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#Post#: 186--------------------------------------------------
~ Steven Spears, 16Nov16, (GA) ~
DIR By: BuzzC
Date: October 31, 2016, 12:36 am
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State sets execution date for Lumpkin Co killer--
Friday, October 28, 2016
[IMG]
HTML http://i192.photobucket.com/albums/z96/BuzzC/Misc/newsEngin.16611962_00012423921.jpg[/img]
There is now an execution date for a man convicted in a murder
in Lumpkin County: Steven Spears is on Georgia’s death row for
the 2001 murder of Sherri Holland, an ex-girlfriend who was
strangled to death in her home in Lumpkin County. Spears’ date
with injection at the state prison in Jackson is set for
Wednesday evening, November 16.
The Georgia Supreme Court summarized the facts of the crime as
follows: The evidence presented at trial, including Spears's
audio-recorded confession at the sheriff's department, showed
that Spears and Sherri Holland had previously dated each other
but that their romantic relationship had ended. Spears admitted
the following about the relationship: “I told her when we
started dating a long time ago, if I caught her or found out she
was screwin' somebody else, I'd choke her ass to death.” He also
admitted that he had told several other people the same thing
about Ms. Holland.
On March 21, 2007, following a jury trial, Spears was convicted
of one count of malice murder, two counts of felony murder, one
count of aggravated assault, one count of kidnapping with bodily
injury and two counts of burglary. The jury’s recommendation of
a death sentence for malice murder was returned on March 22,
2007. The Georgia Supreme Court unanimously affirmed Spears’s
convictions and death sentence on February 16, 2015.
HTML http://www.wgauradio.com/news/news/local/state-sets-execution-date-lumpkin-co-killer/nsytT/
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#Post#: 189--------------------------------------------------
Re: ~ Steven Spears, 16Nov16, (GA) ~
DIR By: BuzzC
Date: November 11, 2016, 6:24 pm
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Killer still refuses to appeal sentence as execution date
nears--
Wednesday, November 9, 2016
[IMG]
HTML http://i192.photobucket.com/albums/z96/BuzzC/Misc/120815-execution1.jpg[/img]
~ The gurney used for lethal injections sits behind glass
windows in a small cinder block building at the Georgia
Diagnostic and Classification Prison in Jackson ~
Even though Georgia has scheduled Steven Spears’ execution for
the 2001 murder of his ex-girlfriend, he still refuses to meet
with his lawyer to appeal his death sentence.
Spears has rebuffed his lawyer’s attempts to talk, or even meet,
for more than a year. If this continues, Spears will go to his
death by lethal injection on Nov. 16 without bringing an appeal
other than the automatic one that was filed after he was
condemned for killing Sherri Holland.
And it would be the first time Georgia has executed a murderer
who never voluntarily challenged his trial, conviction, or
sentence.
“I sent a letter (saying), ‘Please let us fight for you. There
is something worth fighting for,’” said Clayton attorney Allyn
Stockton, who represented Spears at trial and remains his
attorney of record.
No answer.
And when Stockton has gone to the prison near Jackson, Spears
has refused to come out.
“Seeking the death penalty was justified, and there wouldn’t be
an injustice done if he is executed,” said Jeffrey Langley,
district attorney for the four-county Enotah Judicial Circuit,
which includes Lumpkin, where the killing took place.
Spears, 54, would be the eighth person Georgia has executed in
2016 , more than any other state this year. The last time
Georgia executed eight or more people in a year was 1957, when
16 men were electrocuted. Georgia most recently executed cop
killer Gregory Lawler on Oct. 12.
Since the death penalty was reinstated nationwide in 1976, 144
people have voluntarily gone to their deaths, the most recent in
Texas last year, according to Robert Dunham, executive director
of the Death Penalty Information Center.
“That is uncommon, but it is not rare,” Dunham said.
John Blume, a Cornell Law School professor who has researched
inmates who “volunteer” to be executed, said the percentage of
death row prisoners who give up their appeals mirrors free-world
suicides.
