Delaware, A-B, 1792-1996, Undated

Online content

the nearest to the gallows or le- | least a year. and the justices a

gree to give
z thal injection, two names immedi- Attorney, Dean Johnson is .death penalty cases feppelerisy
ae come up — Bailey and | neéded because iewicz is try- consideration, the ingenuity oft

- be. nearest to’ execution,. Silver- ;
pian: speculated: “It’s between |

ields, who were sentenced

six years apart.

i “It would be reckless to try to
who is most likely to be first,”

Si verman said.

‘When pressed further on the
n of which inmate might

Baileyeand. -DeShields, and no-
body's: ‘in'the home. stretch.”

> (One ‘example of the progress be- |

- Johnson no. lo

. ing to document..an_ ineffective
trial assistance’ case: before;Supe-
rior Court on‘ behalf: of : Deputy.

or. lives: in the‘ United ‘States.

“He has. become a'commescial »

fisherman; and‘ a ‘scuba: diver’ in-

. structor. ives our. understanding

that he’s: skipped’ ‘around ‘the Ca-
ribbean ‘a bit.:We sent

down there and they did not get to

: gerved,”: Malkiewicz said. .
Even if the delay in transcrib-

ing:made.is awareness by the Su- | ing trial _— is Biainated

perior ‘Court..of: an emerging |

pattern in post-conviction . relief
motions.

44] neffective..assistance of trial
-courisel;is'more frequen

alleged:inthese motions for new

’ ‘said that when

: eliminate’ ‘one: step in the process |

by.immediately appointing a new

&: attorney’ for the defendant.

“The issue .of a. possible conflict
of interest for the trial attorney is

immediately ;eliminated and the
‘heart, ofthe’ motion — the attor-

ney’s .performance in preparing
and defending the case — is more
quickly. addressed.

The switching of attorneys be-
cause of conflict of interest is add-
ing ‘to the delays. But in one of
the cases,.that of Deputy, a miss-
ihg.attorney.is delaying the pro-
cess. for:a Sussex County ‘inmate.

“ According. to. Silverman and
Dover..Attorney Michael Mal-
kiewicz,:' who | recently was ap-
pointed-'to represent Deputy, a
search for the defendant's original
attorney has been going on for at

LAW (Cont.)

practices ‘law A

one man bearing: ‘the burden of
another man’s survival will
antee that no convicted: ‘anuiterer ;

in Delaware dies speedily. ..

Lyons: summed .up the role of,
every. defense attorney represent- ;:
ing a client faced with capital, ;
punishment.

“Egsentially, what I have said ©
the state is, ‘Over my dead™

body: I am going to fight like hell .

and I am not rolling over. If it —

takes a long time, too bad.””

All newspaper articles q
are the best copy availat

1:05

651760

cited

3rd Circuit Deni

Two Delaware de aces lose their ;
rejected their ela; : juries in their Cases
and thar the verdj

es Two Death, Row Ar

ath row inn

denied arguments by William Henry Flamer and
urles, in che penalty phase of chej-: |
ab stavating factors ¢

dges also found that the distr;
Clear deliberating

Kee. Judge H Lee
uld have been overly influenced by the courts
strong emphasis on aggravating Circumstances.
te aaa

(Wilmington, Delaware) Sunday News Journal

LAW
1:D3

651760

' through.

_ ,. Legally, we are in another millennium from what happened .
in 1946,” said Chief Deputy Attorney General Fred S. Silver-

Doomed men find
time is on their side

By RHUONDA GRAHAM
Dover Bureau reporter

OVER — Thirteen yéars have passed since the United
States Supreme Court ruled the death penalty could ©

again be used
heinous crimes.

And it could be another 13 years before any of the seven
inmates on Delaware's “Death Row” knows the fear of immi-
nent execution.

Early Friday, Missouri carried out an execution, the 105th
nationwide since 1976.

Attorneys familiar with the cases of Delaware's seven say
the delay between when a murderer is sentenced and actually
receives the death penalty is due to a number of factors.
Among them are the courts’ unfamiliarity with death pen-

alty issues and assignment of new attorneys to address alleged

as & constitutional punishment for

conflicts of interest. In one case, a former public defender has °-

moved to the Caribbean — delaying the process for one
inmate's appeal.

Attorney General Charles M. Oberly III and other attorneys

believe the process could Pan ok if more priority were -

given to death penalty cases and if al transcripts could be
prepared more quickly.

For nearly a decade, William Henry Flamer and Billy Bailey
have lived under a sentence of death.

Andre Deputy, a co-defendant of Flamer’s, and James W.
Riley have been serving death sentences since 1982.

These four were joined by Kenneth W. DeShields and Regin-
ald N. Sanders in 1986 and David F. Dawson last summer.

OR DELAWARE, the restoration of capital punishment
meant an entire new era of legal issues and case law

for the Superior and state Supreme courts to wade

man, referring to tne last hangin

{ and execution in Delaware.
‘These cases, in a sense, are al

brand new so some of the

delay is attributable to an appropriate degree of caution while °

going through unchartered waters.””.

Recently, Silverman traced the appeals route of each ck ihe 3
seven inmates. The most confusing of the cases is that of |
gunning down an‘

Bailey, a Cheswold orphan who denies
elderly farm couple in May 1979, but insisted until two years
ago that the state hang him for the crime.

Bailey's case has been to the state Supreme Court three
times and the United States Supreme Court twice. He is now
making a second bid in the state Superior Court for post-con-

January 8, 1989

viction relief, also known as a
motion to win a new trial.

Bailey's request to die added an
tisk’ twist to his appeal pro-
cess. When he refused to cooper-
ate in his appeal, defense
attorneys tried to have him de.
clared mentally incompetent.

In December 1986, just days be-
fore’Bailey was to be led from his
Delaware Correctional Center cell
to.a south lot on the prison
grounds near Smyrna for hanging
from a 15-foot gallows, the state
Supreme Court stayed his execu-
tion, saying it needed more time
to decide the competency issue.

_ Once the stay was granted, Bai-

ley changed his mind and agreed

to participate in his appeal.

Three months before Bailey
murdered the elderly farmers, Wii-
liam Henry Flamer and Andre
Stanley Deputy stabbed Flamer’s
aunt and uncle with a bayonet
145 times. Flamer and Deputy had
been on a drinking binge and
went to the elderly couple's Har.
rington home to get their Social
Security check.

Like Bailey's, Flamer’s original
appeal was slowed_because it was
bifurcated — the conviction and
death sentence were considered as
two separate issues.

CONTINUED

lg 3

All newspaper articles are the hact rany availebia

The state Supreme Court heard
the conviction appeal in 1982, but

tal punishment.

The Delaware Supreme Court
finally upheld the conviction in
February 1983 and wasn’t able to
hear the death sentence appeal
until a year later. Briefings are
being prepared for Flamer’s sec-
ond post-conviction relief hearing,
which the state Supreme Court
ordered last year.

DeShields and Deputy each
have been to the Delaware Su-
preme Court and U.S. Supreme
Court once. They are awaiting
hearings for new trials. Riley has
been to the Delaware Supreme
Court once and is waiting for a
second hearing to determine if he
should get a new trial.

Sanders is awaiting a decision
on his -first appeal to the Dela-
ware Supreme Court, and Silver-
man estimates that Dawson's first

appeal to the state Supreme Court =

will not be heard for another
year.

When the state Supreme Court
sends cases back to Superior
Court for further consideration,
those cases compete with hun-
dreds of civil-and criminal hear-
ings and trials to be placed on an
already-crowded court calendar.

For example, when Flamer lost
both appeals to the state Supreme
Court. he was sent back to Kent

1986 and filed his first request for
a new trial hearing. A decision
was not issued on that request
until June 1987.

During that 10-month period,
Kent County’s two Superior
Court judges were swamped with
three major first-degree murder
cases, at least one major rape
case and a number of other civil
and criminal trials, in addition to
requests for post-conviction relief

hearings from other death-penalty
inmates.

Court scheduling problems are
compounded by delays in tran-
scribing and hearing trial testi-
mony.

The state Supreme Court must
review trial records for error
when ruling on the appeals, but

_ent’s appeal.

County Superior Court in August : just to seek a delay in execution.

‘in most cases it takes months to

| get the trial testimony tran-
scribed. It then goes to the attor-
neys, who prepare briefs to
present before the justices.

One former public defender esti-
mated that it can take a year to
file briefs in an appeal because
transcripts are more lengthy in
death penalty cases and attorneys
for both sides need the delays to
give the thousands of pages of
court testimony complete review.

“Getting the transcripts out of
Superior Court takes a very, very,
long time,” said an attorney who
worked on death penalty appeals
and agreed to comment only if
given anonymity.

Oberly wants to speed up this
process by having court reporters
transcribe capital hearings and
trials before doing other work.

Oberly also wants the state
courts to sn considering the
death penalty cases a8 8 top prior-
ity.

“When the justices are facing &
case that’s on appeal on a death
sentence compared to a crimini
conviction for robbery, life impris-
onment or civil cases for :
the death penalty case by virtue
of the issue ought to be first,’
Silverman said.

‘Tt’g not based on wanting a
pound of flesh as much as want-
ing the system to operate effec-

tively,” he said.

Bailey's attorney is comfortable
with the current pace of his cli-
Edmund D. Lyons
Jr. insists that his motions aren't

“T think when I file

: J] have a argument,” Lyons
said. “What you may be saying 35,
‘ t's just speed this thing Up.

doing the opposite. : :
Lyons agrees with Silverman s
nt that mew issues are

delaying Delaware executions.

He added that the snail-like ap-
peals —— also may be indica-
tive of an unstated philosophy by
the Superior and state. Supreme
courts that, “before you go out
and kill somebody, maybe you
ought to make sure you are doing
the right thing.” -

Silverman said the courts have

exercised a level of care in decid-
ing these cases that is unprece-
dented.

He and others note that issues
that have stumped the state
courts in the Bailey, Riley,
Flamer and a will be
more quickly deliberated in the
cases of Sanders, Dawson and De-
Shields.

It took the Delaware Supreme
Court seven, months to decide
Billy Bailey's first appeal of his
conviction and four months to
rule his death sentence should be
upheld. °*’

It took eight months for five
state justices to decide to uphold
Flamer’s conviction and four
months to affirm his death sen-

’ tence. ,

Deputy’s original appeal was
decided after 14 months, then
reargued before the state justices
after three months.

It took a year for Riley to get a
| decision on his appeal from the
-gtate Supreme Court, but De-
Shields, one of the more recent
murder cases, only had to wait

——

hear his appeal and uphold both
his conviction and sentence.
“Some of the procedures
weren't as clear when those first
cages were tried. The later cases
seem to be raising fewer new le-
gal issues than the earlier cases,”
said Nancy Jane Perillo, who rep-
resented Billy Bailey at trial and
assisted in Flamer’s appeal.
| Attorneys agree that while the

process seems to proceed slowly,
there is evidence that the pace
may quicken. For instance, while
no one can say which inmate is

LAW (Cont.) All newspaper articles
1:D4 are the best copy available

——————

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?RODIGY(R) interactive personal service | O1/25/96 = 9:27 AM

AP Online
6:39 AM (ET) 1/25

Murderer Hanged In Delaware
SMYRNA, Del. (AP) -- A man who murdered an elderly couple 17 years ago went to the
gallows early Thursday, the nation’ Ss third execution by hanging since 1965. Oo |

Billy Bailey stood in the cold wind and grimaced after climbing the steps to the wooden
structure. He occasionally glanced at the witnesses 15 feet below, including the victims’
two sons, as the hangman's noose swung gently back and forth.

He closed his eyes, sniffled and said nothing before the black hood was!”
placed over his head, followed by the noose. At 12:04 a.m., the warden pulled a lever, the
trap door opened and Bailey dropped.

His body twisted quickly in the wind, then turned slowly beneath the platform. He was
pronounced dead 11 minutes later.

**| think it's really past time this should have come about. It's been too many
years,” said Mary Ann Lambertson, a daughter-in- law of the victims.

“*| happened to be the poor soul who found the bodies, and it was a gruesome
sight."

Dennis Lambertson, a grandson of the victims, said he went to the prison to “see
justice done." Delbert and Saxton Lambertson, the victim's sons, made no public comment.

It was the first time Delaware allowed victims’ family members to witness an execution.
The hanging was the state's first in 50 years.

Bailey's sister Betty Odom and foster sister, Sue Coker, were several miles away at the
Department of Correction headquarters in Smyrna. When they were told Bailey was
dead, Mrs. Coker said her first thought was, “They'll leave him alone now."

Bailey, 49, was sentenced to hang for the 1979 shotgun slayings of Gilbert and Clara
Lambertson before Delaware changed its method of execution to injection in 1986. He could
have chosen the injection, but said he chose hanging because “the law is the law."

Bailey has said he was drinking heavily the day of the slayings and doesn't remember
killing the couple with Lambertson's shotgun. Police believe he planned to =~ the
couple's pickup.
% 7

Asked at a pardons board hearing last week why he did It, Balley said, **! don't really
know. | just know that | feel bad about it."

Three other states allow hanging -- Montana, New Hampshire and Washington, where two

Sopyright 1996 Prodigy Services Co.

?RODIGY(R) interactive personal service 01/25/96 9:27 AM

\P Online

murderers were hanged in 1993 and 1994. Before that, the last hangings in the United
States were in Kansas in 1965, when four murderers were executed.

By coincidence, Utah is scheduled to have its first firing squad execution in 19 years
sarly
Friday. John Albert Taylor, sentenced to die for raping and strangling an 11-year-old

girl, chose the firing squad over injection, the state's second method of execution since
Utah outlawed hanging in 1983.

News or information from AP may not be published, broadcast or redistributed without the
prior written authorization of AP. Copyright 1996 The Associated Press. All Rights

Reserved.

Bailey was sentenced to hang before Delaware changed its method of execution to
injection in June 1986. He could have chosen to die by injection, but said he chose
hanging because “the law is the law."

By coincidence, Utah is scheduled to have its first firing squad execution in 19 years
early Friday. John Albert Taylor, sentenced to die for raping and strangling an 11-year-ol
d girl, chose the firing squad over
injection, the state’s second method of execution since Utah outlawed hanging in 1983.

Three other states allow hanging -- Montana, New Hampshire and Washington, where two
murderers were hanged in 1993 and 1994. Before that, the last hangings in the United
States were in Kansas in 1965, when four murderers were executed. Among them were Richard
Eugene Hickock and Perry Edward Smith, the subjects of Truman Capote's book “In
Cold Blood.”

Delaware had public floggings as recently as 1952. The whipping posts were removed in
1969 but weren't officially outlawed until 1972.

Because 50 years have passed since Delaware's last hanging, four Department of
Correction officials traveled to Washington state to study procedures.

Delaware decided to follow Army regulations for hanging, said Gail Stallings,
department spokeswoman.

Those procedures require the inmate's head to be covered with a black hood,
with ankles and hands bound. The Manila hemp rope must be boiled and then stretched while
drying to eliminate any spring, stiffness or tendency to coil. The part of the noose that
goes through the knot must be lubricated with wax, soap or grease.

Lyons portrayed his client as a man who never had a chance. The 19th of 23 children, he
was beaten by his stepmother, and after his father died, she sent him and an older brother
from their two-room shack in South Carolina to live with a half-brother in
Wilmington. In Delaware, Bailey began a life of thievery.

Bailey has said he was drinking heavily the day of the slayings and doesn't remember
killing the couple with Lambertson's shotgun. He had walked away from a work-release
center after being told he was going to face life in prison as a habitual offender because
of a forgery charge. Police believe he planned to steal the couple's pickup.

PRODIGY(R) interactive personal service 01/25/96 9:43AM — x

ee a we ee eee? Rese * y mas ae * js te Se Ag Re 3a a Ua

.| Delaware sports i
history on display 3

Pere
§- $2 Ss
gael

on the gallows
Steps, untrained

officials have
sought a crash
course on how to
carry it out.

_ SUNDAY Jan. 21, 1996

By TED CADDELL
Staff reporter

SMYRNA — The weathered
structure still stands where it was
first built 10 years ago, its treated
timbers rising into the air, 19 steps
leading to a covered platform 15
feet above the ground on the
perimeter of the Delaware Correc-
tional Center.

Since 1986 when it was built es-
pecially for him, Delaware’s gal-
lows have been waiting for Billy
Bailey.

Bailey, a squat, 220-pound con-
victed murderer, once wondered

PEOPLE =.

The Hunt Is On

Butch LeFebvre tracks the cougar

Life & Leisure, Fi

aloud if prison officials could find
a rope strong
enough to hold B®
him.
Barring last- Bax
minute stays, Be
he’ll find out Bets
sometime after ei
midnight
Wednesday.
Bailey’s &
pending execu- |
tion, one of four &
scheduled in the
U.S. next week,
has garnered in-

Billy Bailey

ternational attention. Bailey’s

lawyer has received a call from a
German television station, and the
state Department of Correction is
fielding calls from news organiza-
tions throughout the country.

It will be the first hanging in
Delaware in nearly 50 years, since
convicted murderer Forest Sturdi-
vant was hanged in Georgetown on
May 10, 1946. Four states in the
U.S. — Delaware, Montana, New
Hampshire and Washington —
allow hanging as a means of capi-
tal punishment.

Bill Breedlove, a spokesman for
the National Coalition to Abolish
the Death Penalty, said the Bailey

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case has generated dozens of calls ee Hl
in the past week. “I think that the eee ose 1 NC i!
fact that_it’s a hanging, only the te - a
third hanging since the death ime 1 |i
penalty was reinstated, out of 314 | years, the state will execute two - fi
executions, people find that dis- in one month: Billy Bailey and !
tasteful and grisly,” Breedlove said. William Henry Flamer. A9
Injection replaced hanging as > Injection is the primary
the state’s official form of execu- method of execution in
tion in 1986 and there is no longer Delaware and 31 other
anyone in the corrections system states AQ
with hanging expertise. Four state >The death penalty dates ;
prison officials traveled to Wash- back 300 years in Delaware ed
ington state last year to talk with but most pe the major develop- a
Painah. OMseisis Gere ments have been recent AQ
See BAILEY — AQ

~~
-

a
a contemporary report states that while Murphy appeared pentitant

F
passed around her neck with which to strangle her before the flames

reached her body broke and she fell into the fire and was burned
alive,

"..sHANG BY THE NECK... "by Teeters, Pages 105-106,

LEGAL EXSCUTIONS IN DELAWARE by I, M. H. Brandner, A paper prepared
in 1954-1955 for a seminar in criminology under Dr. Thorsten Sellin,
Chairman of the Department of Scoiology, Graduate School of Arts &
mi University of Pennsylvania. Revised in 1958. Pages

See LOOK FOR THE WOMAN by Jay Robert Nash (My library) page 27,

1 DELAWARE REPORTS CRIMINAL CASES (Houston) 91

BOWEN, John J., Hanged at Newcastle, Delaware, on Friday, Feb. 10, 1860.

"On Friday, thelOth inst., John Bowen was executed at Newcastle, Dela., for the murder of
John W. Dewlin, at Delaware City, in August last. The day before his execution he wrote

out the following confession: 'Newcastle Jail, Feb. 9, 1860 - In view of the penalty which

I am doomed to pay on the 10th inst, I submit this my last testimony to my aged mother,
relatives and friends for their comfort whicn I am no more in this world, which is truth as
near as my memorty serves mee Yn the night of the 13th day of August, 1859, near 8 o'clock,
I met Dewlin in Delaware City, and he asked me to go down in the lager-bier saloon with

him, I replied that Iwas sick; he said I had not drank enough for that; he asked me agains
we went in and took two or three drinks together, where we observed several persons; I also
observed several sorts of games or plays, and most of the persons were drunks I do not remem=
ber of playing with any of them, but was informed afterwards that I did, JI had only a
limited acquaintancewith Dewlin, JI had no previous quarrel with him whatever, and had it
not\ been for some of the party, there would have been none then, having no harm against
Dewlin, I did not wish to harm him We fought; and after this, Thomas Fury, the baker,

put a. knife in my hand and said to me, 'Look out for thatDewlin; he has a revolver,' I
should not have thought of a knife, This was the cause of his anxiety to get the knife

from me again. I do not remember what I done with it; I never had any other knife (as owner)
except the little knife produced in Court,

"tIn view of my departure, I now declare my willingness to submit to the laws of the land,
and resign my soul to a merciful God, without any reflection either upon the Court, jury or
testimony - being at peace with all men, I acknowledge my gratitude to Rev, Messrs, Frank-
lin, Spotswood and Pearson, as my spiritual advisers and guides, to the Lamb of God, who
taketh away the sins of the world; and in view of my misfortune, beg leave to say to my
friends and associates, beware of lagersbier, saloons and strong drink.,...Farewell, John

J. Bowen." TIMES, New York, N, Y., 2-16-1860 (2-3.)

ba : 2 2 . we

_ back to her house to see whether they could do anything,

they were told by the hired man that Mr. Bevans had died,

and they could see a coffin already in the house. Furthermore
the lid was already nailed down. Mrs. Bevans' explanation
that she intended to have an early burial did not prove

entirely satisfactory to the astonished neighbors.

Patty Cannon, the notorious Canadian-born slave dealer,
about whom folk tales abound and at least one book and one
play* have been written, “cheated the gallows" in 1829 by
committing suicide at the Georgetown jail shortly before she
was to have been hanged for murder, according to most reports.
Other reports state that she was hanged and still others that

she escaped to Canada.
+. The second legal execution of a woman in the state was
that of Sarah Jane Bradley, a colored woman, convicted of

killing a child left in her care by giving it water to drink

‘in which blue-headed matches had been soaked. This action

was said to have been prompted by her lover in order to keep

the child quiet. She was the star attraction of a triple-hanging
in Georgetown in 1869 which was said to have been witnessed by

hundreds.

In 1924 a Wilmington newspaper article reported that

"interest is at fever heat as to whether Delaware will break

(3)

its age-long record and decree that a woman shall be hanged."

*The Entailed Hat, the Story of Patty Cannon's Times, by
George Alfred Townsend; Patty Cannon, by Asworth Burslen,
a play which has been produced by the Wilmington Drama League.

a i

t Revau and Muvpns
" t q

BEVAN, Catharine and MURPHY, Peter

Executed at New Castle, “el. (then Pa.), on Sépt.
1731.

See large card.
"HANG BY THE NECK..." Pages 105-106.

_ REVAN, Calbkarine and MURPHY, Peter

Mrs. Bevan and her wealthy but elderxy husband, Harry, lived in New
Castle Co., Delaware. She and their servant, a young man named Peter
Murphy, became lovers and when Harry seemed not to be succumbing to
the infirmities of age, they decided to kill him. She sent Murphy
to town to purchase some rat poison with which she saturated Bevan's
Bood and drink but it had little if any effect. They then decided to
take more direct means to bring about his demise and Murphy tried to
choke him to death, Bevan resisted and they joined in beating him
until he died. She then went to the home of some neighbors and re-
quested that they come to her house as Harry was having a convulsive
fit which she feared would be fatal. When they arrived, Murphy
announced that the old man was dead and the neighbors noticed that
not only was a coffin there, but the body had already been placed in-
Side and it was sealed, (Catharine explained that she wanted a speedy
burial but this did not suffice to extinguish their curiosity and the
matter was reported to the officials who arrested both Mrs, Bevan and
Murphye The K&X#SEXKA servant confessed and they were both convicted
and sentenced to die, Murphy by hanging and Mrs. Bevan by burning.
The executions were carried out at New Castle on Septe 10, 1731 and

e. :
“That was 4 No evidence ever surfaced that

ontinued from Pag : artly tal murder he committed, Bailey ever met the Lambertsons
“Parming was ‘his life.’ Mr ing chores b it.” before, nor was q motive ever de-
Lambertson ‘sal “He never : en more than 16 yea" velope st week, Bailey 1

made much oney, but he had “My mother used to work just since Bailey walked into we the state Board of Pardons that

chickens, hogs, cows and hors- like a man ou in the field with Lambertsons Cheswold-area — he had no memory of the
es. Although. for most of those my father.” Mrs. Moore said. home and shot them several murder. ei!
years, everythin done on the “and then, she would come in times with a handgun and a It was Mary Ann Lambertson.
oyed it.” and cook our m™ al.” shotgun. wife of Sexton Lambertson, who

farm was by hand, he enj : ee oo
Although the couple did not Mrs. Moore characterized her At the time, Bailey was 4 walk- walked into the home and found

leave home much, they had a lot father as a patient man away from he Plummer Work _ the grisly urder scene She also
of friends from the Cheswold “would do anything for you.” Release Center in New Castle saw Bailey fleeing into a nearby lt

area, he said. “Everyone thought | Delbert G. Lambertson, who at County. Bailey left the facility wooded area where he was ap-.

the world of them.” 70 is the eldest son, said his pat- when he found out the state prehended qa short time later.

Mary L. Moore. the 57-year-old ents made UP ucleus Of | Janned to incarcerate him for For his part, Sexton bert-

what would long be 4 close- life because he was an habitua son does not nderstand how

| family. “They were old-time farm - offender. anti-death-penalty protestors

Plan people who loved their family Bailey somehow made it down can plead for saving Bailey's life.

and friends.” to the Cheswold area, visited his “T wish some of the people who

Continued from Page a The eldest son said he and his foster sister, W o lived near the think so muc f saving him

| siblings are in orie accord con Lambertsons, and then robbed a would take him in their home,"

Kent County. cerning the price Bailey should liquor store in the area. He then he said. “Then, they can try and

In other matters, council their parents’ death. proceeded, for unknown rea- handle him.

pay for
members questioned Ms. Wie-
czoreck about the long-range ————————

—

a _ Place, Dover, speeding, oe

ae all Fae

* 2

A8 THENEWS JOURNAL «

MONDAY, JAN. 15, 1996

FROM PAGE A1

He had fled a work-release cen-
ter, something Bailey said he did to
escape an additional forgery
charge that could have resulted in
him being jailed as a habitual of-
fender.

“Forty-five years [the sentence
for habitual offenders at the time]
in jail is the last thing I can re-
member [thinking about that
day],” Bailey said. “I don’t know

a half-brother, his wife and two
children.

Billy Bailey remembers “get-
ting beat a lot ... blood running
down my back, both me and Sam.”

Beatings were administered for
failing to keep the house clean, dis-
obedience and stealing — the al-
ways-hungry boys swiped food
from neighborhood merchants.

After two years, the half-
brother gave up and the boys
landed at Governor Bacon Health

how got to i

Cheswold [from ae ity,
the Plummer Cen- «« : ts gol rare
ter in Wilming. -ASking a man to choose hae a beos
ingand pouping how to die is more bar- Billy as. “a

ing and popping
pills all day, and I
didn’t know what I
was doing, and I
don’t remember
any of it.”

“Tm not sure if
I done it, but I feel
bad for it,” Bailey said of the
killings on May 21, 1979. “I can’t
say if I did it, but I can’t say I did-
n't, either.”

Bailey’s lawyer, Edmund D.
Lyons Jr., can only point to the
convicted killer’s background
when he attempts to explain the
murders.

Although Bailey, now 49, had
aggressive tendencies, his only
criminal charges as an adult were
for theft and forgery.

But the tension had been build-
ing inside him for years, fueled by
the near-constant abuse of Bai-
ley’s childhood.

It will be a major issue when he
appears before the Pardons Board
Friday, asking to change his sen-
tence from execution to life in
prison.

Bailey was the 19th of 23 chil-
dren born to his father’s four
wives. Bailey’s mother — the third

wife — died six months after’

Billy’s birth on St. Patrick’s Day,
1946.

Billy lived with his father, his
new stepmother and seven broth-
ers and sisters in a two-room South
Carolina shack without plumbing.
Court records describe the family’s
living conditions as “utter filth
and poverty.”

After Billy’s father died, his
stepmother shucked off as many
children as possible, including 10-
year-old Billy and his 12-year-old
brother, Sam.

The two boys, already heavy
drinkers, came north to live on
Wilmington’s Madison Street with

baric than hanging.”

Billy Bailey
RES EEE VA LOS DIRE

rather small-
looking 12-year-
old youngster
with a shock of
blond hair and
a rather pleas-
ant face ... ex-
tremely retarded academically ...
too disturbed a child to consider
foster home placement.”

His days at the health center
were probably the only time Bailey
had a chance to change his life,
Lyons said.

“When I asked for help with my

[epileptic] seizures, the counselors
said they were just temper
tantrums,” Bailey said in his soft
voice.
“I would have got help if I
could. I didn’t know how. They’d
throw you in a cell and leave you
there, even at Bacon. They’d feed
you some yellow gunky-looking
stuff, some medicine, and then for-
get about you.”

As he grew up in institutions
and foster homes, the “rather
small-looking youngster” devel-
oped into a muscular 5-foot-5, 220-
pound man, built like a fire hy-
drant, whose strength is barely
concealed by the neon orange
jumpsuit he wears as a maximum-
security inmate at the Delaware
Correctional Center near Smyrna.

Flanked by four guards, his tat-
tooed and nicotine-stained hands
bound together with handcuffs,
camera-shy Bailey smiled as he re-
called the happiest time of his life
— his marriage to 19-year-old
Susan Hughes on Dec. 20, 1970,
when he was 24.

But the marriage, too, became
another disaster in Bailey’s life.

A fire started in the young fam-
ily’s mobile home one night while
Bailey was asleep.

He rescued their 3-month-old
daughter, Christine, but her left

Bailey: Convict can’t ecall Nd

Clara and Gilbert Lambertson were murdered by Billy Bailey, the Delaware Supreme Court said, “without any known

provocation.”

hand was burned so badly that the-

fingers had to be amputated.

His in-laws “put the bad mouth
on me, took away my wife and
daughter,” Bailey said. Christine is
now 25, but he hasn’t seen her
since she was 9 years old.

Bailey also fathered a 30-year-
old son, Danny, but his occasional
visits ended about two years ago.

Sam was the only person Billy
ever got close to, “like brothers
ought to be.” Liquor killed Sam:
“One day, he drank a pint of
whiskey straight down and his
heart blew up,” Billy said.

Bailey’s background turned
him into “a wellspring of sadness,
depression, rejection and anger ...
that, when tapped, resulted in a
complete loss of the self-control
that society expects from its mem-
bers,” Lyons wrote in a report to
the state Pardons Board, summa-
rizing the findings of psychiatrists
who have examined Bailey.

Lyons will try to drive that
point home Friday, when Bailey

asks the board to change his sen-
tence from death by hanging to life

_in prison without probation or pa-

role.

A final appeal is pending before
the U.S. Supreme Court, but the
Pardons Board is probably Bailey’s
last real hope.

He will be the sixth man exe-
cuted since Delaware reinstated
capital punishment four years ago,
the first to hang since 1946.

Last week, the state Parole
Board dismissed favorable reports
from prison personnel and recom-
mended against commutation, say-
ing Bailey hasn’t made a signifi-
cant effort at rehabilitation in
prison.

He has repaired clothing and
made furniture and stayed sober
while in prison, but “I haven’t
joined any organizations,” Bailey
said. “I figured I’d leave those to
the guys who know they'll get out
someday.”

The Lambertson family will op-
pose his request for commutation.

They can’t forget what happened
that Monday when Bailey ap-
peared unexpectedly at his foster
sister’s house in Cheswold, drink-
ing and crying and saying he was-
n’t going back to prison.

He left his foster sister’s house
and, in less than half an hour, he
robbed a liquor store and then
wandered to Gilbert and Clara
Lambertson’s.

Bailey could not have picked
two less-likely murder victims.

“They were homebodies, hated
to leave their house. They never
traveled. They didn’t even leave
Delaware very often,” said their 52-
year-old daughter, Betty Wharton,
one of four Lambertson children.
All — Betty, Mary Moore, 57, and
brothers Delbert, 70, and Saxton,
68 — still live in the Dover-
Cheswold area.

The Lambertsons were “elderly,
but so young at heart,” and “pretty
much retired,” Wharton said.

They kept a small garden, but
horses, cows, pigs and chickens

killed

had been phased out, and most of
their 67-acre farm was leased.

Everyone was expected to work. :

“Daddy didn’t need hired
hands, he had us,” Wharton
laughed. “TI can still see him lean-
ing on a shovel after digging a long
row of little holes for the tomato
plants. And I’d be looking up at
him from my hands and knees,
putting a tomato plant in each
hole.”

Gilbert Lambertson loved the
Phillies.

“Many’s the time he’d let the
cows wait to be milked while he lis-
tened to the game,” Wharton said.

And Clara Lambertson “liked
being outside,” Moore said of her .
mother, the “tiny little woman [her
killer] could have pushed aside.”

“I can remember her working .
all day outside and then going into
the kitchen and cooking a big

‘meal for all of us,” Moore said.

Wharton has kept a scrapbook
about the violent death of her par-
ents and its aftermath.

“TI figure someday maybe their
grandchildren or great-grandchil-
dren will want to know about it,”
she said.

The sisters are curious about
Bailey. He has been a major factor
in their lives for nearly 17 years,
and they have seen him during
legal proceedings, but they have
never met him.

Bailey is “such an angry per-
son, a mean person,” Moore said.
“He shouldn’t be in society. I don’t
think he should live, because
there’s always a chance someone
will let him out. I wouldn’t want
any family to go through what we
have.”

After Bailey hangs, Wharton
said, “we probably won’t believe
it’s over.”

Bailey wrote a letter to the
Lambertson children after his Dec.
28 hearing before the state Parole
Board.

“T just put down what I felt,”
Bailey said. “I can’t spell too good,
and others offered to write it for
me, but I just did it my own way.”

People, he said, “kept pushing
at me, telling me, ‘you know you
did it.’ It makes me hurt inside. I
can’t remember killing them, but I
feel it’s my fault, so I’m taking the
blame.

“People like me do have feel-
ings, you know,” Bailey said, wip-
ing away a tear as he fought for
control. “Sometimes, I get so up-
tight inside that I just want to bust
out crying.”

By NAN CLEMENTS .
Staff reporter

Clara Lambertson had a habit
of placing her right hand over her
left breast when she was startled.

“He shot her in the back, then
he shot her in the front when she
turned around,” said Betty Whar-
ton, daughter of the 73-year-old
murder victim. “The bullet went
right through her hand.”

Wharton’s father, 80-year-old
Gilbert Lambertson, was killed

with his own shotgun that day.

when a stranger entered the cou-
ple’s farmhouse near Cheswold
and blasted away their lives.

Billy Bailey, the man convicted.

Bailey draws a blank —
on reason for murders §

lof the Lambertsons’ murders, is
‘Scheduled to hang Jan. 25. Prison
‘officials say Bailey can choose to
die by injection, but Bailey, in an -
exclusive interview with The News

Journal; said he has no choice.

“T was sentenced to hang,” Bai- |
ley said during the interview at the »
Delaware Correctional Center.
near Smyrna. “If I’m executed; I.

should Hang according to the pa-

perworki I didn’t choose hanging.

— the sthte chose it for me. Asking
a man to choose how to die is more
barbaric¢ than hanging.” ees
Bailey still doesn’t know why he
went to ithe Lambertson home.

‘

cf See BAILEY — A8

News Journal file
Baily in shackles after his arrest.

FRIDAY Jan. 19, 1996

A final reunion, a final plea

Billy Bailey’s
sisters unite —
in attempt to
spare his life

By NAN CLEMENTS
Staff reporter

CHESWOLD — Betty Odom
learned last week that her brother
is scheduled to be executed Thurs-
day.

“My heart’s been bothering me
since. I think it’s broken,” the

Florida resident said in a husky
southern drawl. “I knew he was in
prison, but I didn’t know what for
and | didn’t know his sentence. I
never dreamed of something like
this. I’ve been crying ever since.”

Odom and Sue Coker, Billy Bai-
ley’s sister and foster sister, will
plead today with the state Pardons
Board to commute his sentence
from death by hanging to life with-
out parole for the 1979 murders of
80-year-old Gilbert Lambertson
and his 73-year-old wife, Clara.

Unless his sisters’ pleas are suc-
cessful or a court grants a stay,
Bailey will be the first man to hang
in Delaware in nearly 50 years.

Odom and Coker, the two people
who know Billy Bailey best, met for

the first time Tuesday. Odom grew -

up in the violence-ravaged South

Carolina home that shaped Bailey. .
Coker knew Bailey-as a teen-ager |
after he left Ferris School and her

parents took him in. ©

Odom and Bailey were two of.
the 23 children born to Samuel ~
James Bailey and his wives. They: |
lived in a filthy, two-room house

with no indoor plumbing.

“Just me and Bill are left of :
Momma’s five children, plus two -

half sisters and a half brother,”
Odom said.

Mazzie Miller Bailey died in |

1946 when Odom, 53, was 4 years
old and Billy, 49, was 6 months old.

See BAILEY— back page

eS rh ge The News JoumaV/GARY EMEIGH
Billy Bailey’s sister Betty Odom (left), and his foster sister Sue Coker.

Those procedures require the inmate’s head to be covered with a
black hood, with ankles and hands bound. The Manila hemp rope must be
boiled and then stretched while drying to eliminate any spring,
stiffness or tendency to coil. The part of the noose that goes through
the knot must be lubricated with wax, soap or grease.

Lyons portrayed his client as a man who never had a chance. The 19th
of 23 children, he was beaten by his stepmother, and after his father
died, she sent him and an older brother from their two-room shack in
South Carolina to live with a half-brother in Wilmington. In Delaware,
Bailey began a life of thievery.

Bailey has said he was drinking heavily the day of the slayings and
doesn’t remember killing the couple with Lambertson’s shotgun. He had
walked away from a work-release center after being told he was going to
face life in prison as a habitual offender because of a forgery charge.
Police believe he planned to steal the couple’s pickup.

Asked at a pardons board hearing last week why he did it, Bailey
said, "I don’t really know. I just know that I feel bad about it. It
hurts sometimes when I think about it. When I say hurt, I think about
the Lambertsons and how much they hate me and I start to cry and
sometimes I cry myself to sleep at night."

Murderer Executed By Hanging
AP 25 Jan 96 1:03 EST V0601
Copyright 1996 The Associated Préss. All rights reserved.

The information contained in this news report may not be published,
broadcast or otherwise distributed without the prior written authority
of the Associated Press.

Murderer Executed By Hanging

SMYRNA, Del. (AP) -- Billy Bailey, the 49-year-old murderer of an
elderly couple, climbed up onto a wooden gallows and was hanged early
Thursday, becoming only the third convict to be executed this way since
1965.

Bailey, 49, was pronounced dead at 12:15 a.m., moments after he
climbed the 19 steps to the platform with a trapdoor 15 feet above the
ground. The gallows were built on the grounds of the Delaware
Correctional Center, 10 years ago as Bailey’s first execution date
approached.

The outdoor execution took place under cold windy skies, with
temperatures in the 30s. Just under 100 demonstrators gathered outside
prison, including 20 who supported Bailey’s execution.

Witnesses included Delbert and Saxton Lambertson, two sons of
Gilbert and Clara Lambertson, who were murdered with a shotgun at their
farmhouse in 1979. Delaware has not previously allowed family members
of the victims to witness executions.

Appeals delayed the hanging until the U.S. Supreme Court denied
Bailey a stay of execution last week, The state Board of Pardons on
Friday rejected a commutation, and Edmund Lyons, his attorney, planned
no last-minute appeals.

"Billy has found some peace in the sense of reconciling himself for
what is to be," said Lyons, who visited Bailey Wednesday, along with
Bailey's sister, foster sister, and a prison chaplain.

The lawyer said he told Bailey to think about his last words.

"He said, ‘If I say anything, I’m going to say I hope this brings
the Lambertsons some peace,"’ Lyons said.

Bailey was sentenced to hang before Delaware changed its method of
execution to injection in June 1986. He could have chosen to die by
injection, but said he chose hanging because "the law is the law."

By coincidence, Utah is scheduled to have its first firing squad
execution in 19 years early Friday. John Albert Taylor, sentenced to
die for raping and strangling an 11-year-old girl, chose the firing
squad over injection, the state’s second method of execution since Utah
outlawed hanging in 1983.

Three other states allow hanging -- Montana, New Hampshire and
Washington, where two murderers were hanged in 1993 and 1994. Before
that, the last hangings in the United States were in Kansas in 1965,
when four murderers were executed, Among them were Richard Eugene
Hickock and Perry Edward Smith, the subjects of Truman Capote’s book
"In Cold Blood.

Delaware had public floggings as recently as 1952. The whipping
posts were removed in 1969 but weren't officially outlawed until 1972.
Because 50 years have passed since Delaware’s last hanging, four
Department of Correction officials traveled to Washington state to

study procedures.

Delaware decided to follow Army regulations for hanging, said Gail
Stallings, department spokeswoman.

Murderer Awaits Hanging
AP 24 Jan 96 18:23 EST V0339
Copyright 1996 The Associated Press. All rights reserved.

The information contained in this news report may not be published,
broadcast or otherwise distributed without the prior written authority
of the Associated Press.

Murderer Awaits Hanging

SMYRNA, Del. (AP) ~- A convict awaiting the nation’s third hanging
since 1965 said he hoped his execution early Thursday would bring peace
to the family of the elderly couple he killed.

Billy Bailey, 49, was scheduled to be hanged between 12:01 a.m. and
3 a.m. Thursday on outdoor wooden gallows after climbing 19 steps to a
platform with a trapdoor 15 feet above the ground. The gallows were
built 10 years ago as Bailey’s first execution date approached.

Witnesses were to include Delbert and Saxton Lambertson, two sons of
Gilbert and Clara Lambertson, who were murdered with a shotgun at their
farmhouse in 1979. Delaware has not previously allowed family members
of the victims to witness executions.

Appeals delayed the hanging until the U.S. Supreme Court denied
Bailey a stay of execution last week. The state Board of Pardons on
Friday rejected a commutation, and Edmund Lyons, his attorney, planned
no last-minute appeals.

"Billy has found some peace in the sense of reconciling himself for
what is to be," said Lyons, who visited Bailey Wednesday, along with
Bailey’s sister, foster sister, and a prison chaplain.

The lawyer said he told Bailey to think about his last words.

"He said, ‘If I say anything, I’m going to say I hope this brings
the Lambertsons some peace,"’ Lyons said.

Bailey was sentenced to hang before Delaware changed its method of
execution to injection in June 1986. He could have chosen to die by
injection, but said he chose hanging because “the law is the law."

By coincidence, Utah is scheduled to have its first firing squad
execution in 19 years early Friday. John Albert Taylor, sentenced to
die for raping and strangling an 11-year-old girl, chose the firing
squad over injection, the state’s second method of execution since Utah
outlawed hanging in 1983.

Three other states allow hanging -- Montana, New Hampshire and
Washington, where two murderers were hanged in 1993 and 1994. Before
that, the last hangings in the United States were in Kansas in 1965,
when four murderers were executed. Among them were Richard Eugene
Hickock and Perry Edward Smith, the subjects of Truman Capote’s book
"Tn Cold Blood."

Delaware had public floggings as recently as 1952. The whipping
posts were removed in 1969 but weren’t officially outlawed until 1972.
Because 50 years have passed since Delaware’s last hanging, four
Department of Correction officials traveled to Washington state to

study procedures. .

Delaware decided to follow Army regulations for hanging, said Gail
Stallings, department spokeswoman.

Lyons portrayed his client as a man who never had'a chance. The 19th
of 23 children, he was beaten by his stepmother, and after his father
died, she sent him and an older brother from their two-room shack in
South Carolina to live with a half-brother in Wilmington. In Delaware,
Bailey began a life of thievery.

a $Y ARSE, Re

For first

_ Bailey to hang,
: Flamer to die
by injection

By TED CADDELL
* Staff reporter

Barring last-minute reprieves,
the executions of Billy Bailey and
William Henry Flamer will mark
the first time in 60 years the state
has executed two people in the
same month.

In June of 1936, convicted mur-
derers Howard Carey and his
mother, May H. Carey, were
hanged the same day.

Bailey:

si gh en eR Shi sa

time In 60

Bailey, at 49 the eldest of the 14
men awaiting execution in
Delaware, is scheduled to be
hanged sometime after midnight
Wednesday.

