softheart
06-04-2004, 01:06 AM
Posted on Fri, Jun. 04, 2004
Appeals court grants stay of execution for federal prisoner
DEANNA WRENN
Associated Press
INDIANAPOLIS - An appeals court has blocked the scheduled execution of a convicted killer under the federal death penalty law, which has been rarely used since its restoration in 2001, the inmate's attorney said Thursday.
David Paul Hammer, convicted of killing a cellmate in a Pennsylvania penitentiary, was scheduled to be executed by injection Tuesday at the federal prison in Terre Haute, Ind.
But with the federal appeals court in Philadelphia issuing a stay, Hammer will challenge the death sentence in the Williamsport, Pa., federal court where he was convicted, his attorney said.
It was not immediately known if the appeals court planned to explain its order in a written opinion.
Only three federal prisoners, including Timothy McVeigh for the Oklahoma City bombing, have been executed since the restoration of the federal death penalty in 2001 after a 38-year suspension.
Hammer, 45, has vacillated over whether to fight execution, telling a U.S. district judge in January that he did not want to appeal. The judge agreed, allowing him to waive any appeals. Hammer later changed his mind.
Defense lawyer David A. Ruhnke argued last Thursday before a three-judge panel of the 3rd U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals in Philadelphia that Hammer was being put to death only because the lower court judge happened to hear from him on a day he wanted to die.
Department of Justice lawyers said Hammer has been manipulating the system with frequent flip-flops. They wanted the appeals court to abide by his January declaration.
Hammer pleaded guilty in 1998 to the 1996 slaying of cellmate Andrew Marti at the Allenwood Federal Penitentiary outside Williamsport, and a jury sentenced him to death.
Hammer, a native of Oklahoma, was serving a sentence for escaping from an Oklahoma state prison in the early 1980s. He had 1,223 years remaining on a sentence in that state for crimes including kidnapping and attempted murder.
Ruhnke has said Hammer's confession on the day of the crime does not fit with the autopsy findings, and has suggested that Marti's strangulation death could have occurred accidentally during sex play.
Hammer, in his confession, said he killed Marti because Marti had shown him disrespect.
Hammer served time with McVeigh on death row at the Terre Haute prison before McVeigh's execution in 2001.
Attorneys for Oklahoma City bombing conspirator Terry Nichols had hoped to call Hammer as a defense witness at Nichols current trial in McAlester, Okla., because of Hammer's claims that McVeigh had told him the names of others allegedly involved in the plot.
The judge in Nichols' trial, however, restricted defense testimony on such conspiracy allegations.
The state jury convicted Nichols of 161 counts of first-degree murder on May 26. That case now is in the sentencing phase in which the jury must decide whether Nichols deserves the death penalty.
Appeals court grants stay of execution for federal prisoner
DEANNA WRENN
Associated Press
INDIANAPOLIS - An appeals court has blocked the scheduled execution of a convicted killer under the federal death penalty law, which has been rarely used since its restoration in 2001, the inmate's attorney said Thursday.
David Paul Hammer, convicted of killing a cellmate in a Pennsylvania penitentiary, was scheduled to be executed by injection Tuesday at the federal prison in Terre Haute, Ind.
But with the federal appeals court in Philadelphia issuing a stay, Hammer will challenge the death sentence in the Williamsport, Pa., federal court where he was convicted, his attorney said.
It was not immediately known if the appeals court planned to explain its order in a written opinion.
Only three federal prisoners, including Timothy McVeigh for the Oklahoma City bombing, have been executed since the restoration of the federal death penalty in 2001 after a 38-year suspension.
Hammer, 45, has vacillated over whether to fight execution, telling a U.S. district judge in January that he did not want to appeal. The judge agreed, allowing him to waive any appeals. Hammer later changed his mind.
Defense lawyer David A. Ruhnke argued last Thursday before a three-judge panel of the 3rd U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals in Philadelphia that Hammer was being put to death only because the lower court judge happened to hear from him on a day he wanted to die.
Department of Justice lawyers said Hammer has been manipulating the system with frequent flip-flops. They wanted the appeals court to abide by his January declaration.
Hammer pleaded guilty in 1998 to the 1996 slaying of cellmate Andrew Marti at the Allenwood Federal Penitentiary outside Williamsport, and a jury sentenced him to death.
Hammer, a native of Oklahoma, was serving a sentence for escaping from an Oklahoma state prison in the early 1980s. He had 1,223 years remaining on a sentence in that state for crimes including kidnapping and attempted murder.
Ruhnke has said Hammer's confession on the day of the crime does not fit with the autopsy findings, and has suggested that Marti's strangulation death could have occurred accidentally during sex play.
Hammer, in his confession, said he killed Marti because Marti had shown him disrespect.
Hammer served time with McVeigh on death row at the Terre Haute prison before McVeigh's execution in 2001.
Attorneys for Oklahoma City bombing conspirator Terry Nichols had hoped to call Hammer as a defense witness at Nichols current trial in McAlester, Okla., because of Hammer's claims that McVeigh had told him the names of others allegedly involved in the plot.
The judge in Nichols' trial, however, restricted defense testimony on such conspiracy allegations.
The state jury convicted Nichols of 161 counts of first-degree murder on May 26. That case now is in the sentencing phase in which the jury must decide whether Nichols deserves the death penalty.