“Every death-row volunteer inevitably presents us with the
following question: Should a death-row inmate who wishes to
waive his appeals be viewed as a client making a legal decision
to accept the justness of his punishment, or as a person seeking
the aid of the state in committing suicide?” Blume wrote in a
paper published by Cornell Law School, “Killing the Willing.”
“It’s not that everybody shouldn’t be able to do it,” Blume said
in an interview. “The court should at least inquire as to what
the motivation is. It might be there is a person who has no
mental illness and doesn’t appear to be suicidal. It may be (a
case of) ‘I can’t live with what I did. I deserve to die for
what I did.’”
The risk of avoiding appeals, Dunham said, is that “someone who
is mentally ill, emotionally disturbed or intellectually
disabled will be executed. … There may not be a question about
guilt. “That doesn’t mean it’s not an unconstitutional
execution.”
The courts have said inmates with mental, emotional or
intellectual disabilities cannot be executed, but Georgia’s
standard for proving those disabilities is the toughest in the
nation.
Kill Me, Or I Will Kill You
Sometimes, of course, a death penalty “volunteer” will change
his mind. Larry Lonchar, sentenced to die for a DeKalb County
triple murder, initially refused to appeal his sentence. But
twice within hours of his scheduled execution, he agreed to let
his lawyers appeal, once because he wanted legislators to pass a
law allowing him to donate his organs. Lonchar was electrocuted
in 1996.
Stockton said Spears has wavered many times about whether he
wanted to be put to death. Spears has said he did not want to
live in prison and that death would be a relief.
Also, when he was on trial in Lumpkin County in 2007, Spears
would not let his defense team present any evidence that might
have persuaded the jury to give him life in prison, Stockton
said.
Stockton said Spears told his lawyers there would be
consequences if they fought for a life sentence. “‘I will take
the stand (and testify), and if I get out (of prison) I will
come and kill you,’” Stockton said Spears told him.
4 Ways To Murder 1 Woman
Spears readily confessed to murdering Holland, telling
investigators, “If I had to do it again, I’d do it.”
The couple dated for about three years, despite Spears having
told Holland that he’d choke her to death if he ever caught her
with somebody else, Spears told investigators.
After their breakup, Spears suspected Holland had found someone
new. So he plotted her murder, coming up with plans to
electrocute her, beat her to death, shoot her or suffocate her.
He told investigators he put everything in place for each plan
so things would be ready when it was time to kill her.
Spears connected wires to the bathroom plumbing in the
crawlspace under Holland’s house so she could be electrocuted
when she showered during a thunderstorm. “Pretty creative, ain’t
it,” Spears told investigators, according to court records.
He fashioned a bat out of a tree limb and hid it under a canoe
in her yard so he could grab it easily if he decided to beat
Holland to death.
Spears also crawled through an air conditioning vent into her
house. He loaded Holland’s shotgun, put it back in place and
left. “If she brought somebody else in there I was just gonna
shoot him,” Spears said.
‘Last Thing She Said Was …’
Spears followed his fourth plan.
On Aug. 24, 2001, around 10 p.m., Spears hid in the closet of
the bedroom where Holland’s son usually slept. The 13-year-old
boy was visiting his father for the weekend.
Four hours later, Spears went into Holland’s bedroom and started
binding her hands and feet with duct tape. They struggled and at
one point he punched her in the head and began to choke her.
“Last thing she said was she loved me,” Spears told
investigators. “Swear to God, that’s the last thing she said.”
He carried the unconscious woman back to her bed, wrapped her
face and mouth with duct tape, placed a plastic bag over her
head and secured the bag with duct tape. She smothered.
Before leaving Holland’s house, Spears set the thermostat for
the heater to 90 degrees and secured her bedroom door with a
padlock.
After changing clothes at his house, Spears drove to a nearby
store, bought fishing gear and a fishing license, then went
fishing, according to testimony.
Holland’s ex-husband and her son found her body on Aug. 26,
2001, a day after she was killed.
Spears was almost immediately suspected. He had dropped a
flashlight at Holland’s house. In his car, investigators found a
receipt for a green light bulb he’d placed under Holland’s house
so he could see while he tampered with her plumbing and wiring.