Flamer, who chose injection as

his means of execution, is to be.

taken to the death chamber some-

- time after midnight Jan. 29

The two men were convicted of

_ Separate crimes in 1980.
Bailey was convicted of the
May 21, 1979, shotgun murders-of

Cheswold farm couple Gilbert
Lambertson, 80, and his 73-year-
old wife Clara. Gilbert Lambert-
son ‘was shot and killed first. Bai-
ley then leveled the shotgun at
Clara, shooting her in the back.

In an exclusive interview with
The News Journal earlier this

Means

of execution

was his

FROM PAGEA1. _.

lows after his legs gave out.

verybody hopes Bailey’s hang-
it must happen, goes with-

Omplications.

choice

- oo.

An account in Wilmington’s old
Evening Journal recounting a
triple hanging in September 1917,
at the county workhouse on Green-
bank Road; shows what can hap-
pen when the drop is not far
enough. The first of the three con-
victed murderers to go was Web-
ster Purnell. a

“The shock was not sufficient to
break his neck, and he strangled to
death after a struggle,” the ac-
count reads. “He hung for five min-

wwtan

ABE DRESS ES te EY cee CNRS AS Ss SR Sa aE Se SO ae per ee

years, State t

month, Bailey said he doesn’t re-
member the killings, but has ac-
cepted responsibility for them.

iss os Bailey came
, eres ee | upon the Lam-

Hj bertson home

m that day after
m@ fleeing a work
release center
and getting
aq drunk. Bailey

# says he went on
3 the binge after
learning the
state was mov-
ing to have him
declared a ha-

sie: ca

Flamer

bitual offender and imprison him

for 45 years.
Flamer was convicted of mur--
dering his aunt and uncle, Alberta

and Byard Smith, on Feb. 7, 1979.
On that day he and his co-defen.
dant, Andre Stanley Deputy, went
to the Smith home in Harrington
to demand money to continue
their drinking spree. When the
couple refused, they were killed,
stabbed about 150 times with a
knife and bayonet.

Deputy, who was executed June
23, 1994, denied killing anybody,
but faulted himself for not stop-
ping Flamer.

Flamer, too, has steadfastly de-
nied guilt, and has never stopped
seeking a new trial or penalty
phase.

Flamer, like Bailey, spoke on his
own behalf Friday before the state
Pardons Board, seeking commuta-
tion of his sentence to life without

IIE or Se

I. SORA AD oT

0 execute two in one month

a
‘

probation or parole.

He described himself as a
changed man who has abandoned
alcohol and turned to God.

Although his lawyer, Charlene
Davis, barred him from discussing
the double murder, she indicated
that Deputy instigated the
killings.

Flamer said he knew the pain
felt by the victims, because the
Smiths were part of his family. “I
feel for my family as I feel for my- |
self,” he said.

Counselors and chaplains said
Flamer — once an itinerant
worker — has become a role model
for other inmates. - .

_ “God has given me a golden op-
portunity to help others, and I
hope I can continue to do that,”

Morning of

the execution

The state will use the same
procedures as those used in
military executions

1: Fifteen minutes prior to the
time of execution, correctional
Staff and the warden will escort
Bailey from the Maximum
Security Unit onto the gallows.
The executioner will be in
Position and a black hood wil!
be provided.

2: At least 12 witnesses and &
media representatives will be
brought inside the gallows
grounds. ,

3: Restraints will be applied
as directed by the executioner.

4: The warden will ask Bailey
if he has any final comments.

haw tha whence fale Lin |

i) er) }

~saac

were

The gallows

The gallows to be used for the execution was constructed in 1986 for Billy
Bailey but has never been used because he was granted a Stay. Other
death row inmates have chosen lethal injection.

-Delaware: ge oe,
= s: Correctional
2 Genter QO

<. Gallows is:

ote ee ee ; othe. = - Saw: J

Flamer said.
Until January of 1987, Bailey
had repeatedly asked to be exe-
cuted. But after speaking with a
family member, he changed his
mind and said he wanted to appeal
his conviction and sentence.
From then until now, his case,
along with Flamer’s, has worked
its way through both the staté‘and
the federal court systems.
In Delaware, anybody ‘sén-
tenced to death after 1986 has been
automatically sentenced to dié-by
injection. Those sentenced befére
that, including Bailey, Flamer and
James W. Riley, were allowed to
choose. Bailey and Riley chose
hanging. Flamer, scheduled to'die
next week, has chosen injection.
Riley’s appeals are pending. ,

2 ap

wyit

penalty ~~

dates back.

Cad

300 years ©
nnDel.

From staff reports .. =~!

ve.
Execution in Delawares.
spans more than three cen-=

turies, with most major dev 1.

edly in September 1662.

woman known to be legally:

Erte

opments over the last 10 years? |:
The state’s first known exe-® |’
cution was a hanging, reports a

a ee
Catherine Bevans, the first® |

put to death in Delaware, was:

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Bitdal One

for 45 years.

Flamer was convicted of mur-

yl dering his aunt and uncle, Alberta

ee A) en ee d= ay

"Flamer, like Bailey, spoke on his

own behalf Friday before the state
Pardons Board, seeking commuta-
tion of his sentence to life without

for other inmates. -

' “God has given me a golden op-
portunity to help others, and I
hope I can continue to do that,”

choose. Bailey and fi
hanging. Flamer, sched
next week, has chosen
Riley’s appeals are pend

The gallows , of |
<i OQ ‘
The gallows to be used for the execution was constructed in 1986 for Billy & S at
Bailey but has never been used because he was granted a stay. Other § :
death row inmates have chosen lethal injection. & Delaware co) ik
. Copections rion ;
2 enter he
Morning of | eS |
the execution ;_ Gallows la
The state will use the same SD Neat an old
procedures as those used in %% barn and
military executions Ze | service
13 Fitteen minutes prior to the AB Nae Protestors “2, buildings.
time of execution, correctional Hs) 5 < Bee usually
staff and the warden will escort PP 8 Re See. (ELS congregate in
Bailey from the Maximum Gata Res * ried / fi
Security Unit onto the gallows. Boe (sep « | By ee = Y NCCo f°
The executioner will be in Noe NU ae i
position and a black hood will RN eg ned hl NG \
be provided. S B All air trattic Detail
2: Atleast 12 witnesses and 1 Ii Pe in the area area \
media representatives will be 1 ONG : will be tl \
brought inside the gallows WPAN suspended. Lan gl
grounds. 2 | k bea myena |
3: Restraints will be applied | if n Wee
as directed by the executioner. : “abe
4: The warden will ask Bailey
if he has any final comments.
53 The warden will then say,
“Proceed with the execution.” : Seey tne
6: The trigger to release the 19 steps that
trap door willbe activated. wy Witt ua 2 rl ig the
7: Aphysician will determine : FROGS ow wR
death has occurred. ler, a
_ 8: Witnesses will be excused.
Source: Department of Corrections The News Journay/DAN GARROW

Cheswold farm couple Clara La

mbertson, 73, and husband Gilbert, 80, were

murdered by Billy Bailey on May 21, 1979.

health, or muscular condition will
affect the amount of drop neces-
sary for a proper execution.”

The orders also direct the offi-
cer in charge to provide a hood for
the condemned, as well as a “col-
lapse board,” upon which the pris-
oner would be strapped if fear or
illness prevents him from climbing
the 19 steps on his own.

Working from that pamphlet,
the state Department of Correc-
tion developed its own guide, a 13-
page section in the policy manual
titled, “Execution Procedures.”

In it, the condemned is called
an ISDP. for “Inmate Subject to the
Death Penalty.”

The guide sets rules on the
ISDP’s mail and visiting privi-
leges, as well as the disposition of
his property. It also outlines the
duties of the prison superinten-
dent: arrange to have the hang
rope cut and boiled — a process
done to straighten and take the

mm 2D ys

Pa. =

pamphlet regards selection and
payment of the executioner.

In 1987, the last time Bailey
came close to execution, Delaware
decided they needed to hire some-
body with hanging experience to

‘act as executioner.

This time, they are doing it
themselves. Stallings, the prison
spokeswoman, said last week that
the hanging “will be done by a
staff person. That person’s iden-
tity can’t be revealed.”

She did not say if the execu-
tioner was appointed, or volun-
teered. She said the executioner
would not receive any pay over his
or her standard overtime rate, a de-
parture from the $1,000 execu-

tioner’s fee the department was

prepared to pay in 1987, the last
time officials prepared for Bailey's
execution. — |
At that time, there hadn’t been
a hanging in the US. since 1965,

when Kansas hanged the men re-
anmrnnahla fry tha (hitter murders.

tions are under way at the
Delaware Correctional Center to
hang a man.

Although she confirmed that
the department was following “the
military policy, right down to the
rope,” Stallings declined to pro-
vide many other details of the
preparations, She did say, however,
that Delaware Correctional Cen-
ter Warden Robert Snyder and
other department employees have
been conducting drills, and that
about $1,000 worth of mainte-
nance was recently performed on
the gallows.

Some things are different this
time. Hanying as a method of exe-
cution bas been used twice in re:
cent years, both times in Washing:
ton state. Wesley Allan Dodd was
executed in Washington on dan. 5,
1993. Charles Rodman Camphell
was hanged in Walla Walla, Wash-
ington, on May 27, 1994.

Bailey's lawyer, Lyons, said he
gets the fecling everybody would
be more comfortable with the
pending execution if Bailey had

chosen to die by lethal injection,
like the last five men @xecuted in
Delaware — Steven Brian Pennell,
Kenneth Wesley DeShields, James
Allen Red Dog, Andre Stanley
Deputy and Nelson W. Shelton.

“If he ever changed his mind,”
Lyons said last week, “I’m telling
you, there would be one hell of a
sigh of relicf down there.”

But Lyons said Bailey has re-
mained steadfast in his choice, de-
spite Warden Snyder making it a
point to approach him about possi-
bly changing his method of execu-
tion last month. Lyons, too, has ap-
proached Bailey about the option
of choosing injection, at the state's
request.

“My job is to put the choice to
him,” Lyons said. “But my job is
not to lobby him to choose lethal
injection so the state of Delaware
can feel better.”

In an exclusive interview Bailey

‘

Death

penalty
dates ba
300 yeai
in Del.

From staft repor!

Execution in D
spans more than th
turies, with most ma}
opments over the last

The state's first ki
cution was a hangin’

A ”
edly in September ei

Catherine Bevans;
woman known to b
put to death in Dela’
burned at the stak:
Castle, in September

Formal records |
kept. until 1902, bu!
pers recount seven ¢
between 1831 and th.

Since the turn 0
tury, Delaware has ¢
people, 19 of them
white, and one Am
dian. Only one of th
woman. |

The U.S. Supre
struck down the dei
in 1972 because it~
applied in an inc
fashion, with mo
being killed than wl

The Supreme C_
stated capital pun!
1976, and Delawar —
suit a year later
Steven Brian Penn
the first to be ex
Delaware since |
Pennell’s exccutio
has put four others

fn 1986. Delaw.
amended to make
tion the state’s off
execution.

five inmates: h:
Leneed to die |
amendment, 50
given the chor
lethal injection a
the state’s previot

In 1987, the sta
$100,000 for an in
mated system
deadly dose of «
condemned pe
Later, however,
was disabled whe
removed a key |.
contract dispute.

State officials
executioner -— W
tified — start the
drugs from behii
in the trailer.

In 1991, anc
took place imme
New Castle (
spared the li
Philadelphia mc
the execution-s'
two Brooks -
guards near!
Manor. Bs

Legislators |

Lowe

a new law strip}

* Stallin

* Thurs

ae, "
:. In dune of 1936, convicted mur-
derers Howard Carey and his
ymother, May H. Carey, were

Bailey:

D - stale Pa Tirer. T3841
ley then leveled the shotgun at
Clara, shooting her in the back. .

Ja an exclusive interview with
Tho News Journal earlier this

Means

of execution

was his

FROM PAGE At

Washington hns hanged two
murderers in recent years, one in
1993 and one in 1994,

Both of those hangings went off
without complications, although
one of the condemned men was x0
frightened he had to be strapped
onto a bonrd and carried to the
gallows after his lega pave out. |

Everybody hopes Bailey's hang.
ing, if it must happen, foes with.
out complications,

Prison spokeswoman Gail
8 said officials nre sure of
their ability to carry out the sen.
tence as ordered.

“We've gone to Washington

. state to see what they do, and for

the past few weeks we have gone
rough our plans,” she said
ay. “Today we are confi-
dent, given ever nee we have
done to prepare for this, that we
carry out the order correctly
As hangings are supposed to

be carricd out,
That attitude is shared by the

. and that’s it,”

- who handled much of

“Because Washington has beon
able to do it, we're confident that
the Department of Correction will
be able to do it, too,” said Deputy
Attorney Genernl Paul Wallace,
the appeal
work, and who will witness the ex- ,
ecution for his office.

Cruel and unusual?

Edmund D. Lyons Jr. knowa
what can go wrong nt a hanging,
For the past nine yvars, since sign:
ing on as one of Bailey's ‘lawyers,
he has been collecting anecc otal
information and affidavits to sup.
port the argument that all execu.
tions, and hangings in particular,
are cruel nnd unusual.

It is an argument which has
fallen on deaf ears. \

“The problem is, although soci. |
ety has been given the right to
carry out lawful executions, they
were not given the right to torture
somebody to death,” Lyons said
last week.

“Lay people think hanging is
fairly simplo, the person drops and
the a (always) breaks the neck,
he said. “Although
that can happen, that is nut always
the case.”

An excerpt from a Temple Uni-
versity professor's historical sur-
vey titled “Hang By the Neck” was
included in one of Bailey's np-
peals. The survey deals with bun-
gled executions.

je excerpt mentions an 1880
hanging of James Madison Wyatt
Stone in Washington, D.C., for the
murder of his wife. The length of
Stone's‘ drop was miscalcu ated,
with disastrous consequences.

“He was completely beheaded
in the fall,” reported Professor Ne-
gley K. Tecters.

th the 1901 hanging of a notori-
ous train robber named Thomas H.
Black Jack Ketchum in New Mex-
ico, his head, too, was torn from his

ody moments after he was re-
me to have said, “I'll be in hell
efore you can ent your dinner,

A miscalculation the
can

other way
be just as disastrous.

hoi

An account in Wilmington’s ofd
Evening Journal recounting a
triple hanging in September 1917,
nt the county workhoure on Green.
bank Rond, shows what can hap-
pen when the drop is not far
enough, The firat of the three con-
victed murderers to go was Web.
ster Purnell.

“The shock was not sufficient to
break his neck, and he strangled to
death after n struggle,” the ac.
count reads. “He hung for five min-
utes when the physicians folt his
pulse and found that there was
still life in the body, At the end of
10 minutes there was no pulse
movement,”

; —— — in Pal of Bai-
cy’s appents was a list o the 25 peo-
ple executed in Deluware by hang:
ing in the 20th century, with the
length of time the person hanged
before heing pronounced dead, In
the list, which was compiled from
contemporary news reports, the
timo varied from 7 minutes (ohn
Joiner, Sept. 2, 1904) to 2% minutca
Gloeeph Nelson, June 34, 1937), °
allace acknowledged the pos:
sibility for error exists, “Things
can go wrong in hangings, there is
no doubt about it,” he said, “But
that's a rare circumatance, and
anything involving human beings
includes the possibility of some-
thing going wrong. The idea is to
minimize the possibilities, and the
department has done that”

In addition ta the method of cx.

eoution, another renson for the na-
tional media attention is that Bui-
ley's is just one of four scheduled
executions around the country
this week,

On Tuesday, Virginia is to exe:
cute Richard Townes by Iethal in-
jection. On Wednesday, convicted
murderer Emile Duhamel is to he
killed by Texas prison authorities,
Thuraday is the day for Bailey, and
on Friday John Taylor is to be exe-
cuted by firing squad in Utah.

Army how-to guide

When Bailey is hanged, it will
be by Delawnre prison officials fol-
lowing directions in Department of
the Army pamphlet No. 27-4; “Pro.
cedure for Military Executions.”

But even the Army docsn’t hang
anybody cayvinee. The last mili-
tury execution was in 1961, and the
armed services have decided to
switch to injection for any future
executions,

The Army pamphlet is a 26.
age, how-to guide for execution
y hanging. Included are such

things as instructions on how to
fashion a hangman's noose — the
unmistakable knot with six coils
wound tightly around the loop
that goes around the neck (“No
extra rope should remain”), and a
drop-distance table, used to calcu.
late the distance of the drop based
upon the condemned man’s
weight. The greater the weight, the
shorter the drop.

Bailey, at 220 pounds, is at the
bottom of the chart. “220 pounds
and over,” the table reads, “5’0.”

¢ table includes a cautionary
instruction. “A medical officer
should be consulted to determine
whether any factors, such as age,

Al ‘offenc prison
45 yeara,
Flamer was convicted of mur-

dering his aunt and uncle, Alberta

for

ey,

Flamer, like Bailey, spoke on his
own behalf Friday before the state

lons Board, seeking commuta-
tion of his sentence to life without

for other inmates.
“God has given me a golc
ea pee to help others.
ope I can continue to do

Bailey but has never
death row inmates

Morning of

The state will use the same
Procedures as those used in
military executions
13 Fifteen minutes prior to the
time of execution, correctional
staff and the warden will escort
Bailey from the Maximum
Security Unit onto the gallows,
The executioner will be in
poster and a black hood will
@ provided,

2: At least 12 witnesses and
media representatives will be
brought inside the gallows
grounds.

3: Restraints will be applied
as directed by the executioner,
43 The warden will ask Balley
it he has any final comments,
5t The warden will then Say,
“Proceed with the execution,”
6: The trigger to release the
trap door will be activated.

death
83 Witnesses will be excused,

the execution = - y
~

73 A physician will determine 7
has occurred. a

The gallows

The gatiows to be used for the sxecution was constructed in 1986 for Billy
been used beca
have chosen lethal injection.

use he was granted a Stay. Other

Batley will be
escorted the
19 steps that
lead up to the
platform,

Source: Deparment of Convoctions

health, or muscular condition will ¢
affect the amount of drop neces-
sary for a proper exccution.”

¢ orders also direct the offi-
cer in chnrge to provide a hood for
the condemned, as well as a “cole
lapse hoard,” upon which the pris-
oner would be strapped if fear or
illnese prevents him from climbing
the 19 steps on his own.

Working from that pamphlet,
the state Department of Corree-
tion developed its own guide, a 13-
page section in the policy manual
titled, “Execution Procedures.”

In it, the condemned ig called
an ISDP, for “Inmate Subject to the
Denth Penalty.”

The guide scts rules on the
ISDP‘s mail and visiting privi-
leges, as. well as the disposition of
his property, It also outlines the
duties of the prison superinten-
dent: Pca to have the hang
rope cut and hoiled — a process
done to straighten and take the
elasticity out of the rope — and
“prepare the noose, and install
and stretch the “i

’ There is even a section on what
to do if any court issues a stay dur-
ing an execution: “.., execution
proceedings shall be halted and the
witnesses shall be removed. Team
physician(s) shall then immediately
Initiate life sustaining procedures.

Another acction of the Army

son, 73, and husband Gilbert, 80, were
979.

pamphlet regards selection and
payment of the executioner, .

Tn 1987, the Inst time Bailey
came close to execution, Delaware
decided they needed to hire some-
body with hanging experience to
act as exccutioner,

This time, they are doing it
themselves. Stallings, the prison
spokeswoman, said last week that
the hanging “will be done hy a
staff person. That person's iden-
tity can’t he revealed.”

She did not say if the execu.
tioner was appointed, or volun.
teered. She said the executioner
would not receive any pay over his
or her standard overtime rate, a de-
parture from the $1,000 execu-
tioner’s fee the department was
prepared to pay in 1987, the last
time officials prepared for Bailey's
execution,

At that time, there hadn't been
a hanging in the US. since 1965,
when Kansas hanged the men re-
sponsible for the Clutter murders,
& case made famous by Truman
Capote’s “In Cold Blood.”

© preparations stopped when
Bailey decided to appeal, an av-
enue that seems to have come to an
end with his latest losses in the 3rd
US. Circuit Court of Appeals and
the Supreme Court of the United
States.
So now, once again, prepara-

The News Joumal DAN G

tions are under way at
Delaware Correctional Cent
hang a man,

Although she confirmed
the department wie fllowing
military policy, right down t
rope,” Stallings declined to
vide many other details o!
Preparations, She did say, hov
that Delaware Correctional
ter Warden Robert Snyder
other department em loyee:
been conducting drills, an:
about $1,000 worth of ma
nance was recently perform:
po 1a

Some things are different

time. Hanging asa method ea
cution has been used twice i
cent years, both times in Was
ton state, Wesley Allan Dod
executed in Washington ont:
1993. Charles Rodman Cam
was hanged in Walla Walln, \
ington, on May 27, 1994.

Bailey's lawyer, Lyons, sa

ts the —— everybody v
c more comfortable wit!
pending execution if Bailey
chosen to die by lethal injec
like the last five men execut
Delaware — Steven Brian Pe:
Kenneth Wesley DeShields, J
Allen Red Dog, Andre Sti
Deputy and Nelson W. Sheltc
If he ever chan his n
Lyons said last week, “I'm te
you, there would be one hel:
sigh of relief down there.”

But Lyons said Bailey h:
mained steadfast in his choic
spite Warden Snyder makin

int to approach him about
bry changing his method of ¢
tion last month. Lyons, too, h
proached Bailey about the o
of choosing injection, at thes
request.

“My job is to put the cho
him,” Leone said. “But my j
not to lobby him to choose |
injection so the state of Del:
can {cel better.” .

In an exclusive interview I

anted The News Journal h:

e didn't feel it was right to

somebody have to pick a way

want to die. “Asking a mi:

choose how to die,” he sais

more barbaric than hanging.’
ns feels the same.

“I find putting someone i
position of having to choose
manner of execution repugr

iy | By ste reporters .

* In 1986, the Delaware Legisla-
.jture passed a law that made injec.
* tion the method for carrying out

avrnoufions fatminn n national

As of this year, 92 of the 38
states that allow capital punish.
ment depend upon injection as
the primary means of execution.
In Delaware, anyone convicted
snd sentenced te deorth hefarn

Injection primary method in

The U.S. Supreme Court struck
down the death penalty in 1972
with a decision in Fuhrman v
Georgia, because it was being ap-
plicd in an inconsistent fashion,
with more blacks heine killed

Delaware, 31 othe

down the statute in 1976.

Then, in 1976, the U.S, Supreme
Court approved sentencing
schemes enacted by states in two
of four cases before

tom We,

it that year.

tion the method for execution
placing hanging.

A law passed in 1993 took
final decision out of the ju -
hands and gave it to the t
indee, Under the new law the

otgun at
the back.
erview with
earlier this

om
”

rington’s old
counting a
tember 1917,
se on Green-
rat can hap-
+ is not far

he three con-
go was Web-

- sufficient to
strangled to
gle,” the ac-
t for five min-
tians felt his
it there was
At the end of
as no pulse

1 one of Bai-
of the 25 peo

ympiled from
reports, the
tinutes (John
to 23 minutes
3, 1937).

dged the pos-
ists, “Things
ti there is
1¢ said. “But
stance, and
uman beings
lity of some-
"he idea is to
ities, and the
that.”
method of ex-
on for the na-
nis that Bai-
ur scheduled
the country

nin is to exe-
by lethal in-
ny, convicted
ame] is to be
v authorities,
w Bailey, and
r is to be exe-
in Utah.

inged, it will
1 officials fol-
tepartment of
lo. 27-4: “Pro-
c<ecutions.”

doesn’t hang
he last mili-
1961, and the
> decided to
wr any future

niet is a 36-
or execution
ed are such
is on how to
noose — the
rith six coils
nd the loop
e neck (“No
nain”), and a
ised to calcu-
re drop based
ined man’s
16 weight, the

nds, is at the
“220 ds
rads, “5'0."
a cautionary
dical officer
to determine
euch as age,

for 45 years.

Flames was convicted of mur-

dering his aunt and uncle, Alberta

Flamer, like Bailey, spoke on his

own behalf Friday before the stato
Pardons Board, seeking commuta-
tion of his sentence to life without

for other inmates.

“God has given me a golden op-

portunliy to help othors, and ]

ope I can continue to do that,”

choose. Da

Riley's appeals are pending.

ley and Riley chose
hanging. Flamer, scheduled to die
next week, has chosen injection.

Morning of

The state will use the same
procedures as those used in
military executions

13 Fifteen minutes prior to the
time of execution, correctional
staff and the warden will escort
Bailey from the Maximum
Security Unit onto the gallows.
The executioner will be in

the execution ~ 4

The gallows

The gallows to be used for the execution was constructed in 1986 for Billy
Bailey but has never been used because he was granted a stay. Other = -
death row inmates have chosen fethal injection.

Gallows te ‘
no Bs ae anh
A
|, | Sera

g ©

oO
gis “).

- Correctional So
oO
canter OS)

rt .
‘
et

Protestors ““p, | buildings.
usually
congregate
e '
' NCCo

pr and a black hood will s, gn

provided. | All ale traffic ,...} | Dete'

2: Atleast 12 witnesses and +50] Inthe area | | aren
media representatives will be ©) will be * | 0 1)
brought inside the gallows fo suspended, : 0;
grounds. Ps Gl BRS #1 cc eee ;
3: Restraints will be applied =| %}| 6 :
as directed by the executioner. 4
4: The warden will ask Bailey
if he has any final comments.

53 The warden will then say,
“Proceed with the execution.” pests Lene
6: The trigger to release the 19 steps that
trap door will be activated. —_y,¥l pre hn ig sea
73 A physician will determine "0 .
death has occurred. “RP at,

_ Bz Witnesses will be excused. .

Source: Department of Comections The News Joumal/DAN GARROW

ne TUN
Cheswold farm couple C

lara Lambertson, 73, and husband Gilbert, 80, were

murdered by Billy Balley on May 21, 1979.

health, or muscular condition will
affect the amount of drop neces-
sary for a proper execution.”

e orders also direct the offi-
cer in charge to provide a hood for
the condemned, as well as a “col-
lapse board,” upon which the pris-
oner would he strapped if fear or
illness prevents him from climbing
the 19 ateps on his own.

Working from that pamphlet, °

the state Department of Correc-
tion developed its own guide, a 13-
page section in the polt manual
titled, “Execution Procedures.”

In it, the condemned is called
an ISDP. for “Inmato Subject to the
Death Penalty.”

The guide scts rules on the
ISDP’s mail and visiting privi-
leges, as well as the disposition of
his property. It also outlines the
duties of the prison superinten-
dent: arrange to have the hang
rope cut and boiled — a process
done to straighten and take the
elasticity out of the rope — and
“prepare the noose, and install
and stretch the rope.”

There is even a section on what
to do if any court issues a stay dur-
ing an execution: “... execution
proceedings shall be halted and the
witnesses shall be removed. Team

hysician(s) shall then immediate!
initiate life sustaining procedures,

Another section of the Army

pamphlet regards selection and
payment of the executioner.

In 1987, the last time Bailey
came close to execution, Delaware
decided they needed to hire some-
body with hanging experience to
act as executioner.

This time, they are doing it
themselves. Stallings, the prison
spokeswoman, said last week that
the hanging “will be done by a
staff person. That person’s iden-
tity can’t be revealed.”

_ She did not say if the execu-
tioner was appointed, or volun-
teered. She said the executioner
would not receive any pay over his

or her standard overtime rate, a de-

parture from the $1,000 execu-
tioner's fee the department was
prepared to pay in 1987, the last

time officials prepared for Bailey's.

execution.

At that time, there hadn’t been
a hanging in the U.S. since 1965,
when Kansas heap, the men re-
sponsible for the Cl
a case made famous by Truman
Capote's “In Cold Blood.”

Bailey decided to appeal, an av-
enue that seems to have come to an
end with his latest losses in the 3rd
US. Circuit Court of Appeals and
the Supreme Court of the United
States. '

So now, once again, prepara-

utter murders, .

tions are under way at the
Delaware Correctional Center to
hang a man.

Although she confirmed that
the department was following “the
military policy, right. down to the
rope,” Stallings declined to pro-
vide manny other details of the
preparations. She did say, however,
that Delaware Correctional Cen-
ter Warden Robert Snyder and
other department employees have
been conducting drills, and that
about $1,000 worth of mainte-
nance was recently performed on
the gallows.

Some things are different this
time. Hanging as a method of exe-
cution has been used twice in re-
cent yenrs, both times in Washing-
ton state. Wesley Allan Dodd was
executed in Washington on Jan. 5,
1993. Charles Rodman Cam hell
was hanged in Walla Walla, Wash-
ington, on May 27, 1994.

Bniley’s Inwyer, Lyons, said he

ts the fecling everybody would

e more comfortable with the
pending execution if Bailey had
chosen to die by lethal injection,
like the last five men executed in
Delaware — Steven Brian Pennell,
Kenneth Wesley DeShields, James
Allen Red Dog, Andre Stanley
Deputy and Nelson W. Shelton.
If he ever shaneee his mind,”
3 said last week, “I'm telling
you, there would be one hell of a
sigh of relief down there.”

But Lyons said Reales has re-
mained steadfast in his choice, de-
apite Warden Snyder making it a

int to approach him about possi-
Bly changing his method of execu-
tion Inst month. Lyons, too, has ap-

‘proached Bailey about the option

of choosing injection, at the state's

uest.
My job is to put the choice to
him,” ew said. “But my ck is
not to lobby him to choose ethal
injection so the stato of Delaware
can feel better.” ;

In an exclusive interview Bailey

ranted The News Journal he said

fe didn’t feel it was right to have
somcbody have to pick a way they
want to dic, “Asking a man to
choose how to die,” he said, “is
more barbaric than hanging.”

Lyons feels the same.

“{ find putting somcone in the
position of having to choose their
manner of execution repugnant.”

Death.
penalty —
dates back
300 years
in Del.

From statf reports

e
a
Execution in Delaware:
spans more than three cen--
turies, with most major devel-;
opments over the last 10 years.;
The state's firat known exe-
cution was a hanging, report~
edly in September 1662. ;
Catherine Bevana, tho first"
woman known to be legally:
av to death in Delaware, was:
urned at the stake in New.
Castle, in September 1731. :
Formal records were not
kept until 1902, but newspa:.
ers recount seven executions,
etwecn 1831 and that year.
Since the turn of the cen=
tury, Delaware has executed 30
people, 19 of them black, 10
white, and one American In
dian. Only one of the 30 was a
woman. vt
The U.S. Supreme Court
struck down the death penalty
in 1972 because it was being
applied in an inconsistent
fashion, with more blacks
being killed than whites. ,
The Supreme Court reip-
stated capital punishment 1
1976, and Delaware followed.
suit a gh later. In 1992,
Steven Brian Pennell became
the first to be executed by
Delaware since 1946. Since
Pennell’s execution, tho state
has put four others to death. -
Tn 1986, Delaware's Jaw was
amended to make lethal injec
tion the state's official form of
execution, :
Five inmates had been sen-
tenced to die before that
amendment, so they were
given the choice between
lethal injection and hanging,
the atate’s previous method. -<
In 1987, the state paid about
$100,000 for an intricate, auto”
mated system to inject @
deadly dose of drugs into &
condemned person's arnt,
Later, however, that system
was (disabled when its designer

contract dispute. -
State officials now have an
executioner — who is not ideti-
tified — start the flow of lethal
drugs from behind a partitio
in the trailer. "
In 1991, another change
took place immediately after.a
New Castle County jury
spared the lives of fout
Philadelphia men convicted of
the execution-style slaying
two Brooks Armored Cat
guards near Wilmingtos

Manor. :
Lagistators quickly pased
a new law stripping juries’ se
tencing power in capital m
der cases, giving it to tri
judges, Jurors now make o
advisory recommendations. ¢
Earlier, a death penalty
quired a jury's unanimous vo
and life sentences automaty-
cally were imposed if juro
splittheir vote. ~

removed a kéy part during 8 |

ary method in

, 82 of the 38

ital punish-
t injection as
of execution.

The US. Supreme Court struck
down the death penalty in 1972
with a decision in Fuhrman v.
Georgin, because it was being ap-

Delaware, 31 other states -

down the statute in 1976.

Then, in 1976, the U.S. Supreme
Court approved sentencing
schemes enacted by states in two

tion the method for execution, re-
placing hanging.

A law passed in 1993 took the
final. decision out of the jury's
hansdo ond gave it to the trial

SPPIITY TS

eevee
eee s

“great weight.” ;

On April 11, 1994, Gov. Car]
signed legislation (SB 57) mandaf-
ing that executions will take plag
hetween 12:01 and 3 a.m. Prisfh

‘phere a

BURTO N (GREEN),, Joseph, black, han

aah ere!

+eerpe S68

Wich Ado About a Savage

“ic Murderer.

wee ol ae “
: is

How wa Incorperated po “African Laxurl-
- ated and Died. |

de.

THE WAGES OF SIN.

4, eit

5 and Ridicalons Exding of
an Atrocious Scoundre!.

-UKDER THE GALLOWS.

ympsthy-loapiring Ceremonies Sor Sex

eyo eral Instraction.
@ * . GRRE SOD
» Qnomerrown, Del., Jume 22, 3872,

‘@eorgetown, the county seat of Sussex county,
Del, $6 Mtaated spon the Junction and Break water
Malivead, ebout eighty or eighty-Ave miles from
“Witntington. About the centre of the town, which
Bumbers between eight hundred and nine han-
Grof mbabitenta, stands a respectable Coart House,
. Srenting north; directly to the sontheast stands a
gommen lookisg pump, as I supposed. but upon
faore careful examination it proved to be the far

famed .
WIPTING POST, |

Ser which Delaware {s 80 widely reputed. The post
tn qaestion is an old one, and has done good ser-
vies te ita day; it ta about seven feet high. The
Prisoner is made to hug the post, and his hands
are bandcufied to it by means of iron pieces, which

RO EXECUTION.

ESTING TO HONICIDES.

Grmiy hold the arm against the post. Ahole in the
. goat allows « place for .

zed Georgetown, Del., 6-20-1373.

‘

- TMB PILLORY, :
Wm wiieh, under the law, the prisoner has generally
@e@ stand before being flogged, supporting on his
peck and armsa weight of about fifteen pounds.
Tuere are bet few persons whose constitution can
Stead this puniximent one hour and hive, Still the
poopie of the town claim theac rites ef barbarigm
Gre toe only remedy they have aguinst filling their
fale with a set of worthless rascals wno would pre-
fer. to let the county support them than to work
Sstacsires, Directly in the rear of the Court House,
@boct one hundred yards, stanius

THE JAIL,
@ewistaatial looking two story building, the yard
@ which is about tairty by forty feet and is enclosed
ep three sides with a brick wall sixteen feet high
apd on the third by the jal building. Within this

meer oe ]
THE GaLLows
@ree'od for the execution of Green, alias Burton.
‘The stractare ts also wortby of our forefathers and
weeld bave probabiy answered excellently afty
Years ago as & ewilt means of transit into the next
Wworlt, It ts, however, somewhat behind (or
mbhead ’) the inventions of the present ege. It is
maée of two unbarked oak saplings, alxteen feet
high and ox inches in diameter. These are erected |
abest cight feet apart, and across the top is placed
and bolted Grmiy with wooden bolts an oak log,
hewn shout six inches square. In the centre of this
'B large iron hook is placed, to which the rope was
Med. Preces of timber are naticd from the uprights
ww the jall walls, about two feet distant, about eight
Seet from the ground. Upon these cross-pieces are
three sixteen feet pine planka, thus formin
\piatiorm. Im (front of this und directly in the
sentre of the gallows is the trap,
which ts about two by three feet. lwo
\erge 8=—s hinges = attach it to one of
the pinnks tbe platform, and it was sup-
of timber about one and a
es thick, extending from the ground. To
the centre piece was attached a rope. Al the con. |
@umon of tee services and alter cap had been
@rawn ever the tace, the two outside poeta were
removed, and ata given signal the remaining one

wan suddenly pulled gut and Burton was lauuthed
dase eternity.

Derectly in the rear of the trap was a cell in the
pecond story of the jail. The gallows wes reached
by eleven stepa, extending trom we jail yard and
ithin ope soot of the window of Burton’s cell. |
Geere were present at the execution, in ull, in- |

Wiliam Dens Aung at Newtas fle,
Delaware Jan. AY, 1873 For « rage
Commrthed Mrs. Mary Thompson.

Joe Burton hung at George town,
Delaware on June 20, [§73 Foe

es al

Dareetly in the rear of the trap was a cell in the |
nd storyof the jail. The gallows Was reached |
y eleven steps, extending Irom the jail yard and |
thin one soot of the window of Burton's cell.
Bere were present at the execution, tn all, in-
Seen te careen twelve jurora und reporters,
thirty persons—this being the number pre-
4 by law in a recent act of the Legislature.

. THE CRIMINAL oe

was oung wa’ twenty-three years of
would ave readily passed for tweuly. ¢ lis cye

rea Gear aed intelligent, and his face bright and
pheertal-leoking. He-was comppctly pallt, with a
Reig short five feet seven or eight iuches in

: we between a hand and wxty
iene t aixty-Bve pounds, Aire a lew

‘pest he Teltgion, and expressed his
to die and face his God, declar-

‘ tee While Gis eatire innocence of the crime. |
w im confinement his statements have con-
; th each other, he at times declaring that
"never eew Hannah Lusk until the day of his
trial before the mag.strates, and again he bas told
he saw her ia her uncie’s store at Kehovotu.

blic opinion was strongly against Barton, the
evidence leaving bat little room for doubt as to his

guilt.
HISTORY OF THE CASE.

‘The facts in the case are:—On the morning of
Monday, March 94, 1673, a young girl pamed Han-
mah N. Lank, about thirteen years of age, was sent
by der Gade and aant (with whom she lived, |

r motner being dead) to a neighbor’s-named |
Wall te “exokange some eggs,” Having accom: |
Pusbed ber errand, she started to return home, |
pedpping at the store of her uncle at Rehoboth sta-
tion, on Junction and Breakwater Ratiroad. Wheu

te
was inside, but Jef shortiy belore she dia, which was
pet eniél after the train passed, avout ten o'Clock.
Pee lithe girl passed out o1 the store iu a gay ‘and
happy mood to return to her home, littic dreaming
at odevil ia buman form was ying in wait lor her.
: ‘eoumued on her way antl when within a half
gaile @f- ber home, while passing through w thicket
of pence, Burton pall fRitumself and made an
aplamene pro utoher. She did not answer,
bet attempted to by him, He then seized ber
gnd alter a terrible struggic, in which the ground
wae tora up for the space of ten ject and the cloth-
fag weary all torn off the child, be sacoeeded in
throwing down abd. accomplishing his hellish

alter which he ran off into the woods. The:

poor girl, in great distrves, mortification, and com.

y exhausted, dragged herself home, wnt, cail-

her gual iromthke hoase (told ber the story of

the eutrage that bad been committed upon
ber, The child was aick fur sume me afterward,

ond intelligibic, thoug
@eastibisg beta Burton and the ciethes be wore.

red the store Joseph (Green, allus Burton, |
{

Tee nowse spread

(itl
g

g ef

245

[

THE aAkKeRT.

like wildfire and a rty of

sens started tn pursait of the \
of iain. u@ place |
Grau Was g0un found and the P chimed
Apa 0 plainly visible. Burton hua on st
by ngithey heavy bovis, and the groand ve-
trom iBcensant rainsin Marcn, he wus |

about two miles trom

Loots he. bad on when 4

puremt Of, im addition to which ais

2
E
5
:

:
z
:
4
:
i

ii}

ik és
i
;
3
2
E
3

pursuers cunld at.
In Judge Lynce aed eae

tag summary junction on the spot.
meet, however, prevailed, an.) aaa eee oil

Was committed tu the jal! in

Gcorgetows. A
On thy ef Apri fast aa
been towed, Greve, alias Burton, was brvught Vit

GUpiu presiding. A jar;
Svetve = { men Was obtained and a Bick of
So ps by the cutprit. The case com. -
4. apd coatuaned through the |

| GAY. Afar abie arrume
2 ats by Both the counse
Gee aad the Atarney General of Delaware

ha
§
it
;
z

. qner was- ~ Hg A ge ihe pris-
when, bab peat cures ital BEX’ Horning,
sditaneed be hanged Ontes Justice Git
irk ears enti o See ath
Bemastyas aspen a

tre jury at forty-dve minutes

wm the jail yard 1 h y peceanes
iy CIR. deve - cope tad me r or A.
Johnson (negres®) ; - 2 Oankon

and alterwards a white

rape ne :
iigaay Necmhouap rise raat”

TmE Laer RX om Sh

bere was that of a negro

on December 16, 1870, for a simuas atence om the

wile of Mr. John Fietcher.

TUR MURDERER FRONTED BY THE KAW.
At an eariy hour this morning 2 crowd

began to gat

r to witness the ¢

906 of Bur-

ton, altho: only thirty pernene wee ‘allowed
sdrsiasion. “The crowd et uel ng. from afar
imcreased each moment offi the Roar of execu-

tion, Moany ascending p, oy :
in the vicinity of
morbid curiosity. The.
yall yard were twelve jary
Sheng Mharp and pis:

o gratuity. their

the une and aeeee anneah Laok. pore

was summoned ‘te:

guards
with the muskets ‘by the troops of this coua-

ty in 1812 and evér since lodged

Anx1008, YET

in the county

to the an some of the mininters here bad in-
terested themaelves in yay e his sentence
of

At eight o'clock the HammaLp reporter. vielted
sutton te hia cel, and said to him “You are

east dows and rolled restleasly in their sockets,
Mp0 700 syste anya 9
. “No, sir,” he repiied, Tf have al Iwant.” — .
Lis theck bands witb and bade me goodby,
: PITY THE POOR MURDERER, -
At aquarter past etght o’clock the shackles were

from half-past elveen 0’
Episcopal minister.
was sworn in the Sherifl’s.

water, alter which

“Are you ty? Me

pose.”? While dressing he became
} asked for a Jooking giasa, and then for. a. #
which he smoked and seemed toenjoy. Alter this
his room was fixed receive.the ministers who
visited him, who Ned a carey meet in the céll

nea antil the, arrived,
when he was baptized by the Rev. DZ. lass,

<THE JORY OF INQUEST °

, alter which they

oceéded to the jail yard af pasttwelve, At
Trenty-aiz minutes to one he drank half a glass of
his bands were bound. He
was dresee’ in a bine coat, brown pants and white
vest.” For brcoakfast he drank hall a cup of coffee
and ate two mouthials o! bread. When. about
,0 leave the | ig -angwer te the question .
“fT am™not. ©
He walked ly ap the gallows steps at twenty.
five minutes toone, A yer was offered by Rev.
Mr. Douglasa, during ke sat calmly ona

| chalg, with the fatal noose hanging in front. of his

face. At twenty-nine minu

to one he he

had nothing to say. In reply to 8 question’ by his
former master, Mr. Benj ‘Barton, be re

| pulne

| wentence -of death for sa
) foe the great haste iu’ which the

“I aM INNOQENE 2

In reply tO the Sheriff he said:—“All J have to
say is that you are han 2b innocent man.. Dr.
Knowles, lam ionocent. [thank all for kindness
shown me. I thank ‘he ministers, also Nir. and Mra.
Sharp. No one advised me to not cenfess. The
moinisters and Mre. turton vegyed me to tell the
truth about the afti‘r. The ministers said 1 could
not hope tor merc: if I was gutity without I con-
fexsed it. Tsald Tem es i and I wished all
well who brought 1° to thia, I bear no malice and
FORGIVE ALL WHO HAVE WRONGED MxE.”’ ;

At fifteen minutes op one the black cap was
drawn over his facc. e calmly li/ted it, an said
to Mr. Burton :— '
‘Tell Sally and Georgie

goodby.”
Again it was drawn down, and again lifted to |

say, ‘Mr. Sharp, [ thank you, Tell Mrs. Sharp so
too, Iam innocent. Jerk the trap quick.”

The cap was drawn down, and at sixteen min-
utes to one the post was jerked out and the trap

fell,
« A HRARTRENDING BORNE.

Here followed a scene heartrending and sicken-
ing. The neck was not broken, and the violent
movement of the , accompanied by hourse
breathing, lasted fully ive niinutes. He was

CHOKED TO PRATH.

