Abdullah T. Hameen, 37,
received the injection at the Delaware Correctional Center just
after midnight as punishment
for the murder of Troy Hodges in 1991.
Hameen's execution came after several appeals were filed Thursday by his attorneys and supporters seeking to have his death sentence commuted to life in prison. The appeals were rejected by the state superior and supreme courts.
"It was a long shot," defense attorney John Malik said.
Hameen's supporters argued that he had become a model inmate and mentor to other prisoners and at-risk youngsters.
But prosecutors and some members of the state Board of Pardons were troubled by his long and violent criminal career, during which he killed 2 men and shot and seriously wounded 2 others.
Some also doubted that his conversion from hardened criminal to peace- loving activist was genuine, noting prison writings in which he blasted the criminal justice system as racist and oppressive.
Hameem becomes the 13th condemned inmate to be put to death in Delaware since the state resumed capital punishment in 1992.
Hameem becomes the 31st condemned inmate to be put to death this year in the USA and the 714th overall since America resumed executions on January 17, 1977.
(sources: Associated
Press & Rick Halperin)
Tara Hodges, Shakeerah
Hameen and Lydia Jones came to Building 26 at
Delaware Correctional
Center near Smyrna to watch Abdullah Tanzil Hameen
die early Friday.
Hodges came to the prison's
death house to see the man who gunned down
her brother, Troy, during
a botched drug deal a decade ago.
Hameen came to see the
man with whom she was joined in marriage, a
marriage that began in
prison and ended in the execution chamber.
Jones came to see the
state of Delaware end the life of the son to whom
she gave birth 37 years
ago.
3 women, linked by tragedy,
stood in the viewing room and waited for
Abdullah Tanzil Hameen
to die.
Warden Robert Snyder stood
at Hameen's right shoulder. Deputy Warden
Betty Burris stood to
Snyder's left.
"Hameen," Snyder said,
"I'm going to ask at this time if you have any
last words or statements."
Hameen strained against
the white leather straps that held him to the
gurney, raised his head
and looked briefly at Hodges.
His head fell back on the pillow and he closed his eyes.
"Tara, I hope this brings
you comfort and eases your pain some," Hameen
said.
"Mom and Shakeerah, I
love you," he said. "I'll see you on the other
side. That's all."
Hodges clenched her jaw, her eyes fixed on Hameen.
Shakeerah Hameen's lips moved in a silent prayer to Allah.
Jones rocked back and
forth on her heels, then folded her hands in
supplication.
The lethal drugs began
to flow into Hameen's veins. He gasped, exhaling 3
times before falling
silent.
Hodges watched, her jaw still clenched.
Shakeerah Hameen prayed.
Jones wept softly.
The curtains in the death
chamber were drawn, and Snyder's voice came
through the loudspeakers
in the viewing room's ceiling.
"Hameen passed on at 12:07,"
Snyder said. "You may remove all witnesses
from the witness room,
please."
The witnesses filed out of the death house and into the clammy night air.
Jones raised her arms
and looked skyward as she was escorted to the state
car that had brought
her to Building 26. At a post-execution news
conference, Hodges told
a handful of reporters that the execution closed
a painful chapter in
her family's life.
"The nightmare, this chapter, is over," she said.
"I wanted to know he was
paying the price. This should have happened 10
years ago. I needed to
see this happen to make sure he was really dead,"
Hodges said.
"I hope it sends a message
to people that you can't kill 1, 2 or 3 times
and expect to get away
with it," she said, referring to the fact that
Hameen killed a man at
age 17 before killing Hodges in 1991.
Asked whether Hameen's
last words brought her any comfort, Hodges
replied, "It was meaningless
to me. ... I felt comfort, not from what he
said, but the act brought
me some comfort."
Shakeerah Hameen said
she attended the execution to complete an Islamic
pre-death affirmation
with her husband.
"It hurt to see my husband
die, but I know that one day, inshallah, [God
willing], I will meet
him again," she said.
(source: NewsJournal)
Hameen, born Cornelius
Ferguson, was sentenced to death in 1992 for the
murder of Troy Hodges
during a drug deal outside a Claymont mall.
He was pronounced dead
at 12:07 a.m. Friday at Delaware Correctional
Center.
Hameen's execution came
after unsuccessful last-minute appeals by his
attorney and spiritual
adviser, and unprecedented deliberations by the
state Board of Pardons,
which was impressed by his apparent conversion
but nonetheless denied
his request for clemency.
Hameen's widow, Shakeerah,
said after the execution that her husband had
demonstrated a death
row inmate could be rehabilitated.
"He was exceptionally
rehabilitated. He was a changed person," she said.