And Holland’s purse was discovered in Spears’ trailer.
Ten days later, after hiding in the woods, Spears was spotted
walking along a Lumpkin County road. He told a deputy he was
headed to town to turn himself in.
Spears told investigators he killed Holland because he loved
her. “I told her I wasn’t letting her go, and I didn’t.”
Source:
HTML http://www.myajc.com/news/news/local/killer-still-refuses-to-appeal-sentence-as-executi/ns565/
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#Post#: 190--------------------------------------------------
Re: ~ Steven Spears, 16Nov16, (GA) ~
DIR By: BuzzC
Date: November 16, 2016, 12:53 pm
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Clemency denied for Steven Spears--
Wednesday, November 16, 2016
The Georgia Board of Pardons and Paroles has voted to deny
clemency for Steven Spears, the man convicted of killing his
ex-girlfriend in Dahlonega in 2001.
Spears is scheduled to be executed by lethal injection Wednesday
at 7:00 p.m. at the Georgia Diagnostic and Classification Prison
in Jackson, a news release from the board states.
10:20 a.m.
A Georgia inmate set for execution Wednesday evening doesn't
really want to die but hasn't pursued appeals because he also
doesn't want to continue living in prison, a psychiatrist says
in an evaluation report.
Lawyers for the state submitted to a court the evaluation of
inmate Steven Frederick Spears, which was performed Tuesday. The
evaluation by Dr. Matthew Norman says Spears doesn't meet any
criteria for mental illness and has the capacity to understand
his situation and to make a rational choice to decline to pursue
legal challenges to his planned execution.
A lawyer with the Georgia Resource Center, which acts on behalf
of death row inmates, had filed a petition saying Spears had
declined to challenge his sentence because of mental illness.
A judge on Wednesday dismissed that petition.
Spears was convicted of murder in the August 2001 slaying of his
ex-girlfriend Sherri Holland in Dahlonega.
3:15 a.m.
Georgia plans to execute a man who killed his ex-girlfriend in
August 2001.
Steven Frederick Spears is scheduled to be put to death
Wednesday evening by injection of the barbiturate pentobarbital.
The 54-year-old was convicted in the slaying of Sherri Holland
at her home in Dahlonega.
A Georgia Supreme Court summary of the case says Spears killed
Holland because he suspected she'd become romantically involved
with someone else. It says Spears choked her, wrapped tape
around her mouth and face and put a plastic bag over her head.
Spears would be the eighth inmate executed in Georgia this year,
the most in a calendar year in the state since the death penalty
was reinstated in 1976. If the execution happens, Georgia will
have executed more inmates this year than any other state.
Source:
HTML http://accesswdun.com/article/2016/11/470810/the-latest-psychiatrist-spears-is-competent-to-be-executed
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#Post#: 191--------------------------------------------------
Re: ~ Steven Spears, 16Nov16, (GA) ~
DIR By: BuzzC
Date: November 17, 2016, 4:12 am
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Convicted killer who gave up on his case executed in Georgia--
Thursday, November 17, 2016
ATLANTA (AP) — Georgia has carried out its eighth execution of
2016, putting to death a man who told a psychiatrist he didn't
really want to die but also didn't want to continue living in
prison.
Warden Eric Sellers told witnesses Steven Frederick Spears' time
of death was 7:30 p.m. Wednesday following an injection of the
barbiturate pentobarbital at the state prison in Jackson.
Spears, 54, was convicted of murder in the August 2001 slaying
of his ex-girlfriend, Sherri Holland, at her home in Dahlonega,
about 65 miles northeast of Atlanta.
Spears did not make a final statement and declined to have a
prayer read. Within minutes of the lethal drug beginning to
flow, he took several deep breaths and swallowed a few times
before becoming still.
With Spears' death, Georgia has executed more people this year
than any other state, including Texas which has executed seven.
Three other states — Alabama, Florida and Missouri — have had
one execution apiece, for a nationwide total of 18 executions
this year.
Eight is the most executions Georgia has done in a calendar year
since the death penalty was reinstated in 1976. The state
executed five inmates last year and five in 1987.
Source: San Francisco Gate
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