The rope was clumsily fitted around the neck
and the fal: not great ene to accomplish the
work. The fall was six andahalf feet, At nine
rt one Drs. Gum and Waples declared the

at rapidly. Four minutes later it wan
reguiar aod Ormer. Three minutes more it deat

feebly, and at two minutes past one it had ceased |

to beat. Burton died hard, being eighteen min-
utes in expiring. At twelve minutes past one
THR BODY WAS CUT DOWN

and placed in a ogg gum coffin and turned over
he jory of oe baving previ-—

to Mr. Burton
ousty signed the ficate of death.

Mr. Burton, the former master of the man, : testl-
fied to his good character and bis belief in his in-
nocence, e ollnisters all believe him innocent,
and also that he died the death ofa Christian. At
the suggestion.of the Hzmaup reporter the Sheri
allowed him (the reporter) the use ofa cell in the
second story directiy in the rear of the Lrap.

The following petition will explain itzels:—

To Win Kucetlency Janus Poxper, Governor of the State
of Delaware :—

Dean Sin—I, John C. Tank, father of the young girt
Hannah N. Lank, apon whoin the alleged rape was said
tohave been committed by Juseph Burton, now ander
neutence of death for sald consider.
ing the rest lJisste in .which the ‘case was
trie and that. doubts naturally arise in all
huindn testimony, and being anxious to Jean
to the side of mercy,I do tay respectfully ask Your

@ the execution of the
sald Joseph Burton te some future Gay, us tag oad
neetend proner ts Vonr Fycelhwmwy. in ardor thae timan

Of Delawares———_—____

Dean Sia—1, John c. Lank, ‘father of the + oung girl
Hannat N. Lank, upon whoin the alleged reel bie aa
tohave been committed bd Juseph Burton, 7

Now under
allezed crime, cootider.

tried, and that doubts Naturally arise tn “ail

to clear up the doubt and mova

Witnessed—A. D. JOUR C. LANK,
June 18, 187%, heigl, 8. Larton.

~ meee

pea tn EY onTy

|
:

[ Ge n\

le tyesutior tix Delaumre.
Ome G --G> (7G I-

May or peg pot have abeeady,

eee:

at the demand for pri
fi nlive. in this city and ftate,
$ that depend upon the Pennt ylva-
thitit can no longer be anfwer-
a regard to the interefts. of li-.

ing-paper hie bec
andairon other tt

dif
ays a det

e Mia.
‘of. de-
mbina-
pest of

n received from Governor
“Pitot uth of the Ohio) that the Chero>
“¢5 OF the five lower: towns onthe ‘Tenneflge had
declared war againg the United States, on thesrith of,
Sept. and that from three to fix hundred warriors had
fet out upon'an expedition : paint the frontier fertle-.
ments. In-confequence of this intelligence one rege,
thent of the militia of Wathington: diftrict was order.
ed ovt—On the 15th of § pthowever, news: was re-
ecived, that fome leading men had prevailed”
Cherokee Indians that had collested ro go to war
aifperfe jo ea Cpa

aad return to their home:
letter from French-Broad, d
There are 600 Indian: nitagaing thiscountiy. They:
have killed two men of the name of Gillefpie, who
below ANoxville id that Xnox-

ated Sept. 10

the four lower Cherokee
I, and will ain co

“hor

een killed ia the Creek nation,

and which was’ prevented by
vho gave Mr. Shaw timely no-

Z hier

ant of ‘this city, has receiv
o dent in Charlefton (by the Georgia
Packet jutt arrived here) a letter dated the 15th init,
© Which mentions that a veflel from France, arrived at
Savannah, brings news to the it of Sept.—-That the
Queen of France had been murdered—that the, King
aid la Fayette were mifling—that 5000 of the people
of Paris had been put todeath s and that the Duke of
Bruntwick and his army, were within 30 milesof Pa-
VIS. Doubtful, ode ie Cha ean ge:

CHARLES TON, Sept. 28

Letters from Georgia reprefent the peace between,
~‘khe United States and the Creek Tudians to be upon a
“very precarious footing. It is apprehended the
Spaniards have been but too fuccefstul in fowing pre-
. Judices ro the difadvantage of the United States, and
itis even tild that Gen. M°Gilliy cay has been inceflant-,
dy atiled from that, and perhaps another quarter, -

Odsber17—A, merhe

“from his correfpon

be joine BO Or: “yo

pired notwithftanding the immediate affiftance of the

oly Efquire.
{On the ratho

and thewed every mark of forrow

‘duty to the n

‘| 1. It appears to. this Afemb!

stilbene et BA date {tore commander of the
ent from Congrefs, narrowly |

any longer to acknowledge him as

to break with us. Should the ftrengeth of the Crecks

> -.

Shem convilions, of which he ex-

faculty, who were called on the occation. eo It was.
foon difcovered that a four-ounce bottle of Jandanum
had been emptied by this unhappy man, to procure the
effec; but had the opiate failed, ~he was doubly arm- ,
ed againtt exiltence, by a cafe of loaded pittols, which
Was found under his pillow. The laudanum, how-
ever proved fufficient.. It appears, that this gentle-
man has a partner in trade in Virginia, and a brother
at Greenock, in Scotland. A letter was found ad-
drefled to his partner, and a will, bequeathing the re-
fidue of his property to his brother, after the debts
were paid; and, it isfuppofed, he was in affluent cir-
cumftaneea. oto pes ie oe ee
“The number of perfons lately inoculated in Bofton,
is flated, in one of their papers, at 9384, of whom 198
died, whichis in the proportion of ove to forty.
On the 18th init: the Honfe of Delegates, of Vir-
ginia, proceeded to the choice of a Seiator to repre-
font that flute in the Senate of the United States, in
the room of Rich Arp HENay Ler, Efq. who: re-
figned ; when on examiniag the ballots, there appear-
eda large majority in favour of Joun 7. LOR, Efy
He was alfo ele&ted to ferve as Sendtor fix years from
March nexts coe Eee sales en eee hea
— On the 3d inf, was celebrated in New-York,: the
completion of the third century fince the difcovery of
America by Colsmbus. On this occafion a monument=
al obelifk-was exhibited by the Tammany Socicty at
their Creat Wigwam; where an animated eration on
th vreat nautical hero was delivere

fF Sept. was executed in Wilmington,
ftate of Delaware, Negro Ben, for a RAPE. Atter
his condemnation he entertained no hopes of pardon,
acknowledged the fact, and the juftice of his fentence,
and penitence—
unhappy fate to the

With his late(t breath he dated his
ly end be awarning

eficéts of RuM.—May his uiutime
to alt its miferable votarics!
_ Dr. Ramfay has publithed propofals,
for a Hiltory of the Amerie
On the 18th of Augutt, a
de Ja Fayette’s ar
National Aflembly, i
Chiefs had endeav

‘in. England ,:/:
an Revolution,

| timber of the foldies: af
my appeared at the ‘bar os’ the
nforming, that the: General and
oured to feduce them from their
ation sin confequence of which they had

with diffic :
oly proved and |
following decree:
y, that. there is juft
‘la Fayette, hereto-

corrohoreted,the Aflembly pafled the

eround for accufation againit M. ‘|
army of the North: . 0 ¢0.
IL. The executive power fhall in the moft expedi-
tious manner poflible, putthe prefent decree ‘into ex«
ecution; and all conftituent authorities, all citizens,
and all foldiers, are hereby enjoined, by every means
in their power, to fecure his perfon. fee ee,
_ MY. The Affembly forbids the army of the North:
General, or to obey J,
it no perfon whatfoe-
any thing for the troops, or pay any
money for their ale, but by the orders of M. Du-
NOUPLer a ee a 8 ge

_ Bickeftaff, the author of Love iz a Villare—The
maid of the Mill—Padlocky &e. and who might jultly
be termed the father of fuch compofition, was fome
time ago feen wandering about in Italy, ins a ftate of
almoit mendicant indigence. A donation of halfa
guinea from one who had known him in better days,
was received by him with hunble gratitude. An éx-
ample this, that abilities when debated by vice, can-
notfecure to their poffeflors even the commen necet-
faries of lifee gy ye es GEN Se Oa ee

his orders 3 and ftriatly enjoin the
ver fhall furnith

: — Warrenton Acapemy.

TAHE Truftees of the Warr
A ous of contributing all tha
the advancement of liter
(cience, mo!

enton Academy, defir-
tis in theiy power to
ture and the cultivation of
t refpectfully inform their fellow-citizens,

‘
* OX We

and ‘that

d by FoBeFonns. es
SOO Oe arn “Warrenton,

Who is the proper perf

names. |

4 ulty made their efcape fromthe army. From ‘| j
this and other treafonable charges, {tron

ay p

others that are di{patt

Kefolved unanimous
of thanks tg the Rey,
mitted rote jniers
and that they%h Prequ
ther with thefe ihinut

To the R everend OA
: the Academy at Wells
> Peres

ee See : tee
SHE Truftees of't
. truly fenfible of t}
from a liberal intercow
tution. over which yoy
folved to prefent you y
polite manner’ in whic
examination of the
felt much fatisfoéti ote
you exprefied your app
young gentlemen had
you, Sir, and the Prefidd
ment, may long con
which they hope may,
morals and educatio
Care sea) ve Maes
‘Permit me, Sir, |
onal pleafure in be
public teftimony o
Tan

WHEREAS there
Warrenton academy wh
of their fubfcriptions to
owing as itis imagined

to receive the fame :
“ Refolved, That the
INS) be direéted inin
fubfcribers, that. it
mand: pay the amovn
he thall direélly ‘pure
ditcharge of the fuins ¢}

mncunde |
inftrunients, as.
academy+they

the
their donacions will b
Treafuret in Warrento
en ee WIL ETA
Warrenton, Odobiy

STATE
by

EOF NORTH-C
his Excellency Ay,
Governo aptaii-G
Chief in and over the
A PRO

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The last hanging in the First State

State set for historic hanging

U.S. Supreme Court denies

Bailey’s plea for final appeal

By Carlos Holmes
Staff writer

(CJ Delaware had its last hanging in 1946. Page 2.
(Utah to hold execution by firing squad. Page 4.

SMYRNA — The scheduled hanging of Billy Bai-.

ley Thursday appears to be a certainty with Fri-
day’s decision by the U.S. Supreme Court not to
consider a final appeal by the condemned
murderer.

Edmund D. Lyons Jr., Bailey’s attorney, said
only two out of the nine sitting members — justices
Ruth Bader Ginsburg and John Paul Stevens —
voted in favor of hearing the appeal. “If we had
gotten four votes, they would have heard the ap-
peal,” Mr. Lyons said.

Mr. Lyons said Bailey was dis-
appointed upon hearing the
news. “But he is dealing with it,”
he said. “I really admire the
strength that he has shown.”

The attorney said there would
be no last-ditch legal maneuvers.
“There is nothing left to be done,”
Mr. Lyons said. “We made the
arguments we felt should be

made.”
Billy Bailey Bailey was convicted in 1980 of
shooting Gilbert Lambertson, 80, and his wife,

Clara, 73, after walking away from a prison work-

release program in 1979.

Barring any miracle reprieve, Bailey will be the
first convict hanged in Delaware in 50 years and
only the third in the United States since 1965. For
Delaware, he also may be the last.

When the state abandoned hangings in favor of
lethal injection in 1986, Bailey and two others
already facing death sentences were given the op-
tion of choosing the new method. Bailey declined.

“I didn’t choose hanging,” Bailey said in a recent
interview with a Wilmington newspaper at the max-
imum-security prison north of Smyrna. “The state
chose it for me. Asking a man to choose how to die
is more barbaric than hanging.”

Bailey's stance forced Delaware corrections offi-

cials to relearn an increasingly archaic form of —

execution.

_ To prepare, they visited with their counterparts
in Washington state, the only state to perform a
hanging since 1965. They also turned to a 1969
manual from the U.S. Army, which no longer prac-
tices hanging itself.

Hanging, it seems, is no simple matter.

The rope, three-fourths of an inch to 14 inches
in diameter, must be boiled, then stretched to
eliminate spring or coiling, the Army manual in-
structs. The knot should be lubricated with wax or
soap “to ensure a smooth sliding action.”

See Bailey — Page 2

File photo

The gallows where Billy Bailey Is
scheduled to be hanged Thursday
stands empty at the Delaware Correc-
tion Center near Smyrna.

Submitted photo

Gilbert and Clara Lambertson were
shot to death by Billy Bailey in 1979
Today, Mr. and Mrs. Lambertson woulc
be 96 and 89 years old, respectively.

e@
Bailey
Continued from Page 1

Gail Stallings, state Depart-
ment of Correction spokeswom-
an, said because the most-re-
cently made gallows has yet to be
used, putting it together for
Thursday mornings execution
did not require a lot of
refurbishing.

“The Department of Correc-
tion has spent less than $1,000
in putting the gallows together,”
she said. <2

Ms. Stallings said the execu-

tioner will not be revealed, except.

to say it will be a department
employee. “It is now our stan-
dard policy that we no longer so-
licit to employ an outside execu-
tioner,” she said.

Still, dropping the condemned
too far can result in decapitation.
If the rope is too short, the con-
demned will die an agonizing
strangulation that can take as
long as 45 minutes.

“They could screw it up, and
they know it,” said Mr. Lyons,
who said his client’s stocky build
made the calculations tricky. “I
know the state doesn’t want to
hang him. They've told me they
don’t want to hang him. But it’s
not my job to talk him out of it so
the state feels better.”

The author of Delaware’s le-
thal-injection law would feel bet-

ter about it if he changed his

mind.

“I always thought hanging was

just absolutely grotesque,” said
Rep. Roger P. Roy, R-Wilming-
ton, whose bill made lethal injec-
tion Delaware's official means of
execution in 1986 — six years
after Bailey was sentenced to
hang. “If you hung a dog, the
SPCA and all the other groups
would just come off the wall.”
Not that Bailey wants to be
hanged, either.
Although he once boastéd he
would buy the rope if it would
Speed up his execution, Bailey,
49, now says he would prefer to
live the rest of his life in jail.
Besides Delaware and Wash-
ington state, only Montana and

‘New Hampshire still have hang-

ing as an option.

Lethal injection ‘is the pre-
ferred death senténce in most
states, although six states —
Florida, Alabama, Georgia, Ken-
tucky, Nebraska and Tennessee
— still use the electric chair.

(New Jersey and Pennsylvania,

which formerly used the electric
chair. adopted lethal injection in
1983 and 1990, respectively).

Of Delaware's other two death-
row inmates who could have
faced , William Flamer,
who is scheduled to die Jan. 30,
opted for injection; the other
convict, James Riley, will not

‘make his choice until he has

been given an execution date.

“It seems to be a continuous
trend to go toward something
that appears less painful,” said
Richard Dieter, executive direc-
tor of the Death Penalty Informa-
tion Center in Washington, D.C.
“I don't know that it’s really for
the sake of the person being
executed.

“There's a feeling that there’s
something dirty about killing a
human being that’s already un-
der your control,” Mr. Dieter
continued. “So, if it looks a little
more antiseptic, more modern,
less painful, it’s more acceptable

‘to people.”

Bailey says he does not recall
the shootings because he had a
blackout from alcohol and Vali-
um. “I’m not sure ifI done it, but
I feel bad for it,” he said.

A former supporter of the
death penalty, Mr. Lyons said he
has changed his mind since he
began representing Bailey in
1987.

In his petition to the Board of
Pardons, Mr. Lyons cited Bai-
ley’s impoverished upbringing,
his history of physical abuse,
and his diagnosis, as early as age
12, as being mentally ill.

One of 23 children, Bailey
spent much of his childhood in
institutions after the deaths of
his parents. Social workers re-
ported that Bailey was beaten by
his foster parents and forced to
steal for food.

At 18, after his arrest for rob-

bery, Bailey began the first in a
series of prison terms.

In 1979, he fled a work-release
program after learning that a
prosecutor intended to have him
classified as a “habitual crimi-
nal” — a designation carrying a
life term — for his most recent
arrest for forgery.

Bailey visited briefly with his
foster sister, telling her he would
kill himself before returning to
prison.

Then, after robbing a liquor
store with a .25-caliber handgun,
Bailey broke into the Lambert-
sons’ farmhouse in Cheswold.
The couple died of multiple gun-
shot wounds from the pistol and
from Lambertson’s own single-
barrel shotgun. af

After opposing his previous
lawyers’ long attempts to over-
turn his death sentence, Bailey
changed his position about

1987.

“What has happened in prison
is he has found a family and a
home that he never had,” Mr.
Lyons said. A foreman in the
prison’s carpentry shop, Bailey
has had only one disciplinary in-
fraction in the last five years, Mr.
Lyons said.

“He knows he’s never going to

get out of jail. I told the parole |

board, I agree he should never
get out. But in a stable, struc-
tured environment, he does OK.”

Knight-Ridder Tribune News
Service contributed to this
article.

By Carlos Holmes
Staff writer |

CHESWOLD — If Gilbert
and Clara Lambertson had
Somehow been able to, escape
the troubled wrath of Billy
Bailey in 1979, today, they
would be 96 and 89 years old,
respectively.

While the surviving four
Sons and daughters have no
idea how long their parents
would have lived, it is clear to
them their deaths were pre-

mature. And the family is unit-
ed that Bailey should pay with
his life.

Bailey, 49, is scheduled to
be hanged to death Thursday
for the murder of the Lam-
bertsons. On Monday, several
of the Lambertsons’ Survivors
recalled the parents they
knew prior to their unexpect-
ed death.

Sexton C. Lambertson, the
victims’ 68-year-old son, said
his parents’ main loves were
family, friends and family.

“They .were farm people
who mainly stayed at home,"
Mr. Lambertson said. “They
weren't much for driving.
They'd go to Dover once af
week to do shopping, but that .
was about it.” | |

See Family — Page 2 | |

- ~ = OW)

“| fa

DE LA ARE SrA TE /Ue a) S

Love, DE
[23 97k
/

)

Del. hanging adds fuel to death

(Hanging, from Page 1B]

ed today by firing squad.

‘ Early yesterday, about 100 peo-
ble braved below-freezing temper-
atures and an icy wind at the Dela-
ware Correctional Center to sing
chymns and show their opposition
Lo the death penalty. A thin picket
fence divided them from about 25

supporters, many of them friends .

ror relatives of Gilbert and Clara
‘Lambertson, the couple Bailey
‘murdered in 1979, ‘

Support for Lambertsons

“The reason I’m here is to sup-
port the Lambertson family in
their quest for justice,” said Bob
Carroll. “You do a crime like this,
you should die — and they should
‘do it alot quicker.”

i Beside him, another friend of

the Lambertson family held a sign:

that said “16% Years of Wasted
Tax Dollars.” Nearby, the Lam-
sbertsons’ two daughters and their
‘Sister-in-law spoke with tears in
itheir eyes. ,

{ “The jurors told us way back
what should be done,” said Betty
Wharton, one of the Lambertsons’
four children. “Let's just say we
iClose this chapter. The Pain will
neverend.” .

On that, she and opponents of
ithe death penalty agree: No jus-
ctice, vengeful or otherwise, can
iease the terrible loss of a family
smember to violence.

c “hat was an act of revenge ...
(pure and simple,” said Anne Cole-

man, a death penalty opponent
who became friends with Bailey as
part of her prison activism. Ms.
Coleman’s daughter. was mur-
dered in Los Angeles several years
ago and the murder remains un-

solved. She is an activist with Mur-
der Victims’ Families For Recon-’

ciliation in Delaware. ar
_ “I can’t afford that kind o

vengeance in my heart,” she said,”

“It is a destructive kind of venge-
ance.”

Alice Marinopoulos, whose son
John was murdered in 1988, sees it
differently. She is a member of a
group called Families and Friends
of Murder Victims in Wilmington,
and her group supports the death

penalty. Vengeance is human and ©

understandable, she Says.

“T’ve got a lot of revenge in me,”
she says. “There isn’t a day that
goes by that I don’t think of John,
that I don't cry for him.
Should Robert Rodabaugh live
when my son is dead?”

Rodabaugh, convicted of her
son’s murder, is Serving a life sen-
tence in Delaware. But Ms. Mari-
nopoulos says she doesn’t believe
he’ll serve life. “I know he’ll even-
tually get out,” she says.

That distrust of the justice sys-
tem’s ability to fulfill the promise
made in a life sentence underlies
much of the public support of the
death penalty, Says Richard Diet-
er. Mr. Dieter, executive director
of the Death Penalty Information
Center in Washington, points to a
Gallup poll that found 77 percent

' Supported life
‘with some kind of restitution in-

penalty debate

of Americans supported the death
penalty last year.

But change the choice, he says,
and that support drops off sharp-
ly é

. “When the question offered the:
alternative of life without parole,
Support fell below 50 percent,” Mr.
Dieter said. In his poll, 44 percent
without ° parole,

cluded in Sentencing, over the
death penalty. Only 41 percent
supported the death penalty over
that alternative, he said.

More executions planned

The death penalty issue is not
likely to fade soon in Delaware,
which has Flamer’s execution by
lethal injection Scheduled for next
week, as well as 12 others in the
Pipeline. Only one — James Riley
— Could be a hanging, however; Ri-
ley was sentenced before 1986,
when the state Switched from
hanging to lethal injection. The
choice is his, but he won’t be asked
to make it until a date for his exe-
cution has been Set, corrections
Officials say... .

Delaware has executed six peo-
ple since 1992. But Bailey’s choice
of hanging focused the issue in a
vivid way, some opponents say.

“It’s uglier. It’s crasser,” says
John Beer, a Delaware resident

- who opposes all forms of the death

penalty. “It’s more tangible than
putting a person to Sleep. It’s
more. gruesome, it’s more venge-
ful.” +n . : ‘

BALLEY, Billy, wnite, 49, hanged Delaware state Prison, Jan. 25, 2996

Murderer Hanged In Delaware

AP 25 Jan 96 6:39 EST V0692

The information contained in this news report may not be published,
broadcast or otherwise distributed without the prior written authority
of the Associated Press.

Murderer Hanged In Delaware

SMYRNA, Del. (AP) ~- A man who murdered an elderly couple 17 years

|
|
|

ago went to the gallows early Thursday, the nation’s third execution by

hanging since 1965.

Billy Bailey stood in the cold wind and grimaced after climbing the
steps to the wooden structure, He occasionally glanced at the witnesses
15 feet below, including the victims’ two sons, as the hangman’s noose
swung gently back and forth. ,

He closed his eyes, sniffled and said nothing before the black hood
was placed over his head, followed by the noose. At 12:04 a.m., the
warden pulled a lever, the trap door opened and Bailey dropped.

His body twisted quickly in the wind, then turned slowly beneath the
platform, He was pronounced dead 11 minutes later.

"I think it’s really past time this should have come about. It’s
been too many years," said Mary Ann Lambertson, a daughter-in-law of
the victims.

"I happened to be the poor soul who found the bodies, and it was a
gruesome sight."

Dennis Lambertson, a grandson of the victims, said he went to the
prison to "see justice done." Delbert and Saxton Lambertson, the
victim's sons, made no public comment.

It was the first time Delaware allowed victims’ family members to
witness an execution. The hanging was the stdte’s first in 50 years.

Bailey’s sister Betty Odom and foster sister, Sue Coker, were
several miles away at the Department of Correction headquarters in
Smyrna. When they were told Bailey was dead, Mrs. Coker said her first
thought was, “They'll leave him alone now."

Bailey,.49, was sentenced to hang for the 1979 shotgun slayings of
Gilbert and Clara Lambertson before Delaware changed its method of

execution to injection in 1986. He could have chosen the injection, but
said he chose hanging because "the law is the law."

Bailey has said he was drinking heavily the day of the slayings and
doesn’t remember killing the couple with Lambertson’s shotgun. Police
believe he planned to steal the couple’s pickup.

Asked at a pardons board hearing last week why he did it, Bailey
said, "I don’t really know. I just know that I feel bad about it."

By coincidence, Utah is scheduled to have its first firing squad
execution in 19 years early Friday. John Albert Taylor, sentenced to
die for raping and strangling an 1l-year-old girl, chose the firing
Squad over injection, the state’s second method of execution since Utah
outlawed hanging in 1983.

And in Utah,
firing squad
gets prepared

By Shannon Tangonan
USA TODAY

Delaware readied its gal-
lows and Utah marksmen
practiced shooting on com-
mand as both states prepared
Wednesday for unusual execu-
tions.

The weathered gallows at
the Delaware Correctional
Center near Smyrna was read-
ied for the execution early to-
day of Billy Bailey, 49.

He’s “just trying to stay calm
and get through it,” said his
lawyer, Edmund Lyons. “I

think he has pretty well com-

posed himself.”

Bailey was convicted of fa-

tally shooting Gilbert Lambert-

son, 80, and his 73-
year-old wife, Clara,
on their Cheswold,
Del., farm in 1979.

The gallows,
which has a trap
door 15 feet above
ground, was built
for Bailey’s hanging
in 1986. Appeals de-
layed the execution.

The state in 1986
replaced hanging
with lethal injec-
tion, but since Bai-
ley’s crime preceded the
change, he was given a choice
and opted to hang.

It will be the third hanging in
the USA since the death penal-
ty was reinstated in 1976.

Bailey: Convicted
in 1979 murders

In Utah, child rapist and
murderer John Albert Taylor,
36, is scheduled to die in front
of a firing squad early Friday
in Salt Lake City. It
would be the state’s
first such execution
since 1977.

Prison officials
built a death cham-
ber in a warehouse
on prison grounds.
A wall will shield
the identities of the
five marksmen.

Five minutes be-
fore the execution,
Officials will load
four .30-caliber ri-
fles with bullets and one with a
blank.

The blank is “for the con-
science of the executioners so
no one knows for sure who
fired the live round,” said cor-

Inmate ‘calm’ as hanging nears

rections spokesman Randy
Ripplinger.

Taylor will be led out of a
holding cell, strapped into a
chair and given two minutes to
make a last statement. A hood
then is placed over his head
and the order to shoot is given.
He will be shot through the
heart, prison officials say.

Virginia executed Richard
Townes Jr. by lethal injection
Tuesday for the murder of a
store clerk during a robbery in
1976.

Townes’ execution was de-
layed for at least five minutes
because medical personnel
could not find a large enough
vein in which to insert the IV
needle, said David Bass of the
Virginia Department of Cor-
rections.

It finally was inserted into
his right foot.

Photos by Gary Emeigh, The News Journal
The gallows: Built in 1986, the
Smyrna, Del., facility has a trap
door 15 feet above ground.

Hanging, firing Squad

By Tony Mauro
USA TODAY

Just as capital punishment was be-
coming somewhat routine, two unusual
executions set for this week — one by
hanging, the other by firing squad — fo-
Cus new attention on the issue.

In Delaware, double murderer Billy
Bailey is scheduled to be hanged on
Thursday, the first person to die by
hanging in that state in 50 years.

Utah child killer John Albert Taylor
is to be shot by firing squad on Friday.
Five volunteer law enforcement offi-
cers will carry out the execution.

Both inmates chose the old-fashioned
methods over. lethal injection, which
most states prefer as a more humane
method of death.

“It’s all part of the bizarreness, the
circuslike atmosphere Surrounding the
death penalty,” Says Richard Dieter of
the Death Penalty Information Center.
“It's a good reason to get rid of the
whole sideshow and get serious about
fighting crime with sane solutions.”

Bailey will be
hanged from the
outdoor gallows
at the state prison
in Smyrna. He
will be the third
person hanged in
the United States
in the modern
death penalty
era. The last two
hangings were in
Washington state
in 1993 and 1994.

Delaware changed its method of exe-
Cution to lethal injection in 1986, but
Bailey was sentenced in 1980 and had
the option of keeping the old method.
Bailey, 49, was convicted for the 1979
murders of 80-year-old Gilbert Lam-
bertson and his 73-year-old wife, Clara.

“I was sentenced to hang,” Bailey

firing squad Friday

told The News Journal in Wilmington.

“Asking a man to choose how to die is
more barbaric than hanging.”

Death on the gallows occurs not by
suffocation but from a broken neck,

AP
Taylor: Faces Utah

which causes a
collapse of the
spinal cord, fol-
lowed by a cutoff
of oxygen to the
brain and paraly-
sis. Delaware of-
ficials traveled to
Washington earli-
er this month to
learn more about
the procedure.

In Utah, Tay-
lor was defiant in
choosing the firing Squad. He told a re-
porter that he didn’t want to “flip
around like a fish out of water,” like he
might with lethal injection. Gary Gil-
more became famous for choosing the
Utah firing squad in 1977.

“Some people on death row want to
embarrass the state and get a lot of pub-
licity, to go out with a bang, so to speak,”
says University of Florida professor Mi-
chael Radelet, a death penalty expert.

_Taylor will be Strapped to a chair
while the firing squad aims .30-caliber

\
\
\
\

Bailey: To be
hanged Thursday

» 3A
USA TODAY - MONDAY, JANUARY 22, 1996

rifles at a target pinned over his heart.
One rifle will carry a blank, a longstand-
ing tradition that keeps the marksmen
from knowing who fired the fatal shot.

Taylor was convicted in the brutal
rape and murder of 11-year-old Charla
King in Ogden.

The victim’s mother, Sherron King, is
resolute. “They say executing him is so
barbaric. Tell me what’s barbaric. My
daughter was alive (while being raped
and choked). He won’t even hear the
sound of the bullets.”

Taylor’s supporters may make a final
effort to postpone the execution, even
though Taylor says he wants it to pro-
ceed, by making a novel church-state
argument against the firing squad.

They say that Utah’s use of the firing
squad follows the tenets of the Mormon
Church, which dominates the State. Ear-
ly Mormons believed in “blood atone-
ment” for the sin of murder.

But Utah officials deny any religious
link and a state legislator has intro-
duced a bill to eliminate the firing
Squad as an option.

executions Set for this week

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4A Thursday, January 25, 1996

NATIONAL

Montgomery Advertiser

Double murderer faces

w Waiting: Billy Bailey
was scheduled to be
hanged on outdoor
wooden gallows

By Theresa Humphrey
ASSOCIATED PRESS WRITER

SMYRNA, Del. — A _ convict
awaiting the nation’s third hang-
ing since 1965 said he hoped his ex-
ecution early today would bring
peace to the family of the elderly
couple he killed.

Billy Bailey, 49, was scheduled to
be hanged between 12:01 a.m. and 3
a.m. today on outdoor wooden gal-
lows after climbing 19 steps to a
platform with a trapdoor 15 feet
above the ground.

The gallows were built 10 years
ago as Bailey’s first execution date
approached.

Witnesses were to include Del-
bert and Saxton Lambertson, two
sons of Gilbert and Clara Lambert-
son, who were murdered with a
shotgun at their farmhouse in 1979.

Delaware has not previously al-
lowed family members of the vic-
tims to witness executions.

Appeals delayed the hanging un-
til the U.S. Supreme Court denied
Bailey a stay of execution last
week.

The state Board of Pardons on
Friday rejected a commutation,
and Edmund Lyons, his attorney,
planned no last-minute appeals.

“Billy has found some peace in
the sense of reconciling himself for
what is to be,” said Lyons, who vis-
ited Bailey Wednesday, along with
Bailey’s sister, foster sister, and a
prison chaplain.

The lawyer said he told Bailey to
think about his last words.

“He said, ‘If I say anything, I’m
going to say I hope this brings the
Lambertsons some peace,’ ’’ Lyons
said.

Bailey was sentenced to hang be-
fore Delaware changed its method
of execution to injection in June
1986.

ASSOCIATED PRESS

Barring any legal delays, Billy Bailey, 49, will be hanged
today on these outdoor gallows at the state prison near
Smyrna, Del., for the 1979 slayings of an elderly couple.
Bailey would be the third person hanged in the United
States since 1965, when Kansas hanged four men.

He could have chosen to die by
injection, but said he chose hang-
ing because “the law is the law.”

By coincidence, Utah is sched-

uled to have its first firing squad '

execution in 19 years early Friday.

John Albert Taylor, sentenced to
die for raping and strangling an 11-
year-old girl, chose the firing
squad over injection, the state’s
second method of execution since
Utah outlawed hanging in 1983.

Three other states allow hanging
— Montana, New Hampshire and
Washington, where two murderers
were hanged in 1993 and 1994.

Before that, the last official
hangings in the United States were
in Kansas in 1965, when four mur-
derers were executed.

Among them were Richard Eu-
gene Hickock and Perry Edward
Smith, the subjects of Truman Ca-
pote’s book “‘In Cold Blood.”

hanging

Delaware had public floggings as
recently as 1952.

The whipping posts were re-:
moved in 1969 but weren’t offi-
cially outlawed until 1972.

Because 50 years have passed’
since Delaware's last hanging, four
Department of Correction officials
traveled to Washington state to
study procedures.

Delaware decided to follow Army
regulations for hanging, said Gail
Stallings, department spokeswom-
an.

Those procedures require the in-
mate’s head to be covered with a, :
black hood, with ankles and hands
bound.

The Manila hemp rope must be
boiled and then stretched while
drying to eliminate any spring, |
stiffness or tendency to coil.

The part of the noose that goes
through the knot must be lubricat-
ed with wax, soap or grease.

Lyons portrayed his client as a
man who never had a chance.

The 19th of 23 children, he was,
beaten by his stepmother, and
after his father died, she sent him
and an older brother from their
two-room shack in South Carolina
to live with a half-brother in Wil-
mington.

In Delaware, Bailey began a life
of thievery.

Bailey has said he was drinking
heavily the day of the slayings and:
doesn’t remember killing the cot-°
ple with Lambertson’s shotgun.

He had walked away from a
work-release center after being
told he was going to face life in
prison as a habitual offender be-
cause of a forgery charge.

Police believe he planned to steal
the couple’s pickup.

Asked at a pardons board hear-
ing last week why he did it, Bailey
said, “I don’t really know. I just
know that I feel bad about it. It
hurts sometimes when I think
about it. When I say hurt, I think
about the Lambertsons and how
much they hate me and I start to
cry and sometimes I cry myself to
sleep at night.”

SMYRNA, Del.—If Billy Bailey were be-

But Bailey will be
and 3 am. Thursda
the career criminal’
trap door of the gallows—whi
not been used for a half-century in Dele
ware and used only twice in the nation since

hanged between 12:01

y. And the prospect of
's hooded body dropping

1965—has returned a Queasy element of
drama to tegal execu i
oe grown pig =
“I always thought hanging was }

lutely grotesque,” said Roger Roy, the reo
lawmaker whose bill made lethal
Delaware's ‘official means of execution in
1986—six years after Bailey was sentenced
to hang. “If you hung a dog, the SPCA and aif
other groups would just
Ww .

Bailey) 49, declined to exercise the opti
; lethal injection that state idea
risoners condemned under the earlier
“I feel the law sentenced me to hang mit

injection

live.”
come off the

law provided

idiantnhahaskepemamelenantint

The balding, bespectacled inmate twiddled

change his sentence to life without le,
Bailey nodded quietly and was led Sack fo he

B4 Sunpay, Januany 21,1996 =...

was only about 97

nn Seen

cell. Later in th

ie warden of Delaw
ter, Robest Snyder,

have been legally ex

pounds,” Debbi i k i

about the char told the panel to shore up the outdoor gallows that has oor:
guiliad by Over. 8 cad ete rections officials feeling uneasy, too, -
one of them over. ... He oe a = “ ” “Our gallows is pretty primitive here,” said

; rove is wi
pondogelespero most of the two-hour hanging in —e" ae
on ae ~ n, after a half-hour’s delibera- Since 1608, according to death

. oard announced it would not 500 penne

Searcher Watt Espy, almost 19,000 le
ecuted in what fae

, See HANGING, B4, Col |

Tue WASHINGTON Past

Noose Awaits in Death Penalty Rarely

HANGING, From B1

the United States, and most were
hanged. Electrocution began to
crowd out ropes in the 1920s, and
last year most of the 56 prisoners
executed died by the injection of 3
cocktail of deadly chemicals.

“It’s the more humane way to go,”
Snyder said.

It’s also harder to mess up, offi-
cials acknowledge. ~~ -

History is littered with horror sto-
ries of botched executions by hang-
ing. Ropes have broken, trap doors
have stuck and heads have been
pulled from necks, Death penalty op-
ponents and corrections officials re-
count episodes of hangmen grabbing

. Onto the legs of gasping prisoners in
frantic efforts to finish their work.

Today, a keener unde ing of
the mechanics of hanging is
cut by the lack of experienced prac-
titioners, “It’s not like you can look
under ‘H’ for hangman,” said Ede
mund D, Lyons, Bailey’s attorney.

This month, Delaware corrections
officials traveled to Walla Walla,
Wash., to compare notes with col
leagues in the only state where

of execution. Condemned inmates
there must specifically request lethal
injection to avoid the noose, but, in
1993, Westley Allan Dodd chose to -
hang, calling it fitting for someone
who hanged two of the three boys he
murdered. The next yeas, triple
murderer Charles Campbell was
hanged after refusing to choose.

A third inmate, Mitchell Rupe, re-
fused to choose, then ate so many
fatty snacks from the prison canteen
that his weight topped 400 pounds.
His lawyer argued successfully that
hanging would almost certainly de-

constitutional in 1994 , a
divided circuit of the U.S. Court of
Appeals. Corrections officials for
years have implored legislators to
upgrade injection to the main meth-
od, but Washington lawmakers con-
sistently decline.

“There's certainly a lot of folks
out there who think 's the

ight way to do it,” said Tom Rolfs,

p director for the Washington
State Department of Corrections.

Warden Snyder said Delaware
cannot hope to duplicate the efficien-
cy he saw at Walla Walla, where wit-
nesses can view the indoor gallows
through two stories of windows.. The
upper level is masked by blinds to

the identity of the

whose preparations remain vi ia
silhouette. Witnesses, however,
have 8 clear

wer room that on other days is
used for lethal
pscentunes the UA. heat ecbichos

es .S.

before it outlawed hanging in 1986.
The regulations ify 30 feet of
manila hemp, boiled to take out
stretch and any tendency to coil,
then waxed, soaped or fone to

sandbag to test
door and a “collapse board”
on which a reluctant condemned
person can be strapped, as Campbell
was,

The Army manual also includes
two columns of numbers detailing
the bength of sope necessary to prop-
erly hang people of assorted
weights, The table would quantify
what some medical experts have tes-
tified is wishful thinking: that hang-

so Bi a quick and relatively

Used

perts, post-mortem examinations
have shown this does not occur rou-
tinely. Other studies note that car
drivers who suffered the so-called
hangman’s fracture after bashing
their chins on a steering wheel have
lived to tell the tale.

The doctors conclude, in fact, that
many hanging victims die slowly by
strangulation.

According to Roy, Delaware was
the last state to outlaw the whipping
post as an instrument of state, au-
thority, which it did in the 1970s.
“We used to draw and quarter peo-
ple,” said Paul Wallace, the Dela-
ware deputy attorney general who
argued against clemency for Bailey.

“Some day, we'll probably have
some “Star Wars” thing where we
can vaporize someone,” Wallace

Meanwhile, death penalty oppo-
nents hope the Bailey case at feast
renews interest in the capita! pun-
ishment debate. In Texas, where
more than 400 inmates await lethal

them over to

But in Delaware, the case has
raised few eyebrows.

*“Around here they just say they

should’ve ~—_ a long time ago,”

“I don’t see the hanging being
worse morally than injection or gas.
The result is the same,” said John

BILLY BAILEY
... d should hang’

His mother died shortly after his .
birth. A stepmother beat him and

called him worthless, according to

records of socia] workers who found

Bailey, at 12, “a seriously disturbed

child who needs professional help.”

Wallace argued, however, that
Bailey got that help, in institutions
and from the foster family he turned
to for support on May 21, 1979.

But then, he hitched a ride from
his foster sister's house, robbed the
liquor store, then asked to be
dropped at Lambertson’s Curve.
There, apparently intent on stealing
Clara and Gilbert Lambertson’s
pickup truck, he shot them, ar-
ranged their bodies in chairs and fled
oa foot to nearby woods, where he
was captured, cursing, by a state
trooper.

“I start thinking about it; some-
times I cry myself to sleep,” Bailey
said, insisting he does not semember
the slayings but accepts responsibili-
ty for them. A string of corrections
officials told the Pardons Board that

e day, the U.S. Supreme
Court declined to grant a stay that Bailey's
attorney described as his last hope.

And in the prison yard, wo

are Correctional Cen-
“We've made some im-

CWA | =e

capitate him, and decapitation al- In theory, the hangman's knot, Luke, behind t -
ready had been ruled cruel and un- when dena property sheer the con- perro chan spo = Ba they favor the death penalty but be-
usual punishment. person’s chin, throws the ley had held up a few minutes before lieve Bailey should be spared. In 16
The episode embarrassed the head back with a force that sends» laying the retired couple. years in prison, they said, he has ma-
state's corrections system, whose —veterbra slicing through the spinal Bailey was crying when he took ‘"€4 from a sullen loser to a “role
reliance on hanging was declared cord. In fact, according to some ex- the money, a clerk testified at Bai- model” who finds worth as a foreman
Hag’ tri. She eald he pciated 2 26- ™ Members of the wctnes’ famly
i the
EXECUTIONS SINCE 1976 caer seoler at her and p ern otal

BY METHOD USED* Earlier on the day of the murders, Mary Ann Lambertson, who

Bailey had walked away from a heard the shots and discovered the
METHOD UTILIZED IN EXECUTED work-release center after being told odies, complained that 16 years of

ee = isuaauasseayoa cons he would be sentenced to 45 years 4ppeals have been followed By exe-

Lethal injection. °° 2c0 ¢ 82 states ee BO on a check forgery charge under a Cution preparations that focus more
Electrocution 12 states 122 habitual offenders act. He showed up _ 0 the killer than the killed. She re-

Gas chamber soi gc 88 Ot 7 states EEE ge at the home of his foster sister with members her in-laws as homebodies
alle ad aaa SEE RAPES WOE RAR GM CO the stolen handgun and a bottle of | who savored Sunday visits and com-

Hanging . 4 states os ane es 2 vodka. plimented neighbors on the bright
Firing squad 2008. Ss bea se a eaye tag @ His attorney said Bailey’s child- colors flapping on their clotheslines.

. : hood left him poorly equipped to deal “They enjoyed being at home, en-
——— with what he faced, Bailey was born _joyed their family,” said Saxton Lam-
SOURCE: Death Penalty Information Center the 19th of 23 children that his fa- bertson, the couple’s younger son,

Ta wavenaronros: ther sired by at least three wives. “Mr. Bailey took care of all that.”

HANGING. from A1
since 1965. They also turned to a
1969 manual from the U.S. Army,
which no longer practices hanging
itself.

Hanging, it seems, is no simple
matter.

The rope, three-fourths of an inch
to 1% inches in diameter, must be
boiled, then stretched to eliminate
spring or coiling, the Army manual
instructs. The knot should be lubri-
cated with wax or soap “‘to insure a
smooth sliding action.”

Dropping the condemned too far
can result in decapitation. If the

trope is too short, the condemned

will die an agonizing strangulation
that can take as long as 45 minutes.

“They could screw it up, and they
know it,” said Bailey’s attorney, Ed-
mund D. Lyons Jr., who said his cli-
ent’s stocky build made the calcula-
tions tricky. “I know the state
doesn’t want to hang him. They’ve
told me they don’t want to hang
him. But it’s not my job to talk him
out of it so the state feels better.”

Not that Bailey wants to be
hanged, either.

Although he once boasted he
would buy the rope if it would speed
up his execution, Bailey, 49, now
says he would prefer to live the rest
of his life in jail.

At a hearing today, Lyons will ask
the Delaware Board of Pardons to rec-
ommend that Gov. Tom Carper com-
mute the death sentence Bailey re-
ceived for the 1979 murders of Gilbert
Lambertson, 80, and his wife, Clara,
73, in their Kent County farmhouse.
‘ If Lyons is unsuccessful — only
two death sentences have been com-
muted nationwide since 1994 — only
a stay by the U.S. Supreme Court
would prevent Bailey’s hanging.

Besides Delaware and Washington
state, only Montana and New Hamp-
shire still have hanging as an option.

