velma Odell Noblin. After meeting them at a Forest bar, Wilcher persuaded the women to drive him home and diverted them down a deserted road.
Their blood-soaked bodies were found sprawled along the muddy banks of the dirt road. Each woman had been stabbed and slashed more than 20 times, according to authorities.
Wilcher's case has gone through 2 trials, 2 re-sentencing hearings and countless appeals.
The last person executed in the state was John B. Nixon Sr., 77, on Dec. 14, 2005.
Source: Associated Press
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Post by SoulTrainOz on Jul 12, 2006 5:11:08 GMT -5
world
Sarah MacDougall and Raminjit Kang of England didn't expect to end up protesting an execution at a prison in the Mississippi Delta when they came to the United States for summer internships.
But on Tuesday, the 21-year-olds from London joined protesters from Mississippi, California and Texas at this sprawling prison that houses the state's only death row to denounce the sentence of Bobby Glen Wilcher.
"It's surreal," Kang said. "It's just kind of a weird experience knowing a man is going to die."
Wilcher was convicted in the 1982 killings of two Scott County women - Katie Belle Moore and Velma Odell Noblin. After meeting them at a Forest bar, Wilcher persuaded the women to drive him home. Their blood-soaked bodies were found sprawled along the muddy banks of a deserted road. Each woman had been stabbed and slashed more than 20 times, according to authorities.
The protesters at the Mississippi State Penitentiary have varying reasons for opposing the death penalty, from religious conviction to personal philosophies that no state should sanction the death of its citizens.
"Being European, we don't have the death penalty and we have a far lower murder rate," said MacDougall, who made the three-hour drive from Jackson with a co-worker who has been protesting executions outside the Mississippi State Penitentiary since 1982.
"I just don't think you should sit home and be silent when the state of Mississippi is purposely taking somebody's life," said Jackson resident Sheila O'Flaherty, who said this is her 8th protest in more than 2 decades.
Her black T-shirt said, "I oppose the death penalty. Don't kill for me."
With temperatures hovering in the 90s and partly cloudy skies, about 2 dozen protesters gathered in a circle in the gravel parking lot in the visitors' center outside the prison. One woman played a guitar and protesters singing "Amazing Grace" and other religious songs. They struggled to light candles for a vigil, but that was made difficult by winds gusting over the pancake-flat soybean fields nearby.
Wilcher has said he deserves to die for his crimes, and even took action to end the lengthy appeals process, but O'Flaherty said that's no reason to grant his wish.
"If somebody walks into a hospital or something and they decide they want to commit suicide, we don't go and help them do it," she said. "We get them help."
The 43-year-old Wilcher has been on death row for more than 24 years, and would be the 4th man executed since the state switched from the gas chamber to lethal injection in 1984.
Kristin Small, 23, of Boston and her colleagues from the Office of Capital Defense Counsel in Jackson made posters opposing the death penalty with slogans like, "An eye for an eye makes the whole world blind."
"It's and awful example for kids," Small said. "You try to teach your kids that you don't answer violence with violence."
More protesters were on hand during Wilcher's execution than during the last lethal injection, likely due to better weather.
Only about 20 people braved a steady, winter rain in December of last year to protest the death of 77-year-old hit man John B. Nixon Sr. Nixon became the oldest inmate executed since the death penalty was reinstated some 3 decades ago.
(source: Associated Press)
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Post by SoulTrainOz on Jul 12, 2006 22:11:37 GMT -5
U.S. Supreme Court justices spared the life of condemned killer Bobby Glen Wilcher today about 30 minutes before he was scheduled to die.
A panel of 3 justices will review the case and then rule.
State officials said that decision could come as soon as Wednesday. if the panel denies Wilcher's appeal, the state Supreme Court would then have to set a new execution date.
Wilcher was scheuled to die shortly after 6 p.m. today at the State Penitentiary at Parchman for the 1982 slayings of two Scott County mothers.
Corrections Commissioner Chris Epps said Wilcher would be returned to Unit 32 and put under suicide watch as a precaution.
Epps said Wilcher had come closer to death than any other inmate under his care before being issued a stay.
The commissioner said Wilcher would be given counseling because he was upset and crying because "he really wanted to die this afternoon."
"I've never seen an individual so upset that he didn't get executed," Epps said.
"He won't be executed tonight," said Jan Schaefer, spokeswoman for the Mississippi attorney general's office. "It will go through the appeals process. There's no way to really tell what that timeline will be."
Gov. Haley Barbour criticized the delay.
