Post by Anja on Jun 15, 2006 16:06:41 GMT -5
Victim's family awaits Friday sentencing in death-penalty case
They thought it would be over by now.
When a federal jury determined in July that Donald Fell should die for
beating to death Terry King, a 53-year-old wife and grandmother from North
Clarendon, her family began, for the first time in years, to think about
the future.
All that remained before they could start collecting the pieces of their
shattered lives, family members said, was for a judge to impose the jury's
sentence. The step was a formality, but necessary for Fell to be shipped
off to death row.
Months passed -- an agonizing wait for a family who already had endured
five years of grief and torment since King was abducted and murdered in
November 2000 -- and nothing happened.
Finally, in late April, a federal judge set a hearing date for Friday in
U.S. District Court in Burlington.
"I don't understand what took so long," said Charlotte Tuttle, 55, of
Rutland, one of King's sisters. "You can't make any long-term plans. You
can't make airline reservations. It's almost like this family has been
held hostage."
The family avoids entire neighborhoods in Rutland where the emotions
remain too raw, too fresh. One of King's daughters has to force herself to
visit her father at the home her parents once shared.
"With Terry," said sister Barbara Tuttle, 51, of North Clarendon, "you
can't put her to rest because there's all this other stuff that
continuously comes up. We have to deal with this over and over and over
again."
The formal sentencing was supposed to close that chapter. Family members
said they could endure the years of appeals sure to follow the first
death-penalty trial in Vermont in half a century. They just wanted to know
Fell's execution was a step closer.
"I can't believe that this week is going to be the week, that Friday is
the day," said King's daughter Karen Worcester, 39, of East Wallingford.
"We're counting down the days."
Wondering why
Barbara Tuttle's home is just off U.S. 7 in North Clarendon. King's family
gathered on the front porch earlier this week to sip tea or soda, smoke an
occasional cigarette, swat at flies emerging from weeks of rain into a
sun-soaked evening, and reflect on Terry, her murder, the years that have
passed and the man who will die for the crime.
Tuttle knows King was a captive the last time she saw her house, when she
rode past on U.S. 7 in the back seat of her own car, staring at a shotgun
and the two 20-year-olds who had abducted her minutes earlier. Fell and an
accomplice, Robert Lee, needed a car to escape the double killing they had
just committed in Rutland of Fell's mother and a friend of hers. They went
to Price Chopper and targeted King when she arrived for her 4 a.m. shift.
Five hours later, Fell and Lee beat King to death as she prayed and
pleaded for her life in a field in Dover, N.Y. The killing became a
federal offense because King's murderers crossed state lines.
Lee died in prison in 2001.
Charlotte Tuttle recalled a visit from an FBI agent shortly after the
crime. He told her about the benefits of the federal system, where, in
contrast with Vermont law, murder is punishable by execution.
"We were told quicker, swifter, stronger justice," she said.
Charlotte Tuttle lived in Florida last year and she moved to Vermont
throughout the trial, which began in June and ended July 14. Formal
sentencing was expected within a few months. She waited in Vermont until
October. Nothing.
Frustration has become the family's byword.
"Why are we here six years later and he still hasn't been sentenced?"
Barbara Tuttle asked.
Vermont Law School Professor Michael Mello has a theory. The 11-month
interlude between the jury's verdict and the judge's imposition of the
sentence is "unprecedented" but likely prompted by detailed post-trial
motions Fell's defense team filed, Mello said. The judge, juggling a
packed trial calendar, needed time to craft an "airtight" ruling denying
Fell's arguments, the professor said.
No explanation soothes the family's hurt and anger.
"It's all about the defendant and not about the victim or the victim's
family," Barbara Tuttle said. "The appeals process will go on and on, but
hopefully it won't be anything we'll have to be involved with."
Legal experts predict appeals will consume about 10 more years.
Nonetheless, Charlotte Tuttle added, Friday's sentencing "will be a giant
step toward the end."
No forgiveness
Although the family is hoping Friday's sentencing will offer them a chance
to move on, they have no plans to forgive Fell.
"His life should be hell, like ours is," said King's daughter Lori
Hibbard, 42, of Rutland.
Parts of Rutland are emotionally off-limits: the Price Chopper, the
doughnut shop where she stopped moments before her kidnapping, even the
surrounding neighborhoods. Hibbard avoids the home where she grew up.
"I haven't been over to Daddy's house in more than a year," she said.
"It's a terrible feeling just to open up the door. It probably shouldn't
be like that for me, but it is. I have a hard time going in there."
Family members have hard days, but they lean on each other for support.
They're able to laugh now at fond memories and funny stories, such as
King's awful sense of direction, the raucous nights at bingo parlors with
her daughters, the spare car key she kept in her locked trunk.
They're becoming accustomed to the attention they receive, the
uncomfortable glances in public places.
And King's family has become attuned to the passage of time.
Nearly 6 years since the crime. 11 months exactly since the jury's
verdict.
One more day before the judge pronounces the death sentence.
2 rallies today Death-penalty foes and supporters will hold rallies today
in Burlington.
WHAT: "Lest We Forget" vigil by death-penalty opponents "to remember the
victims of homicide."
WHEN: 5:30 p.m. today.
WHERE: City Hall Park. WHAT: King family rally in favor of "justice" for
convicted murderer Donald Fell.
WHEN: 5:30 p.m. today.
WHERE: On Elmwood Avenue outside U.S. District Court in Burlington.