Lethal injection is the preferred
death sentence in most states, al-
though six states — Florida, Ala-
bama, Georgia, Kentucky, Nebraska
and Tennessee — still use the elec-
tric chair. (New Jersey and Pennsyl-
vania, which formerly used the
electric chair, adopted lethal injec-
tion in 1983 and 1990, respéctively).

Next Friday in Utah, child mur-

derer John Albert Taylor is sched- °

uled to become the first convict to
die by firing squad since Gary Gil-
mour in 1977. Like Bailey, Taylor
was convicted before his state
switched to lethal injection.

Of Delaware's other two death-row
inmates who could have faced hang-
ing, William Flamer, who is sched-
uled to die Jan. 30, opted for injec-
tion; the other convict; James Riley,
will not make his choice until he has
been given an execution date.

“It seems to be a continuous trend
to go toward something that appears
less painful,” said Richard Dieter, éx-
ecutive director of the Death Penalty
Information Center in Washington,
D.C, “I don’t know that it’s really for
the sake of the person being executed.

“There’s a feeling that there’s
something dirty about killing a hu-
man being that’s already under
your control,” Dieter continued. “So
if it looks a little more antiseptic,
more modern, less painful, it’s more

| acceptable to ‘people.”

Delbert Lambertson, a son of Bai-
ley’s two. victims, said he had no

_ misgivings about capital punish-

ment or Bailey’s chosen method.
“Pil cut the rope,” said Lambert-
son, 70, who plans to attend the exe-

| cution. “It doesn’t bother me. What

bothers me is the way my father
went out of this world, and my

Delaware prepares
to hang inmate

News Journal / KEVIN FLEMING
Convicted murderer Billy Bailey —
in a 1980 photo. He is scheduled
to hang Thursday for the deaths
of a Kent County couple.

mother — shot in the back.”

Bailey was convicted in 1980 of
shooting Gilbert and Clara Lambert-
son after walking away from a
prison work release program in 1979.

Bailey says he does not recall the
shootings because he had a blackout
from alcohol and Valium. “I’m not —
sure if I done it, but I feel bad for it,”
Bailey told the News Journal.

A former supporter of the death
penalty, Lyons said he has changed
his mind since he began represent-
ing Bailey in 1987.

In his petition to the Board of Par-
dons, Lyons cited Bailey’s impover-
ished upbringing, his history of
physical abuse, and his diagnosis, as

early as age 12, as being mentally ill.

One of 23 children, Bailey. spent
much of his childhood in institu-

tions after the deaths of his parents.

Social workers reported that Bailey
was beaten by his foster parents and
forced to steal for food.

_ At 18, after his arrest for robbery,
Bailey began the first in a series of
pr ison terms.

_ In 1979, he fled a work release pro-
gram after learning that a prosect-
tor intended to have him classified
as a “habitual criminal” — a desig-
nation carrying a life term — for
his most recent arrest for forgery:

Bailey visited briefly with his fos-
ter sister, telling her he would kill
himself before returning to prison.

Then, after robbing a liquor store
with a .25-caliber handgun, Bailey
broke into the Lambertson’s farm-
house in Cheswold. The couple died
of multiple gunshot wounds from
the pistol and from Lambertson’s
own single-barrel shotgun.

After opposing his previous law-

yers’ long attempts to overturn his

death sentence, Bailey changed his
position about 1987,

“What has happened in prison is he
has found a family and a home that
he never had,” Lyons said. A foreman
in the prison’s carpentry shop, Bailey
has had only one disciplinary infrac-
tion in the last five years, Lyons said.

“He knows he’s never going to get
out of jail. | told the parole board, I
agree he should never get out. But
in a stable, structured environment,
he does OK.”

Saxton Lambertson, 68, another
son of Bailey’s victims, is unmoved.

“He didn’t have no misgivings
about shooting my mother in the
back and blowing my father’s head
off so we couldn’t have a viewing at
the funeral,” he said yesterday. “He’s
always been a mean person. And it’s
time he paid for what he done.”

GARY EMEIGH—THE NEWS JOURNAL
The gallows at the prison In Smyrna, Del., where
Billy Balley, 49, was hanged early yesterday for
the May 1979 murders of an elderly couple.

An Execution

In the Old Way

Delaware Hanging Evokes
Justice of Another Era

By Karl Vick
Washington Post Staff Writer
SMYRNA, Del., Jan. 25——Convicted murderer
Billy Bailey was hanged today, dropping silently
from an outdoor gallows at the state penitentiary

- here in the most violent legal execution Delaware

has performed in half a century.

Bailey, who shotgunned an elderly farm couple
to death without provocation in 1979, was al-
ready standing on the 15-foot wooden platform
when witnesses entered the compound in a dis-
tant corner of the Delaware Correctional Center
at midnight. The noose swung beside him in a bit-
terly cold wind.

Bailey, 49, faced forward without expression,
flanked by guards wearing black jump suits and
black hoods held in place by baseball caps. One
faced forward holding Bailey’s left arm. The oth-
er kept his back to witnesses and held the prison-
er’s shoulder.

Warden Robert Snyder, standing farther to the
right, at first did not hear Bailey’s reply when the con-
demned man was asked if he had any last words.

“Pardon?” Snyder said.

“No, sir,” Bailey repeated.

The guards then led the squat, 200-pound man
onto the trap door, placed a strap around his an-
kles and pulled a black hood over his head and up-
per chest. The noose was fastened over the hood
and tightened beneath Bailey’s chin.

Several times, Snyder felt at the hood to be certain
that the top of the hangman’s knot lay beneath Bai-
ley’s left ear, the placement old Army regulations
specify to assure the straightening rope has the best
chance of bringing quick death by severing the spinal
cord. Finally, the warden stépped back and pulled a
gray wooden lever with both hands.

The trapdoor opened with a thump. Five feet of
manila rope followed Bailey through the hole and
snapped taut 10 feet above the sodden ground.

Bailey’s body spun counterclockwise six times,
then rotated once in the opposite direction. In the per-

See HANGING, B2, Col. 3

By Charles W. Hall and Robert O’Harrow Jr.

might 0,

Washington Post Staff Writers could fi

a ; even if!
Within a few months after convening a federal “We |
grand jury, investigators looking for a national conspir- —_ from a }:
acy of violent attacks against abortion clinics conclud- _ over the
ed that they couldn’t prove it, but they continued the prove a.
probe for about a year. Oppo

Sources said yesterday that reasons for keeping the _ bitterly
grand jury on the issue until now, 16 months later, in-
clude reluctance by Justice Department prosecutors to
accept failure and the possibility that a breakthrough

disband
andria—
abortior -

Schools, Other Agencies
Haven't Cut Spending

By Howard Schneider and David A. Vise
Washington Post Staff Writers

The District government may be as
much as $250 million in the hole for the
current budget year, a shortfall that
comes amid evidence that the public
schools and other agencies have ignored
spending and staff reductions ordered by
the D.C. financial control board.

Barring a dramatic turnaround in com-
ing months, both District and control
board officials estimate that stagnant rev-
enue and agency overspending will drive
the city’s budget deep into the red for the
third consecutive year.

This disappointing financial perfor-
mance has frustrated local elected offi-
cials and members of the contro! board,
which began work last summer with the

hope of rapid progress toward a balanced

budget.

Cuts to be recommended by the D.C.
Council and the control board in coming
days may abate the problem, but officials
say the red ink almost certainly will keep
flowing. The city ran a $322 million
shortfall two years ago under then-Mayor
Sharon Pratt Kelly. Audits to be released

‘ next week, covering the budget year that

ended Sept. 30, are expected to show a
deficit of at least tens of millions of dollars
during Mayor Marion Barry’s first nine
months in office.

Yesterday, the control board unani-
mously rejected Barry’s plan for curbing
expenses in the current budget year, say-
ing the mayor seemed to ignore the city’s
underlying problems in favor of delaying
bill payments and selling off city property.

“Trying to balance the budget by not
paying bills doesn’t make sense,” board
member Stephen D. Harlan said.

The board will make its own recom-
mendations for immediate spending cuts
soon, after receiving recommendations

D.C. May Run $2

}

Control board Chalrn

from the D.C. Cow
been holding public
ing intensely behi,
members say they »
tions outside of “c«
they feel must be p:
A vote scheduli
postponed until this
caucused in the off

a D.C. officials say trash collection will get back on track ne:

P.G. Schools Revise

Federal Ruling Calls Black Male Initic

By Lisa Frazier
Washington Post Stall Writer

froze grants
community-b)

Prince George’s County school officials have
begun revamping their prized Black Male
Achievement Initiative to comply with a feder-
al ruling that says the school district no longer
can use public funds solely to address the prob-

lems of troubled young black men.

The program, which grew out of a 1990 re-
port documenting that black males are undera-
chieving in Prince George’s, discriminates
against pirls according: to a notice sent to

beginning of
mentoring pr
Black Male
more than 8,,
sexes, schoc
participants :
On Nov. |
signed a list
district-spom
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lan. 26, 1996

Delaware Hangs a Double Murderer |

HANGING, From B1

haps 20 seconds before Snyder released
a canvas tarp to conceal the body, wit-

nesses said, they found themselves

thinking of a rag doll. One sleeve of Bai-
ley’s denim prison jacket hung loose in
the bitter wind. His dangling feet wore
new white tennis shoes,

Eleven minutes later, a voice be-
hind the tarp announced that the of-
ficial time of death was 12:15 a.m. A
Correction Department spokeswom-
an later declared the execution had
occurred “without complication.” An
independent trauma surgeon said 11
minutes was not an unusual time to
wait for the pulse to stop after the
spinal cord has been cut.

“The heart beats on its own,” said
the surgeon, Willie C. Blair, of
Greenbelt, Md. “That’s why we can
transplant them.”

It was the first hanging in Dela-
ware since 1946 and only the third
in the United States since 1965. The
other two took place in Washington
State, where Delaware officials tray-
eled to study a means of execution
that in recent decades has given way
to more sanitized methods.

After going decades without an
execution, Delaware since 1992 has
put to death five men by injection,
which became the state’s official
method in 1986. But Bailey chose to
be killed according to his original
1980 sentence. |

The 19th of 23 children, Bailey
grew up amid stark poverty and
chronic physical abuse, state records
show. As a young man, police knew

him as a brawler and a thief. On May ~

21, 1979, after he learned that un-
der a habitual offender statute, he
faced life in prison for a check forg-
ery Conviction, he walked away from
a work-release center. Weeping, he
held up a liquor store, then he mur-
dered Gilbert Lambertson, 80, and
Lambertson’s wife, Clara, 73, in
their farmhouse barely 10 miles
from the gallows.

The execution was seen by the
couple’s sons, Saxton and Delbert
Lambertson, who afterward shook
hands with prosecutor Paul Wallace.
A dozen other relatives and family
friends waited outside, separated
from’ death penalty opponents by
two snow fences,

“When they know for a fact that
someone did something, it shouldn’t
take 16 years to execute him,” said
Mary Ann Lambertson, who heard the
Shots and found the bodies of her in
laws slumped on the chairs where Bai-
ley had arranged them. She said that
half her father-in-law’s face was blasted
away and that Clara Lambertson was
shot through the hand she would bring
to her breast when startled.

“Orié of ‘em watched the other one
get blown away,” said Dennis Lambert-
son, the grandson who now lives in the
big yellow farmhouse where the mur-
ders occurred. “They were kind of old,
feeble people. My grandfather kind of
wobbled when he walked.”

Bailey had told his attorney earli-
er that he hoped his death would
bring the family peace. The lawyer,
Edmund D, Lyons, declared the exe.
cution “medieval.” ,

“The most chilling thing was the two
fellows up on the platform with Bill with
the hoods on their heads,” Lyons said.

“If we are proud of what we've
done today, ask yourself why we do
it in the middle of the night. If we
are proud of what we’ve done today,
ask yourself why we hood those who
are part of the execution.”

Prison officials were clearly reluc-
tant about the hanging, worrying
openly about the mechanics of a pro-
cess that can end in strangulation or
decapitation. Officers spent hours
practicing on gallows first refur-
bished for Bailey in 1986. Today a
non-skid safety strip was affixed to
each of the 23 steps,

A spokeswoman for Gov. Thomas
R. Carper (D) acknowledged that
the method was “awkward.” It divid-
ed even those who braved biting
winds to show their support for Capi-
tal punishment.

“I don’t think hanging is a good
idea,” said Kevin Gant, a Dover truck
driver. “It’s part of our history.”

Beside him, retired police officer
Roger Hollopeter wanted more. a |
actually think that they should bring
back the whipping post,” he said.

In fact, Delaware Senate Majority
Leader Thomas Sharp (D) has re-
peatedly introduced legislation that
would return lashing, outlawed only
in 1972, for some drug offenses.

“No fewer than five and no more
than 40 lashes, well laid on” was the
penalty prescribed in his first bill, which
a colleague said would validate outsid-
ers’ impression of Delaware as “a little
quaint and a little strange.”

Fridays in Weekend

Two New
Columns and a
Comic Strip

‘In Motion’—Sarah Tippit's
biweekly column is dedicated to
active lifestyles. It debuts Friday,
Jan. 26, with a look at the latest
trend in aerobic exercise, “boxer-
cise.” ‘In Motion’ alternates with

‘Field Trips’ —In which Kevin
McManus seeks out people and
places who can get you In touch
with your wild side,

*Tom the Dancing Bug’is
Weekend's first comic strip and we
think you'll find it funny, hip and
refreshingly off-center. It features
neither a Tom nor a dancing bug.
But Charley, a prehistoric

ape-man, turns up now and then.

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Mother of a murder victim befriended Bailey

Anne Coleman
was among those
protesting outside
the prison before
the execution.

By CRIS BARRISH
Staff reporter

SMYRNA — Anne Coieman
knows the trauma of having a
loved one murdered. Her 24-year.
old daughter Frances was shot to
death in Los Angeles 11 years ago,
and the gunman has never been
captured. a

- “Fury and wanting to kill” con-
sumed Cojeman in the days that

followed her daughter's death.
Soon. however. Coleman cvame to
believe that vengeance couldn't ac-
compiish what she really wanted
— having police bring the kilier to
justice.

Late Wednesday night. as the
state of Delaware sent murderer
Billy Bailey to the gallows. Cole-
man participated in a vigil with
death penalty: opponents on the
prison grounds. :

She fought back tears while
praying tor a man she befricnded
shortly after moving to Delaware
three vears ago. and she wondered
what would be accomplished by ex-
ecuting the 49-vear-old man she
said good-bye to Monday night.

While Coleman prayed for Baile

. relatives of the elderly couple he
killed huddled together about 30
yards away. For them, the hanging
of Bailey was a welcome final
chapter to the terrible events of

May 21, 1879. when an intoxicated
Bauiley gunned dawn Gilbert Lam-
bertson. “0. amt nis wite, Clara, 73.

“Liteel sorry for the victims’ fm.
ilies. | know bow they feel.” Cole
man sani.

“But I believe that if they are
honest, afterward they are going
to feel as cmpiy as thev can be.”
Cotoman said of the slain couple's
sons. daughters and grandchil-
aren. “There is no quenching.”
‘He'll go to heaven’

Coleman, 2 55-year-old native of
Great Britain, has always opposed
the death penalty. save for the brief
spell after her daughter's murder.

She became an activist. how-
ever. in 1993. shortly after moving
to Delaware as an Air Force wife.
At a pubiic hearing in gen
on the death penalty, she met .
bara Lewis. whose son, Robert
Gattis. is on death row for killing

his estranged girlfriend in 1990.

Their meeting led to the forma-
tion of Because Love Allows Com-
passion. a loosely organized sup-
port group for mothers whose
children are sentenced to die.
Coleman has since joined Murder
Victims’ Families for Reconcilia-
tion. a national organization...

Coleman. Lewis and other mem-
bers of the Delaware group began
visiting men awaiting execution at
the jail near Smyrna. Coleman was
saddened to see that Bailey. one of
23 siblings who was abused as a
child. had no visitors.

“He had no one. He was alone.”
Coleman said.

Sv Coleman began driving from
her Dover home to Delaware Cor-
rectional Center’s maximum secu-
rity wing, to talk to Bailey on the
phone. Last year, she bought him
“ and underwear for his birth-

ay.

Death penalty debated till end

“Billy Bailey became my friend,”
Coleman said. “He liked to talk to
me about his work. He worked in
the [prison] woodwork shop, where
he was a foreman. He built cabi-
nets, refinished things. He showed
off a letter from Gov. Carper and
his wife, Martha, thanking him for
woodwork he had done.

In recent days, as the execution
date loomed, Coleman zaid Bailey
e resigned to his fate.

“I think he'll go to heaven be-
cause he genuinely regrets the acts
he committed. He has cried and told
me he’s sorry,’ Coleman said while
standing in the frigid air about 20
minutes before the execution.

Their last meeting was Satur-
day. She spent an hour with Bailey.
rE. the visit, a gr official
told Bailey the U.S. Supreme
Court had rejected his request for
a stay of execution.

“He said, ‘That's it. There’s

nothing more to be done.’ He was-
n't happy but he was accepting of
it. The Billy I know has accepted
whatever life dealt him for so iong
that it was just one more thing he
had to accept,” Coleman said.
“Teak tan Or eee ne
you for being my friend.”

Early ay morning, after
demonstrators learned Bailey had
been pronounced dead, Coleman
departed immediately.

“I wanted to get away before the
cheers started. I just kind of col-
lapsed within myself and I felt like
somebody had punched me.”

At home, she sat in a chair, pon-

ing and crying for a few hours.

“I was thinking about my
daughter and about Billy and
about Billy's family,” Coleman said
Thursday night. “And I was won-
dering about the euphoria the

ons are feeling and how
long it will last.”

‘Ghoulish quality’

of hanging

drew

big media audience

By ESTEBAN PARRA
and NAN CLEMENTS
Staff reporter

SMYRNA — Like vultures
searching for a carcass, reporters

. Spent most of Wednesday evening

ing this tiny town to see what
piece of the Billy Bailey story they
could take home.

Reporters hungry to tell the
world about the state's first hang-
ing in nearly 50 years drove around
Delaware Correctional Center
until the protesters, who would
feed them information, arrived on
the prison grounds,

four major networks, CNN
and Associated Press were here.
There were locenl and regional re-
Porters and some from as far away
as Germany.

Sixty-two registered media
members covered the execution.
Only 33 showed up for the previous

phia was interviewing residents.

“I think a lot of folks who ordi-
narily wouldn’t pay any attention
to executions were probably drawn
to this one because hanging just
seems so historically out of con-
text,” said Douglas Shimell, a re-
porter for WCAU-TV, Channel 10.
“It just seems very medieval if
that’s even doing it justice.”

What does this mean for Tues

nae § s scheduled execution (by
lethal injection) of convicted mur-
derer William H. Flamer?

“It might have somewhat of a.

coattail effect,” Shimell said. “But
whether it draws the national inter.
est, the network interest, the large
market chains from acroes the coun-
try I don’t know. Probably not.”
The “ghoulish quality” of a

hanging brought Bob MacNamara e

to Smyrna — that and the firing-
squad execution scheduled in
Te Be ‘

pepeen Caer

By CRIS BARRISH
* and ESTEBAN PARRA

Staff reporters

SMYRNA — The demonstra-
tors, numbering about i00. filed
into adjacent oval-shaped hold.
ing pens on the sprawling
grounds of the Delaware Correc-
tional Center. Shivering in the
muddy. wind-whipped field under
a dark sky. they awaited the exe
cution.

Several hundred vards away, @
faint blue light emanated from an
enclosure where double murderer
Billy Bailey would hang shortly
after midnight Wednestiay,

In the hour before Bailey's
death, the basketball court-sized
pens, surrounded by snow fences,
were transformed into staves for it
debate over the death penalty.

In one pen, about SO mournful
foes of capital punishment encir-
cled a miniature Liberty Bell
replica. They carned antedeath
Penalty placards. an sang
“Amazing Grace” and other
songs.

Six protesters were Menbers
Of Amicon t-

weutn penalty debated till end

nese 0b 1
Brian Patterson. 18, of Dover. par-
ticipates in a vigil with the anti-
death penalty group Wednesday.

sovial cts.” he said.

Added Megan Brown. 17. a
Notre Dame jumor: "Execution is
not the way to teach someone not
to kill. We believe at iife in prison
without parole.”

Jodi Longe, director of the
Amnesty International chapter,
expressert dismay at the method
bers used te kal Raley "Our
eountes bis.

treseeesbe be eee

, James Sklodowski, 28, of Christiana, demonstrates for the death penalty wrapped in the Amaricaa flag, Wednesday before the execution of Billy Baifey.

100 demonstrators rallied for, against
execution as Bailey climbed the gallows

+e a

mv srindparents. He deserves
what he’s getting,” said Mark
Moore, who carrsed a sign that
said. “It’s Time To Hang”
Jennifer Kennedy and Dru
Garton, Unive rity of Delawre
eromnab rusties students. <tocd
apeert frome the urniv Wee shea
know them. Were here bee ceo
Weeteeliowe this na oust pursnits
ht tee Baad RS) | ert

Betty Wharton (left) and Mary Moore, daughte
couple murdered by Billy Bailey in 1979, join the rally in favor of the death
penaity. Relative cb Hayes of Dover is in the background,

SN Sancta ew

rs of the Lambertsons, the

As protesters sang “Amazing
Grace.” voung men in the other
court veed out. “Look at them
singing. E don't understand,” said
Tim Porter. 1s, of New Castle.
\ddled Wendy Eldreth of Elkton,
Mell "ihaasing isavt geod
erp”

Shaaban

iter L215 alm. as

‘Ghoulish qu

~
‘ a
ali *

of hanging drew
big media audience

Sy ESTEBAN PARRA
and NAN CLEMENTS
Staff reporter

SMYRNA — Like vultures
searching for a carcass, reporters
spent most of Wednesday evening
circling this tiny town to see what
piece of the Billy Bailey story they
could home.

Reporters hungry to tell the
world about the state's first hang.
ing in nearly 50 years drove around
Delaware Correctional Center
until the protesters, who would

feed them information, arrived on

There were local and regional re-
porters and some as far away
as Germany.

Sixty-two registered media
members covered the execution.
Only 33 showed up for the previous
Delaware execution — when mur-
derer Nelson W. Shelton was killed
by lethal injection on March 17,
1995.

“I guess it is mostly the mode of
execution — the hanging — that
attracted our attention,” said
Anne Marie Kammerlander, pro-
ducer of the German television
program “Tagesthemen” (The
Theme of the Day). Her report was
to air Thursday night in Germany.
Germany has not used the death
penalty since World War II.

“It seems very barbaric,” she
said. “I guess it’s just a less sani-
tized version of the death penalty.”

Two houses down from where
the German crew had set y , an
NBC affiliate crew from Philadel.

phia was interviewing residents.

“I think a lot of folks who ordi-
narily wouldn't pay any attention
to executions were pro!
to this one hecause hanging just
seems so historically out of con-
text.” said Douglas Shimell, a re-
porter for WCAU-TV, Channel 10.
“It just seems very medieval if
that’s even doing it justice.” .

What does this mean for Tues-
day’s scheduled execution (by
lethal injection) of convicted mur.
derer William H. Flamer?

“It might have somewhat of &e
coattail effect,” Shimell said. “But
whether it draws the national inter- +
est, the network interest, the large
market chains from across the coun-

try I don’t know Probably not.” =

The “ghoulish quality” of a-
hanging brought Bob Mac
to Smyrna — that and the firing.
squad execution scheduled in
Utah r

MacNamara, a reporter for
NBC News in New Yi City, said
Tom Brokaw had aired a Piece on
Capital punishment Wednesday
night and was planning a longer
segment for Thursday night.

“It’s kind of a freaky thing,”
MacNamara said as he waited for
Official witnesses to return from
Bailey's hanging. “If he was the
only one, maybe we wouldn't, be
paying so much attention.”

MacNamara said he could un-
——— extensive : if oh
“used to question capita ptnish-
ment. But most of the media is so |
crass and sensationalistic now
that the question has been turned
into trash journalism.”

Witness: Bailey stared
down from the gallows

FROM PAGE Ai

His torso was covered with a
Prison-issue blue denim coat that
was draped over his shoulders, the
top two copper buttons fastened to
keep it from blowing off in the
wind. His arms were fastened at
his sides.

His feet were hidden from view.

Before entering the lighted
stockade, everyone had been
warned not to snewb Theo.

“Pardon?” Snyder asked in a re
mark that carried unintended
irony.

“No, sir,” Bailey repeated.

any

2 alee

— BUVU UUs aVisvee cerns a rssewes auey

éxecution as Bailey climbed the gallows

By CRIS BARRISH

¢ and ESTEBAN PARRA
‘ Staff reporters

"SMYRNA — The demonstra-
tors, numbering about 100, filed
into adjacent oval-shaped hold-
ing pens on the sprawling
grounds of the Delaware Correc-
tional Center. Shivering in the
muddy, wind-whipped field under
a dark sky, they awaited the exe-
cution.

Several hundred vards away, a
faint blue light emanated from an
enclosure where double murderer
Billy Bailey would hang shortly
after midnight Wednesday.

In the hour before Bailey's
death, the basketball court-sized
pens, surrounded by snow fences,
were transformed into stages for a
debate over the death penalty.

In one pen, about 80 mournful
foes of capital punishment encir-
cled a miniature Liberty Bell
replica. They carried anti-death
penalty placards, and sang
“Amazing Grace” and other
songs.

Six protesters were members

of-Amnesty International USA's
Mid-Atlantic Region. Six were
students at Notre Dame Academy

in Towson, Md., who are studying’

the death penalty in class.

ay om like Franco Ciabat-
toni, a Wilmington barber who
believes the state shouldn’t take
anybody's life — came alone. “Ex-
ecution is not a deterrent to anti-

4 © a es ~
Brian Patterson, 18, of Dover, par-
ticipates in a vigil with the antie

death penalty group Wednesday.

social acts,” he said.

Added Megan Brown. 17, a
Notre Dame ‘unior: “Execution is
not the way to teach someone not
to kill. We believe in life in prison
without parole.”

Jodi Longo, director of the
Amnesty International chapter.
expressed dismay at the method
being used to kill Bailey. “Our
country has enough bad company
in executing its own citizens, and
they're doing it here ina very me-
dieval way,” she said.

In the other pen. 10 yards away,
two dozen people applauded the
looming execution. Most were rel-
atives of Gilbert and Clara Lam-
bertson, the elderly Cheswold
farmers Bailey killed in 1979.

“That's the guy who murdered

- af
oN, : a
x : Coy ses Nee &

my grandparents. He deserves
what he’s getting,” said Mark
Moore. who carried a sign that
said, “It's Time To Hang.”
Jennifer Kennedy and Dru
Garton. University of Delaware
criminal justice students, stood
apart from the family. “We don’t
know them. We're here because
we believe this is a just punish-
ment for. Bailey. If you commit
crime X. you deserve penalty Y.”
The two sides remained civil,

however, and a demonstrator in |

each court waved an American
flag. The presence of about 25
prison guards, two accompanied
by white German shepherds, as-
sured that calm prevailed.

Still, tension was evident dur.
ing a few brief exchanges across
the snow fences.

Betty Wharton (left) and Mary Moore, daughters of the Lambertsons, the
couple murdered by Billy Bailey in 1979, join the rally in favor of the death
penaity. Relative Bob Hayes of Dover is in the background,

As protesters sang “Amazing
Grace,” young men in the other
court yelled out. “Look at them
singing. I don't understand,” said
Tim Porter, 18. of New Castle.
Added Wendy Eldreth of Elkton,
Md.: “Hanging isn’t good
enough.”

Shortly after 12:15 a.m., a
prison official brought word that
Bailey was dead.

The protesters walked to their
cars, most silent, some sobbing.

In the other pen, there were
smiles, satisfied glances and
cheers.

“Justice was served. An eye for
an eve,” said James Sklodowski,
28, of Christiana, walking away
with the red, white and blue flag
wrapped around his body.

* beneath a cov-

FROM PAGE A1
Instead, he said, death is proba-

bly caused by the tearing of the

spinal cord some time after the
drop “due to the inability of the
soft tissues of the neck to support

- body weight; suffocation; conges-

tion of the brain because of pres-

. sure on the jugular vein; or oxygen
+ starvation of the brain due to pres-

sure on the carotid arteries.”

For the first time in Delaware,
family members of the victims were
allowed to witness the execution.

The Lambertsons’ two sons
were present when the gallows
trapdoor opened with a sound that
resembled a fist striking a table
and Bailey dropped to his death.
Witnesses said Saxton and Delbert
Lambertson. 68 and 70 years old,
respectively, were the last to leave.
They shook hands briefly after-

A O7E Bea ae Berwyn

ward with Deputy Attorney Gen-
eral Paul Wallace, then got into
their escort’s car and drove away to
resume the life Bailey violated
nearly 17 years ago. Saxton said he
was headed to bed while Delbert
planned to leave for a vacation.

“Now that it’s past, I just want to
forget,” said Saxton Lambertson's
wife, Mary Ann. “I think it’s really
past time this should have come
about. It’s been too many years.”

“The most chilling sight was
Billy on the platform, flanked by
two men wearing black hoods.”
said Edmund D. Lyons Jr. Bailey's
lawyer, who directed his appeals
for nearly 10 vears. “If we are so
proud of execution, why do we do
this in the middle of the mght?” he
asked. “Why do we hood those who
assist?

“t hope his death has brought

-— ww ew me ew WL

some peace to the Lambertsons,”
Lyons told more than 60 media rep-
resentatives gathered after the exe-
cution. “They deserve peace —
and Billy asked me to convey this
— they did not deserve the pain in-
flicted by Billy.”

Lyons and Bailey’s other
lawyer, public defender Nancy
Jane Perillo, visited Bailey for two
hours Wednesday afternoon at
Delaware Correctional Center.

“Billy was frightened, but we
laughed and made jokes,” said
Lyons, who stood with his arm
around Perillo’s shoulders while
they witnessed the hanging, Bailey
initially demanded to be executed,
but Perillo talked him into tight:
ing for his life.

“The good news is that Billy lett
a place and a life that was not par-
henlarly gaod to him,” Lyons said.

Bailey: Hanging may have been state’s last

“Billy started serving time the

he was born,” spending his child-
hood in a series of abusive homes
and institutions.

“Knowing that he has gone... to
a place that has to be better... al-

me to maintain some control”
during the execution, Lyons said.

Prosecutor Wallace was the
most recent opponent of Bailey’s
bid to have his sentence changed
to life in prison without probation
or parole

“It was a very solemn situa-
tion.” Wallace said afterward. “It
was not something pleasant, but it
was Necessary.”

Bailey was to be cremated. His
sister, Betty Odom of Pensacola,
Fla.. planned to take his ashes
back to Florida. Sue Coker, Bai-
ley's foster sister, said: “Nobody
will ever know, where he's at now.”

. bReme uz Wie way). ace i wa

to a Thursday night in Germany.

has not used the death .

ermany
penalty since World War II.

“It seems very barbaric,” she
said. “I guess it’s just a less sani-
tized version of the death penalty.”

Two houses down from where
the German crew had set up, an
NBC affiliate crew from Philadel.

only one, maybe we wouldn't, be

MacNamars said he could un °

derstand extensive coverage if it’s -:
“used to question capital punish- .

ment. But most of the media is so
crass and sensationalistic now
that the question has been turned
into trash journalism.”

Witness: Bailey stared
down from the gallows

FROM PAGE At

His torso was covered with a
prison-issue blue denim coat that
was draped over his shoulders, the
top two copper buttons fastened to
keep it from blowing off in the
wind. His arms were fastened at
his sides.

His feet were hidden from view.

Before entering the lighted
stockade, everyone had been
warned not to speak. The wit-
nesses — law enforcement offi-
cials, politicians, reporters, mem-
bers of the =
Lambertson |s=
family — stood |.;.4

ered gallery.
The official wit-
nesses stu-
diously avoided
making eye con-
tact with one |.
another. The re-
saben 4 eyea
arte etween Edmund L
Bailey, the Bailey —
hooded prison "s attos “y,
and the other witnesses.
Although the wind was strong

and cold, there was none of the
usual foot-shuffling among the

group. |
To Bailey’s left, hanging from a
en crosspiece overhead, was

the rope.

The white, inch-thick line was
fashioned into the classic hang-
man’s knot. The five feet of slack
— the length calculated from US.
Army drop-distance tables using
Bailey’s 220-pound weight — were
gathered in three coils and fas-
tened with black electrician’s tape.

The noose swung gently in the
stronger gusts of wind. Bailey
closed his eyes and took a deep
breath.

Shortly after midnight, Warden
Robert Sayer, wearing his trade
mark tan hat, asked Bailey if he
had any last words.

“No, sir,” came the reply, half-

hidden by the noise of the wind.

~Pardon?” Snyder asked in a ree
mark that carried unintended
irony.

“No, sir,” Bailey repeated.

The hooded guards led Bailey
four steps to his left, stopping him
when he stood atop the trapdoor.
The noose’s gentle motion stopped
when it rubbed up against Bailey's
left cheek. The fastened his
legs with a nylon web strap. From
behind him came the hood, a black
eloth bag that was tugged over Bai-
ley’s head, the hem reaching to his
chest. Bailey's eyes were still cast
down at the crowd below when the
hood slipped over them.

Snyder, all business, fitted the .
noose over Bailey’s head, pulling
the stiff down until the loop
slid under Bailey's chin. The war-
den pulled the thick knot of the
noose around to the side of Bai-
ley’s head, and. using his fin to
feel through the hood to locate
Bailey's le ear, carefully placed

the knot up it,
Satisfied, Snyder stepped back
and closed his hands over a

painted lever, and almost a -

anyone realized what was going to
happen, pulled it hard toward him.

And then things happened very,
very swiftly:

The trapdoor dropped with a-
ban .

Bailey's body shot down the
trap.

The coils of slack broke free
from the taped restraints.

be Feel ant rar diner
noose tightened against his at.

The knot slammed against the
left side of his head.

His head was jerked to an im-
possible angle to the right.

The empty sleeves of his jacket
danced up and down.

And then Bailey began spin.

ning at the end of his rope. Four ®

revolutions to his left, one to his
right, and then, slowly, slowly, the
denim-clad, black-hooded figure
swung toa stop. .
His sneakers werr white, ¢

*: hee
<2 | ii
ao? et
. :

paying so much attention. = 4.

.“

‘
ti

Hy
%
i
.
‘ne
Pd

Hanging won’t
change public
pare hy

Billy Bailey went out with class.

It was something he never
achieved in 49 mostly miserable
years of living.

But he climbed the gallows
steps before midnight Wednesday,
“strong and dignified and without
any real bitterness in his heart,”
said attorney and friend Nancy
Jane Perillo. “I was really proud of .
him.”

Bailey expressed hope that his
execution would finally bring
peace to the family of Gilbert and
Clara Lambertson, the elderly |
Cheswold couple he gunned down
in a rampage May 21, 1979.

Former Delaware State Police
detective Bob Collison remembers
the day well, including Bailey’s ar-
rest and arraignment, when he
told the magistrate: “Hang me
now, you — and get it over with.”
3 covered Bailey’s murder trial
in Kent County Superior Court in
1980. So prone to violent outbursts
was he that four burly state troop-
ers were assigned to accompany
him. More than once he had to be
removed from the courtroom while
the trial continued without him.

There was little sympathy for
the stocky, snarling slayer of the
well-known farming couple.

After his conviction Bailey told
the Supreme Court to hang the ap-

peals and get on with hi .) es penalty?

tion. . Ae ee we Probably not as long as exe-

It was Nan Perillo, his public ' cutions are carried out in the mid-
defender, who gave Bailey the will dle of the night, out of public view,
to live and pursue the appeal pro- and citizens insist on an eye for an
cess. Edmund D. Dan Lyons Jr. ye, ee if retribution takes 17
took.up the challenge the last nine Tees md .
years. * .

. Perillo, L : Jane Brooks’ column appears on

“B vere yons.eng Sou igey Saturdays. Call her at 678-4276,

, ere among 40 witnesses to Bai- .

i ey’ Hanging, a procedure Lyons -< \write her at Box 518, Dover Del.

*@ woul ON EY OM sxe 4 119903, or send e-mail to news-

Pata St z room @newsjournal.com.

|
|
|

i a bie Bae ys “3
x iba * y + 7. hits Behy - nd
‘lyon dined cencatres aEu~niedteval

ik,
‘

- another.

— erude structure inside a 20-foot-

: HA

rere ae!

«) wl tthe.
"

ynd barbaric.”

Collison found a certain irony
in the heavy blue denim coat Bai-
ley was wearing. “It was made of
the same fabric as Gilbert Lam-
bertson’s bib overalls. I saw how
the Lambertsons died and I can
tell you Billy Bailey’s hanging was
much cleaner, quicker and more
humane.”

As part of the prosecution team
that sought the death penalty for
Bailey, Collison said he felt obli-
gated to see the execution carried
out, He has no desire to witness

‘He commended corrections offi-
cials, however, for their handling
of the event: separate areas for
protesters pro and con the death
penalty, media control, separate
transportation and escorts for re-
porters, relatives and official wit-
nesses. For the first time, under
legislation passed last year, the
victims’ family members were
among the witnesses.

“Tf a hanging can be said to go
well ... this one did,” Collison said.
“I was surprised at how routine it
seemed. It was very interesting but
certainly not spectacular.

“We arrived at the gallows — a

high stockade fence, next to an old
barn — at about 11:50. I had not,
anticipated seeing his face, but
there about 18 to 20 feet above the
‘ground stands Billy Bailey facing
us. It was eerie. Very quiet.

“Later, there was a thud as the
trap door opened and Billy
dropped ... there was no other
sound, no gasp or groan. Only a

\canvas curtain flapping in the
;wind.”..
‘The ghoulish nature of
|Delaware’s first hanging in 50
-years — and possibly the nation’s
‘last — put our state in the interna-
jtional spotlight. Geraldo called
| “live.” Reporters circled “like vul-
ltures searching for a carcass,” ac-
‘cording to one account. “T feel like
iT have blood on my hands,’ one na-
tive said sadly.

But will it change majority pub-

lic‘ opinion about the death

Pt) SUAS Y
ane i

Ley Re, es
Pe oats

By ROBERT MOORE
Dover Bureau reporter

DOVER -— Some evenings,
Timothy Fester can point to a
story in the daily newspaper and,
in fits and starts, read it to his
mother Marge. Then Timothy
will explain just what the words
mean. That, Marge says, 1s noth-
ing short of a miracle.

Timothy Fester, 29, of Dover
reads and writes on a basic level,
yet his comprehension skills are
limited.

Kent County’s adult literacy pro-
gram, More Adult Readers in
Kent (MARK), Fester has made
great strides in understanding
what he reads. .

It now appears that the days
for such help are numbered.

Kent County officials are
preparing to close the book on
the MARK program, six years
after it was created.

If the program shuts down,
county officials say they can lay
the blame squarely on the na-
tion’s capital.

The impending uts in federal
funding would be too great for
MARK to overcome, they say. In-
deed, all around Delaware, the
people who run adult literacy

: aT a ee ae
i 4 ‘
. as

However, with the help of

Volunteer Dianne Sussman (left) helps MARK. stu

Literacy casualty

programs are watc
get debates in-Wa
preparing for the w

“The bottom li
body knows what i
pen,” said Judith h
dinator of th
Coalition for Lit
brella group of ac
literacy programs.

“There is ever
there will be no |
available. That
scary.”

This week, G
veiled his propos
budget and it cor

-million for vario

tion programs, U
for job and trade-

But the futu
than two dozer
signed specifi
adults to read h
grants.

Last year, th
than $600,000 in:
the writing is or
stantial cuts are

“When all th
Washington, we
30 percent cut
said Lee Ann W
to Lt. Gov. Ruth

Tom W. Sloa
state Division 0

Flamer make:

By TED CADDELL

and NAN CLEMENTS
Staff reporters

WILMINGTON — In a last-
ditch attempt to stop Monday
night’s scheduled execution,
William Henry Flamer has asked

t the state Board of Pardons to re-

consider his request for commuta-
tion of his death sentence.

Flamer’s attorney, Charlene D.

Davis, confirmed Friday that she
filed the motion Thursday after-
noon. Included in the motion is a
statement from F lamefconcerning
his crime.

Davis said she believed the

board is “going
tion to the req
doesn’t know w
ing will be held

A spokesmé
Board said the
bly not be ma
since one of its
of town.

Any action
have to be dor
Flamer is sen
time between !
Tuesday,

Davis cons!
ment crucial
board has not
Flamer’s Jan

> ‘ '
‘

VALANCHE —

TOURNAL

Monday, January 22,4996

Delaware’s |
gallows open
for hanging

Rare form of execution has some.
feeling uneasy about death penatty:

LA Times- Washington Post News Service

SMYRNA, Del. — If Billy
Bailey were being put to death
this week by lethal injection, his
execution might be noted only
for coming nearly 17 years after
he shotgunned an 80-year-old
farmer in the face and shot the
farmer’s wife in the back.

But Bailey will be hanged be-
tween 12:01 a.m. and 3 a.m.
Thursday. And the prospect of
the career criminal’s hooded
body dropping through the trap
door of the gallows, which has
not been used for a half-century
in Delaware and used only twice
in the nation since 1965, has re-
turned a queasy element of dra-
ma to legal executions, which in
many states have grown routine.

“I always thought hanging
was just absolutely grotesque,”
said Roger Roy, the state law-
maker whose bill made lethal in-
jection Delaware’s official means
of execution in 1986 — six years
after Bailey was sentenced to
hang. “If you hung a dog, the
SPCA and all the other groups
would just come off the wall.”

Bailey, 49, declined to exer-
cise the option of lethal injection
that state law provided prisoners
condemned under the earlier
law. “I feel the law sentenced me
to hang and I should hang,” Bai-
ley told the state Pardons Board
at a clemency hearing Friday. “T
don’t want to, but that was the
law.”

“My grandmother was only
about 97 pounds,” Debbie
Bednarcick told the panel about
the woman Bailey killed. “I
could’ve pushed her over, I
could’ve pushed either one of
them over. ... He has no right to
live.”

The balding, bespectacled in-
mate twiddled his thumbs
through most of the two-hour
hearing. When, after a .half-,
hour’s deliberations, the board
announced it would not change
his sentence to life without pa-
role, Bailey nodded quietly and
was led back to his cell. Later in
the day, the U.S. Supreme Court
declined to grant a stay that Bai-
ley’s attorney described as his
last hope.

“Our gallows is pretty primi-
tive here,” said the warden of
Delaware Correctional Center,
Robert Snyder. “We've made
some improvement, but hopeful-
ly this will be the last hanging
in Delaware.”

Since 1608, according to
death-penalty researcher Watt
Espy, almost 19,000 people have
been legally executed in what is
now the United States, and most
were hanged. Electrocution be-
gan to crowd out ropes in the
1920s, and last year most of the
56 prisoners executed died by
the injection of a cocktail of
deadly chemicals,

History is littered with horror

stories of botched executions:by
hanging. Ropes have broken,
trap doors have stuck and heads:

have been pulled from ‘necks,

Death penalty opponents-“and
corrections officials recount—epi-.
sodes of - hangmen’s grabbing
onto the legs of gasping prison-
ers in frantic efforts to finish
their work. ae?

Today, atkeener understand-
ing of the mechanics of hanging
is undercut by the lack of éxperi-
enced practitioners. “It’s not like
you can look under ‘H’ for hang.
man,” said Edmund D. Lyons,
Bailey’s attorney.’ ae

This month, Delaware Sarrec-
tions officials traveled to-WGlla
Walla, Wash., to comparé totes
with colleagues in the onl¥ state
where hanging remains the fri-
mary mode of execution.” Con-
demned inmates there must spe-
cifically request lethal injection
to avoid the noose, but in 1993
Westley Allan Dodd chose to
hang, calling it fitting for some-
one who hanged two of the three
boys he murdered. The- next
year, triple murderer Charles
Campbell was hanged after re-
fusing to choose. ne

A third inmate, Mitchell
Rupe, refused to choose, then‘ate
so many fatty snacks from the
prison canteen that his weight
topped 400 pounds. His lawyer
argued successfully that hanging
would almost certainly decapi-

‘tate him, and decapitation al-

ready had been ruled cruet-and
unusual punishment.

