WASHINGTON, 11 DIC - Un uomo che, in una rapina a Tulsa nel 1990 uccise, insieme a un complice, quattro persone e' stato messo a morte con un'iniezione letale nel carcere di McAlester. La rapina frutto' 350 dollari.

Jerry Lynn McCracken, 35 anni, e' stato decretato morto alle 18.06 locali, le 01.06 italiane, cinque minuti dopo avere ricevuto l'iniezione letale. Prima di spirare, ha chiesto perdono per i suoi delitti ai familiari delle vittime, ha recitato una preghiera e ha cantato un inno religioso.

  McCracken e' la quinta persona la cui condanna a morte e' stata eseguita quest'anno in Oklahoma e la 53.a da quando le esecuzioni nello Stato sono riprese, nel 1990.

Altre due esecuzioni sono previste prima della fine dell'anno in Oklahoma.  

11-DIC-2002

McCracken executed for 4 Tulsa murders

OKLAHOMA - In McAlester, an Army veteran who killed 4 people during a 1990 robbery at a Tulsa nightclub was executed Tuesday.

 Jerry Lynn McCracken, 35, was pronounced dead at 6:06 p.m. after receiving an injection of drugs at the Oklahoma State Penitentiary.

 McCracken was convicted of 4 counts of 1st-degree murder and sentenced to die for the shooting deaths of Steve Allen Smith, 34, Tyrrell Lee Boyd, 27, Timothy Edward Sheets, 39, and Carol Ann McDaniels, 41, at the New Ferndale Lounge on Oct. 14, 1990.

 Each of the victims was shot with a .22-caliber pistol during a robbery at the bar in which $350 was taken.

 A co-defendant, David Keith Lawrence, pleaded guilty and received a sentence of life in prison plus 20 years in exchange for his testimony against McCracken.

 No members of the victims' families witnessed the execution.

 At his trial, McCracken blamed Lawrence for the murders. "I am not the one who pulled the trigger," McCracken told a jury in September 1991.

 But McCracken changed his story and admitted he was the triggerman in an interview published by the Tulsa World last year.

 "I am guilty. I have no excuse," said McCracken. "I am ready to die." McCracken was on pre-parole release from prison for a series of knife assaults when the murders occurred.

 The state Pardon and Parole Board rejected clemency for McCracken at a hearing last month where he apologized to Lawrence for talking him into helping with the robbery.

 McCracken's execution went forward after the U.S. Supreme Court denied a last-minute bid to stay the execution.

 Issues raised in McCracken's federal appeals included ineffective counsel, aggravating evidence used to support the death penalty and defective jury instructions in which a judge said McCracken was presumed "not guilty" instead of presumed innocent.

 The instruction was not objected to at trial, but the state Court of Criminal Appeals granted automatic reversals to defendants who did, according to documents filed by McCracken's attorney, David Autry.

 Autry argued that McCracken was a candidate for clemency because he suffered from personality disorders and had a predisposition to alcoholism and substance abuse. Autry said McCracken was "heavily intoxicated" when the murders occurred.

 While on death row, McCracken devoted himself to his Christian faith and corresponded with a variety of prison ministries. At his clemency hearing, McCracken said he promised God he would not cut his hair, which hangs past his shoulders and mingles with a long beard.

 2 other death row inmates are scheduled to die this month: Comanche County killer Jay Wesley Neill is scheduled to die on Thursday and Oklahoma County killer Ernest Melvin Carter Jr. is scheduled to die on Dec. 17.

 Gov. Frank Keating is considering a recommendation by the Pardon and Parole Board that Carter be granted clemency.

 McCracken becomes the 5th condemned inmate to be put to death this year in Oklahoma, and the 53rd overall since the state resumed capital punishment in 1990.

 McCracken becomes the 66th condemned inmate to be put to death this year in the USA, and the 815th overall since America resumed executions on January 17, 1977. The 66 executions ties the number of executions in the USA in 2001. As many as 6 more executions are likely to be carried out in America before the end of the year.