(source: Burlington Free Press)
They thought it would be over by now.
When a federal jury determined in July that Donald Fell should die for
beating to death Terry King, a 53-year-old wife and grandmother from North
Clarendon, her family began, for the first time in years, to think about
the future.
All that remained before they could start collecting the pieces of their
shattered lives, family members said, was for a judge to impose the jury's
sentence. The step was a formality, but necessary for Fell to be shipped
off to death row.
Months passed -- an agonizing wait for a family who already had endured
five years of grief and torment since King was abducted and murdered in
November 2000 -- and nothing happened.
Finally, in late April, a federal judge set a hearing date for Friday in
U.S. District Court in Burlington.
"I don't understand what took so long," said Charlotte Tuttle, 55, of
Rutland, one of King's sisters. "You can't make any long-term plans. You
can't make airline reservations. It's almost like this family has been
held hostage."
The family avoids entire neighborhoods in Rutland where the emotions
remain too raw, too fresh. One of King's daughters has to force herself to
visit her father at the home her parents once shared.
"With Terry," said sister Barbara Tuttle, 51, of North Clarendon, "you
can't put her to rest because there's all this other stuff that
continuously comes up. We have to deal with this over and over and over
again."
The formal sentencing was supposed to close that chapter. Family members
said they could endure the years of appeals sure to follow the first
death-penalty trial in Vermont in half a century. They just wanted to know
Fell's execution was a step closer.
"I can't believe that this week is going to be the week, that Friday is
the day," said King's daughter Karen Worcester, 39, of East Wallingford.
"We're counting down the days."
Wondering why
Barbara Tuttle's home is just off U.S. 7 in North Clarendon. King's family
gathered on the front porch earlier this week to sip tea or soda, smoke an
occasional cigarette, swat at flies emerging from weeks of rain into a
sun-soaked evening, and reflect on Terry, her murder, the years that have
passed and the man who will die for the crime.
Tuttle knows King was a captive the last time she saw her house, when she
rode past on U.S. 7 in the back seat of her own car, staring at a shotgun
and the two 20-year-olds who had abducted her minutes earlier. Fell and an
accomplice, Robert Lee, needed a car to escape the double killing they had
just committed in Rutland of Fell's mother and a friend of hers. They went
to Price Chopper and targeted King when she arrived for her 4 a.m. shift.
Five hours later, Fell and Lee beat King to death as she prayed and
pleaded for her life in a field in Dover, N.Y. The killing became a
federal offense because King's murderers crossed state lines.
Lee died in prison in 2001.
Charlotte Tuttle recalled a visit from an FBI agent shortly after the
crime. He told her about the benefits of the federal system, where, in
contrast with Vermont law, murder is punishable by execution.
"We were told quicker, swifter, stronger justice," she said.
Charlotte Tuttle lived in Florida last year and she moved to Vermont
throughout the trial, which began in June and ended July 14. Formal
sentencing was expected within a few months. She waited in Vermont until
October. Nothing.
Frustration has become the family's byword.
"Why are we here six years later and he still hasn't been sentenced?"
Barbara Tuttle asked.
Vermont Law School Professor Michael Mello has a theory. The 11-month
interlude between the jury's verdict and the judge's imposition of the
sentence is "unprecedented" but likely prompted by detailed post-trial
motions Fell's defense team filed, Mello said. The judge, juggling a
packed trial calendar, needed time to craft an "airtight" ruling denying
Fell's arguments, the professor said.
No explanation soothes the family's hurt and anger.
"It's all about the defendant and not about the victim or the victim's
family," Barbara Tuttle said. "The appeals process will go on and on, but
hopefully it won't be anything we'll have to be involved with."
Legal experts predict appeals will consume about 10 more years.
Nonetheless, Charlotte Tuttle added, Friday's sentencing "will be a giant
step toward the end."
No forgiveness
Although the family is hoping Friday's sentencing will offer them a chance
to move on, they have no plans to forgive Fell.
"His life should be hell, like ours is," said King's daughter Lori
Hibbard, 42, of Rutland.
Parts of Rutland are emotionally off-limits: the Price Chopper, the
doughnut shop where she stopped moments before her kidnapping, even the
surrounding neighborhoods. Hibbard avoids the home where she grew up.
"I haven't been over to Daddy's house in more than a year," she said.
"It's a terrible feeling just to open up the door. It probably shouldn't
be like that for me, but it is. I have a hard time going in there."
Family members have hard days, but they lean on each other for support.
They're able to laugh now at fond memories and funny stories, such as
King's awful sense of direction, the raucous nights at bingo parlors with
her daughters, the spare car key she kept in her locked trunk.
They're becoming accustomed to the attention they receive, the
uncomfortable glances in public places.
And King's family has become attuned to the passage of time.
Nearly 6 years since the crime. 11 months exactly since the jury's
verdict.
One more day before the judge pronounces the death sentence.
2 rallies today Death-penalty foes and supporters will hold rallies today
in Burlington.
WHAT: "Lest We Forget" vigil by death-penalty opponents "to remember the
victims of homicide."
WHEN: 5:30 p.m. today.
WHERE: City Hall Park. WHAT: King family rally in favor of "justice" for
convicted murderer Donald Fell.
WHEN: 5:30 p.m. today.
WHERE: On Elmwood Avenue outside U.S. District Court in Burlington.
(source: Burlington Free Press)