Warden Snyder said-~Dela-
ware cannot hope to duplicate
the efficiency he saw at-Walla
Walla, where witnesses can view
the indoor gallows through:-two
stories of windows. The upper
level ig masked by blinds to
shield the identity of the hang-
man, whose preparations remain

Visible in silhouette. Witnesses,

however, have a clear, view..:,
What Delaware will copy are
the procedures. the U.S. Army
published . before it outlawed
hanging in 1986. The regula-
tions specify 30 feet of manila;
hemp, boiled to take out stvetch:
and any tendency to coil, then
waxed, soaped or greased ta as-
sure a sliding: noose. A~black
hood is recommended, a sandbag
to test the trap door and a-“col-
lapse board” on which a -relic-
tant condemned person cari’ be
strapped, as Campbell was.7> ~
In theory, the hangniiin’s
knot, when placed properly ‘be-
low the condemned pétson’s
chin, throws the head back’ With
a force that sends a vertebr'é slic-;
ing through the spinal cord."In
fact, according to some experts,
post-mortal examinationa_have
shown this does not occur, rou-
tinely, ;
The doctors conclude, in fact,
that many hanging victims die
slowly by strangulation.

JAN. 23 1996], ©
Vv

Method Of Execution

A GALLOWS HAS BEEN prepared in Dover, Del., awaiting
the Friday hanging of Billy Bailey, a 49-year-old man who is
one of the 14 inmates on Delaware’s death row.

Mr. Bailey was first sentenced to death in 1980 for the 1979
murders of an elderly couple who he killed after he escaped
froma work-release’center. ©

He was cocky about his pending execution at first. He even
went so far as to tell prison authorities, “I just hope they buy a
strong enough rope.” : Bae
‘« However, the condemned man has since changed his tune.

- Mr. Bailey does not have to be hanged. The method of
execution was his choice. Hanging was the standard method of
execution when Mr. Bailey received his death sentence, but
the state changed its method of execution in 1986 to lethal

‘Injection. '

- Prisoners who had been sentenced before 1986 to “hang by
the neck until they are dead” had the option of choosing either
the execution method to which they had been sentenced or the
newfangled method of lethal injection.

_ Bailey criticized the state for giving him a choice of
execution methods. “Asking a man to choose how to die is
more barbaric than hanging,” he said, in recent interview.
’ Barbaric? Tell that to the survivors of Gilbert Lambertson,
80, and his 73-year-old wife, Clara, who were gunned down
with a shotgun in their farm house by Mr. Bailey.

Innocent people being murdered in their home strikes us as
being much more barbaric than allowing an inmate to choose

between two methods of execution. The Lambertsons were not
allowed to have any say in their method of death — and they
didn’t get 16 years of appeals before they were killed.

The editorials represent the opinion of the Avalanche-Journal Editorial Board,
' which consists of Publisher David C. Sharp, Editor Burle Pettit, Editorial
: Page Editor Joe Hughes and editorial writers Bob Horton and Joe Gulick.

~<LugBock, TX” AVALANCHE JOuRNA L
letters; PO, Box 49] Lubbock TK 714OB

FAX ¢06~ 744-9603

Delginaré Executes
A Killer by Hanging

SMYRNA, Del., Jan. 25 (AP) — A
man who murdered an elderly cou-
ple 17 years ago went to the gallows
early today, the nation’s third execu-
tion by hanging since 1965.

After the prisoner, Billy Bailey,
climbed the steps to the wooden
structure, he occasionally glanced at
the witnesses 15 feet below, including
the victims’ two sons.

A black hood was placed over Mr.
Bailey’s head, followed by the noose.
At 12:04 A.M., the warden pulled a
lever, the trap door opened and Mr.
Bailey dropped.

It was the first time Delaware
allowed victims’ family members to
witness an execution. The hanging
was the state’s first in 50 years.

Mr. Bailey, 49, was sentenced to |

hang for the 1979 shotgun slayings of
Gilbert and Clara Lambertson; the
sentence came before Delaware
changed its method of execution to
injection in 1986. He could have cho-
sen the injection, but said he chose
hanging because ‘the law is the
law.”

Three other states allow hanging;

they are Montana, New Hampshire
and Washington, where two murder-
ers were hanged in 1993 and 1994.

of ae Bailey i in Delaware
day before have revived
ents about capital pun-

Qt were Bailey s ai 4 Taylor’ S: crimes?
Musee was‘ convicted of. shooting an
Sea Lambertson, 80, and

: house i in Cheswold, Del.: =
. . Taylor, 36, was found guilty i in 1989 of raping
4p an 11-year-old girl and strangling her with’a tele-

a phone ‘cord.‘Though’ he“ had ‘insisted he was

wrongly convicted, he fired his lawyers last year
and dropped all appeals, saying he preferred
death to prison.

~—6Q: Why was Bailey ‘Hiiaged?

; lethal’ injection given prisoners condemned un-
‘} der an earlier law that provided only for hanging.
} “I feel the law sentenced me to hang and I
he should hang,” Bailey: told the state Pardons
. Board at a cleméncy hearing last week. “I don’t
ce want to, but that was the law.”

Q: Why’ was. Taylor shot?

; i ing squad or lethal injection. Taylor said he chose

- state with a firing squad. Utah lawmakers are

i the condemned, ‘choose the method of execution.

q ution?

_-ecution ‘at the same prison came after the U.S.
Supreme Court lifted its ban on capital punish-
ment in 1976. That execution ended a 10-year
}.moratorium on the death penalty in the United
States. .

@Q: What do death pehiatty opponents say?

A; Foes of capital punishment were hopeful
that the fundamentally brutal nature of this
week’s hanging and firing squad executions and

pay a liquor store and broke into their farm-

’ As Bailey declined. to exercise the option of |

| of the 56 prisoners executed died by the injection

' AS Utah offers the condemned a choice of fir-

; the: firing ‘squad to’'make a statement that Utah’ | ?
| was sanctioning murder. Idaho is the only other —

‘ considering. legislation to let judges, instead of |

-Q: ‘What was significant about Taylor’s exe-

.. As It was the nation’s first execution by firing —
2 squad since Gary Gilmore in 1977..Gilmore’s ex-..

public away from what they see as a growing cal-
lousness toward capital punishment, fed by the

‘antiseptic, almost medical nature of lethal in-

jections.

“When we euthanize someone in the middle
of the night, it’s like taking your dog to the veteri-
narian,” said Kevin O’Connell, co-president of
the Delaware Citizens Opposed to the Death Pen-
alty and one of about 100 protesters who sang
hymns and rang a bell outside the prison walls
during Bailey's execution. “But a hanging means
that a man’s neck is snapped. That is a spectacle. 3
It makes it a real consequence. And you’re going. *.
to see more weeks like this one.’ :

Q: What about death penalty proponents?

A: Supporters of the death penalty, who rep- . .

resent a majority of Americans — 70 to 80 per- -.
cent in some polls — remained unfazed and said.
this week would pass without-spurring change.
“People who thing the firing squad is inhu-
mane should ask the convicted murderer why he
picked it,” said Michael Rushford, president of
the Criminal Justice Legal Foundation, based in

-California.

Utah corrections chief Lane McCotter, who
has witnessed both methods, said gunfire is as
sanitary and effective as lethal injection.

“In lethal you don’t know whether the person
is dead or asleep,” he said. “Obviously, this is in-

-stantaneous. All you have to do is let the body re-

act to the shock of eg rounds.”

Q: How many penne have been executed in

. the United States?, -

As Since 1608, according to death penalty re-
searcher Watt Espy, almost 19,000 people have
been. legally executed in what is now the United

States. Most were hanged. Electrocution beganto .’.

replace hanging in the 1920s, and last year most ~ .

of deadly chemicals.

ZIGGY

THAT WASONLY A TEST...BUT faa
WE HAD YOU GOING THERE FOR Vig
AMINUTE DIDN'T WE !! ee

pees ile RA

JeoorOaer

TL OA)

I7UITL ©

QUAL

| Barey ~

' the publicity mrrounting them would stun the

SATURDAY Jan. 20, 1996

Board denies
killers’ pleas
for their lives

By NAN CLEMENTS
Staff reporter

SMYRNA — Convicted killers
Billy Bailey and William H.
Flamer will need legal miracles to
escape execution this month.

After tearful pleas from rela-
tives and friends during twin hear-
ings Friday at the Delaware Cor-
rectional Center, the state Pardons
Board refused to recommend com-
mutation of their death sentences
to life in prison without probation

The News Joumal/GARY EMEIGH
Betty Odom weeps while pleading for the life of her brother Billy Bailey
(right) during a hearing Friday. Bailey is scheduled to be hanged Thursday.

The News Journal

or parole.

And, while the hearings were
under way, the U.S. Supreme Court
rejected their appeals and de-
clined to stay their execution dates
— Thursday for Bailey and Jan. 30
for Flamer.

The official actions cleared the
way for the state Correction De-
partment to hang Bailey — the
first man in Delaware to face death
by that method in nearly 50 years
— and execute Flamer by injec-
tion. Flamer could have selected
hanging, but chose injection.

“Tt’s almost over,’ Mary Moore
said afterward.

Moore is one of four children
born to the elderly Cheswold cou-
ple Bailey killed nearly 17 years
ago. Her brother and sister-in-law,

Saxton and Mary Ann Lambert-

117th year, No. 278

son, testified for the family.

Bailey’s sister and foster sister
broke down while speaking on
their brother’s
behalf.

“T never
asked God for
anything except
my sick baby’s
life once,” said
Betty Odom, a
Florida resident
who _ learned
only last week
that her brother
is facing execu-
tion for the bru-
tal 1979 shotgun
murders of 80-year-old Gilbert
Lambertson and his 73-year-old
wife Clara.

“Please,” Odom begged through

Billy Bailey

40 New Castle County stores, '
¢ 50¢ all other stores

FINAL EDITION E

Pardons refused, executions loom

tears and sobs, “give my brother
his life so I can see him before we

both pass away.” '

She detailed the abuse and beat-
ings Bailey suffered in the first 10
years of his life. Bailey, 49, and
Odom were among 23 children
born to their father and his three
wives. After their father died, they
were separated. Odom stayed with
the child-beating stepmother and
Bailey was farmed out to a half-
brother in Wilmington. Bailey
then was moved to a succession of
institutions and foster homes —
and more beatings.

At 16, he was released from Fer-
ris School near Prices Corner to
live with Lawrence and Corinne
Seaman.

See KILLERS — A7

Killers: Minner finds no reason for ae

FROM PAGE Al

she ‘visited him frequently. in ue ahs ae ee

prison.

. Coker and her husband. rive
were among the last people Bailey, ~
saw before he killed the Lambert. 5

sons on May 21, 1979.

‘going tq put him back in prison,

Coker said of Bailey, who was fac-.
ing a 45-year sentence asa habit-
‘ual offender when he walked away '

‘that day from the Plummer Work-
Release Center in Wilmington.

is “He said he would kill himself
before he’d go back to prison,

Coker said. “He tried to stab him: .

self, with a steak knife and cut my quently and “would.cu

hand without meaning to. when I
was struggling with him for the
knife.”: as ee ae
epee how. what he did, was ‘wrong,
but he’s like my real brother and I
love him,” Coker said. “I will visit

him in prison for the rest of, his. life :

if I have to.”

> Testimony by Coker and Odom’
was far different from that given bys.
Robert Collison, an attorney gen:

eral’s office investigator who knew °:

Dy
Wee see no reason to recommend commutation’

“Lt Gov. RuthAnnMinner

Bailey as a Tibertaeer and heeded
-. the investigation of the Lambert-

: “He was cared [that day], like a “ sons’ deaths, >. ees

wild person, afraid they were - hear’ said their daughter Mary.

- Moore. “It brought back a lot of ee
“bad things.” =
Collison, who also. Eoateadicted ;
favorable testimony by correc-,
tional.officers and counselors,

- knew Bailey as alboisterous, hos-
- tile and troublesome teen-ager |
© who drank: heavily, fought fre- -
uss you out :
with words you never heard.” ;

-« ‘The Lambertson murders. were

“His testimony. was 3 rough. to.

typical Billy Bailey,; Collison...
said. “I believe the death penalty i is”

he killings, he said... >

“hoods and involvement with alco-

holic beverages at an early ages. |
Flamer, 41, was raised by his .

‘grandmother and grandfather, the

Yer

he only appropriate : sentence” for :

Bailey and Flamer ‘both. testi?
‘ fied, citing their deprived child-

“latter mT cotlepuer i

“We were around loner all the’
time and the [Harrington] house
_.was always full of men drinking,”

“said James Flamer, the convicted >
i brother. ©

William Flamer Auceumbed to:

: drinking, dropped out of school
“and led: an itinerant existence: As

a chicken catcher and horse groom

at Harrington Raceway, he earned -
just enough money to keep him in _

_ liquor, said. his lawyer, Charlene *
Davis. : E

She blamed’ Hamer’ 8 co-defens
“dant, Andre S. Deputy, for instigaté ».

ing the murder on. Feb. 7, 1979, of ; if

‘Jamer’s uncle and aunt, 68- year

ela: Byard Smith and his. 69-year-.
‘old it a Alberta. They refused. to -
surrender a Social Security check.
‘so Flamer and Deputy could:con; : 3
“tinue a drinking binge‘that day,”
and were stabbed more than 150¢

times with a knife’and a ‘bayonet, ?
Deputy. was executed on Juney

2, 1994 ata :
‘Flamer ‘and Bailey oth Noaid

«they had changed greatly after
~~ spending nearly 17 years in prison.

Flamer, described by two chap-

Jains as a religious man and a role _
model for other prisoners, told the

- board that he has felt all the pain

. of his victims’ family, becainge he is
‘part of that family. :

3'ST am asking for a ‘chance £0
help. others as [God] has helped

weet me” Flamer said.

But the Pardons Board fund
no reason to spare either man.

Many have led deprived child-. .
hoods, “but didn’t choose the route *
you took,” said Lt. Gov. Ruth Ann

_Minner, who serves as chair of the

- five-member panel. - ;
* Wey seeino;xeason to recom-

ad mend CORREHOR. she told. eh

man in turn...

“

‘ we .

Samy ELE aT
wDay I- |
Boy Yrious "4

f
-_

about hangings

PARMA, Italy (AP) — A 12-
year-old boy hanged himself after
watching a TV news report about
American executions and asking
his parents whether people suffer
at the gallows, newspapers said
Saturday. a

The story was juxtaposed in
most major dailies with reports _
on the firing-squad execution in
Utah on Friday. Italy does not
have capital punishment and
public opinion runs strongly
against it. -

The youth, identified only as
D.M., hanged himself Thursday.
night. a Lon

Investigators say the youth
asked his parents about hangings
after they watched one of the
evening news programs, which
have prominently featured the
Utah firing squad and an execu-
tion by hanging in Delaware or’
Thursday. on

According to the Rome newspa-,
per Repubblica, police quoted the’
father as saying the boy asked at’
the dinner table “if people suffer
when being hanged.” a. ‘i

After dinner, the boy’s parents
found him hanging from a nylon
rope attached to a heating pipe in
the basement. 4

“I’m convinced the boy repeat:
ed the hanging scene to see what
effect it would have, without re~
alizing the risk, without under-
standing he was engaged in a'
mortal danger,” the boy’s school
principal, Franco Gennari Daneri,
told the Milan newspaper Cor- ©
riere della Sera. “

Wednesday, Jan. 24, 1996

The News Journal

A Gannett newspaper

W. Curtis Riddle |
President and Publisher |

“OUR VIEW.

(e@ece Coereonvecscvesesoeos .

Sanctioned killings —

will not — - cannot —

restore peace or order

_ The executioner will sing his song twice this month in —
Delaware. Early tomorrow morning, Billy Bailey will be.
hanged by the neck until he is dead. On Jan. 30, William |
H. Flamer will be put to death by lethal inj jection,

WHERE WE STAND Each time the state prepares to

“The death penalty execute someone, we reconsider

is a violent act society our long-standing opposition to

visits upon itself. state-sanctioned killing. Again, we
find there are no compelling rea-

-sons to change our opinion. The taking of f life violates

the laws of both God and man. How can ene life in the
name of law make sense? -

We have no sympathy whathoever for Billy Bailey or
William Flamer. There is little doubt they committed the
brutal murders for which they were convicted. Punish-
ment — long, severe, Paintul punishments —is what they
both deserve.

That Bailey and Flamer are different, men now than -
they were when they committed murder may well be true. —

_ But the lives of the loved ones their victims left behind
‘were altered beyond relief by their crimes. The two at-

tempted to seek a reprieve from death last week with
tearful and often poignant tales of undeniably terrible
childhoods.

But our concern is not whether Bailey and Flamer
should be spared execution because their unfortunate |
childhoods led them to become dysfunctional adults. It is

rather with the validity of the death penalty method of

deterring crime and our firm conviction that life in

‘prison without possibility of release is a far harsher
‘penalty.

The death penalty does not deter murder. Most mur-

ders are crimes of passion or crimes committed under the
influence of drugs or alcohol when logical thinking is

virtually impossible.
So why does our society embrace capital punishment?

The demand for punishment and even revenge play a

part. And these are valid emotions. Murder disturbs soci-
ety’s peace and order and society has a right to restore
both. But state-sanctioned killing only visits another vio-
lent act on the community. It can not restore peace and
order. It can only further disturb them. -
' It is our belief that life in prison — no probation, no
parole and no exceptions — is the way to satisfy society’s
legitimate need for vunidhineat Such a life of loneliness .
and desolation would be painful beyond imagination.

‘But Delaware, sadly, has chosen a different path to re- |
dress the crime of murder. So the sad wail of the execu-'
tioner’s dirge will resonate throughout the state again

Inmate allies

Three advocates for prisons at Graterford state prison, (from left) Joan Gauker, Nancy MecVaugh :
and Sandy Shultz, await their tum to testify in Harrisburg yesterday at a state Senate Judiciary
Committee hearing on prison overcrowding. _ : ;

ASSOCIATED PRESS

Scere

by Theresa Humphrey
Associated Press.

SMYRNA, Del. — Billy Bailey,
the 49-year-old murderer of an
elderly couple, climbed up onto a
wooden gallows and was hanged
early today, becoming only the
third convict to be executed this.
way since 1965.

Bailey closed his eyes, sniffled
and said nothing before the black
hood was placed over his head.
His body twisted quickly in the
wind once the trap door was
sprung, then turned slowly be-
neath the 15-foot high platform in
the cold night air.

He was pronounced dead 11
minutes later, at 12:15 a.m.

The gallows were built on the
grounds of the Delaware Correc-
tional Center 10 years ago as Bai-
ley’s first execution date ap-
proached.

The outdoor execution took
place under cold, windy skies,
with temperatures in the 30s.

About 100 demonstrators gathered -

outside prison, including 20 who
supported Bailey’s execution.

Witnesses included Delbert and
Saxton Lambertson, two sons of
Gilbert and Clara Lambertson,
who were murdered with a shot-
gun at their farmhouse in 1979.
Delaware has not previously al-
lowed family members of the vic-
tims to witness executions.

“I think it’s really past time this
should have come abott. It’s been
too many years,” said Mary Ann

’

. of the victims.” ©

-Lambertson, the’ daughferin Jaw .

./as recantly'as 1952, The whip
Pp

“I happened to be the poor soul
who found the bodies, and it was
a gruesome sight.”

Dennis Lambertson, 40, a grand-
son of the victims, said he went to
the prison to “see justice done.”

Appeals delayed the hanging un-
til the U.S. Supreme Court denied
Bailey a stay of execution last week.
The state Board of Pardons on Fri-
day rejected a commutation, and
Edmund Lyons, his attorney,
planned no last-minute appeals.

Bailey was sentenced to hang:

before Delaware changed its
method of execution to injection in
June 1986. He could have chosen to
die by lethal injection, but said he
chose hanging because “the law is
the law.”

By coincidence, Utah is sched-
uled to have its first firing-squad
execution in 19 years early tomor-
row. John Albert Taylor, sentenced
to die for raping and strangling an
11-year-old girl, chose the firing
squad over injection, the state’s
other method of execution.

Three other states allow hang-
ing — Montana, New Hampshire

and Washington, where two mur-

derers were hanged in 1993 and
1994. Before that, the last hang-
ings in the United States were in
Kansas in 1965, when four mur-
derers were executed. Among
them were Richard Eugene Hick-
ock and Perry Edward Smith, the
subjects of Truman Capote’s book
“In Cold Blood.” >
Delaware had public floggings

)

osts were removed in’196

Delaware hangs killer

Billy Bailey: Chose scaffold

“weren't officially outlawed until
1972. Because 50 years have

passed since Delaware’s last hang- :

ing, four Department of Correc-

tion officials traveled to Washing-

ton state to study procedures.
Asked at a pardons board hear-

ing last week why he committed.

murder, Bailey said: “I don’t
really know. I just know that I feel

bad about it. It hurts sometimes:

when I think about it. When I say
hurt, I think about the Lambert-
sons and how much they hate me

~ and I start to’¢ry and sometimes I'-
24 dry thyself'to

ASSOCIATED PRESS ~

Slaep ar-nignt.” w’!P ee will B

)
)

Victim’s moi
shows anguis

by Dave Racher
Daily News Staff Writer

The sheriff's deputies v
about to lead Michael Mesc
from the courtroom yeste
when an anguished mother:
brought him up short.

“Why did you kill h:
shouted Martha Denis, moth

- the physician Mesquita is acc

of hacking to death on Jan.
“l’m her mother!” Denis so
to the stunned suspect.
killed her for what? Who are
I can’t keep it inside anym<
The outburst came after
quita, 43, was ordered by M:
pal Judge Louis J. Presen
stand trial in the murder

Yanick Denis-Gabbin, 33.

The victim’s cousin, G:
Thomas, also broke down in
and screamed at Mesquita f
ing the preliminary hearin

“You didn’t have to kill

Thomas yelled. “Why?
_ Why? She was like a sister t

Assistant District Attorn:
lene Fisk said Mesquita
stabbed the victim, a re
physician at Thomas Jef

@ HI
Ruling |

joits pr

Defendant won’
prosecuted as ac

by Dave Racher
Daily News Staff Writ

It takes a lot to shake up a-
homicide prosecutor like
King, a guy who may have '
he had seen and heard it

But yesterday King said.
sick to my stomach,” after
ruled that a second suspec
1994 killing of Al-Moez
hamed, 27, a promising Un

of Pennsylvania student, ¢

tried as a juvenile. _
That means that if th
killer, is convicted, he'll
confinement when he’s -
now 17. 2
“T have kind of an empty.
King said after Comm.
Judge Carolyn E. Temin §t.
Juvenile: Court -trial fos

ig Pas'lef Mie

mee

pgain senteucca LU UEALA Escudo rees
Prosecutor Paul Ferrell Jr., who
ktood in for Riley when the jury re-
furned its verdict, said Clausell
faced a life sentence with a mini-.
mum of 30 years’ jail time. He has
already spent 12 of those years in

WY Yrwwy WY
. Sat pe Kk ;

‘
:

The Hudson.County Jail wa locked. doW™ th

warden removed. Sts operatins, will be 7eva™

ahiedes 24,

: \ lect * LEON | 5 ability
‘Ferrell said he and the Atwood ‘By Ravi Nessman taband and an. inability t
family felt justice had been served | ASSOCIATED PRESS ' . qe! the facility. Beyer

KEARNY, NJ. — The state seized teased evidence of weapon.
control of the Hudson County Jail be inmates led to @ growl
yesterday,’ citing the county’s in- ern there might be threats t
ability to ensure that it was safe.: icsafety” if steps were not!
At a news conference at the State- ecure the jail.
house, Gov. Whitman said Hudson sharonda McNeil, 24, of
County officials had requested the City, a medical clerk at the J
state’s assistance. , ay the civilian employees ’
About 3 p.m., 160 state corrections dered into the visiting are
officers arrived at the jail by buses, tor 4 debriefing. McNeil §
vans and cars. Dressed in full riot were told they would not
gear, they entered the facility. . that the state was taKi7s

hy the verdict. Valerie Gail Atwood,

he: widow of the victim, attended
he. trial and was present for the

‘Serdict. She gave No comment as
she left the courtroom smiling.

jer Earline Clausell, mother of the de-

yt. See RETRIAL on B2

bs
<<<

High court.

o. Warden Ralph Green was re-_ jail, and “not to worry’ /..
o' 94. moved, and every cell was searched, | “Al] of a sudden, We say}
avoN't SPaLe | “ised: et ate a
« a? Harold Beyer, assistant state com- my God,’” McNeil said. t

the noose

missioner of corrections, said the’ ral lockdown, SO everyns
reasons for the lockdown were con-, stay where they wer?/

be oo. - Se = ‘ iia =i
||. Billy Bailey asked for alg Mea biine thi fp qe.
3 life in jail. Delaware M ee h qd ef
| stood firm. So did the ali (° arge aut
c Supreme Court. a tet }

i) Be : Police say the Florida killing — |

| By Theresa POKES resembles the unsolved murder of

WSSMYRNA, Del. — A childhood of

rabilse and abandonment was not Shaline Seguinot of Camden.

; ‘enough to convince either the state ct ii
ard of Pardons or the U.S. Su- By John Way Jennings
reme Court yesterday 10 recom- INQUIRER STAFF WRITER

A homeless man was arrested in East camden
and charged Thursday with the 1985 rape and
murder of a s-year-old Florida girl — crime ’
that officials said bore similarities to the un-
\ solved killing last summer of Shaline Seguinot, @
Camden schoolgirl. ; ee me
Camden County Sheriff Michael McLaughlin W

- gaid William, J. Barrow, 59, was arrested Thurs- al

ghend that Billy Bailey escape the
angman’s noose. . Z ie
“Bailey, 49, is scheduled to be
hanged Thursday. It would be Dela-
\ware’s first hanging in 50 years and
} e third in the United States since

965. :
‘The Supreme Court denied his ap-
al yesterday for a stay of exect-

scheduled for early next week. ‘A 3
“Because of the nature of the [two] cases, obvi-

fd robbed a Cheswold liquor store ors student at the Pyne Poynt Middle School, -
d-choked area pehind

armhouse. i
<After a nearly two-hour, emotion-
“See HANGING cg

Sarat mS
as

—_—_—_
=

eQev et

Saat

ESET.
x «2 + a -

Bi Aitaiy WW Slay as he
of Rosemont Colleg

By Ralph Vigoda Healy said she support
INQUIRER STAFF WRITER show, calling it “not only ay
Margaret M. Healy, who has ate, but... stimulating.”
served as interim president of Rose- At the time of her inte
mont College since June, has been pointment, Healy indicated t
named to the position full time. _ planned to Stay at Rosemon
_ She has agreed to a three-year year and then return to Bryr
contract beginning July 1. At that She apparently changed he
time, she will Officially resign as last month, when she tolc
treasurer of Bryn Mawr College, Mawr officials of her inten
where she has been on a leave Of remain at Rosemont.

an lage " absence since taking over at Rose- Healy has b
illy Bailey is to die Thursday for , ealy as been associate
Billy y y mont.. Rosemont for nearly 30 yea:

the 11979 shotgun killings of an The appointment. was confirmed
elderly couple in Cheswold, Del. yesterday by Sister Elizabeth Fitz. '@Ught philosophy there fro

ee maurice, head of the board of trust- '® 1969 before becoming dean

- er ; college.
r ae oo an heeet's or Hoge ° Healy’s She received a degree in p
‘9 Je ® Inma e _ | generous, swift and comrl i. Phy and mathematics from |
7 : ! cation to the task at hand,” said Sis. sanncbe puheiee i ee as
Ca: nr ter Elizabeth. Healy was out of town ;

‘ b t Scholar f the Univ
denied Stay _ | and unavailable for comment yes- ee pena in Belgium a ny

' he it ete | Healy, 61, replaced Ofelia Garcia, from St. John’s University ir

; OL execution who resigned in April amid contro. .York, and a doctorate from
| versy over an art exhibit at Rose- Mawr, all in philosophy.

ae eo tae | Mont. The exhibit, which used wom- . In 1976, she left Rosemon

HANGING from Bt en’s underwear to explore gender Bryn .Mawr to become ass:

cally charged hearing, the Delaware | issues, was considered inappropri- treasurer; she was made trea
Board of Pardons deliberated 35 | ate by some in the Rosemont Col- in 1978. She was named a, Rose

dniniites before rejecting Bailey’s | lege community. . trustee in 1989,
Blea for a commutation of hissen- | ae
tence to life without parole.

Ld ohice

csr, here are many people who have

ee
10 a
‘suffered through their childhood,” :
_ Ut, Gov. Ruth Ann Minner said be-. 1e O e¢ rla O (
“fore telling Bailey that the five. |. ore o4 .

dnember board ‘would not recom-
nd the s0vernor ‘commute. his

ty! uc ® o- 4 |
| sinc noddet his head in affir- ol | one victim S Pescur

Mation. . .
ohne panel had asked him why he | TRIAL from B1 don’t know. I know What happe
SPose hanging over injection. pick up a bottle and swing it at earlier,’ . .
Pm The law sentenced me to hang, | Stuber. He said he did not see the. “T stepped vack and they pic
. thé I should hang. I don’t want to. bottle strike Stuber, - up the back of his head and bl
ergtat’s o chant Dalley eer , Malone oe vr he saw At- started pouring out.” : ant
ctr ton _ ts method of | kinso being hit eight to 10 times c
FXecution from hanging to lethal in- | NIRS weapons, Males i. that as Kathy Pole aha ene testimn
isction in June 1986. Those sen- |) he grabbed Atkinson and pulled his began to sob and Common PI
enced to hang have two weeks be- | friend away ‘he also was struck by ‘Court Judge Jane Cutler Greens]
fgre.the execution to choose either Pinero, called a brief recess .

ihethod. If they refuse to choose, Malone testified that ‘earlier that ea
they are hanged. Bailey chose hang: | night some Fox Chase youths were ,,U2der defense questioning, }

ing ’ ‘ throwing rocks and bottles at a red fone admitted that he identified
Hy Hey, Said he Was drinking heay. | ‘Brow shattered the windshield of their photograph a oe on See
ily the day of the Slayings and that | ¢ne woman’s car in the parking lot | 7 , a idl
didn’t remember Killing the cou- | ‘at the McDonald’s Nr WSpapers. Malone said he id

ple. He said he took responsibility ; tified Johnson from his picture i
f tayi b pte Malone also said he saw Eddie Po- 1990 Abington High School ye
or the slayings because “it’s been | tec standing on the train tracks in book sh him by poli

pushed at me so much that I done it. the Wie owe to him by police.

It makes you hurt inside. So I accept | he wat helpline eed ., safe Michael E. Wallace, Alexande!
sesponsibility that I done it.” he said he told Polec, “Ed, come on, ttorney; Oscar N, Gaskins, Ps

nt ‘During the hearing, Debbie Bed- Let’s go,” son’s attorney; and A. Charles P
‘Rarcik, a granddaughter of the Lam- Polec Tespon ded, “No, I'm not go- uto Sr., Pinero’s attorney, ha
Py ine tema # Statement prepared pig. d have to wait ‘for Billy.” Bil hours about tec is ae inh
OY, y. Polec was his younger brother.

Malone said he told Polec: “Just estimony and Statements he ha

: de to police in 1994.

: make sure you take a differént way ma
fet nreceaed ede | Home SS ire way ie on rl that
ténce for 16 years, she read. “He has That was the last time he saw his son — allegedly Pinero — was 6
ho right to live. . . “He has no value | friend alive. ‘foot-3 or 6-foot-4 and “skinny,” wit}
for. life. This state should have no | _ After taking a badly beaten Atkin. curly black hair. Peruto said his cli
Value for his life,” Bednarcik read, | Son to a friend’s house a few blocks - ent is 5-foot-8 and has straight hair
“Edmund D. Lyons, Bailey's attor- | away, Malone made his way to the Malone described th ble le
ney, spent most of the hearing por- | Fox Chase Recreation Center, lo- 1 - ti Ak © Diag fa er
traying his client as a victim of a | cated about a block from St. Cecj- he ke mba ne Atkinson jas “a
Argyl C lia’s, tat Ae black muscular guy’ Weighed
ie over which he had no control, ‘eek 200 pounds, and wh6'Was shirtless
.: Bailey was the 19th of 23 children. There, he saw flashing police G : kins Johnsafit’” ‘
His stepmother, his father’s third | lights and ran to the parking lot, Jed thr al
wife, was said to have at himvdtidn|,.where*he’ saw Polec lying on the tended that hi
his siblings: ver"hig father died, |"eftind. aS Ids ang
she sent him and an older brother, | Malone began to cry as he testi. “I’m it 1S Guy did not see the

'~ Since the couple’s murder in May
1929, “our family has not known jus-

Sam, from their.two-room shack in fied: “The ‘left side of his head 7 assault,” askins said afterward,
South Carolina to live with their Where his temple is had adent.His __ Peruté said other witnesses would

half-brother in Wilmington, one eye was closed. His other eye identify someone else as beating At-
-hOnce in Delaware, Bailey and his | was like going in circles. He had _kinson, and “it wasn’t Pinero,”
brother ended Mpuin,institutions or trouble breathing. His nose .was'”" Testimony continues today

Laster homes while Bailey began a | swollen.” * i lye es" Criminal Justice Center. The vi
life of thievery. He was 18 when he z “The* potééman Said, ‘Do vou tim’s younger brother is expected
had -his first adult conviction. - J know... what happened?’ I said, ‘I testify. . _

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“BS —south Jersey i. THE PHILADELPHIA IN

1614 years after couple slain,

puc

their killer is hanged in Del.

‘peeped.

Billy Bailey gave no final statement. A relative of the
victims said, “It gives us a sense of closure.”

Stripped of his dentures and

glasses, Bailey walked the 23 steps:|’
up the 15-foot-high gallows Shortly”

BK yooe

. By Rich Heidorn Jr. cution site. When she was told Bai- before midnight.

“ 9yeys poe | quinen STAFF WRITER ley was dead, Coker said, her first When all the witnesses had ar-
om} pe a » SMYRNA, Del. — Clara Lambert- thought was: “They’ll leave him ‘rived, Warden Robert Snyder.asked
payinse 4 Son, a 73-year-old grandmother who alone now.” Bailey if he had any last words.
1212P25 >} weighed 89 pounds, was shot in the When the state abandoned hang- Snyder could not hear Bailey's an-

4 ‘back. Her husband, Gilbert, 80, had _irigs in favor of lethal injection in Swer over the wind snapping the
pue pus ‘Me head blown apart by a shotgun 1986, Bailey and two others facing blue tarpaulins beside the gallows. |
-onbsns * ast. . ‘death sentences were given the op- Asked again, Bailey repeated, “No |’
‘guueM@ — +, For their murders 16% years ago, tion of the new method, Bailey de- sir.” 1,
‘uOyOTIO. “Billy Bailey, 49, was put to death clined. _ Two prison guards wearing masks ,
-oyjv: 3 tearly yesterday on the gallows at. _ Bailey, hanged at 12:04.a.m. yester-. positioned Bailey over the trapdvor .

+ os 9q}. *the Delaware Correctional Center. day, was pronounced dead:11 min- and strapped his ankles together. '
ae «He was the first person hanged in , utes later. Prison spokeswoman Gail Bailey’s: lips tightened; his right ;
‘ep ut _—-- Delaware in 50 years and only the Stallings said the execution was hand tensed.into a fist, according to |
nA 430 j -third in the United States since 1965. “without. any complications.” witnesses.
Lg one . “It gives.usa sense of closure,” Reporters. who witnessed the © Warden Snyder pulled a hood | .
Te Od0h :Mary Ann Lambertson, who discov-. event agreed there were no signs of over Bailey’s head; then he pulled || §
‘i y ue’ ered her mother- and father-in-law’ S astruggle. They said they could-not’. the noose snugly, double-chocking.,
pea is ‘bodies after the murders, said yes- be certain Bailey died immediately... to make sure the knot was correctly
va j -terday. “It’s behind us: We don’t because his head was covered by.a_ positioned, ailey’s thick neck.
_ 18489 ¢ have to have this drummed up all hood and his body was shielded bya. ,. Snyder. nodded® to .an-
4 “the time and bring up all bets bad curtain after the hanging. _yeefier corrections official below the;
4: gaya «memories.” Bailey spent his. final day ine gallows. Then, using both hands, he.
' 408% = -¢. “The only. thing I can see Wes isolation cell in the trailey ‘= pulled a two-by: four lever.
.Ayune “wrong with. this is, knowing abso- * lethal injections. Hislast me! waSa The. door’ ‘sprung’ open with a
\. kepti — lutely that this man was guilty, it--steak, well-done; baked rato; peas; thud, ‘dropping Bailey.
pus $$ “shouldn’t have taken 16 years. He rolls; and vanilla ice -ream. per His head tilted, Bailey’s body spun:
mane, «should have been executed in no A state police nelicopter patrolied quickly ‘counterclockwise for. six/
218") “more than one year’s time.” - over ‘the prison as “ap- revolutions, then stopped and
Bans { 2. Bailey’s body was taken tothe Del- proached Wedne ght,-while — turned once slowly in the other di..
‘ -qeug aware Medical Examiner’s Office in | 60 death-pen Opponents carry: -. rection. <
Vf _.Wilmingtonfor an autopsy. Bailey’s ing placardsand candles held a vig- An off-white canvas curtain was
een :sister,,.Betty Odom’ of Pensacola, ‘il in aw icy wind outside. dropped in front of the body. Eleven
; oi) “AFla., plans fo Have him treme ; A ‘few yards’ 1 ae cropaicoes 180 minutes later, at 12:15 a.m., a.voice
ae Awaitin the execution Wednes- 4 from
night, Odom an ova tcat pital-punishment supporters, sev- behind the curtain announced

Ker, held hangs

|) Departmen re) Corr ec

eral of them relatives of: Bailey’s _
victims, carried their own placards.
Passing motorists

that Bailey was dead.

The Associated Press contributed to

occasionally © this article.

~ trustee i in
\ court ag ;

fe Is @ |
tcome co Xp pia bt th

bb
> eon

JOBS

Poh

tine
peop
The News Journa CHUCK McGOWEN light
fs From this tower in Wilmington (above), more than 700 Delaware holding ou
ai. ee: a companies shelter business assets worth billions of dollars. PNC Bank Ty

The News Jourial/BOB HERBERT Corp. serves another 400 companies from its Wilmington offices (left).

Bail tion draw
fa) Bailey execution draws
6 29 international attention
etails on A4 .
3e5224 Protesters are planning three events
Movies C4 By TED CADDELL prison spokeswoman. ae |
Obituaries A4 Staff reporter The attention harkens back to The News JoumaVGARY EMEIGH W
People C2 ‘ 1992, when the state resumed exe- Billy Bailey (left) will be exe- of a
Public diary AQ WILMINGTON — The execu- cutions for the first time since 1946 cuted sometime after mid- lege
= tion of Billy Bailey, set for some- with the lethal injection of serial night Wednesday for killing knov
Svoreboard _B2 time after midnight Wednesday, _ killer Steven Brian Pennell. Then, | two Kent County residents. di
Sports Bl has drawn international’ interest. the event was covered by a mob of ed Cole
Television _C6 A German television station journalists Competition for media - Other executions around Ros
has sent a crew to cover the story. witness slots wasintense. , the country this week: Rane
0 > The Washington Post is assigning But last March, when Nelson _> Tuesday: Richard Townes, bot
a reporter to the execution. A W. Shelton became the fifth man ase d -day:Emil * ?
ii Florida radio station has con- executed by lethal injection, re- Duh ‘I Toxa, ay:-&mile _
tacted the Department of Correc- porters from almost every news > Fri d ~ y hn Tavl to tt
tion about it. agency that was interested got in Utah eas OR Rey wTy P
“CNN has called a couple of as witnesses, an. 15.8
5 7tul 4 times, too,” said Gail Stallings, a See ec la ne ,
a ayes ” . i vy Wyre niga “sae 1 ORM BSED, rt are Tr. aa Pura res eee ery
af {a id te Lge hae tilc® be rag Vise: UM RET Sata hg! Aba teh
cet te by ae We ; t,o ™ % haniniwes Pye me ree Toca urn oe!

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Perens eee

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\8 THENEWS JOURNAL ++ MONDAY, JAN. 22, 1996 ° nee |

5 ailey: One of 4 men slated to dic

a: wee ate

=ROM PAGE A1

-The briefing at the depart-
nent’s academy building was
sparsely attended.

Why the change?

“A couple of reasons, I think,”
Stallings said. “It’s the first hang-
ing in our state since 1946, and ..
the time frame in which it is occur:
ring.

Bailey i is one of four people in

the US. scheduled to be executed .

this week. .

A fifth, William Kirkpatrick in
California, had been scheduled to
be executed Friday, but won a stay

of execution from U.S. District

Court.

Tuesday, Virginia is to execute
Richard Townes by lethal injec-
tion. Wednesday, murderer Emile
|)uhamel is to be killed by Texas
authorities. Thursday is the day
for Bailey, and on Friday John Tay-
lor is to be executed by firing
squad in Utah.

“It’s indicative of the increas-
ing pace of executions here in the
United States,” said Bill wroeueve

of Washington, D.C., spokesmnat

for the National Coalition to Abol-'

ish the Death Penalty. Breedlove,

whose office has been fielding

calls about the Bailey execution

from the BBC, Canada, France and |

Germany — in addition to queries -

from Americans — called it “bad
news.”

there were 56, And if we keep up at
this pace, we'll probably hit a hun-
dred, if not this year, then in 1997.”

Breedlove said his organization
is helping to direct a protest effort
in Delaware for the Bailey execu-
tion.
With every execution, the state
Department of Correction re-
serves a space on the prison
grounds for death penalty oppo-

nents and proponents to gather. It

is usually out of sight of the exe-
cution site.

Sally Milbury-Steen, co- presi-
dent of the Delaware Citizens Op-

- posed to the Death Penalty, said

three events are already scheduled

Concorde still in the red at age 20

Associated Press

“PARIS — The needle-nosed
Concorde, a technological break-
through when it first took to the
skies, marked its 20th birthday
Sunday searching for success.

Traveling at twice the speed of
sound, 53,943 passengers flew the

supersonic luxury jet’s Paris- to-

New York leg alone in 1995.

' But the Concorde is moving ata
snail’s pace in erasing the $7 bil-
lion it took to put it in the air on

. Jan. 21, 1976.

“Technically, we could fly until
2015. But the more time that
passes, the more expensive it gets

to run,” said Franck Debouck, in.

charge of Concorde operations at
Air France. * |

The state-run airline won’t say

just how deeply the Concorde is

mired in debt, but says it is content.

for now to absorb the redink.’

A round-trip,ticket from New
York to Paris now runs about
$6,400. ;

een | Cl TIP & SAVE [ey mua mewennls .

“In 1994, there were 31” execu:
tions in the US., he said. “In °95,

in x priteat of the execution.

On Tuesday, at 12:45 p.m., there
will be an Interfaith Service
Against Capital Punishment at the
Franciscan Center, 833 N. Market
St. in Wilmington.

On Wednesday at noon, a death
penalty opposition rally is sched-
uled in Rodney Square. From 2 to 3

-p.m., members of Milbury-Steen'’s

group will Pon front of Leg-
islative Hall in Dover.
Protesters will then assemble at

the Braveni Rest Area bu
10:30 p.m. to prepare for
dlelight vigil on the
grounds.

While the number of ,

‘covering executions has.

over the past three years,

‘ber of protesters has in

Milbury-Steen said.
_-“When we were out
prison for the Nelson She
cution, we had the great
ber of people we’ve had y

No One

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AS _ Injury
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threatens .

EDNESDAY Jan.

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sons of

asus = eS

slai

:
+ By NAN CLEMENTS
: Staff reporter |

CHESWOLD — When Billy
ailey hangs, the Lambertson fam-
y will quietly mark the end of a
/-year ordeal.

Saxton and Delbert Lambert-
yn, sons of the elderly couple shot

death by Bailey on May 21, 1979,
ill be official witnesses for Bai-
y’s hanging, scheduled to take
ace between 12:01 a.m. and3 a.m.

Life & Leisure, D1

Thursday at the Delaware Correc-
tional Center near Smyrna.