"The only injustice here is that 24 years have already passed since this murderer earned the death penalty," Barbour said. "It is hard for me to believe that a majority of the United States Supreme Court has granted this stay.
"Nevertheless, that is within the court's power, and I am required to abide by their decision, as bad as I think it is," Barbour said.
Wilcher, 43, was convicted of the 1982 murders of Katie Bell Moore, 47, and Velma Odell Noblin, 52.
Less than 2 hours earlier, Wilcher ate his first and last meal of the day.
Wilcher's huge meal arrived at 4:06 p.m. Earlier in the day, he had refused breakfast and lunch. Until his dinner, Wilcher had ingested only coffee today.
During a 4 p.m. news briefing, Mississippi Department of Corrections Commissioner Chris Epps said Wilcher also refused communion.
If executed, Wilcher will become the 4th person Mississippi has executed in the past 4 years.
Epps said Wilcher has remained talkative throughout the day. "He's talking like 500 miles per hour," Epps said.
That's abnormal for Wilcher because he was more of a quiet person in prison, Epps said.
During a 2 p.m. news briefing, Epps said Wilcher seemed to be in a rush to get it over with.
"He has assured me that he is ready," Epps said.
Wilcher has not attempted to make or receive any phone calls, Epps said. Wilcher told him he didn't want to talk to any of his family members because they would bring him down.
Before the 4 p.m. news briefing, Wilcher's 3 friends, his attorney, his attorney's paralegal and a spiritual adviser had visited him.
Wilcher said he was not going to make a statement before the execution, Epps said. But it would be surprising if he didn't, the commissioner said.
Wilcher also gave Epps suggestions on how to make the execution process better.
For example, Epps said, Wilcher recommended that death row inmates be brought over to the holding cell a week before their scheduled execution instead of 48 hours before they are set to die.
According to Wilcher, this would give inmates a chance to clear their heads, Epps said.
(source: The Clarion-Ledger)
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Post by SoulTrainOz on Jul 14, 2006 21:27:27 GMT -5
By Nathan Martin, Laurel Leader Call In the short moments after the Mississippi Department of Corrections (MDOC) learned of the stay of execution granted to convicted killer Bobby Glenn Wilcher, it was readily apparent that this shocking news would be received joyfully by few people, least of which, the killer having his death postponed. "Wilcher turned around, walking to the back of his cell and put his hands up against the wall," said MDOC commissioner Chris Epps. "When I told him to turn around, he had tears flowing down his face and was crying uncontrollably. He said, 'I'm down here now (pointing to the ground), I just want to die." After that dramatic outburst, Wilcher was put on suicide watch. Epps said that he didn't think Wilcher would attempt anything, but wanted to make sure just in case. "I asked Bobby if he was going to do anything to himself," said Epps. "He told me no, and shook his head." It was reported Wednesday that prison officials are looking to end that watch on Wilcher, but no further decision had been made. As the families of the victims tried to digest the unexpected news, Governor Haley Barbour issued a biting statement, read at Parchman shortly after the granted stay. "The only injustice here is that 24 years have already passed since this murderer earned the death penalty," read the statement from Barbour. "It is hard for me to believe that a majority of the United States Supreme Court has granted this stay. Nevertheless, that is within the court's power, and I am required to abide by their decision, as bad as I think it is." Members of the gathered media seemed to be in a collective state of surprise, as they rushed to rewrite stories, prepared in the event of Wilcher's execution. MDOC officials also responded to this news with an air of resigned acceptance. "It is a drastic step that is going to be taken in the taking of someone's life," said Leonard Vinson, legal counsel for MDOC. "He is surely entitled to due process of law, but after 24 years, how much due process is needed?" As the state of Mississippi tried to understand the reasoning behind the U.S. Supreme Court's decision to go against numerous lower courts, 48 different jurors who sentenced Wilcher to death, and the wishes of Wilcher himself, one group of people were pleasantly surprised. The crowd of 20 protesters gathered for a candlelight vigil during the execution of Wilcher had their hope fulfilled as the stay prevented the death of Wilcher and kept alive their expectations that Wilcher would be allowed off death row. "It is positively barbaric that the death penalty is in place in America," said Sarah MacDougall, a Jackson law intern. "I'm from the United Kingdom where we don't have capital punishment. I was shocked to discover that it is still present here, do the families really think that the execution will provide any kind of closure?" Source : Laurel Leader Call www.leadercall.com/local/local_story_194121255.html
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Post by SoulTrainOz on Jul 18, 2006 5:32:11 GMT -5
