KRIS_NC
11-07-2003, 01:35 PM
Friday, November 7, 2003 9:45AM EST
N.C. man executed for 1990 slaying in Edgecombe County
By ESTES THOMPSON, , Associated Press Writer
RALEIGH, N.C. (AP) - A smiling Joseph Timothy Keel thanked his supporters before he was executed by injection Friday for the 1990 slaying of his father-in-law.
The 39-year-old Keel was the fifth inmate put to death this year in North Carolina. Two more executions are scheduled and if all are carried out the total will be the highest since 1949, when 10 executions occurred.
Keel confessed to luring Johnny Simmons, with whom he lived, to the Edgecombe County hog farm where Keel worked the night of July 10, 1990. Keel shot the man in the head with a .22 caliber rifle and later told police a shot was fired from another car as it drove past.
In his last statement, Keel challenged the judge who presided over his trial for not telling jurors they could decide he acted in self-defense.
"You left out the sixth instruction, which was the self-defense instruction," said Keel. He contended in his confession that he shot Simmons a second time after he came after him with a knife.
Prosecutors said Keel was a vicious killer who plotted against Simmons and who also killed his infant son in 1986.
The defense didn't dispute the killing, but contended Keel was mentally retarded and couldn't control himself. State law bars the execution of mentally retarded people.
Defense lawyer Jay Ferguson said Keel had the mental ability of a fifth-grader and suffered mental illness from an early age because his uncles plied him with alcohol. The defense also said Keel suffered brain injuries at birth as well as when he was later hit by a steel beam.
Ferguson said an expert pegged his IQ at 70, the level below which the law defines as retarded.
But prosecutors argued that Keel's IQ was 87 and that he had shown no mental problems in prison, where he earned a high-school equivalency certificate and took religion courses.
Keel's final chance to stave off execution evaporated Thursday when Gov. Mike Easley denied a petition to change the death sentence to life in prison. Earlier, state appeals court and the U.S. Supreme Court rejected a late round of petitions from Keel.
On Thursday night, Keel ordered a last meal of fried chicken breast and wing, a biscuit, seasoned rice and a diet Coke along with a T-bone steak without the bone, mushrooms and onions, said Department of Correction spokeswoman Pam Walker.
The execution was watched quietly by four members of Simmons' family - his father, widow, sister and father-in-law. Keel's family left the prison before the execution, after visiting him much of the day, but two of his lawyers, a minister and a friend watched him die.
None of the family members had any comment.
Outside the prison, a group of more than 50 death penalty opponents held a candlelight vigil until the execution was completed.
Rhonda Zingraff of Raleigh was there with an old protest sign she had picked off the ground during a 1986 vigil during the execution of John Rook. The sign carried a quote from Camus: "Capital punishment is the most premeditated of murder."
The sign looked worn, and Zingraff said she has brought it whenever she came to an execution vigil.
"It's been out here in rain and sleet and mud," she said.
A sixth execution is scheduled next week for John Dennis Daniels, who was convicted in 1990 of killing his aunt in Mecklenburg County.
At a rally at N.C. Central University, supporters of a death penalty moratorium called on the governor to stop executions. Speakers said a moratorium was needed while the fairness of North Carolina's death penalty was studied.
The state Senate approved a moratorium bill last year and the House is expected to consider it this session.
N.C. man executed for 1990 slaying in Edgecombe County
By ESTES THOMPSON, , Associated Press Writer
RALEIGH, N.C. (AP) - A smiling Joseph Timothy Keel thanked his supporters before he was executed by injection Friday for the 1990 slaying of his father-in-law.
The 39-year-old Keel was the fifth inmate put to death this year in North Carolina. Two more executions are scheduled and if all are carried out the total will be the highest since 1949, when 10 executions occurred.
Keel confessed to luring Johnny Simmons, with whom he lived, to the Edgecombe County hog farm where Keel worked the night of July 10, 1990. Keel shot the man in the head with a .22 caliber rifle and later told police a shot was fired from another car as it drove past.
In his last statement, Keel challenged the judge who presided over his trial for not telling jurors they could decide he acted in self-defense.
"You left out the sixth instruction, which was the self-defense instruction," said Keel. He contended in his confession that he shot Simmons a second time after he came after him with a knife.
Prosecutors said Keel was a vicious killer who plotted against Simmons and who also killed his infant son in 1986.
The defense didn't dispute the killing, but contended Keel was mentally retarded and couldn't control himself. State law bars the execution of mentally retarded people.
Defense lawyer Jay Ferguson said Keel had the mental ability of a fifth-grader and suffered mental illness from an early age because his uncles plied him with alcohol. The defense also said Keel suffered brain injuries at birth as well as when he was later hit by a steel beam.
Ferguson said an expert pegged his IQ at 70, the level below which the law defines as retarded.
But prosecutors argued that Keel's IQ was 87 and that he had shown no mental problems in prison, where he earned a high-school equivalency certificate and took religion courses.
Keel's final chance to stave off execution evaporated Thursday when Gov. Mike Easley denied a petition to change the death sentence to life in prison. Earlier, state appeals court and the U.S. Supreme Court rejected a late round of petitions from Keel.
On Thursday night, Keel ordered a last meal of fried chicken breast and wing, a biscuit, seasoned rice and a diet Coke along with a T-bone steak without the bone, mushrooms and onions, said Department of Correction spokeswoman Pam Walker.
The execution was watched quietly by four members of Simmons' family - his father, widow, sister and father-in-law. Keel's family left the prison before the execution, after visiting him much of the day, but two of his lawyers, a minister and a friend watched him die.
None of the family members had any comment.
Outside the prison, a group of more than 50 death penalty opponents held a candlelight vigil until the execution was completed.
Rhonda Zingraff of Raleigh was there with an old protest sign she had picked off the ground during a 1986 vigil during the execution of John Rook. The sign carried a quote from Camus: "Capital punishment is the most premeditated of murder."
The sign looked worn, and Zingraff said she has brought it whenever she came to an execution vigil.
"It's been out here in rain and sleet and mud," she said.
A sixth execution is scheduled next week for John Dennis Daniels, who was convicted in 1990 of killing his aunt in Mecklenburg County.
At a rally at N.C. Central University, supporters of a death penalty moratorium called on the governor to stop executions. Speakers said a moratorium was needed while the fairness of North Carolina's death penalty was studied.
The state Senate approved a moratorium bill last year and the House is expected to consider it this session.