“What do I expect? I expect him
to be hung,” Delbert Lambertson
said. “I am for execution in any bru-
tal murder when we're sure we’re
not getting an innocent person.”

The Lambertsons are the first
to participate under a law signed
July 10 by Gov. Carper permitting
a victim’s family members to wit-
ness the execution. In the past,
only Correction Department offi-

St Sees eS A Sa ee

ht Cou

cials, police, legislators and media
representatives could watch.
“I’m glad it’s going to be over

-.and I hope this is the end of it,”

said Saxton Lambertson.

Bailey, who walked away that
day from a work-release center, did
not know Gilbert Lambertson, 80,
or his wife, Clara, 73. The con-
victed murderer, who was drunk
and full of pills, doesn’t even re-
member killing the Lambertsons.

The Lambertson children —

aaa

Delbert, 70, Saxton, 68, and their
sisters, Betty, 52, and Mary, 57 —
have for years pursued justice for
their parents.

The Lambertsons marvel at the
amount of money and effort ex-
pended on Bailey.

Justice officials “don’t care how
they spend people’s money,” Sax-
ton Lambertson said. “And all
those protesters against the death
penalty — I don’t know why they
want to save all those people.”

wé

117th year, No. 281

After the hanging, the Lambert-

sons will go home to bed. The fam-

ily plans no celebration, he said —
it’s not their style.

Other witnesses, including Bai-
ley’s two lawyers, Edmund D.
Lyons Jr. and public defender Nan

* Perillo, will also do their jobs and
go home.

Besides the Lambertsons, the
official witnesses include Howard
Wilson of the Delaware Violent
Crimes Board; Delaware State Po-

Sports, C1
; Le ES a
‘ RECEIVED ©

JAN 27 1996

ple will watch Billy Bailey hang

Johnson III of the Delaware Police °

Chiefs Council; retired state Sen.
William C. Torbert; and the prose-
cuting attorney, Deputy Attorney
General Paul Wallace.

on ee greene

ier job, hasn't voted in years.

Special to The News Journal’ RALPH FRESO

ton has a brother who is serving in Bosnia. She
S performance to date as adequate.

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Sam Hacket assists a lighting crew.

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‘ ae) AREA GL
ee
4

bie tebe

4 Supreme Court and told

}“There’s nothing else I

tify under oath Friday before a
Washington grand jury investigat-
ing the mysterious discovery of
her law firm billing records in the
White House residence.

Her testimony was requested by
Whitewater prosecutor Kenneth
Starr, the White House said.

The appearance will be her
first before the grand jury, but the
fourth time she has answered ques-
tions under oath for the prosecu-
tors.

The first lady, put on the defen-
sive by Whitewater disclosures, of-
fered earlier Monday to supply
written answers to Senate White-
water Committee questions.

The GOP chairman said the
panel wanted more documents
first.

The White House statement
concerning the grand jury said
staff members and Hillary Clin-

Cine taEy pie Usual: snus
Hillary Rodham Clinton will tor

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te
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hows about es mat! rs.
Reacting to continuing ques:
tions about truthfulness regarding |
her work for a failed Arkansas sav:
ings and loan, the Clintons’ per-
sonal] lawyer sent a letter to White
water Committee. chairman
Alfonse D’Amato earlier Monday,

“Mrs. Clinton has responded”
to the panel’s written questions in
the past and “she is certainly will-
ing to do so again in an effort to
bring your inquiry to a conclu-
sion,” David Kendall wrote.

In reply, D’Amato said the panel
“looks forward to shearing Mrs.
Clinton’s responses,” but only after
investigators gather more evi-
dence.

They want electronic mail gen-
erated at the White House on
Whitewater, for example, and doc-
uments on the first lady’s work for
the savings and loan owned by her
Whitewater partner.

Bailey gives up

on legal

By TED CADDELL
Staff reporter

‘/ WILMINGTON — Billy Bai-
ley’ s lawyer said Monday that he
isn’t going to make any more at-
tempts to halt Bailey’s ex-
ecution, and that it’s time
for Bailey to prepare for
the end. .

' “T’ve called the [U.S.]

‘hem I do not expect to be
filing any more paper-
work,” attorney Edmund
. D. Lyons Jr. said Monday.

do, I’ve done it. And
‘ y knows that.”
Che nation’s high court
ae AY evening denied
"2" a's last request for a stay.
' uley, 49, is scheduled to hang
reen 12:01 and 3 a.m. Thursday.
“a 17-year-old debt, going back
_ Gay in 1979 when he gunned
“4 Clara and Gilbert Lambert-
oj a Cheswold farm couple. He
convicted i in 1980.
4s not unusual

in death
ulty cases for last-minute fil-
in ‘to be made in various courts.
In’. farch 1992, the U.S. Supreme
Cot denied an application for a
stay of execution for serial killer
Steven Pennell less than two hours
before he was put to death --— the

i¢ “4 rey Ak aff

Billy Bailey

v4
at, ft ee SAE azege 4 a? yo,

peals

culmination of a frantic night of

filings and refusals.

But Lyons said he and Bailey.

decided years ago that they were
not going to work that way.

“For a long time, I have felt J
didn’t want to be running
around filing ... plead-
ings just to be doing some-
thing,” the former federal
prosecutor said Monday.
“I feel that would under-
cut the client's ability to
prepare.”

trying to stop what could
be Delaware’s last hang-
ing. Deputy Attorney
General Paul Wallace,
who helped fight Bailey’s
last appeal effort, said he
received notice by mail from an in-
mate at Delaware Correctional

Center that he will ask the state »

Court of Chancery to stop the exe-
cution,

Amnesty International USA
also called Monday for Delaware
to halt Bailey’s execution.

Lyons said he talked with Bai-
ley Saturday morning, to let him
know that his last chance was
gone. “He was obviously disap-
pointed, but he didn’t flip out,”
Lyons said. “It’s a sad thing, but
murdering the Lambertsons was’ a
sad thing, too.”

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ba should replace the death sentence. its Jegatizativi vi Capreus perrre wees cs

Rodney “T don’t think the Lambertsons’ mentisapartofafabricof society born.”

‘ small loss is going to be extinguished at which encourages violence and Afterward, O’Connell said the
‘gprotest midnight tonight when Billy Bai- killings,” Bell said. rally. was held to educate the pub-
; ley is hung,” said attorney Kevin “We must admit that we area 36 about the realities of capital

¢ghed the O'Connell, founding member of _ particularly violent socicty and we
wndeath Citizens Opposed to the Death should be spending time and re-
-d hand- Penalty. “I don’t think hanging sources to find the causes and the
1s — en- hima thousand times would re- cures.”

punishment.

“Anesthetizing somebody with
lethal injection, which is akin to
putting your dog to sleep, has been

‘laiming, place the loss that they feel as a Anne Coleman, founder of Be- a: . 2
rong.” ‘amily. So why are we doing this?” — cause Love Allows Compassion -— — ©48Y for the citizen of this state,
cers from While expressing sympathy to asupport group for mothers whose he said. , ;

ed to the the murder victims’ families, Max children are sentenced to die —— But I think youre seeing a lot
‘ean Civil §. Bell dr. of the American Civil likened Bailey’s pending execu- of attention come to the fore be-
are,Mur- Liberties Union said “... society — tion to a “wicked lottery.” cause we realize tonight some man
Reconcil- needs to recognize that there is “T have visited Billy in prison _ is going to die because his neck is

»porters more involved than simply assuag- for the last 18 months and Billy is» snapped at the end of a rope.”

S de ath Facts and figures segarding the

scheduled hanging of double mur-
derer Billy Bailey in Delaware:

{3 : —— a uae

PBilly Bailey's hanging was the
He said he knew he was third in the nation since 1965. 2 te
going to die, he was sorry |, WtaWal, Wash, in January Bt
for the pain he caused the - 1993 for kiling three children. in PRR
| : a , Washington state
Lambertsons, but he was Faroe Charles Rodman Campbell

UR |
way ) inmate who
| gets a choice,
mag James Riley,
Ya received a stay
con zy (Of execution in
f° “4 August 1995.

Le Five exe-

ay cutions, all by
<ectuand injection, have
Med! Ml PHS. been carried
Ci eee Bnd Out in

| for slitting the throats of two women liam H. F Delaware since
at peace and ready to gO | anda child. William H. Flamer 4995: Steven
forward ” : Before Dodd, the last hangings Brian Pennell, March 14, 1992, for

. in the United States were in 1965 in the deaths of two women; James

Kansas, when four murderers were Allen Red Dog, March 3, 1993, for
executed. Among them were _ slitting the throat of a 30-year-old
Edmund D. Lyons, — Richard Eugene Hickock and Perry man; Kenneth W. DeShields, Aug.
attorney for Billy Bailey Edward Smith, the subjects of Tru- 31, 1993, for killing a Sussex
A ENTE man Capote's book “In Cold Blood.” County landfill worker, Andre S.
_ ®Delaware hanged 25 people Deputy, June 23, 1994, for the stab-
cution. Until early 1987, he told from 1904 through 1946. The last bing deaths of an elderly Harrington
anyone who would listen that he person to hang in the state was couple; and Nelson Shelton, March
welcomed it. But he changed his Forest Sturdivant in May 1946 for 17, 1995, for the beating death of a
mind in January of that year, and murder. New Castle County man.

SP actively pursued appeals. »Four states have hanging as a DeShields and Deputy had a
| 340 Last Friday evening, the method of capital punishment — choice of hanging or injection.
| a Supreme Court of the United Delaware, Washington, Montana >The gallows at the Delaware
BH be States refused his last request for a and New Hampshire. Correctional Center near Smyma
appre ty OE ah and Bailey began preparing >Delaware changed its method was built for Billy Bailey in 1986
2 Lambersun family himself for the end. of execution from hanging to injec- when officials thought they were

bert, 80, were Although Delaware's method of | tion in June 1986. Bailey was sen- going to carry out his death sen-
execution was switched to injec- tenced to hang before the law _ tence in 1987. Appeals delayed his
tion in 1986, Bailey was sentenced | changed and was given the choice — execution until 1996. |

nbers kept a to hang in 1980. He could have cho- | of execution by hanging or injec- > The gallows, a wooden struc-
on while the sen injection, but had steadfastly | tion. He chose hanging, unlike two ture outdoors on the prison
| out. _ refused. other inmates sentenced under the grounds, has 19 steps leading to a
killings, Bai- As recently as Tuesday after- | old law and already executed. © _ platform with a trap door 15 feet

ed in an abu- noon, Delaware Correctional Cen-— Double murderer William Henry above the ground. The full heig

hunted off to ter Warden Robert Snyder ap- | Flamer, who also was sentenced to —_the gallows is 25 feet.
ied that the proached Bailey about changing hang, chose injection and is sched-

secute him as is choice, without success. uled to die Tuesday. The remaining Aeeoelated
A successful ‘Jt was made very clear eee l
‘ave sent him over the last week or so that if he _ a U elopecedoresinegtes

eur sentence. did want to reconsider, they would . ans Lrrerlis yess Correction: Legal Executions in Delaware by University of Per
vears, Builey . robably accommodate him,” ._ f =

pectre of exXe- 4yons said Wednesday afternoon. yi ewes enemy Hee ee ee eneeets te eee —— wid
\ ; ;

Bailey hanging adds ft
lo death penalty debate

| .
| Do executions serve
Justice or barbarism?

By Dat Wis
SUN STAFF

Billy Bailey’s execution
yesterday at a Smyrna pris-
on ended a 17-year legal bat-
tle in Delaware. But the
hanging, a rarity in an era
when lethal injection has be-
come the most widely used
method of execution, has put
fresh fuel on the debate over
the death penalty.

Opponents Say the hang-
ing was vengeful barbarism,

not justice, Killing people is.

not the way to Stop killing,
they argue. Supporters say
Bailey, 49, deserved to die for
the brutal .1979 murders of

Y) 24/%

an élderly couple going
about their lives on their
farm near Cheswold when
Bailey shot them and stole
their truck. The real injus-
tice, in their view, is that his
execution took 17 years to
happen,

The debate Surely will
continue in Delaware, where
13 other men have been sen-
tenced to death. One, Wil-
liam er, is scheduled to
be executed by lethal injec-
tion Tuesday. More than
3,000 inmates are awaiting
execution in the 38 States
that have the death penalty,
according to the Death Pen.
alty Information Center, a
nonprofit group in Washing-
ton. .

In Utah, child murderer
John Taylor is Scheduled to
be execut- [See Hanging, 5B)

Dee Balbee Sen

MALY Lanny)

Delaware hangs man for double murder

SMYRNA, Del. — The murderer of an elderly couple
climbed up onto a wooden gallows and was hanged
early Thursday, becoming Only the third convict to be

executed that way since 1965, Billy Bailey, 49, was
Pronounced dead at 12:18.'am.. moments after he
Climbed the 19 Steps to the platform with a trapdoor 15

DALLAS
RNING NEWS

Sunday, January 28, 1996

The Dallas Morning News 5 A

Executions stir death-penalty debate

Opponents call practice ‘barbarous’; : supporters see it as justice

By Yvonne Barlow
Staff Writer of The Dallas Morning News

Executions by hanging and firing
squad last week left Americans both
fascinated and horrified, but death
penalty opponents say the deaths
were no different from other types of
capital punishment.

“I don’t see this as any different
from lethal injection,” said Rick Hal-
perin who teaches human rights at
Southern Methodist University.
“They are all equally barbarous and
repugnant.”

However, Dr. Halperin said he
fears the publicity given to the hang-
ing of Billy Bailey in Delaware and
the firing squad execution of John
Albert Taylor in Utah elevates these
cases as more horrific than others.

Mr. Taylor, convicted of raping
and strangling an 11-year-old girl,
chose the firing squad over lethal
injection because he said he wanted
to make a statement about state-sanc-
tioned murder. He died early Friday
morning.

Utah corrections’ chief Lane
McCotter said gunfire is as sanitary

-and effective as lethal injection.

“In lethal you don’t know wheth-
er the person is dead or asleep,” he
said. “Obviously this is instanta-
neous. All you have to do is let the
body react to the shock of the
rounds.”

Mr. Bailey, convicted of murder-
ing a couple in 1979, was hanged
Thursday in full view of two of the
victims’ sons. He chose hanging over
lethal injection. It was the first hang-
ing in Delaware in SO years.

Richard Dieter, director of the
Death Penalty Information Center,
said he hopes the publicity given to

the two cases will prompt the public
to examine its feelings about the is-
sue. “They may come to realize that it
is a taking of a human life and that is
a line to cross,” he said.

“Get over it,” said Kelly Rudiger,
death penalty lobbyist for the Doris
Tate Crime Victims Bureau in Cali-
fornia. “There has to be some kind of
justice.”

Ms. Rudiger, who believes no
form of execution is too awful for
convicted murderers, became an ac-
tivist after her 16-year-old brother
was murdered in 1988.

“] know nothing is bringing Jef-
frey back,” she said. But she would
like to know her brother’s killer,
who received 26-years-to-life in pris-
on, will never be paroled or kill
again.

“Murder is not stealing a pack of
gum,” said Ms. Rudiger, 28. “First-
degree murder is deliberate and cal-
culated. These people have taken a
life. They deserve to pay with their
own.”

Sociologist and criminologist Jack
Levin said most people who support
capital punishment do so because of
a thirst for revenge. “They prefer
hanging and firing squad because
they are more concrete, more defi-
nite,” he said.

Modern methods of execution
such as lethal injection are seen as
humane, he said. “But they don’t
give the same satisfaction to some
people.”

Ms. Rudiger said she doesn’t con-
sider death by hanging or firing
squad as cruel and unusual punish-
ment for murderers.

Thursday’s hanging was the first
time Delaware allowed victims’ fami-

oom
|
|
|
|
|
\
!
|
|
\

lies to view an execution. Earlier thid
month, the Texas Board of Criminal
Justice cleared the way for relatives
to watch. According to the Death
Penalty Information Center, Virgin;
ia, California and Louisiana also alt
low victims’ families to view execu!
tions.

Ms. Rudiger said she would be
glad to see her brother’s murdere
executed. “I’m sure it’s ugly,” she
said. “But I think I would be fine
because I would have seen justic
‘done.”

But Dr. Halperin, who is a former
chairman of Amnesty International
USA, called such a practice perversé.
“They are witnessing a murder, and
they think it’s justified by calling *
something else,” he said.

Dr. Levin, a professor at North
eastern University in Boston, called
viewing executions pornographic. | \

He said Americans are afraid and
frustrated by the violence they seé
around them, and he puts the blame
on the ‘parole system that retur
murderers to society.

“If you convince Americans that
murderers will never get out, they
would be against the death penalty;
Dr. Levin said.

But Ms. Rudiger said, “Keeping
them in prison isn’t doing it — it’s
just costing more than $20,000 a year

for each of them.” 14
Dr. Halperin sees the Utah and

Delaware executions as part of the

nation’s increasing fascination wi

violence, and he expects the trend to

continue. ‘
“I find it hard to believe that t!

is the best we are capable of.” i

Atop the gallows, murderer was Just a man

By Ted Caddell
Wilmington News Journal

SMYRNA, Del. — There
was no way to know just how
long Billy Bailey had been
standing there.

When we filed through the
doorway cut into the 20-foot tall
stockade fence and our eyes
were drawn upward to the top
of the gallows, there he was.

Looking down at us.

He was not the man he was
in 1980, when Delaware came
to know him as a snarling mur-
derer whose outbursts
got him thrown out of his trial.

He was not the condemned
man who boasted, a few years
later, that a rope hadn't been
made that could hold him. .

He wasn’t even the penitent,
balding, aging man who last
Friday accepted responsibility
for gunning down an elderly
farm couple even though he
couldn’t remember it.

As the clock neared mid-—

night Wednesday for Dela-
ware’s first hanging in 50
years, Bailey was a man look-
ing down at 40 people, mostly
strangers, who had gathered in
a damp, windy place in the
dead of night to watch him die.
For five minutes, he stood to
the right of the trap door,
which: would soon open be-
neath him. Two black-hooded
guards stood beside him.
Bailey’s thick, brown-
framed eyeglasses were gone.
His torso was covered with a
prison-issue blue denim coat
draped over his shoulders, the
top two copper buttons fas-
tened to keep it from blowing
off in the wind. His arms were

Usa Toray, hen 261496 C24

By Gary Emeigh; The News Jourrial
The gallows: The Smyrna, Del.,
facility was built for Billy Balley's
hanging in 1986, which was de-

layed by appeals.

fastened at his sides.
His feet couldn’t be seen.
The witnesses — law en-
forcement, politicians, report-

- ers (myself included), the vic-

tims’ family — stood beneath a
plastic roof covering the gal-
lery. The official witnesses
avoided eye contact.

Although the wind was
strong and cold, there was
none of the usual foot shuffling
among the group.

To Bailey’s left, hanging
from a wooden cross-piece
overhead, was the rope.

The white, inch-thick line
was fashioned into the classic
hangman’s knot. The five feet
of slack — the length calculat-
ed from U.S. Army tables using
Bailey’s 220-pound weight —

In Utah, death
by firing squad

Convicted child killer
John Albert Taylor spent
the last night of his life pac-
ing in his deathwatch cell
close to the execution cham-
ber where he was to die by
firing squad at Utah State
Prison in Point of the Moun-
tain early today.

He requested pizza with
all the toppings and Coke
for his last meal.

Taylor was convicted of
raping and strangling
Charla King, 11, in 1989.

He opted to be shot rather
than die by injection — the
state’s first firing squad exe-
cution since 1977.

At Utah State Prison: John Albert Taylor Is to be strapped to this
sandbag-supported chair today for his execution by firing squad.

By Douglas C. Pizac, AP

were looped in three coils and
fastened with black electri-

cian’s tape to the hanging rope. .

The noose swung gently in
the wind. Bailey closed his eyes
and took a deep breath.

- Shortly after midnight, War-
den Robert Snyder asked Bai-
ley if he had any last words.

“No, sir,” came the reply,
muffied by the wind.

“Pardon?” Snyder asked
with unintended irony.

“No, sir,” Bailey repeated.

The hooded guards led Bai-
ley four steps to his left, stop-
ping him when he stood atop
the trap door. The noose’s gen-
tle motion stopped when it
rubbed against Bailey’s left
cheek. They tied his legs to-
gether with a nylon web strap.

From behind came the hood, a
black cloth bag, tugged over
Bailey’s head. Bailey’s eyes
looked at the crowd below as
the hood was slipped on.

The warden slipped the

noose over Bailey’s head, fit- .

ting it under Bailey’s chin. The
warden pulled the noose’s
thick knot to the side of Bai-
ley’s head and felt through the
hood for Bailey’s left ear. Care-

fully, the knot was placed
against the ear.
Satisfied, the warden

stepped back, closed his hands
over a gray painted lever, and
almost before anyone realized
what was going to happen,
pulled it hard toward him.

Then things happened very,
very swiftly:

The trap door dropped with
a loud bang.

Bailey’s body shot down
through the trap.

The coils of slack broke free
from the taped restraints.

The slack ran out, and the
noose tightened against Bai-
ley’s throat.

The knot slammed against
the left side of his head.

His head jerked to an impos-
sible angle to the right.

The empty sleeves of his
jacket danced up and down.

And then Bailey began spin-
ning at the end of his rope.
Four revolutions to his left, one
to his right, and then, slowly,
slowly, the denim-clad, black-
hooded figure swung to a stop.

His sneakers were white.

Bailey:
Siblings
seek a stay

FROM PAGE A1

Enter Myrtis Bailey, their fa-
ther’s last wife.

“She marched into the house
and said, ‘I’m your mama now, ”
Odom said. “From then on, it was
beat and bang all your dang life.”

Odom’s mouth twisted with bit-
terness as she lit another
cigarette. “But she got hers,”
Odom said. “She got cancer and
she suffered something terrible.”

Myrtis Bailey “was slick,”
Odom said. “She always beat us so
she left marks where Daddy could-
n't see it. One day, our older half
sister Marie came to visit and
looked at our backs, covered with
welts. She took Daddy out in the
yard and said, ‘Have you seen your
kids’ backs?’ a

“Daddy pulled our clothes apart
and looked at our backs,” Odom
continued. “He told Myrtis, ‘Don’t
you ever whip my kids again. I’ll do
any whipping that has to be done.

But their father, who died in
1956, was “getting senile by then,
and Myrtis could twist him all
around,” Odom said. When Sam
Bailey returned from working the
fields of the family farm, “she’d tell
him we were bad and he’d beat us
up one side and down the other.”
When Sam Bailey went into the
hospital for his final illness,

Odom’s sister Mayrie was sent to a
reform school and Odom went to a
cousin’s in North Carolina. Billy
and Sam Jr. were shipped north
about that time to live with a half
brother on Madison Street in
Wilmington.

“The cousin brought Odom to
the hospital for a final visit with
her father.

' Myrtis “disappeared from the
hospital and left me,” Odom re-
called. “I’d never been in that town,
and I didn’t know what to do.”

Finally, around midnight, a doc-
tor called her half sister, and
“Mayrie took me home and found
me some clothes, and I stayed with
her.”

Eventually, Myrtis took in her
13-year-old stepdaughter. “She was
going to put me in an orphanage,
but I was a good worker,” Odom
said. “I stayed there until I was 17,
and then I ran away.”

She met and married a wealthy
Floridian who died at a young age.
Her second husband, 63-year-old
Robert Odom, is dying of cancer.

| ae sed

es “1 went trom poor to rich and
; back to poor,” Odom said. “I could-
n't be bothered with all that non-
sense that the rich have to deal
'with.” While Odom was coping
with Myrtis, Billy and Sam Jr.
were experiencing yet another ver-
sion of hell. They went from their
physically abusive half brother’s
home to the Governor Bacon
Health Center, then to Ferris
School near Prices Corner.
; Billy got lucky — he met Laren
Sonny” Seaman, the son of a
Cheswold couple. Billy was sched-
uled for release from Ferris, but he
had nowhere to go.
"Lawrence and Corinne Seaman,
Sue Coker’s parents took him into
their Cheswold home.

“Billy went into a turmoil when
Dad died, thinking he would be ©
sent away again, but Mom kept him
along with the four of us,” Coker
said.

__ She has visited Bailey regularly

in prison and talks with him by
phone, but she still recalls the shy
16-year-old who went with her to
the candy store and pool room
where Cheswold youngsters gath-
ered in the late 1959s and early
1960s. “He never said much about
his childhood, except for the beat-
ings,” Coker said. “But my parents
never raised a hand to Billy.”

Bailey fled to her Cheswold
home when he learned that he was

facing a 45-year prison sentence as
an habitual offender. The panic
created in Bailey’s mind by that
possibility threw him out of con-
trol and led directly to the brutal
shooting deaths of the Lambert-
o gh ie singe in their .
nearby farmhouse aman t
didn’t know. d ied
Both women are hoping for a
_ contact visit” with Bailey before
he dies, so they can reassure him

- with hugs. Coker wants to spend

Bailey’s last day with him.

Y Both believe in his innocence.
They’ll never make me believe he

did what they say he did,” Coker

said.

» “I just wish,I could have done

more,” Odom said. _-

Bailey execution draws
international attention
Protesters are planning three events

By TED CADDELL
Staff reporter

WILMINGTON — The execu-
tion of Billy Bailey, set for some-
time after midnight Wednesday,
has drawn international interest.

A German television station
has sent a crew to cover the story.
The Washington Post is assigning
a reporter to the execution. A
Florida radio station has con-
tacted the Department of Correc-
tion about it.

“CNN has called a couple of
times, too,” said Gail Stallings, a

prison spokeswoman.

The attention harkens back to
1992, when the state resumed exe-
cutions for the first time since 1946
with the lethal injection of serial
killer Steven Brian Pennell. Then,
the event was covered by a mob of
journalists Competition for media
witness slots was intense.

But last March, when Nelson
W. Shelton became the fifth man
executed by lethal injection, re-
porters from almost every news
agency that was interested got in

as witnesses. ~*.
ja. See BAILEY — A8

“EXECUTIONS

Billy Bailey (left) will be exe-
cuted sometime after mid-
night Wednesday for killing
two Kent County residents.

Other executions, around
the country this week:

> Tuesday: Richard Townes,
Virginia

» Wednesday:Emile
Duhamel, Texas

P Friday: John Taylor,
Utah.

A8 THENEWS JOURNAL °°

MONDAY, JAN. 22, 1996 ~

FROM PAGE A1 ;

. The briefing at the depart-
ment’s academy building was
sparsely attended.

Why the change? :

“A couple of reasons, I think,”
Stallings said. “It’s the first hang-
ing in our state since 1946, and ...
the time frame in which it is occur-
ring.” a

Bailey is one of four people in
the US. scheduled to be executed
this week. * :

A fifth, William Kirkpatrick in
California, had been scheduled to
be executed Friday, but won a stay
of execution from U.S. District
Court.

Tuesday, Virginia is to execute
Richard Townes by lethal injec-
tion. Wednesday, murderer Emile
Duhamel is to be killed by Texas
authorities. Thursday is the day
for Bailey, and on Friday John Tay-
lor is to'be executed by firing
squad in Utah.

“It’s indicative of the increas-
ing pace of executions here in the
United States,” said Bill Breedlove

of Washington, D.C., spokesman
for the National Coalition to Abol-
ish the Death Penalty. Breedlove,
whose office has been fielding
calls about the Bailey execution
from the BBC, Canada, France and

Germany — in.addition to queries* .
from Americans — called it “bad”

news.”

“In 1994, there were 31” execu-
tions in the US., he said. “In ’95,
there were 56. And if we keep up at
this pace, we'll probably hit a hun-
dred, if not this year, then in 1997.”_

_ Breedlove said his organization
is helping to direct a protest effort
in Delaware for the Bailey execu-
tion. -

With every execution, the state
Department of Correction re-
serves a space on the prison
grounds for death penalty oppo-
nents and proponents to gather. It
is usually out of sight of the exe-
cution site.

Sally Milbury-Steen, co-presi-
dent of the Delaware Citizens Op-
posed to the Death Penalty, said
three events are already scheduled

in protest of the execution.

On Tuesday, at 12:45 p.m., there
will be an Interfaith Service
Against Capital Punishment at the
Franciscan Center, 833 N. Market
St. in Wilmington. _ eee
On Wednesday at noon, a death
penalty opposition rally is sched-
uled in Rodney Square. From 2 to 3
p.m., members of Milbury-Steen’s

group will protestin front of Leg-

islative Hall in Dover. 2 ;
Protesters will then assemble at

the Smyrna Rest Area building at
10:30 p.m. to prepare for the can-
dlelight vigil on the prison

unds. :

While the number of reporters
covering executions has dwindled
over the past three years, the num-
ber of protesters has increased,
Milbury-Steen said:

“When we were outside the
prison for the Nelson Shelton exe-
cution, we had the greatest num-
ber of people we’ve had yet, about

Bailey: One of 4 men slated to die this week

50 or 60,” she said.

She said when the group held
its organizational meeting in 1992,
35 people showed up. “Our mailing
list has since grown to 360.”

She thinks the death penalty is
not only morally wrong, but serves
no purpose,

“It’s not making the country
any safer,’ she said. “How do you
break a cycle of violence by allow-
ing the state to take a life to show
that taking life is wrong?”

Sage Shs es

WEDNESDAY Jan. 24, 1996

A Gannett newspaper

117th year, No. 281

The News Journal -

New Castie County stores,

40¢ 50¢ all other stores
FINAL EDITION

Sons of slain couple will watch Billy Bailey hang

By NAN CLEMENTS
Staff reporter

CHESWOLD — When Billy
Bailey hangs, the Lambertson fam-
ily will quietly mark the end of a
17-year ordeal.

Saxton and Delbert Lambert-
son, sons of the elderly couple shot
to death by Bailey on May 21, 1979,
will be official witnesses for Bai-
ley’s hanging, scheduled to take
place between 12:01 a.m. and 3 a.m.

Thursday at the Delaware Correc-
tional Center near Smyrna.

“What do I expect? I expect him
to be hung,” Delbert Lambertson
said. “I am for execution in any bru-
tal murder when we’re sure we’re
not getting an innocent person.”

The Lambertsons are the first
to participate under a law signed
July 10 by Gov. Carper permitting
a victim’s family members to wit-
ness the execution. In the past,
only Correction Department offi-

cials, police, legislators and media
representatives could watch.

“I’m glad it’s going to be over
and I hope this is the end of it,”
said Saxton Lambertson.

The Lambertson children —

Delbert, 70, Saxton, 68, and their
sisters, Betty, 52, and Mary, 57 —
have for years pursued justice for
their parents.

The Lambertsons marvel at the
amount of money and effort ex-
pended on Bailey.

After the hanging, the Lambert-
sons will go home to bed. The fam-
ily plans no celebration, he said —
it’s not their style.

Other witnesses, including Bai-
ley’s two lawyers, Edmund D.
Lyons Jr. and public defender Nan
Perillo, will also do their jobs and
go home.

Besides the Lambertsons, the
official witnesses include Howard
Wilson of the Delaware Violent
Crimes Board; Delaware State Po-

lice Lt. Richard Flynn; Smyrna Po-
lice Chief Donald McGinty;
Robert H. Collison of the
Delaware Justice Department; the
arresting officer, retired state po-
lice officer Thomas W. Robbins Sr;
state Rep. Bruce C. Ennis; state
Sen. James T. Vaughn; Martin W.
Johnson III of the Delaware Police
Chiefs Council; retired state Sen.
William C. Torbert; and the prose-
cuting attorney, Deputy Attorney
General Paul Wallace.

The information contained in this news report may not be published,
broadcast or otherwise distributed without the prior written authority
of the Associated Press.

Murderer Hanged In Delaware

SMYRNA, Del. (AP) -- Billy Bailey, the 49-year-old murderer of an
elderly couple, climbed onto a wooden gallows and was hanged early
Thursday, becoming only the third convict in the nation to be executed
this way in 30 years.

Bailey closed his eyes, sniffled and said nothing before the black
hood was placed over his head. His body twisted quickly in the wind
once the trap door was sprung, then turned slowly beneath the 15-foot
high platform in the cold night ALY.

He was pronounced dead 11 minutes later, at 12:15 a.m.

Bailey became the first person to be hanged in Delaware in 50 years
and the third in the nation since 1965.

About 70 death penalty opponents gathered outside the prison,
separated by a fence from about 20 supporters of the execution.

"I think it’s really past time this should have come about. It’s
been too many years,“ said Mary Ann Lambertson, the daughter-in-law of
the victims,

"IT happened to be the poor soul who found the bodies, and it was a
gruesome sight."

Dennis Lambertson, 40, a grandson of the victims, said he went to
the prison to "see justice done."

Gilbert and Clara Lambertson were murdered with a shotgun at their
farmhouse in 1979. Delaware has not previously allowed family members
of the victims to witness executions.

The gallows were built on the grounds of the Delaware Correctional
Center 10 years ago as Bailey’s first execution date approached.
Appeals delayed the hanging until the U.S. Supreme Court denied a stay
of execution last week.

The state Board of Pardons on Friday rejected a commutation, and
Edmund Lyons, his attorney, planned no last-minute appeals.

"Billy has found some peace in the sense of reconciling himself for
what is to be," said Lyons, who visited Bailey Wednesday, along with
Bailey’s sister, foster sister, and a prison chaplain.

The lawyer said he told Bailey to think about his last words.

“He said, ’If I say anything, I’m going to say I hope this brings
the Lambertsons some peace,"’ Lyons said.

Bailey was sentenced to hang before Delaware changed its method of
execution to injection in June 1986. He could have chosen to die by
injection, but said he chose hanging because “the law is the law.”

BY coincidence, Utah is scheduled to have its first firing squad
execution in 19 years early Friday. John Albert Taylor, sentenced to
die for raping and strangling an 11-year-old girl, chose the firing
squad over injection, the state’s second method of execution since Utah
outlawed hanging in 1983.

Three other states allow hanging -- Montana, New Hampshire and
Washington, where two murderers were hanged in 1993 and 1994. Before
that, the last hangings in the United States were in Kansas in 1965,
when four murderers were executed. Among them were Richard Eugene

Hickock and Perry Edward Smith, the subjects of Truman Capote’s book
"In Cold Blood."

study procedures.

Delaware decided to follow Army regulations for hanging, said Gail
Stallings, department spokeswoman.

Those procedures require the inmate’s head to be covered with a
black hood, with ankles and hands bound. The Manila hemp rope must be .
boiled and then stretched while drying to eliminate any spring,
stiffness or tendency to coil. The part of the noose that goes through
the knot must be lubricated with wax, soap or grease.

Lyons portrayed his client as a man who never had a chance. The 19th
of 23 children, he was beaten by his stepmother, and after his father
died, she sent him and an older brother from their two-room shack in
South Carolina to live with a half-brother in Wilmington. In Delaware,
Bailey began a life of thievery.

Asked at a pardons board hearing last week why he did it, Bailey
said, “I don’t really know. I just know that I feel bad about it. It
hurts sometimes when I think about it. When I say hurt, I think about
the Lambertsons and how much they hate me and I start to cry and
sometimes I cry myself to sleep at night."

<ACE

INMATE STATE SEX RACE

AUKER, ROBERT D. PA M W
AUSTIN, RICHARD H. TN M W
AVENA, CARLOS J. CA M H
AVERHART, RUFUS LEE IN M B

Rufus Averhart was convicted
and sentenced to death for
the 1982 murder of an
Indiana police officer during a

bank robbery.
AWKAL, ABDUL OH M O
AYALA, HECTOR JUAN CA M H
AYALA, RONALDO MEDRANO- CA M H
BABBITT, MANUEL CA M B
BACIGALUPO, MIGUEL A. CA M H
BACON JR., ROBERT NC M B
BAEZ. ORLANDO “CHICO” PA M H
BAILEY, BILLY DE M Ww

On March 28, 1980, 32-year-

from a Delaware work-release
program and robbed a liquor
store. Using a shotgun, he
killed an elderly couple,
Gilbert and Clara Lam-
berston. Baily was sentenced
to hang, but a 1986 law has
allowed condemned men facing the gallows to opt for
lethal injection.

BAILEY, JERRY KENNETH CA “ M W
BAIRD I], ARTHUR PAUL IN M W
BAKER, LEE PA M B
BAKER, RONNIE W. NC M W
BAKER, WESLEY MD M B
BALDREE, ERNEST D. TX M W

DEATH ROW V

old Billy Bailey walked away —

BALDWIN, BRIAN KEITH AL M B
Bryan Baldwin and Edward
Horsley escaped from
Hudson Prison in 1977.
Hours later, they kidnapped
North Carolina teen-ager
Naomi Rolon. After raping
and assaulting her, Baldwin
and Horsley tried to kill her
by running over Rolon with
her own car, then stuffing her body into the trunk.
Baldwin and Horsley abandoned the car off a rural
Alabama road; they later returned to find Rolon was
still alive. After more brutalities, Baldwin and Horsley
killed Rolon with a hatchet then hid her body in a pile
of brush. After their arrest for an unrelated matter,
Alabama authorities learned Baldwin and Horsley
were escapees. They also learned Naomi Rolon was re-
ported as missing. Baldwin and Horsley cracked
under interrogation—both were convicted of murder
and both were sentenced to death.

BALL, TERRY NC M W
BALLENGER, VERNICE MS F W
BALLEW, TYRONE T. OH M B
BANDA, ESEQUEL “KELLY” TX M H
BANE, JOHN M. T™N M W
BANKS, ANTHONY ROZELL OK M B
BANKS, CHADWICK FL M B
BANKS JR., DELMA TX M B
BANKS, GEORGE E. PA M B
BANKS, RANDY IL M B
BANNISTER, ALAN J. MO M W
BARAJAS, AURELIO M. ID M H
BARBER, DANNY LEE TX M WwW
BARBER, TERRY DWIGHT TN M W
BARBOUR, CHRISTOPHER = AL M W
BAREFIELD, JOHN KENNEDY TX M B

Cindy Renee Rounsaville,
25, was an architecture stu-
dent at Rice University in
Houston. On the evening of
April 21, 1986, she was kid-
napped from the parking lot
of her apartment complex
and raped. When she tried
to escape, John Kennedy Barefield shot her with a
.22-caliber pistol and then set fire to her car after
stealing the rings that she wore. Rounsaville was
two weeks from graduation and about two months
from her wedding.

STATE SEX RACE

SF Om~

Del. prepares gallows
for inmate's execution

Its Ist hanging in 50 years, it may be the last.

By Rich Heidorn Jr.
_ INQUIRER STAFY WRITER
Shortly after midnight Thursday,
if all goes according to plan, Billy.
Bailey will mount an outdoor gal-
lows at the Delaware Correctional

Center, have a noose of Manila

hemp fitted around his neck, and be

dropped to his death.
He would be the first convict

hanged in Delaware in 50 years. and

only the third in the United States.

since: 1965. For Delaware, he may
also be the last. .
When the state abandoned hang-

ings in favor of lethal injection in .

1986, Bailey and two others already

facing death sentences were given -

the option of choosing the new
method. Bailey, who is still seeking
commutation of his sentence, de-
clined.

“T didn’t choose hanging,” Bailey
said in a'recent interview with the .
Wilmington News Journal at the
maximum security prison near
Smyrna. “The state chose it for me.
Asking a man to choose how to die
is more barbaric than hanging.”

Bailey’s stance forced Delaware
corrections officials to relearn an in- .
creasingly archaic form of execution.

To prepare, they visited with their
counterparts in Washington: state,
the only state to perform a hanging

See HANGING on A22

TET ¢ Bees a ss Paven t re penit py

ae |
‘Victims’
EWO SONS

‘ Bailey execution
went off smoothly

‘By NAN CLEMENTS

‘and TED CADDELL
Statf reporters

SMYRNA-- After nearly 17
years of appeals and delays, Billy
Bailey died right on schedule
Thursday .morning, his body

inched through the trap in the
gallows platform at 12:04 a.m., a
' mere three minutes after the sen-
, tencing order said he could be ex-
b ecuted,
Concerns that the first hang-
ing in Delaware in nearly 50
years, and very possibly the last,
would be marred by complica-
trons were apparently unfounded.

A voice filtering through a
white canvas curtain that con-
cealed the base of the gallows an-
nounced that Bailey died at 12:15
a.m., ]1 minutes after he dropped
through the trapdoor of the gal-
lows built for him in 1986.

Bailey’s lawyer condemned the
execution as “medieval and bar-
baric.”

The state executed Bailey, 49,
for the double murder of 80-year-
old Gilbert Lambertson and his
wife, 73-year-old Clara.

The Lambertsons, hard-work-
ing farmers, died when Bailey
went on a rampage on May 21,
1979, after learning he faced a 45-
year prison term as a habitual of-
fender. He invaded their home
near Cheswold and gunned them
down with a pistol stolen from a
prison guard and with Gilbert
Lambertson’s shotgun, reloading
it three times.

Prison officials Thursday re-
fused to explain the 11-minute in-
terval between the drop and pro-
nouncement of death. In some
previous 20th-century hangings in
Delaware, newspaper accounts de-
tailed how prison doctors detected
heartbeats in condemned men
long after the trapdoor had
sprung. In May 1927, Carl Skinner
was not pronounced dead until 23

Trees igh ERE SIT

balding. API “4
man who told a pardons board last Friday he

St GE A NR SP

OnE Tard oro van reine ot ray fathrk 4) a i atte ere safe te gern ole et Beats co age Hck wee $2
i “EB ay StOOU O'Pi¢ O Strap door Chat

would soon open up beneath him, supported

aS.

Sa St

~ 1. € ees

The News Journal/BR

Tim Coleman of Dover holds his mother Anne during a protest against the hanging of Billy Bailey
morning outside of the Delaware Correctional Facility in Smyrna.

Nas, ! ie

® National and international
media descended on Smyrna
to cover.the execution A5

® Demonstrators on both
sides had their say outside the
correctional facility A5

®& Anne Coleman, mother of
a murder victim, had spent the
past 18 months meeting with
Billy Bailey A5

minutes after he first dropped.
Court records in the Bailey
case included an affidavit from a
Newark doctor, Dr. Daniel De-
Pietropaolo, who said it was his
opinion that “the mechanism of
death in cases of judicial hanging
is not usually, as commonly sup-
posed, the sudden interruption of
the spinal cord at the base of the
skull, resulting in instantaneous

death.”
See BAILEY — AS

Le BI ON hee

Billy Bailey was the fifth man
executed in Delaware since con-
victed serial killer Steven B. Pen-
nell was killed by injection on
March 14, 1992. :

Pennell’s death was the
state's first execution since mur-
derer Forest Sturdivant, 34, was
hanged in Georgetown on May
10, 1946.

Others executed since Pen-
nell in Delaware were James
Allen Red Dog, March 3, 1993;
Kenneth W. DeShields, Aug. 31,
1993; Andre S. Deputy, June 23,
1994; and Nelson W. Shelton,
March 17, 1995.

William H. Flamer, 41, is

“scheduled to be executed by in-

jection between 12:01 a.m. and 3
a.m. Tuesday for the 1979 mur-
der of his aunt and uncle in Har-
rington.

—Nan Clements

d
4

TAX ails

5 7%
* t)
‘
7s t oe ge
, '
‘, ‘ ,
a3 Tet We reside
tN,
"OS
tae :

a gl

The News Jouma
Richard Zimmerman
demonstrates with sup
the death penalty att
tional facility.

“he? os

Os a

a aN
.

Te be

Lael SRAM IE Speman

a
~

set Dae earl iG
GARY EMEIGH
nal Center at Smyna after 11 Wednesday night. Bailey, con-
unced dead at 12:15 this morning.

The News coumai

Protesters of tne execution of Eilly Bailey assemble on the grcunds cf the Delawere Correctio
victed in the 1979 siaying of an elderly Cheswold couple. was executed Sy hanging and prono

lighten zoning plan, Kent is told

By TED CADDELL
and NAN CLEMENTS
Staff reporters

SMYRNA —A tragedy that
began with shotgun blasts on May
21, 1979, ended early today with
the wooden thud of . trapdoor as

“=seezs Delaware car-

es ried out its first
hanging in
nearly 50 years.
Billy Bailey was
Pronounced
dead at 12:15
this morning.