It will explore death penalty questions By JACK ELLIOTT JR., Associated Press JACKSON - The capital murder case of Bobby Glen Wilcher, whose execution was halted by the U.S. Supreme Court this past week, contains elements the justices are destined to address, say some longtime court watchers. Past cases show the justices are interested in exploring questions of whether to execute the mentally ill and when to cut off a condemned inmate's appeals, said Richard Dieter, executive director of the anti-capital punishment Death Penalty Information Center in Washington. "There's always the danger of someone jerking the courts around, saying I do (want to die) or I don't, switching off and on," Dieter said. "This may have been at least enough (for the court) to say, 'All right, he signaled his desire to appeal... you don't have to spend a lot of time on this, but you at least should take his word for it."' A month ago, Wilcher told a federal judge he wanted to drop his appeals. A July 11 execution date was set. Wilcher himself then filed an appeal with the 5th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals, saying he had changed his mind. The 5th Circuit declined to stop the execution. On Tuesday night, the Supreme Court temporarily stopped the execution about a half hour before Wilcher was to die by lethal injection at 6 p.m. The stay was issued about 6:27 p.m. Leonard Vincent, an attorney for the Mississippi Department of Corrections, said the 5th Circuit, in denying a stay, dismissed questions about Wilcher's mental illness and whether the inmate knowingly gave up his appeals. The justices issued what Kent Scheidegger, legal director of the pro-death penalty Criminal Justice Legal Foundation in Sacramento, Calif., called a "boilerplate" stay, one in which they usually do not comment on the case. Scheidegger said the question for Wilcher appears to be whether he knew what he was doing in seeking to drop his appeals. "It is certainly well-established that the mentally competent person can drop his appeals if he chooses to," Scheidegger said. "It doesn't take very long in most cases to determine whether a person is mentally competent. It's a fairly low threshold of mental ability... you know what you're doing and you choose to do it." Dieter said the lower courts might have acted hastily in ruling Wilcher had no appeals or filed them too late. "It's true he was waiving his appeals but the Supreme Court might want to clarify that even at the 11th hour, a person can change their mind... and the courts should respect that," Dieter said. "The Supreme Court may feel that is important enough to hear a case like that to make it clear." Wilcher's attorney, Cliff Johnson of Jackson, claims his client is mentally ill and questions whether Wilcher is capable of making a decision to drop his appeals. Wilcher takes medication for a bipolar disorder, a chemical imbalance some doctors say causes people to experience extreme highs on the one pole and depression on the other. Mississippi Attorney General Jim Hood said he suspects the stay was prompted by confusion over whether Wilcher wanted to waive his appeals. "Here this guy waived his appeals, his attorney said he wasn't competent, I suspect they said, 'Let's slow this down just a minute,' " Hood said. Hood said Wilcher was lucid when he told the district judge he wanted to drop his appeals. "We expect the Supreme Court to find this guy is competent to have made that decision," said Hood, who believes Wilcher's execution could be rescheduled for as early as November. In 2002, the Supreme Court ruled it is unconstitutional to execute the mentally retarded. The justices have not extended that ruling to the mentally ill. Few expect the court would use Wilcher's case to address that issue. "I don't suspect the court is ready to take on that whole issue of the mentally ill and the death penalty similar to the same way they did mental retardation, but someday they might," Dieter said. Wilcher, now 43, was sentenced to death for the 1982 slayings of two Scott County women. After meeting them at a Forest bar, Wilcher persuaded the women to drive him home and diverted them down a deserted road. Their blood-soaked bodies were found sprawled along the muddy banks of the dirt road. Each woman had been stabbed and slashed more than 20 times, according to authorities. Wilcher's case has gone through two trials, two re-sentencing hearings and countless appeals. If the justices decide to hear the Wilcher case, it could be nine months to a year before a decision is made. When a decision comes down, Hood said he will go back to the Mississippi Supreme Court for a new execution date. Hood's office said 26 death-row inmates have appeals pending in the U.S. District Courts and decisions could come at any time. The case furthest along is that of Gerald James Holland. Holland, now 68, was convicted of capital murder and sentenced to death in 1987 in Harrison County in the slaying of 15-year-old Krystal King. His appeal was turned down by the nation's high court in 2005. The last person executed in the state was John B. Nixon Sr., 77, on Dec. 14, 2005. Source : Associated Press www.sunherald.com/mld/sunherald/news/state/15049548.htm
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