UN'ESECUZIONE IN TEXAS ED UNA IN GEORGIA

WASHINGTON, 7 MAG - Duplice esecuzione, martedi', negli Stati Uniti: in Texas, nel carcere di Huntsville, e' stato messo a morte un ex evaso che nel 1991 violento' e uccise una donna; in Georgia, un'iniezione letale ha concluso la vita dell'uomo che da piu' tempo viveva nel braccio della morte negli Usa.

In Texas e' stato messo a morte Roger Dale Vaughan, 48 anni, un ex elettricista che, dopo essere evaso, derubo', violento' e uccise Dora Watkins, una donna di 66 anni.

Accadde il 16 ottobre 1991, a Vernon. Vaughan, che aveva gia', al momento del delitto, una lunga storia di violenze, e' stato il 14.o assassino la cui condanna capitale e' stata eseguita quest'anno nel Texas, il 303.o da quando le esecuzioni sono riprese dopo una moratoria.

In Georgia, Carl Isaacs e' stato messo a morte per essere stato complice nell'uccisione durante una rapina di sei membri di una famiglia rurale, il 14 maggio 1973, dopo che era evaso da una prigione nel Maryland.

E' morto a 49 anni, ne aveva 19 quando commise i suoi crimini. La Corte Suprema degli Stati Uniti non ha voluto bloccare l'esecuzione, anche se due giudici (su nove) ritenevano inbcostituzionale un'esecuzione dopo cosi' tanto tempo.

La sua vicenda ispiro' il film del 1988 'Murder One', con James Wilder nella parte di Isaacs.

07-MAG-2003

TEXAS - Jail escapee convicted of murder is executed

A former electrician with an extensive criminal past was executed Tuesday for killing a 66-year-old woman after he had escaped from the Lubbock County Jail. Roger Dale Vaughn smiled, laughed and mouthed to relatives that he loved them, but he had no final statement.

Instead Vaughn asked a prison chaplain to read Psalm 103, which talks about God's compassion and repeatedly uses and ends with the phrase, "Praise the Lord, oh my soul."

Just before the lethal drugs began to take effect, he said, "My hand is about to pop down here," turning his head toward his left hand, where a needle was inserted. He gasped and sputtered and was pronounced dead at 6:26 p.m., 10 minutes after the lethal drugs began.

Among the witnesses were the victim's 2 sons and a daughter.

Vaughn, 48, was a trusty at the jail more than 11 years ago when he fled, stole a car and three days later was arrested for strangling and raping Dora Watkins during a burglary of her home in Vernon, about 150 miles west of Lubbock.

The U.S. Supreme Court refused in February to review Vaughn's capital murder case and no late appeals were filed to try to block the execution.

"He's just a mean fellow," said Dan Mike Bird, the Wilbarger County district attorney who convinced a jury Vaughn should be put to death.

"I've never murdered anybody," Vaughn insisted last week in an interview on death row. "I just fit the bill."

Vaughn was being held on forgery and robbery charges in Lubbock when he fled the county jail Oct. 14, 1991.

"I got stupid and walked off," he said.

He tracked down a friend, convinced him he had been paroled, then got the friend drunk, knocked him out and stole his truck and money. He drove east to Electra, midway between Wichita Falls and Vernon, and tried to call Watkins' son, an acquaintance, to get some money. Instead, he reached Dora Watkins and made arrangements to stop by the next day.

Vaughn said he visited the victim, then left.

"I didn't know the woman died," he said from prison, contending he later picked up a hitchhiker who left a package in his car. Inside the package, he said, were jewelry, credit cards and a checkbook belonging to Watkins.

"I hocked the rings," he said. "I needed money. I wrote a couple of checks."

Watkins, badly beaten about the head, strangled with a cloth and raped, was found dead in her kitchen by people showing up for a church meeting at her house.

"Anybody who saw what I saw when I went into that kitchen would have made the same decision I made," Bird said, explaining why he sought the death penalty in the case. "It was a war scene in there in the kitchen."

Evidence showed Vaughn pawned the jewelry, including Watkins' wedding ring, in Wichita Falls and cashed several checks. One pawnbroker who refused to lend him money wrote down his license plate number, which was tracked to the stolen car.

"I was smoking crack, I wasn't in full control," Vaughn said of his arrest Oct. 17, 1991, a day after the slaying. "I was a sitting duck.

"There were some stupid moves I made ... stupid blunders, no reason why. Just stupidity," he said.

Bird disputed Vaughn's contention someone else was responsible for the slaying, saying evidence pointed to Vaughn.