Two legal at-
tempts to stop
Bailey's execu-
tion failed
Wednesday.
Shortly after 8
p.m., U.S. District Couzt Judge
Roderick R. McKelvie denied Seth
Richards’ application to stay the
execution. Richards is a death
penalty opponent who attempted
unsuccessfully to stay the execu-
tion of serial killer Steven Pennell
in 1992.

A Delaware Correctional Cen-
ter inmate’s appeal to stop all exe-
cutions because they could be
human rights violations had not
made it to Delaware’s Court of
Chancery by the close of business

pra 2
eo

Billy Bailey ©

BSA ee
oe Sn Under:
_. \S) “proposed Kent.
Smyrna @ County zoning.
: “os -~ rules, the tan.

Srac weanlAa Ra |
-

Falean Bat fur

Protests mark state’s _
Ist hanging in 50 years

-COMING FRIDAY

The News Journal will |,
Carry full coverage of the
Billy Bailey execution.

Wednesday. : °

Bailey, 49, was convicted in a
Kent County Superior Court trial
in 1980 and sentenced to hang for
the murders of Clara and Gilbert
Lambertson. The Lambertsons —
he was 80, she was 73 — were
gunned down with a pistol and
Gilbert's shotgun.

Bailey’s last meal included a®
well-done steak, baked potato with
butter and sour cream, rolls, peas
and vanilla ice cream. ~ ist

A bus carrying the witnesses".
prison officials selected to view x
the hanging left for the gallows at .
about 11:15 p.m. “

Bailey has been making prepa-
rations to die since Saturday, said
his lawyer, Edmund D. Lyons Jr.
Wednesday afternoon, Lyons said,
Bailey was moved out of a cell in
the prison’s maximum security |

unit Tuesday and into.a holding

cell in the execution trailer, where

the injection equipment is kept.
See BAILEY— A4

FDA O

_—

i! About 2 people in tavor ot bar
| | luw’s hanging and about 80 people
opposed protested in two basket-
| ball court-sized holding pens sepa-
rated by a snow fence.
j Most of those protesting in
| favor of the execution were family
| members of Bailey’s victims,
Gailbert and Clara Lambertson.
tj The Lambertson’s grandson

|
| FROM PAGE A1
|

The prison’s execution protocol
called for Bailey to be transferred
trom that cell to the gallows, out-
side the southern perimeter of the”

prison, about 15 minutes before the
start of the scheduled execution
| window of 12:01 a.m. to 3 a.m.

Prison officials, however, have
; refused to give many details con-
| cerning the execution because of
| security concerns.

Lyons said Bailey planned to
talk with his sisters Wednesday.
“He really wanted his family to go
[to the prison] and see him,” Lyons
said.

“| know he’s made arrange-
ments for the disposition of his
| personal effects,” Lyons said
Wednesday. “He doesn’t have
much. | saw his locker, they were
inventorying it yesterday. It’s just
_ sad. he said.
| “You don’t build up a great es-

4 tate when you are on death row,’
Lyons said,
yo, His few possessions, described
by Bailey in an interview as “a TV,
i a radio, some extra underwear and
socks,” will go to public defender
Nan Perillo, the woman who con-
vineed him to fight for survival.
| “He’s just trying to stay calm
and get through it,” Lyons said. “I
think he has pretty well composed
id himself.”
hy Perillo and Lyons, a former fed-
eral prosecutor, witnessed their
client’s execution, as requested by
Bailey. On Wednesday, Lyons
looked back over the long and, ul-
tunately, futile fight to save Bailey.

i. ORI. .

we ee oot A AE, ee...

ea dosen inednbens ood
Amnesty International USA's Mid-
Atlantic branch attended. Direc-
tor Jodi Longo echoed Bailey in
calling the execution by hanging
“barbaric.”

“This case has drawn a lot of at-
tention because of the method,
just as an execution planned later
this week in Utah has,” said Longo.

PEEP ELS Lens, wee rete ee bees
printed cardboard signs ~-- en-
cased in plastic —: proclaiming,
“Killing killers is dead wrong.”
For 50 minutes, speakers from
Delaware Citizens Opposed to the
Death Penalty, the American Civil
Liberties Union of Delaware, Mur-
der Victims’ Families for Reconcil-

jation and assorted supporters

ailey: Killer sent to his

him a thousand tunes would re-
place the loss that they feel as a
family. So why are we doing this?”

While expressing sympathy to
the murder victims’ families, Max
S. Bell Jr. of the American Civil
Liberties Union said “... society
needs to recognize that there is
more involved than simply assuag-

eath

CRE
Em 7

\
#
mu

Photo courtesy of the Lambertson family

Cheswold farm couple Clara Lambertson, 73, and husband Gilbert, 80, were
murdered by Billy Bailey on May 21, 1979.

“If anybody said to me nine
years ago I would learn lessons
from him, I wouldn't have believed
it,” he said. “But he has taught me
lessons about dignity and
strength. He said he knew he was
going to die, he was sorry for the
pain he caused the Lambertsons,
but he was at peace and ready to go
forward.”

The witnesses included two of
the four Lambertson children,
their sons, Delbert, 70, and Saxton,

68. Other family members kept a
vigil outside the prison while the
execution was carried out.

On the day of the killings, Bai-
ley, an alcoholic raised in an abu-
sive household and shunted off to
relatives, had learned that the
state planned to prosecute him as
a career criminal. A successful
prosecution would have sent him
to prison with a 45-year sentence.

For the past 16 years, Bailey
had lived under the spectre of exe-

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“He said he knew he was
going to die, he was sorry
for the pain he caused the
Lambertsons, but he was
at peace and ready to go
forward.”

Edmund D. Lyons,
attorney for Billy Bailey

A TTL SE RET ET

cution. Until early 1987, he told
anyone who would listen that he
welcomed it. But he changed his
mind in January of that year, and
actively pursued appeals.

Last Friday evening, the
Supreme Court of the United
States refused his last request for a
stay, and Bailey began preparing
himself for the end.

Although Delaware’s method of
execution was switched to injec-
tion in 1986, Bailey was sentenced
to hang in 1980. He could have cho-
sen injection, but had steadfastly
refused.

As recently as Tuesday after-
noon, Delaware Correctional Cen-
ter Warden Robert Snyder ap-
proached Bailey about changing
his choice, without success.

“It was made very clear to me
over the last week or so that if he
did want to reconsider, they would

patope accommodate him,”
yons said Wednesday afternoon.

BET SST en Peper Eero” a ee ne

SMYRNA — There was no way to know
_ just how long he had been standing there.
~ |~.~ When we filed through the doorway cut
into the 20-foot tall stockade fence — and our
eyes were drawn upward to the top of the gal-

ooh Iews — there he was.

“T= Looking down at us.

|. *. He was not the man he was in 1980, when
= the state came to know him as a snarling ac-

cused murderer whose angry outbursts got

“>4. him thrown out of his own trial.
722, He was not the condemned man who
** boasted, a few years later, that the rope hadn't
‘been made that could hold him.
. = He wasn’t even the penitent, balding, aging
man who told a pardons board last Friday he

Victims’
{we sons
left last

‘| Bailey execution
went off smoothly

By NAN CLEMENTS
and TED CADDELL

Statf repome:s

neariv 17

. SMYRNA Arter

accepted responsibility for
gunning down an elderly
Cheswold farm couple even
though he couldn’t remem-
ber it.

As the clock neared mid-
night Wednesday, Billy Bai-
ley was a man looking
down at 40 people, most of
them strangers to him, who

OBS bes Had! gathered in a damp,
= ™ windy place in the dead of
Ted Caddell night to watch him die.

For nearly five minutes,
Bailey stood to the right of the trap door that
would soon open up beneath him, supported

on each side by a black-hooded prison guard.

For most of that time, he appeared to be
staring down at the only two people he had in-
vited to his hanging —- Nancy Jane Perillo,
one of his original trial attorneys, and Ed-
mund D. Lyons Jr., the man who has spent the
last nine years trying to save his life.

Lyons, a former federal prosecutor turned
defense attorney who later would denounce
the proceeding as “medieval and barbaric,”
stood bareheaded, one arm around Perillo, as
he met Bailey’s gaze.

Bailey’s thick, brown-framed eyeglasses

were gone.

See WITNESS — A5

a — - THdy39 "d *¥IHa7 35 Aca Del
Seee ©1996, The News JournalCo. AGannettnew YPIN55 yaig Te) ay ghia "2ahd " 117th year, No. 28
=PRIDAY Jan. 26, : °/82780 of SY 8¥ivg

ee ne RES : ~“73560 y

= SSL AP EIA Iie ATE VE o, <: @

poet “e>4-, THE: DEATH;OF: BILLY BAILEY=:

Budget would
boost spendin
about 5 perce!

By JAMES MERRIWEATHE?

Dover Bureau reporter

DOVER — Gov. Carper
poscd a $1.69 billion oper.
budget Thursday that steer-
of sweeping new program
blunts the impact on Pelows
of budget cuts from Wes tis

The fiscal 1997 spending
Would boost CUrrent-year spe:
by 286.5 million a 3.89 pe
hike. Most now spendmg wor.

io schoois. prisGne. new pe
technology weibare refoss
other items aniong Carr:
creasingly familiar prigritic:
He provosed spending 312
lion da staie funds to offeer is
cuts experted LO total twie.
amount

6 . * .
Mei the caste

ww jp wb cw & & bleten yy we 8

Billy Bailey’s
sisters unite

in attempt to
spare his life

By NAN CLEMENTS
> Staff reporter

CHESWOLD — Betty Odom
learned last week that her brother
is scheduled to be executed Thurs-
day. :

_ “My heart’s been bothering me
since. k think it’s broken,” the

' Profits up
at top bank
for the 14th

year in row

By JOSEPH N. DISTEFANO
Staff reporter

Wilmington Trust Corp..

The

final reunion, a final plea

Florida resident said in a husky
southern drawl. “I knew he was in
prison, but I didn’t know what for
and I didn’t know his sentence. I
never dreamed of something like
this. I’ve been crying ever since.”

Unless his sisters’ pleas are suc-
cessful or a court grants a stay,
Bailey will be the first man to hang
in Delaware in nearly’50 years.

Odom and Coker, the two people
who know Billy Bailey best, met for

a Pa

wh ihe L730

a |

r
6
‘

A Gannett newspaper

the first time Tuesday. Odom grew
up in the violence-ravaged South
Carolina home that shaped Bailey.
Coker knew Bailey as a teen-ager
after he left Ferris School and her
parents took him in.

Odom and Bailey were two of
the 23 children born to Samuel
James Bailey and his wives. They
lived in a filthy, two-room house
with no indoor plumbing.

“Just me and Bill are left of
Momma’s five children, plus two
half sisters and a half brother,”
Odom said.

Mazzie Miller Bailey died in
1946 when Odom, 53, was 4 years
old and Billy, 49, was 6 months old.

See BAILEY— back page

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117th year, No. :

Billy Bailey’s sister Betty Odom (left),

Ce or

The News Journal/GARY
and his foster sister Sue Coke:

——
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“Ther father ee a
‘Myrtis “disappeared from the
ospital and left me,” Odom re-

and I didn’t know what to do.”
f Finally, around midnight, a doc-
_y tor called her half sister, and
~“Mayrie took me home and found
Said some clothes, and I stayed with
her.”

Eventually, Myrtis took in her
13-year-old stepdaughter. “She was
going to put me in an orphanage,
but I was a good worker,” Odom
said. “I stayed there until I was 17,
and then I ran away.”

She met and married a wealthy

- Floridian who died at a young age,
Her second husband, 63-year-old
Robert Odom, is dying of cancer,

“I went from. poor to rich and
back to poor,’ Odom said. “I could-
n't be bothered with all that non-
sense that the rich have to deal
with.” While Odom was coping
with Myrtis, Billy and Sam Jr.
were experiencing yet another ver-
sion of hell. They went from their
physically abusive half brother’s
home to the Governor Bacon
Health Center, then to Ferris
School near Prices Corner.

Billy got lucky — he met Laren
‘Sonny” Seaman, the son of a
Cheswold couple. Billy was sched-
uled for release from Ferris, but he
had nowhere to go.

Lawrence and Corinne Seaman,
Sue Coker’s parents took him into
their Cheswold home.

“Billy went into a turmoil when
Dad died, thinking he would be
sent away again, but Mom kept him
along with the four of us,” Coker
said,

She has visited Bailey regularly
in prison and talks with him by
phone, but she still recalls the shy
16-year-old who went with her to
the candy store and pool room
where Cheswold youngsters gath-
ered in the late 1959s and early
1960s. “He never said much about
his childhood, except for the beat-
ings,” Coker said. “But my parents
never raised a hand to Billy.”

Bailey fled to her Cheswold
home when he learned that he was
facing a 45-year prison sentence as
an habitual offender. The panic
created in Bailey’s mind by that

‘possibility threw him out of con-
trol and led directly to the brutal
shooting deaths of the Lambert-
sons, who were killed in their
nearby farmhouse by a man they
didn’t know.

_. Both women are hoping for a
“contact visit” with Bailey before
he dies, so they can reassure him
with hugs. Coker wants to spend §
Bailey’s last day with him.

Both believe in his innocence.
“They'll never make me believe he
did what they say he did,” Coker

* said,
_ “T just wish, I could have done

nore,’ Odom said.

O% Interes

NO PAYMENT
Other credit plans available
E can provide terms to st

0119R97519 {

pet

are cruel and unusual.

It is an argument which has
fallen on deaf ears.

“The problem is, although soci-
ety has been given the right to
carry out lawful executions, they
were not given the right to torture
somebody to death,” Lyons said
last week.

~“Lay people think hanging is
fairly simple, the person drops and
the force (always) breaks the neck,
and that’s it,” he said. “Although
that can happen, that is not always
the case.”

An excerpt from a Temple Uni-
versity professor’s historical sur-
vey titled “Hang By the Neck” was
included in one of Bailey’s ap-
peals. The survey deals with bun-
gled executions.

The excerpt mentions an 1880
hanging of James Madison Wyatt
Stone in Washington, D.C., for the
murder of his wife. The length of
Stone’s drop was miscalculated,
with disastrous consequences.

“He was completely beheaded
in the fall,” reported Professor Ne-
gley K. Teeters. |

~ In the 1901 hanging of a notori-

ous train robber named Thomas H.
Black Jack Ketchum in New Mex-
ico, his head, too, was torn from his
body moments after he was re-
ported to have said, “I'll be in hell
before you can eat your dinner,
boys.”

A miscalculation the other way
can be just as disastrous.

Gowtt we we eens

wr ttae eee

jection. On Wednesday, convicted
murderer Emile Duhamel is to be
killed by Texas prison authorities.
Thursday is the day for Bailey, and
on Friday Jchn Taylor is to be exe.
cuted by firing squad in Utah.

Army how-to guide

When Bailey is hanged, it will
be by Delaware prison officials fol-
lowing directions in Department of
the Army pamphlet No. 27-4: “Pro.
cedure for Military Executions.”

But even the Army doesn’t hang
anybody anymore. The last mili-
tary execution was in 1961, and the
armed services have decided to
switch to injection for any future
executions. °

The Army pamphlet is a 26-
page, how-to guide for execution
by hanging. Included are such
things as instructions on how to
fashion a hangman's noose — the
unmistakable knot with six coils
wound tightly around the loop
that goes around the neck (“No
extra rope should remain”), and a
drop-distance table, used to calcu-
late the distance of the drop based
upon the condemned man’s
weight. The greater the weight, the
shorter the do.

Bailey, at 220 pounds, is at the
bottom of the chart. “220 pounds
and over,” the table reads, “5'0.”

The table includes a cautionary
instruction. “A medical officer

should be consulted to determine

whether any factors, such as age,

an Pw a. ee ae —-

—_ c-F eee noel

health, or muscular condition will
affect the amount of drop neces-
sary for a proper execution.”

The orders also direct the offi-
cer in charge to provide a hood for
the condemned. as well as a “col-
lapse board,” upon which the pris-
oner would be strapped if fear or
illness prevents him from climbing
the 19 steps on his own.

Working from that pamphlet,
the state Department of Correc-
tion developed its own guide, a 13-
page section in the policy manual
titled, “Execution Procedures.”

In it, the condemned is called
an ISDP for “Inmate Subject to the
Death Penalty.”

There is even a section on what
to do if any court issues a stay dur-
ing an execution: “... execution
proceedings shall be halted and the
witnesses shall be removed. Team
physician(s) shall then immediately
initiate life sustaining procedures.”

Another section of the Army

rtson, 73, and husband Gilbert, 80, were

pamphlet regards selection and
payment of the executioner.

In 1987, the last time Bailey
came close to execution, Delaware
decided they needed to hire some-
body with hanging experience to
act as executioner.

This time, they are doing it
themselves. Stallings, the prison
spokeswoman, said last week that
the hanging “will be done by a
staff person. That person’s iden-
tity can’t be revealed.”

She did not say if the execu-
tioner was appointed, or volun-
teered. She said the executioner
would not receive any pay over his
or her standard overtime rate, a de-
parture from the $1,000 execu-
tioner’s fee the department was.
prepared to pay in 1987, the last
time officials prepared for Bailey’s
execution.

At that time, there hadn’t been
a hanging in the U.S. since 1965,
when Kansas hanged the men re-
sponsible for the Clutter murders,
a case made famous by Truman
Capote’s “In Cold Blood.” .

The preparations stopped when
Bailey decided to appeal, an av-
enue that seems to have come to an
end with his latest losses in the 3rd
US. Circuit Court of Appeals and
the Supreme Court of the United
States.

So now, once again, prepara-

was hanged in Walla Walla, Wash-
ington, on May 27, 1994.

Bailey's lawyer, Lyons, said he
gets the feeling everybody would
be more comfortable with the
pending execution if Bailey had
chosen to die by lethal injection,
like the last five men executed in
Delaware — Steven Brian Pennell,
Kenneth Wesley DeShields, James
Allen Red Dog, Andre Stanley
Deputy and Nelson W. Shelton.

“If he ever changed his mind.”
Lyons said last week, “I’m telling
you, there would be one hell of a
sigh of relief down there.”

“My job is to put the choice to
him,” Lyons said. “But my job is
not to lobby him to choose lethal
injection so the state of Delaware
can feel better.”

In an exclusive interview Bailey

granted The News Journal he said -

he didn’t feel it was right to have
somebody have to pick a way they
want to die. “Asking a man to
choose how to die,” he said, “is

_ more barbaric than hanging.”

Lyons feels the same.
-“T find putting someone in the
position of having to choose their
manner of execution repugnant.”

amendment, so they weré
given the choice between
lethal injection and hanging,
the state’s previous method. .
In 1987, the state paid about
$100,000 for an intricate, auto-
mated system to inject a
deadly dose of drugs into-a
condemned person’s arm,
Later, however, that system |
was disabled when its designer
removed a key part during.a
contract dispute. =
State officials now have an
executioner — who is not ider- ©
tified — start the flow of lethal
drugs from behind a partition
in the trailer. ‘.
In 1991, another change
took place immediately after.a
New Castle County jury
spared the lives of fout
Philadelphia men convicted pf
the execution-style slaying of
two Brooks Armored Cay
guards near Wilmington
Manor. he
Legislators quickly passed
a new law stripping juries’ sen-
tencing power in capital mur-
der cases, giving it to wrist ;
judges. Jurors now make only
advisory recommendations. *
Earlier, a death penalty ra
quired a jury’s unanimous vof?
and life sentences automati- -
cally were imposed if jurors
split their vote. — ‘:

tenced to die before that +-¢

By staff reporters

In 1986, the Delaware Legisla-
ture passed a law that made injec-
tion the method for carrving out
executions, Joining a national
trend away from the more tradj-
tional, and violent, ways of carry-
ing out a death sentence.

Each state’s governing bod y de-
cides whether there should be
‘pital crimes on their books and,
so, the same body decides upon

method of execution.

As of this Year, 32 of the 38
states that allow capita! punish-
ment depend upon injection as
the primary means of execution.
In Delaware. anyone convicted
and sentenced to death before
1986 — when hanging was the ex.
vcution method — is given the op-
tiun to choose injection instead.

Death penalty opponents have
pointed out that injection seems
to many — including sentencing
judges and juries — tu be a more
humane method of execution.

injection primary method in

The U.S. Supreme Court struck
down the death penalty in 1972
with a decision in Fuhrman v.
Georgia, because it was being up-
plied in an inconsistent fashion,
with more blacks being killed
than whites.

Delaware tried to skirt this de-
cision in 1974 by enacting a law
sentencing anvone convicted of
murder to be put to death: in other
words, the state tried to establish
a mandatory death penalty. The
Detavare Supreme Court struck

Delaware, 31 other states.

down the statute in 1976.

Then, in 1976, the U.S. Supreme
Court approved sentencing.
schemes enacted by: states in two
of four cases before it that year.

In 1977, Delaware enacted a
law patterned on the Georgia
statute approved in 1976 by the
US. Supreme Court. thus restor-
ing the death penalty in the First
State.

In dune 1986. the General As-
sembllvionssed a lave making imine.

tion the method for execution, re-
placing hanging.
A law passed in 1993 took the

’ final decision out of the jury's

hands and gave it to the trial
judge. Under the new law, the jury
makes a sentencing recommenda-
tion, deciding if the aggravating
circumstances of the crime out-
weigh any evidence presented in
the defendant's favor. The judge is
not bound by the reeommenda-
tion, but must, in considering the
ee eee ee ee ee

abaneen 6 seam eam 2 6 e.

Ee ar iat en

“great weight.” Me

On April 11, 1994, Gov. Carper
signed legislation (SB 57) mandat-
ing that executions will take plage
between 12:01 and 3 a.m. Prisén
officials sought the change, parfly
because they would only have to
lock down the inmates for the
night and wouid not need addi-
tional Jockdowns during the dpy
as they do when executions tak
place in the morning or aftet-

Le ee ee soe ee

Oe ne ee oe oe, oe te ee 8

. and Myrtis could twist him all

* up one side and down the other.”

» Wilmington.

d A hee B Bua Wea

By PHIL MILFORD
Staff reporter

NEW CASTLE — The fog that
blanketed Delaware for two morn-
ings in a row was expected to give
way to rain today as warm air
blows in from the south and keeps
afternoon temperatures near 50.

The dense fog was caused by

Bailey:
Siblings
seek a stay

FROM PAGE A1

Enter Myrtis. Bailey, their fa-
ther’s last wife.

“She marched into the house
and said, ‘I’m your mama now, ”
Odom said. “From then on, it was
beat and bang all your dang life.”

Odom’s mouth twisted with bit-
terness as she lit another
cigarette. “But she got hers,”
Odom said. “She got cancer and
she suffered something terrible.”

“Daddy pulled our clothes apart
and looked at our backs,” Odom
continued. “He told Myrtis, ‘Don’t
you ever whip my kids again. I'll do
any whipping that has to be done.’”

But their father, who died in
1956, was “getting senile by then,

around,” Odom said. When Sam
- Bailey returned from working the
fields of the family farm, “she’d tell
him we were bad and he’d beat us

When Sam Bailey went into the
> hospital for his final illness,
Odom’s sister Mayrie was sent to a
reform school and Odom went to a
cousin’s in North Carolina. Billy
and Sam Jr. were shipped north
about that time to live with a half
brother on Madison Street in

The cousin brought Odom to
the hospital for a final visit with
‘her father.

Myrtis “disappeared from the
hospital and left me,” Odom re-
- called. “I’d never been in that town,
and I didn’t know what to do.”
Finally, around midnight, a doc-

*tor called her half sister, and
— , ° a wee DD Paaend

as warm air blows in from the south

moist ocean air, said Michael
Mhoon, meteorologist for the Na-
tional Weather Service regional
office at Mount Holly, N.J.

“The sea air was being sucked
in by a low pressure area to the
west and [pushed] by a high pres-
sure area to the east,” said
Mhoon.The fog frustrated com-
muting motorists and kept traffic

Phe phenomena i cova
“advection fog,” he said, where
warm air over the Atlantic pressed
inland over cool, snow-covered
land in Delaware.

Fog is actually water droplets
suspended in the air near the
ground, and similar to clouds, It is
formed when droplets condense on
airborne particles , said Mhoon.

The warmer sea air “condensed
near the ground, where the tem-
perature of the snow was below

moisture-haden §
this case by pas:
can't hold any m
water condenses

Today, “we’v:
tem coming in.
Mhoon. High \
and perhaps 4 °
forecast.

Skies shoul:
and Sunday, but
remain in the Jf

AND SUN

OUR SELECTION\
THE SALE PRICE.
HAT’S WHY WE CAI

Cocape. cai + tee «

-hugs. ;
“We was waiching movies and
laying u-ound anid the rext thing I
know i jooked aroticci and it wets
burning. said Jarmon. a Newport
resident who was: penuing the
weekend with -furchy. She sai
she and Murphy ar-i the children
ran out of the building as smoke
enveloped them.

“[ was scared ... but | was more

scared making sure no kids were
around and they were out,” Jar-
mon suid.
- Battalion Chief Wille Patrick
said the building housed a vacant
grocery store front anid at least
three apartments.

—~L_is Residents escaped on their own

from the second- and third-floor

paiportments, he said.

=e,

mon. heid her arm and gave her

poe LS

he i
ag
5

wo 12.4: o-

The News Joumal'GINGER WALL

Two people died when fire struck this home in Todd Estates on Sunday. Both were trapped on the second floor.

sive lire damage. .

& Berlinda Bruce: Afire
victim finds a frignad.............

Firefighters, relative.
neiehbors were urnuble tor.
Seott M. Cote and his motner.
tricia C. Cote. 45. ahe w
trapped on the second floor oF
three-bedroom home at 221 |
mark Road By tne blaze, wt
began avout 5 a.m.

Thev were pronounced des
the seene, said Willard Ere:
I]. an assistant state fire mars
The state medical examiner:
fice is determining the caus
the deaths, he said.

HIGH LOW
Details on A4

ane

NDEX =

Movies C4

Business ‘D1
4 Classified. BS Obituaries A7
‘\Comics_: C5 People C2
‘Crossword C4 Publicdiary AS
DearAbby C4 Scoreboard B2
‘ditorial A12 Sports B1
tters A12_ Television C6

if 04

Mill

A oe

Bailey draws a blank

on reason for murders

, By MAN CLEMENTS
‘ Staff reporter

Clara Lambertson had a habit
of placing her right hand over her
left breast when she was startled.

“He shot her in the back, then
he shot her in the front when she
turned around,” said Betty Whar-
ton, daughter of the 73-year-old
murder victim. “The bullet went
right through her hand.”

Wharton's father, 80-year-old
Gilbert Lambertson, was killed
with his own shotgun that day
when a stranger entered the cou-
ple’s farmhouse near Cheswold
and blasted away their lives.

Billy Bailey, the man convicted

of the Lambertso~s’ m: -ders, is
schedul:? to hz: g Jan. Zo. Prison
officials say Baiiey can choose to
die by injection, but Bailey, in an
exclusive interview with The News
Journal, said he has no choice:

“T was sentence’ . hang,” Bai-

ley said du. ing the i: -erview at the -

Delaware Correctional Center
near Smyrna. “If I’m executed, [
should hang according to the pa-
perwork. I didn’t-choose hanging
— the state chose -t for me. Asking
a man to choose hw to die is more
barbaric than hanging.”

Bailey still doesn’t know why he
weut to the Lambertson home.

See BAILEY — A8

News Joumvai file

Baily in shackles after his arrest.
st .

ae.

Pryce

GOP, CI
their hee

By JIM ABRAMS
Asscciated Press

WASHINGTON — 3:
“we're universes apart,”
Budget Chairman John K
Sunday gave little chance for
anced budget deal this weel
he said Repubiicans pro
would agree to raise the dek
ing. avoiding a governme: —
fault, even without a budge’
promise.

Democrats, blaming the F
licans for intransigence, wer
slightly more hopeful about -
ing an agreement soon. The
House and Republicaas are

ied a he eli.

. + ae mee
8 te
ee BRT. en

had been Phased out, and most of
their 67-acre farm was leased,
Evervone Was expected to work,
Daddy didn’t need hired
hands, he had us,” Wharton

had fled a work-release cen. Billy Bailey remembers “yet.
tex something Bailey said he did ta ting beat a lot ... blood running
escape an additional forgery down my back, both me and Sam.
charge that could have resulted in ;

half-brother, his wife and two
| FROM PAGE At . a
J , é

him being jailed as a habitual of. failing to

'$ were administered for
athe the house clean. dis.

laughed. — cp on ge him —n
ing on a shovel after 8ging along
and stealing — the al- row of little holes for the tomato
F ge: years [the sentence ways-hungry boys swiped food Plants. And I'd be looking up at
for habitual offenders at the time] from neighborhood merchants ;
in jail is the last thing I can re. After two years, the half.

gi Bailey ni oot hat tel a Boner Basel
. Ede “ifrom - noe vee
; in Wilming. “Asking a man to choose A es,
iapand popping how to die is more ee oe
, EESREY teichanhanging” Gite Sol

old youngster

Gilbert Lambertson loved the
Phillies,

“Many’s the time he'd Jet the
Cows wait to be milked while he lise

mother, the tiny little wo {her
-was doing, and I , with a shock of killer} could have pushed aside.”

‘ ‘don’t remember Billy Bailey blond hair and can remember her working
1 eases —e sn lay Outside and then going unt
: “I'm not sure S@ ... EX:

: 3! done it, but I feel tremely retarded academically

: ‘bad for it,” Bailey said of the too disturbed a child to consider
; ‘killings on May 21, 1979. “I rant foster home placement,

‘say if T did it, but I'can’t sayldid- "His days at the health center

n't, either” nore Probably the only time Bailey

:. Bailey's lawyer, Edmund D. had a chance to change his life,

the kitchen and Cooking a big
meal for all of us,” Moore sai
arton has kept a scrapbook

ents and its t!
T figure someday maybe their
? ly point to the id. . randchildren or ndchil.
Sater dt \iller's background Ave an I asked ee help a , a will want to ow about it,”
: in the enti i ie counse
_—— he attempts to explain sad they ee jah tever

crim arges she said,
' : Although Bailey, now 40, acm tan ” Bailey said in hie st
: taggressive tendencies, his on y voice. pee

; ‘criminal cha: as an adult were “I would have got he if : :
: a didn’t know how. They'd nd Gilbert |
Sat yey ree been build- Penge in a cell and leave yu be ang Cilbert Lambertson were ant soe
-ing inside him for years, fueled by there, even at Bacon. They'd eed rovec eas
“the near-constant abuse of Bai- you some yellow gunky-looking nd sinnincdiiolion .

° ood.

; — a never met
dered by Bitty “ues he Deleware Supreme Court said “tout any noun Bailey is “sy

ch an angry per.
Sige: tuff some medicine, and then for. fingers had to be amputared. S0n, a mean person,” Moore said,
ad an issue when he a about a tf a His emg oe —_ . ‘ ks the hoard to ch - Th - “He shouldn't be in society: I don't
° in institutions . too my wite an . b hat i

"Fotday, ooking wee ee and fester bose “rather daughter” Bailey said. Christine is Coa ge board to ¢ ange his sen. cy can't forget w:

: tence from execution to life in smali-looking youngster” devel- now 25, but he hasn't seen her

happened think he should live, because
in nC¢ from death by hanging to life that Monday when Bail y

4 = ~ * prison. °

fo Bail

pscular &-fo0t- ithout prob red tedly at his footer there's always a Twourneone
rehy. aceshe was 9 years old role” “ithout pro ation oF pa- pea ’s homae scaly at his foster vi et him out. I wouldn’t want
ey was the 19th of 23 chil. pt a a like 8 fire h “a fathered a rad Sac tae final naisieed ts ae fog angeene in Ch i, J any family rd > throvek, “a =
| -dren born to his father’s four drant, whose strength is bare y old son, Danny, but his eccasio ne uns aed wean before g nd erin cag drink igo
. Gren Dorn t ther — the third aled by the neon orange visits ended about two years ago. e Preme Court, tthe n going back ten oe ‘is was- After Bailey says, Weecé,
“wife — died six months after jumpsuit he wears as a maximum. Sam was the only n Billy Pardons poard *s probably Bailey's He left his foster Sister's house

} illy’s bi ick’s Day, ity inmate at the Delaware ever got close to, “like brothers
| Saad es ne ” Som nal Center near apes ought nd ed yi -
. > i" . ° is father, his Fl p i four guards, is “One ay, e ran :
‘new spartan ge iat broth- tooed and be decnd veri hands whiskey straight down and his
: and sisters in a two-room South bound together with handcuffs, heart blew up, Billy said. 4
: *Carolins shack without plumbing. camera-shy Bailey smiled as he re Bailey's background turne
i «Court records describe the family's called the happiest time of his life him into “a wellspring of sadnese,
‘I “living conditions as “utter filth his marriage to 19-year-old depression, rejection and anger ...
and — Susan Hughes on Dec, 20, 1970, that, when tapped. resulted in a

said, “we Probably won't believe
; . in less than half an hour, he it’s over”
He will be the sixth man exe. robbed a liquor store and then Bailey wrote

cuted since Delaware Feinstated Landored to Gilbert and Clara bertson children after his Dec.

a letter to the
capital punishment four years ago, ertson's, 28 hearing before the state Parole
Board,

the first to hang since 1946, Bailey could not have Picked

‘st week, the state Parole two less-likely murder victj “I just put down what I felt,”
rd dismissed favorable

cy were homebodies, hated Bai said. “I can’t spell too
from prison Personnel and recom, to leave their house Th oe i

re pond wi me led. They gue, They fever pa eit a eerie: to write it for ,
ee ; . self-control mended agains commu TOR. say- traveled. cy didn’t even leave me, but I just did it my own way.”
.3 After Billy's fed oer oes tis whee he wee BE inge, too, became tet ete een its mem ing Builey hasn't made a signifi. aware very often,” said their 52. eople, he said, “kept Pushing
H pt, Fogo : sibl including 10 ther dhonsaes ia Bailey's lite, bers,” Lyons wrote in a report ta cant effort at rehabilitation in - yearold daughter, Betty Wharton, at me, telling me, ‘you know you *
‘3° coer Billy and This 12-year-old | fire started in the young fam- the state Pardons Board, summa. prison, . . one of four Lambertson children. did it.’ It makes me hurt inside, |
_ eau Sam. ily’s mobile home one night while rizing the findings of psychi:trixts He has repaired clothing and All — Betty. Mary Moore, 57, and can't remember killing them, but I.
: "the wae boys, already heavy Bailey was asleep, . who have examined Bailey. made fi urniture and can sober brothers Delbert. 70, and Saxton, fee] it’s my fault, so I'm taking the
drinkers, came north to live ith _,_He rescued their 3.month-old Lyons will try to itive that while in prison, but = haven't 68 sti} live in the Dover. blame.
Wilmington’s Madison Street with daughter. Christine, but her left Pornt hame Bridie ot

Joined any OrEtnizations,.” Bailey Cheswold siren.

“People like me do have fee}.
suid. “I figured Td leave those to

@ Lambertsons were “clderly, ings, you know.” Bailey anid, wip.
the guys who know they'll get out but so youny at heart” and “pretty ing away a tear nen foache ae
sumed.” Much retired,” Wharton said, control, “Sometimes. I get so un.
The Lambertson family will op- They kept a small warden Wee ott. oe .
Pose firs VOCUIOSS [10m seeeece ne:

First ‘

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Board denies
killers’ pleas
for their lives

By NAN CLEMENTS
Staff reporter

SMYRNA — Convicted killers
Billy Bailey and William H.
Flamer will need legal miracles to
escape execution this month.

After tearful pleas from rela-
tives and friends during twin hear-
ings Friday at the Delaware Cor-
rectional. Center, the state Pardons
Board refused to recommend com-
mutation of theur death sentences
to life in prison without probation

"he News Journal/GARY EMEIGH
21 brother Billy Bailey
) be hanged Thursday.

peu.
te

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Pardons reiused,

or parole.

And, while the hearings were
under way, the U.S. Supreme Court
rejected their appeals and de-
clined to stay their execution dates
— Thursday for Bailey and Jan. 30
for Flamer.

“It’s almost over,’ Mary Moore
said afterward.

Moore is one of four children
born to the elderly Cheswold cou-
ple Bailey killed nearly 17 years
ago. Her brother and sister-in-law,
Saxton and Mary Ann Lambert-

Hd T2IvqIHe FREE LIBRARY 08 22! 4

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33 Sd 37 mR esac New Castle County stores, .
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executions loom

son, testified for the family.

Bailey’s sister and foster sister
broke down while speaking on
, their brother’s

behalf.

“J never
asked God for
anything except
my sick baby’s
life once,” said
a Betty Odom, a
ga Florida resident
who learned
Pag only last week
Stee that her brother

Billy Jey ._—is facing execu-
illy Bailey tion for the bru-

tal 1979 shotgun
murders of 80-year-old Gilbert
Lambertson and his 73-year-old

wife Clara.
“Please,” Odom begged througn

tears and sobs, “give my brother
his life so I can see him before we
both pass away.”
She detailed the abuse and beat-
ings Bailey suffered in the first 10
years of his life. Bailey, 49, and
Odom were among 23 children
born to their father and his three
wives. After their father died, they,
were separated. Odom stayed with
the child-beating stepmother and
Bailey was farmed out to a half-
brother in Wilmington. Bailey.
then was moved to a succession of
institutions and foster homes —
and more beatings. .
At 16, he was released from Fer-

ris School near Prices Corner to. _

live with Lawrence and Corinne
Seaman.

See KILLERS — A7

"Who

nie TAY Vid oe se ete

‘The lows are expected to be in

* wa.

» the teens or 20s and highs in the

- -. The rains had one positive ef-
fect: the reported rise in the
ground water reservoir has offset
the depletion caused by the sum-
mer’s drought.

' + State officials say they may lift
voluntary conservation measures.
. Among other reported prob-

lems caused by Friday’s storm:

-" @ The Delaware 273 underpass

Killers: Mi

' FROM PAGE A1

He and their daughter, now Sue
Coker, became close friends, and
‘she visited him frequently in
prison.

2 Coker and her husband Charles

were among the last people Bailey

z saw before he killed the Lambert-
sons on May 21, 1979.

“He was scared [that day], like a

> wild person, afraid they were

going to put him back in prison,”

-% Coker said of Bailey, who was fac-

ing a 45-year sentence as a habit-

‘ual offender when he walked away
- that day from the Plummer Work-

Release Center in Wilmington.
' “He;said he would kill himself
before he’d go back to prison,”

+% Coker said. “He tried to stab him-

?=+self with a steak knife and cut my

sg¢hand without meaning to when I .

was struggling with him for the
knife.”

“I know what he did was wrong,
-but he’s like my real brother and I

- love him,” Coker said. “J will visit

him in prison for the rest of his life
if | have to.”

Tesuumony by Coker and Odom
was far different from that given by
Robert Collison. an attorney gen-
eral’s office investigator who knew

Stock: FDA

auestions new

See a, a a

io] Pan”

ea cae oe Groen, a | 3 i =) o —— aa” mee rs . . a
oouth Market Street area below New Castle County, including on “flooding was Caused by ice jams in

the Christina River flooded early
Friday morning, as they usually do
during heavy rain.

@ Flooding also occurred on
Delaware Avenue at Trolley
Square. Wilmington firefighters
rescued one motorist and closed
the road: Portions of Lea Boule-
vard were also under water.

@ A tree blew over at Buckley’s
Tavern, Kennett. Pike, closing the
roadway. ;

@ Motorists were reported

portions of Churchmans Road,
Governor Printz Boulevard, Rock-
land Road at Country Club Drive,
and the intersection of U.S. 13 and
US. 40.

& High tides in the Delaware
river flooded portions of Bayview
Beach south of Port Penn during
the afternoon.

@ Sewers were reportedly back-
ing up in many New Castle County
neighborhoods, unable to handle
the heavy runoff during the storm.

the lower Brandywine Creek. By
midafternoon, bulging waters
broke up the ice and reduced some
of the flooding.

H Numerous accidents were re-
ported, including at 11th and
Church streets and Interstate 95 at
Concord Avenue.

@ Delaware 1 at Delaware 71
was closed down as the waters
rose, and traffic was detoured from
the new St. Georges Bridge to
Summit Bridge.

nner finds no reason for pardon

66 . . 33
We see no reason to recommend commutation

Bailey as a teen-ager and headed
the investigation of the Lambert-
sons’ deaths.

“His testimony was rough to
hear,” said their daughter Mary
Moore. “It brought back a lot of
bad things.”

Collison, who also contradicted
favorable testimony by correc-
tional officers and counselors,
knew Bailey as a boisterous, hos-
tile and troublesome teen-ager
who drank heavily, fought fre-
quently and “would cuss you out
with words you never heard.” a,

The Lambertson ‘murders weré?
“typical Billy Bailey,” Collison,
said. “I believe the death penalty is
the only appropriate sentence” for
the killings, he said.

Bailey and Flamer both testi-
fied, citing their deprived child-
hoods and involvement with aleo-
holie beverages at an early age.

lamer, -#1, was raised by his
grandmother and grundfather, the

Lt. Gov. Ruth Ann Minner

latter a bootlegger.

“We were around liquor all the
time and the [Harrington] house
was always full of men drinking,”
said James Flamer, the convicted
killer’s brother.

William Flamer succumbed to
drinking, dropped out of school
and led an itinerant existence. As
a chicken catcher and horse groom
at Harrington Raceway, he earned
just enough money to keep him in
liquor, said his lawyer, Charlene
Davis. ne

She blamed Flamer’s co-defen-

dant, Afidre'S: Députy, for instigat=”

ing the murder on Feb. 7, 1979, of
Flamer’s uncle and aunt, 68-year-
old Byard Smith and his 69-year-
old wife, Alberta. They refused to
surrender a Social Security check
so I']amer and Deputy could con-
tinue a drinking binge that dav.
and were stabbed more than 150
times with a knife and a bayonet.

Deputy was executed on June

23,1994.
Flamer and Bailey both said

they had changed greatly after.

spending nearly 17 years in prison.

Flamer, described by two chap-
lains as a religious man and a role
model for other prisoners, told the
board that he has felt all the pain
of his victims’ family, because he is
part of that family.

“I am asking for a chance to
help others as [God] has helped
me,” Flamer said.

But the Pardons Board found
no reason to spare either man.

Many have led deprived child-
hoods, “but didn’t choose the route
you took,” said Lt. Gov. Ruth Ann
Minner, who serves as chair of the
five-member panel. i

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homes on Fourth Strect at

and at Lincoln streets. .

Starting around 1 p.m
most an hour, firefighters
lice received a steady stre:
_ports about cars stuck.

Staff reporters Ann!
Mark Bulik, Ted Caddel
Pringle, Robert Moo
Terry Spencer contrib
this article.

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1—Shot, knifed,
beaten to a pulp,
clutched in his
“Willie the Fox”
the shallow grave that gangland
enemies dug for him in the Canarsie

2—Refusing coun:
homa killer of

BUTLER, |

Harry, black, hanged Georgetown, Del., 2/26/1926.

PTE Mery,

A moment after this picture was
enry Butler of Georgetown,
are, plunged to his death at
the end of a rope for assault on a

twelve-year-old girl

strangled, his body
a significant penny
ead right hand,
hapiro, lies near

4—Sorrow weaving a grotesque grin

into his weeping face, Louis Rude

Payne, 19, is shown here after his

arrest for the murder of his mother
and brother in Los Angeles

sand dunes of New York

Morgue, shown here,
Paraphrased above
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APPEALS

LAST WORDS

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OFFICE BUPPLY-COTHAN

BAILEY, Billy, white,

Be a Be
CIATED PRE

Gallows ready: Billy Bailey is scheduled to be hanged to-
morrow on this gallows at a state prison near Smyrna, Del.

Ist to die in Del. gallows
in 90) years could be last

Couple’s murderer
picks death by hanging

By Dat WILLIS
SUN STAFF

When convicted murderer
Billy Bailey steps onto the
wooden gallows built just for
him outside the Delaware
Correctional Center early to-
morrow morning, it will be a
grim end to a grim story.

Bailey, 49, is one of 14 in-
mates awaiting death in Del-
aware — a surprisingly large
number for a tiny state with
only three counties. He will
be the first person in 50 years
in Delaware to die by hang-
ing, and he may be the last.
This method of execution is
considered so brutal that on-
ly four states use it and all
four offer lethal injection as

an alternative.