"He met the criteria
of the pardon board and he was denied."
"I think that they judged
him not by what he did (in prison), but by his
past and by the statement
of the victim's sister," she said.
Testifying before the
Board of Pardons on Wednesday, an angry Tara Hodges
blasted Hameen, describing
him as "garbage" that should be disposed of.
"You're not sorry for
killing my brother, you're just sorry that you got
caught," she told him.
"You are evil. You cannot change and you haven't
changed."
Ms. Hodges' testimony
came after the board's initial hearing and several
hours of deliberations.
The panel reconvened after being told that Ms.
Hodges wasn't notified
of the 1st hearing, at which Hameen and several of
his supporters testified.
Hameen's supporters argued
that society would have been better served by
letting him spend the
rest of his life in prison. They claimed he had
become a model inmate
and mentor to other prisoners and at-risk youths.
The state parole board
voted 3-2 last month to recommend that Gov. Ruth
Ann Minner commute Hameen's
sentence to life in prison without parole.
In the end, the Board
of Pardons concluded that Hameen had expressed true
remorse for his crimes
and made genuine attempts at rehabilitating
himself and others.
But the board said it
could not overlook the fact that he killed two men
and shot and seriously
wounded 2 others, and it did not find sufficient
justification to overturn
a jury's unanimous recommendation that he be
put to death.
A few hours later, bound
by leather belts and tape to a gurney, he spoke
his last words to Tara
Hodges, then to his wife and mother.
"Tara, I hope this brings
you comfort and eases your pain some," Hameen,
37, said before the lethal
drugs began flowing through his veins. "Mom
and Shakeerah, I love
you. I'll see you on the other side. That's all."
Ms. Hodges said she took
no comfort in Hameen's words, but only in his
death.
"I hope this deters anybody
who wants to commit a murder," she said. "We
don't have to fear him
any more."
Hameen was the 13th inmate
executed by Delaware since the state resumed
executions in 1992.
(source: Associated
Press)
The state Board of Pardons denied condemned
killer Abdullah Hameen's
request for clemency Wednesday after
the sister of his victim said he was
"garbage" and not sorry for his actions.
The board's decision after two hearings
and four days of deliberations
clears the way for Hameen's execution
early Friday at the Delaware
Correctional Center.
Hameen was sentenced to death in 1992
for murdering Troy Hodges, 22,
outside a Claymont shopping mall during
a drug deal. Mr. Hodges was one
of 4 men shot - 2 of them fatally -
by Hameen during his long criminal
career.
"It is important to deliver a clear
message that reckless, murderous
behavior like Mr. Hameen's is unacceptable,"
said Lt. Gov. John C. Carney
Jr., chairman of the pardons board.
Hameen's supporters argued that society
would be better served by having
his death sentence commuted to life
imprisonment without parole.
They say the former Cornelius Ferguson
has embraced Islam, become a model
prisoner and mentored other prisoners
and at-risk youths, encouraging
them to turn their lives around and
stay away from guns and drugs.
But Mr. Hodges' sister, Tara, told the
board that Hameen should be
disposed of "like the garbage that
he is."
"You murdered my brother in cold blood,"
she said, glaring at Hameen,
whose gaze remained focused on the
table in front of him.
"You're not sorry for killing my brother,
you're just sorry that you got
caught. You are evil. You cannot change
and you haven't changed."
Ms. Hodges, who was allowed to testify
with her mother Wednesday after
telling board members they weren't
told about the initial hearing last
Friday, referred to Hameen only by
his birth name.
"You can change your name, but you can't change who you are," she said.
While board members concluded that Hameen
truly was sorry for his crimes
and that his attempts at rehabilitation
were genuine, they said they did
not find sufficient justification to
overturn a jury's unanimous
recommendation that he be put to death.
Hameen attorney John Malik said after
the decision that his client was
resigned to his fate and did not plan
any further legal appeals.
"Abdullah is at peace with himself,"
Mr. Malik said. "The conversion that
you've heard about is not a facade.
It's genuine, and it's true. He's
prepared for what's to come."
With its decision not to grant clemency,
the board averted a showdown
with Gov. Ruth Ann Minner, a staunch
supporter of the death penalty who
would have had the final say on Hameen's
fate.
The board has not granted clemency to
any death row inmate since the
state resumed executions in 1992. Twelve
inmates have been executed since
then.
But the board said Wednesday that Hameen's
argument "cannot be easily
dismissed."
"The board has not only considered,
but accepts much of, Mr. Hameen's
petition," members said in a prepared
statement. "In other words, the
board does believe that there may be
death penalty cases which merit a
commutation."
The board concluded, however, that Hameen's
good conduct in prison did
not outweigh his bad conduct as a criminal.