"The most damning evidence is she had a bite on her face and that bite absolutely matched with his teeth impression," the prosecutor said. "I didn't know at the time, but learned through this case that bite marks are a lot like fingerprints."

Vaughn was court martialed from the Army for being AWOL and discharged for character and behavior disorders. In 1977 he received 10 years probation for burglary in Gray County, in the Texas Panhandle. The probation was revoked when he assaulted 2 people with a knife.

In 1986, he was convicted of receiving stolen property in Wyoming, but got off with probation. The same year, he got up to 5 years for forgery in that state. He was back in Texas in August 1991 when he was arrested in Lubbock, where he was in jail when he escaped.

Vaughn becomes the 14th condemned inmate to be put to death this year in Texas and the the 303rd overall since the state resumed capital punishment on Dec. 7, 1982. Vaughn becomes the 64th condemned inmate to be put to death in Texas since Rick Perry became governor in 2001. Vaughn becomes the 31st condemned inmate to be put to death this year in the USA and the 851st overall since America resumed executions on January 17, 1977.

GEORGIA - Carl Isaacs executed for Alday murders

A man who helped kill 6 members of a farm family during a burglary to fuel his escape from a Maryland prison camp was executed Tuesday, 30 years after his crime shook a community.

Carl Isaacs, 49, was given a lethal injection at the state prison in Jackson for orchestrating the Alday family killings at their southwest Georgia home on May 14, 1973. Appeals kept him on death row longer than anyone else in the nation.

The Supreme Court refused to grant a last-minute stay, although Justices John Paul Stevens and Stephen Breyer said the court should have agreed to consider Isaacs' claim that it was unconstitutional to execute him after his long imprisonment. Justice Clarence Thomas, a native of Georgia, did not participate.

Isaacs was pronounced dead at 8:07 p.m.

The killings near Donalsonville prompted more residents to buy guns, sparked legislation that requires victims' families to be notified of developments in death penalty cases and inspired the 1988 movie "Murder One," starring James Wilder as Isaacs.

Over the years, Isaacs' lawyers argued that publicity prevented him from receiving a fair trial and tried to explain his actions by shedding light on his abusive childhood in Baltimore. A retrial ended in the same verdict and sentence.

His final appeal was rejected Tuesday after Isaacs' lawyer said a minister's opening prayer at the retrial prejudiced the jury against him.

Relatives of the Aldays never wavered in their public push for Isaacs to be executed. The repeated delays angered them; some relatives died waiting for the execution. Three members of the family were witnesses.

In his final days, Isaacs, through his lawyer, offered remorse for the killings, saying he was not the same hotheaded person who committed the crime at 19.

The Alday family was unmoved, citing Isaacs' own boastful words in a series of 1975 prison interviews.

"I'd like to get out and kill more of them," he said at the time. "They represent the type of society I don't like. I didn't know them, had never seen them before May 14, but I didn't like them. Working people don't do a damn thing for me."

Isaacs, during the interviews, compared himself to notorious 1930s outlaw John Dillinger.

The Aldays were shot to death as they returned home for lunch.

Ned Alday was gunned down along with 3 sons, a brother and a daughter-in-law, who was raped and then taken to a field where she was shot in the head. Prosecutors called the slayings the most gruesome in the state's history.

Isaacs declined an opportunity to make a final statement, but did ask for a final prayer. After the prayer he mouthed "Amen."

After the prayer, Isaacs scanned the room, looking at witnesses. Then the chemicals started pumping, his cheeks puffed, his breathing fluttered and his eyes began to close, although they never closed completely.

"There were many who thought this wouldn't happen," said Attorney General Thurbert Baker. He described the execution as a "final chapter in the case."

It was the 1st time in state history that Georgia officials allowed members of the victims' family to witness the execution.

At the time of the murders, Isaacs was on the run from authorities after having escaped from a minimum-security prison camp in Wicomico County, Md. 2 other men are serving life sentences for the murders. A 3rd was released from prison in 1993.

A friend from Baltimore will pick up the remains, state officials said. The execution had been scheduled for 7 p.m. and the delay was partly attributable for the U.S. Supreme Court's deliberations.

There was no one from Isaacs family present at the execution. His attorney and 2 ministers, who visited with him in the hours before his death, were witnesses.

Isaacs becomes the 2nd condemned inmate to be put to death this year in Georgia and the 33rd overall since the state resumed capital punishment in 1983.

Isaacs becomes the 32nd condemned inmate to be put to death this year in the USA and the 852nd overall since America resumed executions on January 17, 1977.