Tomorrow’s hanging will
end a life and a story marked
by senseless violence. Bailey,
the 19th of 24 children, hada
childhood blighted by abuse.
Jailed for the first time at 18,
he had been paroled after
serving time for forging
stolen checks when he held
up a liquor store. He then
went to the Kent County
farm of Gilbert and Clara
Lambertson on May 21, 1979.
There, he shot Mrs. Lam-
bertson, 73, and her 80-year-
old husband point-blank
with a pistol and their own
shotgun, and escaped in the
couple’s truck.

Supporters of his execu-
tion, including the Lambert-
son family, point to the vio-
lence of the crime as ample
justification for the hanging.

“Our family feels that it’s

hanged Delaware, January 25, 1996

Page 4B : Wednesday, January 24, 1996 : The Sun

008

MARY

Delaware couple’s killer
to be hanged tomorrow

[Hanging, from Page 1B]

Delbert Lambertson, 70, one of the
murdered couple’s sons. “We feel
he should pay with his life for what
he’s done. They say it’s barbaric —
let me tell you about barbaric. He
shot my Mom in the chest. We
couldn’t even have a viewing.”

Mr. Lambertson said that his
sister-in-law, who was picking
strawberries on the farm that day,
witnessed some of the violence.
The scene was so gruesome, he
said, that police would not let him
see it. And 17 years later, his voice
still quavers with emotion when
he remembers the murders.

But others question whether
the state should hang anyone, no
matter what crime was commit-
ted.

“When you really stare the de-
tails in the face, you realize how
ugly this whole thing becomes,”
says Bailey’s lawyer, Dan Lyons.
Mr. Lyons, a former federal prose-
cutor, was appointed Bailey’s ad-
vocate in 1987. He began the job as
a supporter of the death penalty;
he now opposes it, in part because
of the research on hanging he did
for Bailey’s case.

Bailey has said he doesn’t re- .

member the day of the shootings
and doesn’t know why he went to
the home of the Lambertsons,
whom he did not know. But he ac-
cepts responsibility for the kill-
ings.
- “The short of it is, Billy had the
world’s worst life,” Mr. Lyons said.
Bailey initially said he wanted
to die by hanging, telling the Asso-
- ciated Press in 1986, “I just hope
they buy a strong enough rope.”
He subsequently changed his
mind and directed his lawyer to
pursue all avenues of appeal.

‘Nothing left’

~ “He would like to live,” Mr.
Lyons said yesterday. “But he
knows that there’s nothing left.
I’ve made every argument I can
make and we’ve spent nine years
doing it, and there’s nothing left.”

. Mr. Lyons said he did not plan
to file any last-minute appeal be-
cause all legal avenues have been
exhausted and that Mr. Bailey
needs to prepare himself for
death.

“You rob the client of the ability
to prepare himself for the execu-

tion,” Mr. Lyons said. “You give
him false hope, and you demean
the process.”

“Nothing is pending,” said Del-
aware Deputy Attorney General
Paul Wallace, who has prosecuted
the case for the past six years. He
expects the execution to go for-
ward as scheduled early tomorrow
morning “unless there’s some-
thing totally unforeseen.”

Delaware law requires 10 offi-
cial witnesses to the execution.
Two members from a victim’s fam-
ily may also be witnesses, and Mr.
Lambertson said he and a brother
would attend.

Seven members of the press al-
So will watch the execution.

Both lawyers in the case will be
witnesses. Mr. Lyons will be there

at the request of Bailey; Mr. Wal--

lace will be an official witness for
the state.

Both men expressed some dis-
comfort with the method chosen
by Bailey.

“My major concern is that the
Department of Corrections does it
correctly,” Mr. Wallace said.
“There is no such thing as a hang-
man any more. ... I think everyone
will be relieved when this is over.”

The hanging will be carried out
by Delaware corrections person-
nel. It will be the first since 1946,
when cortvicted murderer Forest
Sturdivant was executed.

More expertise required

Hanging is generally conceded
to require more expertise than
other kinds of execution; the con-
demned man’s height and weight
must be considered when prepar-
ing the rope and the gallows, as
well as the drop that occurs when
the gallows trapdoor is opened. It
can be messy and not very effec-
tive: The swift, neck-breaking
death that hanging is intended to
produce sometimes does not hap-
pen.

But it is part of Delaware’s his-
tory. The first hanging in the First
State is believed to have occurred
in September 1662. Like the rest of
the country, Delaware used hang-
ing until about 1900, when electric
chairs and gas chambers began to
gain widespread use.

“It’s hard to see hanging assan- .

itized as lethal injection,” said Sal-
ly Milbury-Steen, who is co-presi-
dent of Delaware’ Citizens

ASSOCIATED PRESS: 1980

No appeal planned: Billy Bai-
ley was convicted of murders.

Opposed to the Death Penalty.
“The public has to deal with hang-
ing in a way that’s more trouble-
some.”

A convict’s choice

Like Montana, Washington and
New Hampshire, Delaware offers
those sentenced to death a choice
between hanging and lethal injec-
tion, if they were convicted before
1986, when the state shifted to le-
thal injection. Of the 14 men wait-
ing to die in Delaware, only Bailey
has chosen hanging.

Two others also have a choice.
William Flamer, whose execution
is scheduled for next week, has
chosen lethal injection. James Ri-
ley, who was convicted in 1982 of
the murder of a Dover liquor store
owner, was given a stay of execu-
tion in August and no date for his
execution has been set. He will not
be asked to choose until a date for
the execution is chosen, said Fay
Dunning of the Delaware Depart-
ment of Corrections.

Earlier this month, Delaware
officials went to Washington state
to review hanging procedures.
Neither state makes public the de-
tails and mechanics of its hanging
policy; both say they follow the Ar-
my’s guidelines.

The officials visited Washing-
ton because it is the only state
that has hanged anyone in the
past 30 years or so— one man was
hanged in 1994, another in 1993.

“We’re aware it’s an unusual
method of execution,” Mr. Wallace
said. “It is Mr. Bailey’s choice,
though.”

Delaware Prepares For Hanging

AP 16 Jan 96 17:56 EST vo406.

Delaware has not hanged anyone in 50 years, so four corrections
officials went to Washington last week to see how it’s done,

ar procedure is pretty much going to Operate like theirs," said
Galil Stallings, Corrections Department spokeswoman. "Both procedures

Edmund D. Lyons, Bailey’s attorney, said his client is resigned to
the prospect of execution for killing 73-year~old Clara Lambertson and
her 80-year-old husband, Gilbert.

In 1979, Bailey escaped from a Wilmington work-release center,
robbed a liquor store and then killed the Lambertsons at their farm
house near Cheswold, about 35 miles south of Wilmington. |

Bailey has said he was drinking and taking pills all day and doesn’t
remember the slayings. : .

Lyons has filed an appeal with the U.S. Supreme Court. Bailey also
will appear Friday before the Board of Pardons to ask that his sentence
be commuted to life without parole. Such a recommendation needs the
governor’s approval.

The pardons board has never commuted sentences to life without
parole in 11th hour proceedings before an execution, and Gov. Thomas R.
Carper has not stopped any executions.

"If the legal avenues are exhausted, he is not inclined to
interfere," said Sheri Woodruff, Carper's press secretary. “I’m
inclined to say this is one where he would agree this would be an
appropriate punishment. * : 3

Delaware has executed five men since the Supreme Court reinstated
the death penalty in 1976, Fourteen men are on death row. ;

Lyons will argue that, from the day Bailey was born the 19th child
of his father’s four wives, he never had. a chance.

"He had absolutely one of the worst lives you could imagine --
emotional abuse, psychiatric problems, abandonment, low IQ, alcoholism.

——_

Death penalty cases are the
black holes of Delaware's justice
system.

That very apt description comes
from Fred Silverman, the state’s
chief deputy attorney general. He
is far from alone in feeling that
the incredible amount of time and
money invested in capital punish-
ment cases.suck up much of the
energy in the already overbur-
dened courts.

It’s long past time that the long
and winding road to the gallows
or the fatal injection chamber be
straightened out or closed for per-
manent repairs.

Some of Delaware’s convicted
killers have been on Death Row
for so long their lawyers will soon
start claiming that the wait itself
represents cruel and unusual pun-
ishment.

Just last week a new execution
date was set for Billy Bailey, who
gunned down an elderly Cheswold
couple in 1979. Bailey said in 1986
he wanted to die, but at the last
minute, the state Supreme Court
stayed the execution to give it
more time to decide his mental
competency.

In his current appeal his lawyer
is arguing, among other things,
that Delaware isn’t ¢apable of
carrying out the death penalty in
a humane fashion. Talk about an
oxymoron!

In reviewing the ‘files of the
seven pending Death Penalty
cases, I came away -convinced
that the seemingly endless ap-
peals are making a mockery of
our justice system by eating up an
inordinate amount of time for
lawyers, judges, clerks, court re-
porters and others,

Led by Chief Justice William
Rehnquist, the U. S. Supreme
Court has now set tighter limits

Harry F. Themal has been writing
for The News Journal since 1959.

HARRY F.
THEMAL

on the number and nature of fed-
eral appeals that may be filed.
And no matter which version of
the anti-crime bill passes Con-
gress, federal appeals will be re-
stricted in capital cases.

Now an ad hoc Delaware com-

mittee is studying what can be
done here. The group is headed by
Justice Andrew G. T. Moore and
includes representatives of the
lower courts and the attorney
general's and public defender’s of-
fices.

Stephen Taylor, the Supreme

Court administrator, has been re-
viewing voluminous records to
chart every step of each of the
seven capital punishment appeals.
He will report to the committee
this month, and it’s hoped new
rules will be set up for handling
such cases in Delaware courts. .

The principal reason listed in

appeals is that the killer did not
have the effective assistance of
counsel in the original trial.
Other arguments often cited ‘are
poor instructions to the jury’ by
the trial judge and prejudicial re-
marks by the prosecutor.

If the courts assure that defen-

dants in murder cases have
proper legal representation from
the beginning — and no such as-

WILMWETON Cpe, .
WEWS TFOuURWAL )

Make death penalty swift and certain

surance now exists — and the the
trials are conducted properly,
chances are greater that justice
can be served in the initial trial
and limited appeals.

Delaware and federal courts
have already set up a procedure
designed to review all capital
cases. If that procedure were fol-
lowed, without the many detours
that now occur, the time between
the crime and the final punish-
ment could be reduced.

One problem the courts should
attack is the long delay for each
stage of the appeal. A review of
the records shows that months
and sometimes years go by be-
tween the filing of an appeal and
a decision in the state courts.

The reasons for these delays
cat{ be the time needed to tran-
scribe the lengthy record, post-
ponements asked by both sides for
briefs and arguments, and the
long time it takes for judges to
hand down decisions.

This might be due to an effort
to make sure every phase of the
case is handled so the defendant
gets a chance to state his argu-
ment. Judges also know that their
every word will be scrutinized by
a higher court and they want to
make sure they will be right.

But Delaware's court system
must demand that capital cases
get precedence and that they

-should be decided as quickly as

judicially possible. A Supreme
Court justice should be personally
responsible for assuring that jus-
tice is swift, complete and even-
handed.

While I'm sure the prisoners on
Death Row probably hope for
lortg delays, it’s also to the prison-
ers’ benefit that they know know
more quickly what will be their
eventual fate. We already know
the fate of those whose lives they
took.

su look at Billy, you aren't surprised he ended up in jail,"
said. "We're executing one of Society's failures," —

The information contained in this news report may. not be published,
broadcast or otherwise distributed without the prior written authority
of the Associated Press. ~ erat fen 3 :

By The Associated Press
Hanging Seldom Used _

Delaware hanged 25 people from.1904 through May 1946, but used other
methods since then. Other recent..U,8. hangings: :

~~ Charles Rodman Canipbell; Walla Walla, Wash., May 1994, for
slitting the throats of two women and a child.

~- Westley Allan Dodd, Walla Walla, Wash.,; January 1993 for killing
three children. ue POM ee CO Ur Uh Usligd ae

Before Dodd, the last hangings in the United States were in 1965 in
Kansas, when four murderers were executed, Among them were Richard
Eugene Hickock and Perry Edward Smith, the subjects of Truman Capote’s
book "In Cold Blood." sak bhai ts AG EP : : a i

ee muraerers were nangeda In 1¥¥5 ana 1y¥yY4. BeTore Mat, tne last nangings in tne Unitea
© States were in Kansas in 19R'19R5 when four mirderars ware axeciited Amana them were Ric! ¢

301 ¢

* uu

— SER ewww «8688 we te 88 8 8 Bee owen 26 6 Cwrwwwy C8 FFE HD CMT Ie DO ee UE wre 08 8 wr le Ww we we wovewsoy woowees C8 ~wew s thwe cen

_ “a=ppp
yq ess
copyright 1996 Prodigy Services Co.
PRODIGY(R) interactive personal service 01/25/96 9:34 AM
AP Online
Eugene Hickock and Perry Edward Smith, the subjects of Truman Capote's book “In Cold Bloo
d." 4

Delaware had public floggings as recently as 1952. The whipping posts were remoe in
1969 but weren't officially outlawed until 1972.

Because 50 years have passed since Delaware's last hanging, four Department of
Correction officials traveled to Washington state to study procedures.

Delaware decided to follow Army regulations for hanging, said Gail Stallings,
department spokeswoman. oe |

‘Wilmington. In Delaware, Bailey began a life of thievery.

Bailey has said he was drinking heavily the day of the slayings and doesn't remember
killing the couple with Lambertson's shotgun. He had walked away from a work-release
center after being told he was going to face life in prison as a habitual offender because
of a forgery charge. lice believe he planned to steal the couple's pickup.

& bee }
pe eM De

| 7 HRODIGY(R) interactive personal service 01/25/96 9:33 AM

{AP Online

1:04 AM (ET) 1/25

Murderer Executed By Hanging

SMYRNA, Del. (AP) -- Billy Bailey, the 49-year-old murderer of an elderly couple,
climbed up onto a wooden gallows and was hanged early Thursday, becoming only the third
convict to be executed this way since 1965.

Bailey, 49, was pronounced dead at 12:15 a.m., moments after he climbed the 19 steps to
the platform with a trapdoor 15 feet above the ground. The gallows were built on the
grounds of the Delaware Correctional Center, 10 years ago as Bailey's first
execution date approached.

The outdoor execution took place under cold windy skies, with temperatures in the 30s.
Just under 100 demonstrators gathered outside prison, including 20 who supported Bailey's
execution. . |

Witnesses included Delbert and Saxton Lambertson, two sons of Gilbert and Clara
Lambertson, who were murdered with a shotgun at their farmhouse in 1979. Delaware has not
previously allowed family members of the victims to witness executions.

Appeals delayed the hanging until the U.S. Supreme Court denied Bailey a stay of _
execution last week. The state Board of Pardons on Friday rejected a commutation, and
Edmund Lyons, his attorney, planned no last-minute appeals.

Billy has found some peace in the sense of reconciling himself for what is to be,”
said Lyons, who visited Bailey Wednesday, along with Bailey's sister, foster sister, anda
prison chaplain.

The lawyer said he told Bailey to think about his last words.

“He said, ‘If | say anything, I'm going to say | hope this brings the Lambertsons some

peace," Lyons said.

By coincidence, Utah is scheduled to have its first firing squad execution in 19 years
early Friday. John Albert Taylor,;.sentenced to die for raping and strangling an
11-year-old girl, chose the firing squad over injection, the state's second method of
execution since Utah outlawed hanging in 1983. : - .

Spm fz
fo + yi
> ns 2

Three other states allow hanging -- Montana, New Hampshire and Washington, where two

estat es Sa

par SRODIGY(R) interactive personal service 01/25/96 9:24 AM

“AP Online
6:40 AM (ET) 1/25

Hanging Seldom Used Execution
By The Associated Press

Delaware hanged 25 people from 1904 through May 1946, but used other methods since
then. Other recent U.S. hangings:

-- Charles Rodman Campbell, Walla Walla, Wash., May 1994, for slitting the throats of
two women and a child.

-- Westley Allan Dodd, Walla Walla, Wash., January 1993 for killing three children.

Before Dodd, the last hangings in the United States were in 1965 in Kansas,

when four murderers were executed. Among them were Richard Eugene Hickock and Perry Edward
Smith, the subjects of Truman Capote's book “in Cold Blood."

News or information from AP may not be published, broadcast or redistributed without the

- {ZODIGY(R) interactive personal service 01/25/96 10:07 AM

| Online
1:23 AM (ET) 1/25

Murderer Hanged In Delaware

SMYRNA, Del. (AP) -- Billy Bailey, the 49-year-old murderer of an elderly couple,
climbed onto a wooden gallows and was hanged early Thursday, becoming only the third
convict in the nation to be executed this way in 30 years.

Bailey closed his eyes, sniffled and said nothing before the black hood was placed over
his head. His body twisted quickly in the wind once the trap door was sprung, then turned
slowly beneath the 15-foot high platform in the cold night air.

He was pronounced dead 11 minutes later, at 12:15 a.m.

Bailey became the first person to be hanged in Delaware in 50 years and the third in
the nation since 1965.

About 70 death penalty opponents gathered outside the prison, separated by a fence from
about 20 supporters of the execution.

“| think it's really past time this should have come about. It's been too many
years," said Mary Ann Lambertson, the daughter-in-law of the victims.

‘| happened to be the poor soul who found the bodies, and it was a gruesome sight."

Dennis Lambertson, 40, a grandson of the victims, said he went to the prison to “see
justice done."

Gilbert and Clara Lambertson were murdered with a shotgun at their farmhouse in 1979.
Delaware has not previously allowed family members of the victims to witness executions.

The gallows were built on the grounds of the Delaware Correctional Center 10 years ago
as Bailey's first execution date approached. Appeals delayed the hanging until
the U.S. Supreme Court denied a stay of execution last week.

The state Board of Pardons on Friday rejected a commutation, and Edmund Lyons, his
attorney, planned no last-minute appeals.

’* Billy has found some peace in the sense of reconciling himself for what is to be,"
said Lyons, who visited Bailey Wednesday, along with Bailey's sister, foster sister, and a
prison chaplain.

The lawyer said he told Bailey to think about his last words.

“He said, ‘If | say anything, I'm going to say | hope this brings the paribersons s some Roe
naace "I vans said Ee aes Silane

Cre ae
Mints it ARM i ME = ee im

.BEVAN, Catharine and MURPHY, Peter, whites, hanged Newcastle, Delae, 9/10/1931.

CAPITAL PUNISHMENT RESEARCH PROJECT
P.O. Drawer 277 - 100 East Main Street
Headland, Alabama 36345

Watt Espy Phone
Oe (esearch Specialist (205) 693-5225

"Newcastle, Dela.: On Friday the 10th instant Peter Murphy and Catherine Bevan were
executed at Newcastle, the man hanged and the woman burnt, pursuant to their sen-
tence, for the murder of Henry Bevan, husband to Catherine. His confession taken
before the magistrates when he was first committed to prison you may see in our
Gazette of Jume 24. To the same purpose he swore against his mistress at her
trial, But before his death he declared that he had wronged her much, that she
did not tie the hankerchief around her husband's neck and that the cheif of his
evidence at hourt was false; but that she was the promoter of all that happened
and consented to what was done. She denied to the last that she acted any part in
} the murder and scarce could be brought to own that she was guilty of consenting.
Neither of them said much at the place of execution. The man seemed penitent but
the woman appeared hardened. It was designed to stmzangle her dead before the fire
should touch her but its first breaking out was in a stream which pointed directly
upon the rope that went around her neck and burnt it off instantly so that she fell
alive into the flames and was seen to struggle."
PENNSYLVANIA GAZETTE, Phila., Penna., September 23, 1731.

-- 4

-by Benjamin Franklin.

|. and the Three Lower Counties." Reportedly, although she was tied

to the stake with a rope around her neck in the expectation

failed in an attempt to poison her husband, the couple's hired

case of execution by mob rule.

5.
The first woman known to have been legally put to death

in Delaware was a Catherine Bevans, who lived with her husband

near New Castle. According to a Wilmington Journal-Every-Evening

story published April 27, 1935, her fate is known because of

a story published in 1731 in the Pennsylvania Gazette published

Catherine Bevans and her lover were found guilty of
murdering her husband. The lover testified for the state and
was given what was considered to be the more humane sentence:
hanging. Catherine Bevans was burned at the stake in New Castle
on September 10, 1731.

Franklin's paper repabted that the death warrant was

signed by Lt. Gov. Gordon of the "province of Pennsylvania

that she would be strangled rather than burned to death, the
rope baba promptly and she fell screaming and struggling into
the flames. | |

The offense don whith she was punished had its curious
features, indicating a possible simple-mindedness in the

transparency of her plotting. The story is that when she had

hand, who was her lover, beat and strangled Mr. Bevans and the
ba f
woman went to her neighbors with the report that her husband

was having a fatal fit. When the neighbors accompanied her

= oe

a ee Me Ty ee eer eL
BEVAN, Catha rine and MURPHY, Peter, executed New Castle,
re AS Wee eee 7° §e) Wels C) i ote
csi Pedenappenen Septenber 10,. 1751. Sy es
Ai. nee Wee os | easy :

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,

LEGAL EXECUTIONS IN DELAWARE

by
I. M. H. Brandner

| Prepared in 1954-55 for a seminar in criminology under :
E 7 ‘Dr. Thorsten Sellin, Chairman of the Department of Sociology, ~— “id
Graduate School of Arts & Sciences, University of Pennsylvania.

ERO MAES gl ER oe ae een ee ee

Revised in 1956.

ot sign hig be pie sotmde jp Wiebe

2
i
4

Thursday, January 25, 1996, Page A3

tates’ death-penalty choices vary

* Three different methods to be used in three recent
and pending executions: injection, shooting, hanging

Asendal Press

In a matter of 24 hours, ending
tomorrow, three men are to be exe-
cuted, each in a different way — a
lethal injection, a hanging and final-
ly a shot through the heart.

Billy Bailey, 49, this morning
was awaiting the nation’s third
hanging since 1965.

He was to be hanged on outdoor
wooden gallows after climbing 19
steps to a platform with a trapdoor
15 feet above the ground. He killed
an elderly couple in 1979 at their
{uumhouse.

Bailey was sentenced to hang
before Delaware changed its meth-
od of execution to injection in June
1986. He could have chosen to die
by injection, but said he chose

hanging.

Three other states allow hanging
— Montana, New Hampshire and
Washington, where two murderers
were hanged in 1993 and 1994. Be-
fore that, the last hangings in the
United States were in Kansas in
1965, when four murderers were
executed. Among them were Rich-
ard Eugene Hickock and Perry Ed-
ward Smith, the subjects of Truman
Capote’s book In Cold Blood.

If all goes according to plan in
Salt Lake City tomorrow, John Al-
bert Taylor will eat a pizza, smoke
a cigarette, then be strapped into a
chair and shot through the heart for
the rape and murder of 11-year-old
Charla King in 1989.

The firing squad is Utah’s sec-

ond method of execution since the
state outlawed hanging in 1983.
And if a bill being introduced
this month in the Utah Legislature
becomes law, the 36-year-old Taylor
may be the last person in the Unit-
ed States executed by firing squad.
At a time when only unusual
executions receive much media

scrutiny, Taylor’s case is attracting

attention around the world and is
renewing a controversy over capital
punishment that involves history,
religion and high emotions on all
sides.

The debate over the right to exe-
cute didn’t stop the execution by
injection Tuesday of the man who
killed Virginia Goebel, a 32-year-old
convenience store clerk and mother
of two during a 1985 robbery in
Virginia Beach.

The drugs were injected through

the top of Richard Townes a ee!
right foot after a 22-minute delay by
medical personnel trying to find a
vein large enough to insert the nee-
dle.

Townes, 45, represented himself
at trial after dismissing two court-
appointed attorneys in a protest
over the low pay given to lawyers
who represent indigent clients. Dur-
ing the sentencing phase of his 1986
trial, Townes offered no mitigating
evidence, questioned no witnesses
and did not address the jury.

Townes might have avoided a
death sentence if he had told jurors
he was ineligible for parole because
of 29 felony convictions. Two of the
jurors submitted affidavits last
weekend saying they wouldn’t have
called for the death penalty if they
had known.

f «*

sreh”

~etbrili Yeah

OMARLES PONLI.

PONZI, “FINANCIAL
WIZARD ” INDICTED

Fiorida Grand Jury Alleges
“Declaration Of Trust”

Violation.

Butler Taken Through
Delaware Mob After
Speedy Trial.

DAZED CROWD QUIET
AS MAN IS REMOVED

Transfer Effected By Po-
lice With Aid Of Soldiers.
Mob Scene Earlier.

* Lhem e Steff Corretpondent. ]
Gporgetown, Del, Feb.
Butleg, Negro, was sentenced to be
hanged on February 26 following bis
conficion here late thin afternoon of |
criujinally attacking Fleanor gga

ion Japnary 21, near Bridgeville,

Under cover of machine guns 4

by bhbee battalions of Delaware Na-|

ticapal, Guardsmen, the Negro wan es-
corted by State policemen through
7, | persons, who surged against a
ber wire barrier erecte@ around the
gouarthouse, placed in an automobile and
speeded to the New (Castle County
Workhouse, where he will be held until
the day of the execution.

* ed Of Trial Dases Cro

ptnesa of the fury in réaching
a , the court in Imposing tence
and policemen in hurrying the pris

m the courtroom and grounds
crowd outside temporarily dazed.
was well on his way to New

FA AE wo we Bw PO

AS 7,000 WAIT

%. —- Harry

For

| 000 Expended Above

In epite of the faet that the organic
Jaw of Porto Rico apectfically provides
that the Legislature shall never appro
priate in excere of estimated revenue,
the Inw hes heen disregarded. It fs
this fact, much ga anything elne,
recording to critica of the insular ad-
ministration, which is responsible for
the situation in which the island now
| finds itself,

The organic Jaw referred to in the
Jones act, passed by Congress in 1917,
| which extended nm greater ahare of self-
Since 1900
until the paxsage of this law, the island
had been governed almoat entirely by
an executive council composed of off-
csals appointed by and responaible to
the President of the United States.
|The new organic law granted American
citizenship to Porto Ricans, created a
Legislature clected by the people, and
throngh the Legislature allowa the
people more voice in the enactment ef
lawe.

jkovernment to Porto Rico.
|

Powers Of Geoverner.

To protect the island from explokta-
tion, through political or other pressure
on the Legislature, however, Congress
has provided for a Governor and an an-
ditor appointed by the President and
clothed with discretionary powers over
the Legislature.

|
'

Porte ‘Rico ine
Last Year Reported
To Have Exceeded IT ncome

Inquiry Inte Financial Administration Reveals $4.20

Estimated Revenue In

11925—Deficit. $2,000, 000.

eee +

Ry JORN FF. BOYLAYN.
ARTICLE 11

cited provisions in the organie lew are

expected to guard the welfare of Porto

Rieo from
winistretion,
According to the Agricutturists’ Ae
sociation antl the Chamber of Com-
merece, nene of thege Mifequarda has
protected the islam fram legislstion
originating among Tevet potition) leaders,
They refer to alleged violations of the
law during the last two years, under
Gov, Horace M. Towner, to wapport the
contentions of failmve to protect.
Examination of Wgisiative and ad-
ministrative acts during this time re
veale that the government bas been
virtually bankrupt, members of these
organisations declare, despite the pro
tection to the island which the Jones
act sought te insure.
When the Porte Rican Legislature
met to adept a bndget for last year,

unwise legislation or ad-

‘it had before ft an extinmeted revenne of

$10,100,000 for the fiscal year, ended
June 80, 1925, Regardless of thia, It
proceeded to pase a budget which was
approved by the Governor calling for
expenditures of $11,785,789.
‘Ouwtge More Than Income.

That sum was the total to be ex-
pended under the regular budget, cover-
ing ordinary expenses ef government

and stheola In addition to this regular

~ USSOLINT.
[IN PERIL |
_ PACT WITH

‘| Borah And Othe
Effect In Sena:
Threat To Gern

BRITISH SAY IT.
REPUDIATES L

Berlin, Replving
Will Display
torv Policy

{ Washington Bureaw of 1

Washington, Feb. 8.-—The
attitade of Mussolini, the
tator, as exemplified in hi
warning to Germany in the
Deputies Saturday,
friends in the United States
the Italian debt settlement.
already many who objected
tlemant because ff waa too
compared with the terme
England, and there were o*h
jected further becanse the
tion was thus granting f
form of government hostil«
can ideals, But while the
large group they did pot
final approval of the eettlen

The continued talk of the
tator, however, is attractin;
tion of Senators who were p
different in their attitude

in not ;

Position to the eettlement
many recruits through th
alone,

ET LAG

r
cons

hee

*926T-9e-2 **°BTeq ‘uUMOgeSI0Oen peSuey ‘yoeTq ‘fdasy fy

BUTLER, Harry, black, hanged Georgetown, Del., 2/26/1926

, at Georgetown,

ile

OWN, Tels Gite toe
, that che was unafraid And

TIMES, New York,
Feb, 27, 1926

yhen militiamen Had to'se
omits to hold. the crowd in chéck.:
pitlet: was, pronoutced dead

were Rose
ima Alviti
Alviti.

‘our counts
rsons and
vder a dec
stg foHow:

f tadebt-
filing a

ind
"Gil wwe

inde bted-
rom the
\ttorney-

for mile

indebted-

e fee of
“ust.
‘ount.
ment vpon
ce of two
> & fine of

ad jury re-
‘ge Georre
+ for Ponzi

id to be in
igi bond,

a alz
e fallowing
‘he Massa-
vors, Alviti

uly known

# specie

fa verdict, the court In hnposing se

SLAOMSE, WACOM (GS 2A 8 tumors Alu
to the New Casti«
uge, where he will be ba

im of the axecuticn.

Suped Of Trial Dasex Cro
Pregaptness of the fury in

and the policemen in hurrying th
oner from the conrtroom and 2 er
left the crowd outside temporarily: damd,.
The Megro was well on bis way to New
Oastle before 2 majority of the crowd
gramped the cignificence of what had
taken place.

The order in the courtroem when sen-
tence was promonnced and the quiet-
ness of the crowd outside when the prix
oner was taken away aurprised cenrt of-
Scials and the National Guardemen,
since earlier in the afternoor’ tear

to prevent a concerted rush to get in-

side the courtroom.

Appiawee (Greets Mint For peed.
Ae outburst of applause also had

occurred enriier in the courtroom. This

came when Clarence A, Sutheriand, At-

tornay-General of Delaware, ended his

yb ‘ered duteidé ‘awaiting your ver-

mat the storm of applanse that swept
the cogrtroom. two of the jarora foined.
Defense counsel were on their feet in a
flash objecting strenuously, The court
ordered Mr. Sutherland’s remarks
stricken from the record,

Verdict Im Eight Minates.

The jury brought in its verdict of
guilty after deliberating only eight |
minutes. Within
sentence had been paseed. Hutler then
was ordered delivered to the Sheriff of
New Castle county, who wil] hold him
in the county workhouse unt!) the date
set for the execution. ©n that day he
will be torned over to the Sheriff of
Suesex county and hanged in the at
Georgetown.

The clash between the National
Guardsmen and the crowd occurred
shortly after court had reconvened fol-
lowing the noon recess, It was pre
cipitated by the arrest of a man, sata
to have been drunk, and was actuated
by 2 simple desire on the part of hun-
dredm tp get into the courtroom rather
than by a desire to get possession of
the acensed Negro.

Crowd Sstorme Barrier. *

Following the arrest of the men,
about 2,000 persoms, mostly ‘men.
atormed the wire barrier. Capt. Fred
Marvil, of Laurel, adjutant at the mili-
tary headquarters here, addressed the
crowd, assuring the milling men that
all] who cculd be admitted to the coart-
room would be allowed to go in at the
proper time He hegred them to make

sium=m 1.)

(Centineed om Page 8, Column 8.)

louse

V otes Ban

ch g Evolution Theory

(on

bombs had to be haried into the crowd | he {x overruled by the Governor.

thirty-five minutes is left undecided.

SRD 4jorTe TO “en = *
lawe
Pewers 9° <cwverner.

To protect the island irom -xylsata-!

[tion through political or other prewure

the Legislature. however, Congress

ditor appointed br the President amd
the Legislature.

The Gevergor is given che cower: off!
vetoing any measure paseed 37 the f
Legislature. If the Lan paaere
the law over thie veto the ‘“lorarusr
has the right of appeal te Weshingten. }
The aoditor ia given she vower <> ~®
which in hie opinion are iinproper.
the
auditor has the right of appeal to the
President,

In addition to theme provisions, the
emtire insular government fs under the
supervigion of the War Department's
Bureau of Insular Affairs, To this
jwureay ail reports and legistattve
ate forwarded, Ae x tinal wating
ing provision Congress bas reserved te
right to vete any igw paseed by the
Porte Rican Legislature. To detect
insular legiglation or edmintetretien
which needs Congressional sttention, the
island in under the juriedietion of the
House Committee on Insular Affairs.

Polftten! Status Undecided.
‘ Tntil such time as Porto Rico has
demonstrated its capacity for m)£gov-
ernment, the political status of the island
In the meantime the

>
f
, _ i
has provided for 2 Governor and 2a an |

clothed with discretionary powers over {ing antipary expenses of gorernment

be Aecording to
fuse any expenditures from the Treasury | Loegisdatere relied on the collection of
it! delinquent tuxes and repayments from

VOR RAR fae weal year.
eine 32, 825% desardiews of :
_peacteded io pace a oudget which was
\ approved by the Gowernor calling for
‘ axpendituces of $14,735,739.

Owtge Mere Thaw Income.
That oom was the total to be ex-
| gondied amder the regular budget, cover-

Ped

lend sahiegia. In addition to this regular
ouaigeet, extraerdinary appropriations
| ware added, beinging total expenditures
for the pear to $14,396,434, or approxi-
mately $6,200,000 in excesa of estimated
) PORTE,

ngular offielals, the

municipalities and capital aceounts to
bridge the gap between the $10,100,000
estimate of revence provided by law
and the appropriations.

At the beginnimg of the year there
was a $2,000,000 deficit in the Treas

Bagg ot Reegparope ted

ibe itty tiie jeosine Fake
000, With the collection of off nnpaid
taxes Gurtag the year, after payment of
the $2,000,000 Iman, there would have
still been ‘approximately 88,100,000
more expended than wowild have been
collected, if the $10,160,000 revenue
forecast bad been realized.
Nearly 96,000,900 Shy.

Actually, the svenue collected

amounted to only $8,480,741.27. During

1Contineed on Page 18. Colemn 2.)

$25,000 FOR CHILD'S
ARM, CRUSHED BY CAR

Award Made By Brooklyn
Jury To Girl, Run Over
By Auto.

New York, Feb. 8 (Special).—A jury
in the Supreme Court in Brooklyn
returned a verdict of $25,000 in favor
of 44-year-old Antoinetta Miele, of
Brooklyn, today, for toss of her right
arm.

The verdict was against the J. and &.
Garage. The child was passing the
garage. Mav 16, Iaat, when on anto-
mobile becrme stalled on a runway lead-
ing into the garage and backed acrosg
the sidewalk, running over her and
crushing her arm vo that it had to be
amputated. Her father, Vincenzo
Miele, wax awarded $5,000 for expenses
incurred | in her behalf.

Crossing Guard Cides Life

B. & O<. Watchman At Takoma
Park And Child Crushed By
Locomotive.

Washington, Feb. 8 (43.—Alevander

Dunn. 68 years old, crossing watchman

COOLIDGE NEARLY HIT
BY AUTO AT CROSSING

Has Narrow Escape As Truck
Dashes By—Saved By
Guards.

Washington, Feb. 8 (Special).—
President Coolldge's inability to dodge
| automobile traffie caneed him again
‘tonight narrowly to escape injury when
/a large truck dashed by him as he was
crossing Fifteenth street near the
| Treasury. Secret Service men pre-
vented hom from stepping toward the
moving vebicle.

The President was neariy hit some
time ago and his guards now escort
him with care acrogs the crowded down-
town streets.

Bodies Of Man And Woman
Missing Since Dec.13 Found

®neaght Refuge In Ravine From

Trying To Rescue Boy, 9

Storm And Were Burted Cader

| Fifteen Feet Of Snow.

| Seotta Bluff, Neb.. Feb. 8 U).—The
‘bodies of Gladys Dunbar and J. E.
| Shea, missing since the snowstorm of
| December 13, was found this afternoon

—T 4 ¥.

4;
aia 1
¢

reg

different in their attitads.
position te the
many recruitze threagh thir
alone. |
Rerah (CPitieiee, tye
Muasolini’s addrete, regn ri:
politiea! circies as practisily
war against Germany is p
munition for those why ox
World Court and Senator Bo
man of the Foreign Relation
tee, was emphatic today in
te account. Said the Idahe
“Mussolini's speech onght
us to consider carefully w
should connive at such peli
tending financial favors, |
fectly clear that Mussolini |
im liberty, in free speech ar
Hamentary govermment, that
in. war spon the slightest py

a AM not “ant io belong’ &
ret whieh hie Govwerninerit ie +

I do not wanf to be « mar
court of which he is a mem.
Government, and I do not -¥:
tle any debts which he ov)
cents on the dollar and the
in sixty-two yeurs,

“If Ytaly wants that kin
crament and that kind of po!
ja none of our concern, bat
concern when It comes to
tlon which favors them or c
with them.”

kind of talk indulged in oy
leader would bring no good ic)
here.

“T was desirous of 3
settlement being mace
feel disposed to support the
reached between the gsovern
said. “However, { cannot !
with some regret apon [hie
tatorial policy of Maussoli-
American people believe the
make preparationa for milira —
they may hesitate to appre. |
ment which relieves Ita} yar! |

eat 3
wira

(Centinued on ane 13,6 |

Proposed La
‘Noted V

Historian Says Secor
Are Affected—
Racial

Richmond, Va. Feo > |
Claiming the racial integrty
duced in the Legisiature s

| by George Fox, of Bayard. The bodies

ago. would classify as “co!

aa 4:

7" wa wd Ow

Kea ahrough Crowd

0, Outside Court,
¢ Speedy Trial.
pected iodo

GUARD PRISONER |

fected By Police, Aided |

‘tia—Preceeded By
iotous Scene,

nued from Page i.) \.

oftear down the wire bar
st was unheeded. There-
o¥ the soldiers -donned gas
hurled about twenty-four
rom the upper windows of
se into the erowd. Three
nd oR young woman were
he fumes and a number of
and beys were knocked
ompled in the rash of the
‘pe the gas,
v7 Made Sertowaly 111,
guardsmen affected by the
eported in a serious condl-
He was Private Eugene

3 ta ngton, a member of
Vy ndred and’ Ninety:
raft Artillery. We wae

(8 mask, he said, when the
ere thrown into the crowd.

’ his lungs and hen had

Smallwood was 2 to |

tonight.
‘orden Massey,
Sattery G, was made ill for
* by the fumes, Private
1ef, also of Dover and of
was made slightly 117.

: woman who was a#ffected
x is Miss Bianche S'rman.
aughter of the recorder of
IkReX county. t

dred iiet Inside.

}fumes had blown, awny,
crowd surged back to the
again, awaiting unother

tg inside.

hundred persons succeeded
neide during the court re-
15 until 2.30 P.M. When
feonvened, the guardsmen
-mpt to force back into the

who had gotten Inside.
v eseorted them acroas the
‘ard and out through a rear

Follows Conviction.

‘o hours after sentence had
d, the Courthouse Sqbare
* deserted, the wire rrier

>me ind the National
had No further dis-
mpt synching are ferred

rities.

Ta square In the center of the

of Dover,

$B that actos

ORS FUtNDAY

| courtroom in whieh the trial was held |

lt9 om the second fucr. It has a senting |
eapacity of about 300. The three ma-
| chine-gun batteries of Netional Guards-
|men pitched camp at the Courthouse |
| Sunday night and erected the barbed. |
wire barricade.
Machine Gums Mounted.
Machine guns were mounted behind |
sand bags on the Courthouse grounds at |
the four cornera of the building. Ma-'
chine guns afao were moygnted om the.
four corners of the roof.
men were commanded by Major S. B. I.
Duncan. ,
When court opened at 10 o'clock:
more than 0 persons, of whom only
twenty were women, had been admitted
to the courtroom on passer. On the)
bench were Chief Justice James Penne- |
will’ and Associate Judges W. Watson |
Harrington and Chartes G. Richards, |

city. The |

The quards- | of

‘ee

Oamel J. Layton had heen appointed
by the court to represent Batler.

An Sour, was «pent in eeleeting the
j Three proepective jnrers were!
challenged by the Jefenge and two by
the State. Mr Sutherigad then made
the opening tddress, deecribing the at-

tack as charged ax ‘the moet horrible

yy wee

it
mitted as evidence. In the confession

Butler admitted the attack, but said
that he was drunk at the time and did

aver perpetrated in Sussex county.”

Gist'e Parents Testify.
The fret witness was Mrs. Mabel FE.

not realize what he was doing.

Butler had been arrested in connec: |.

tion with the case because he had at- |
tempted a similar attack about thre

Steinmeta, af girl vietim. |
Mra. Steinmetz said thac on the day!
}

Moller

tise

{ the attack .he went ‘n assist her|
husband in cis work on the farm.
' Blennor was feft alone in the house.

When Mes. Steinmetz returned Eleanor
‘ald not’ be found She Inter was
found injured and unconscious in s
wordls.

Similar testimony was given by the
girl's father and neighbors, Physicians
testified that the girl’s skull was frac-

i their daughter, Mrs.

J@ry “Selected In Hour.

(tnred in five places, and poasibly seven,

years ago. E. V. B., Je.

STILLMANS FACE LONG TRIP’

Daaghter They 3eek Im Kurope In
On Way To India. H

|
|
}

bourg.

e Mr. Davison and his wife, who was
Anne Stillman, left Paris last month
for Calmatta.

In additton to Mr. Sutherland, the| =

prosecution wag represented by Deputy |
Attorney dzeneral James R. Morford, of
Wilmington, and Howard G. Cook, of
Sussex county. James M. Tunnell and

Harts Wt. Wales:
euarantre d
s0ngaters.........
Harta We. Femate
Camartes, $2.
at. Andreanherg Female *
Cawarien, 82.50

Breeding Cages, $4.75 up

Inciud! Bishop's boek with
ull tnatrnetions,
“HOW TO BREED CANARIES”

Coorg. Peede sod Su
aust otal Kinde ne

. Pet Shop

Follow the world’s dietetic
urge for active mornings
and healthy days

Eat

Quaker
Oats

Quick Guaker
Cooks in 3 to § minutese—
faster than plain toast

—Food that “stands by” you |
through the morning. |
—Food that’s excellently
“balanced” in protein, car-
bohydrates, vitamines, and
supplies the “bulk’’ that

makes laxatives less often
needed.

28,

Sp Se

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,

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"a

4
.

Sete

VAN SLAM ID

e aU Se WORT TI
9 NS, ys i) OZ oY 2, ax
: ye CELE

i) er,
HK 5 moatgneS —
4 ; Ios

BEN, slave, hanged Wilmington, DE, on September 14, 1792.

“On the 14th of September (1792) was executed in Wilmington, State of Delaware, negro
Ben, for a rape. After his condemnation, he entertained no hopes of a pardon,
acknowledging the fact, and the justice of his sentence, and shewed every mark of
sorrow and penitence. With his last breath, he dated his unhappy fate to the effects

of Rum. - May his untimely end be a warning to all its miserable votaries!”

North Carolina Journal, Halifax, NC 10/31/1792.
“To Ranier Penton, two-thirds of the appraised value of his negro slave Ben who was
convicted at August sessions last of a rape and exsecuted. 25.”

Minutes of the New Castle County Levy Court, entry dated 11/27/1792.

Metadata

Containers:: Box 8 (2-Documentation of Executions), Folder 14
Resource Type:: Document
Description:: Billy Bailey executed on 1996-01-25 in Delaware (DE)
Rights:: In Copyright - Educational Use Permitted
Date Uploaded:: June 28, 2019

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