|
Inmate Awaits
Execution
05/12/08 MRC/AP
After more
than three years of waiting for courts to consider an
appeal he never wanted, the death row inmate, Marco Allen
Chapman, may soon get his wish and become the first person
executed in Kentucky since 1999.
Several states
are moving swiftly forward on death penalty cases after
the U.S. Supreme Court, in a landmark ruling on a
different Kentucky case, upheld the widely used three-drug
method of lethal injection. Last week, Georgia became the
first to execute an inmate after the seven-month break.
Condemned inmates in Alabama, Mississippi and Texas also
had dates set for their lethal injections.
Chapman's
execution hasn't been scheduled, but prosecutors will be
aided by the fact that he waived his right to a jury
trial, asked the judge for a death sentence and waived his
appeals.
If the
Kentucky Supreme Court rejects his latest appeal, Chapman
could be dead as soon as June, 3 1/2 years after his
conviction.
That would be
extraordinarily fast, death penalty cases take an average
of 12 years to play out.
He lives with
the memories of the children he killed in Warsaw, a small
town an hour northeast of Louisville. In the middle of the
night, Chapman went to the home of Carolyn Marksberry, a
friend of his family. He knocked on the door, then put a
knife to her throat. He tied her up, raped and stabbed
her, then attacked her children. The oldest, Courtney
Sharon, played dead. Chelbi Sharon, 7, and Cody, 6, were
killed.
But legal
experts say Chapman's case is unique because his
court-appointed attorneys are fighting for his life
against his wishes, arguing he suffers from depression and
is unable to decide his own fate. Yet Chapman has been
found to be mentally competent multiple times, according
to prosecutors' filings.
Kentucky has
executed just two inmates since 1976: Harold McQueen, who
was electrocuted in 1997 for the 1981 robbery and murder
of a convenience store clerk; and Eddie Lee Harper, who
died by lethal injection in 1999. Harper spent 16 years on
death row for killing his adoptive parents before he
dropped his appeals and asked for his sentence to be
carried out.
Chapman awaits
his fate at the Kentucky State Penitentiary, spending 22
hours a day in his cell on death row, where most of the 34
other inmates continually put off their sentences with
court motions, appeals and pleas for clemency.
|