"Even among death row inmates, the nature
of Mr. Hameen's rap sheet
stands out," the board said.
Ron Hosterman, the treatment administrator
in charge of the prison's
inmate programs, gave vague answers
when asked by board members to define
extraordinary rehabilitation.
"Off the top of my head, I can't recite
a litany," he said. "I haven't
seen that in practice yet."
Asked by Lt. Gov. Carney whether rehabilitation
was a purpose of inmate
programs, Mr. Hosterman replied, "That
may happen."
Mr. Malik blasted Mr. Hosterman's testimony,
calling him "ill-informed"
and saying he appeared to be more of
an advocate for Hameen's execution
than an objective observer.
But Tara Hodges scoffed at the notion
that Hameen deserved clemency
because he was a model prisoner.
"You should have been a model citizen," she said.
(source: Associated Press)
The state Board of Pardons heeded the
impassioned pleas
Wednesday of the sister and mother
of murder victim Troy Hodges,
denying the commutation application
of condemned killer Abdullah
T. Hameen.
The board’s action, which came after
more than 11 hours of
deliberation spanning four days, clears
the way for Hameen’s
execution early Friday at Delaware
Correctional Center near
Smyrna.
Hameen, 37, showed no emotion as the
decision was announced.
His lawyer said afterward that Hameen
“is at peace with himself”
and prepared for death.
Tara Hodges, Troy Hodges’ sister, flashed
a triumphant smile when
she heard the words that sealed Hameen’s
fate.
“Finally, justice after 10 years,”
Hodges said after returning to her
home in Boothwyn, Pa.
Hameen and his legal team had said his
death sentence should be
commuted to life without parole because
his rehabilitation had
been extraordinary.
Hodges, 29, was prepared for the worst.
“I was ready to be crushed,” she said.
But when the decision was
announced, she had difficulty controlling
her emotions.
“I was ready to jump up,” Hodges said.
“I felt that my brother is
finally going to be able to rest in
peace.”
Hodges’ argument and her mother’s account
of how her son’s
murder affects her life to this day
were bolstered by testimony from
a prison official who characterized
Hameen’s progress as “meeting
the norm” – but not exceeding it.
“It does not strike me as extraordinary,”
Ron Hosterman, director
of treatment at the prison, told the
board Wednesday.
But it was the Hodges’ testimony that
riveted the attention of the
board members and the spectators who
had gathered in a
windowless hearing room at the prison
to witness the hearing’s
conclusion.
Tara Hodges, who had never seen the
man who gunned down her
brother during an aborted drug deal
at Tri-State Mall in 1991,
pursed her lips as the shackled inmate
was brought into the
room.
She stood at the lectern and glared
directly at Hameen, who was
seated only a few feet to her right.
“You did this. You murdered my brother
in cold blood,” Hodges
said, her voice quavering. “You are
evil, and you cannot change. …
You can change your name, but you can’t
change who you are,”
Hodges said. Hameen changed his name
from Cornelius Ferguson
when he converted to Islam in prison.
Hodges’ mother, Ann Hodges, said her
life has been empty since
her son’s slaying.
“My children were my life. Happiness?
That’s not in my vocabulary
anymore,” she said.
The board cited four reasons for denying
the application: Hameen’s
“extremely violent criminal history,”
which included a murder in
Pennsylvania and at least two shootings;
the jury’s 12-0 vote for
death; Hameen’s access to a range of
legal appeals; and the
impact on the victim’s family.
“The board is convinced that the public’s
confidence in our system
of justice is paramount and believes
that it is important that it
deliver a clear message that reckless,
murderous behavior like Mr.
Hameen’s is unacceptable,” the board
said in a written
statement.
Tara Hodges said she will witness the execution.
John S. Malik, Hameen’s lawyer, said
he would not file any further
appeals.
SMYRNA — Delaware's Board of Pardons
today denied Abdullah Tanzil Hameen's petition for a sentence commutation
to life without parole,
clearing the way for his execution
Friday.
The denial came after the sister and mother of murder victim Troy Hodges urged the 5-member board to allow the execution.
Tara Hodges said neither she nor her
mother, Ann Hodges, was aware of last
Friday's Board of Pardons hearing until
after it had taken place.
The board agreed to reconvene today
after Tara Hodges spoke with the
board's chairman, Lt. Gov. John C.
Carney Jr.
The board deliberated Friday, Monday and Tuesday without reaching a decision.
Hameen is scheduled to die by injection shortly after midnight Friday for the 1991 shooting death of Troy Hodges during a drug deal at the Tri-State Mall near Claymont.
The News Journal at www.delawareonline.com
(source: NewsJournal)
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