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David F. Dawson was sentenced
Friday to be executed March 9 for the 1986 stabbing death of a Kenton woman.
The sentencing came 14
years and 7 days after Dawson, who had escaped from Delaware Correctional
Center near Smyrna, broke into Madeline Marie Kisner's home and stabbed
her 12 times.
Dawson, his head bowed,
brown hair cascading over his shoulders, uttered a quiet "No, sir," when
Superior Court President Judge Henry duPont Ridgely asked him if he had
anything to say before the sentence was read.
Ridgely, who sentenced
Dawson to death after his trial in 1988 and again in 1993 after the case
was returned to Delaware by the U.S. Supreme Court, pronounced sentence
for what could be the last time.
"Between the hours of
12:01 a.m. and 3 a.m.," Ridgely said, "[Dawson] shall be taken to some
place of private execution within the prison enclosure, and then and there
... shall be injected intravenously with a substance or substances in a
lethal quantity sufficient to cause death,
until you are dead."
Ridgely omitted the traditional
closing line: "God have mercy on your soul."
Dawson, 45, whose abdomen
is tattooed with the name "Abaddon," the demon of the abyss from the Book
of Revelation, showed no emotion.
Several members of Kisner's
family attended the sentencing and left immediately afterward.
Kevin J. O'Connell, Dawson's
attorney, told Ridgely that he would file a petition with the U.S. Supreme
Court for a writ of certiorari.
O'Connell hopes the high
court will agree to review a Third Circuit Court of Appeals decision that
Dawson and 3 other inmates could be sentenced under Delaware's 1991 death-penalty
law even though they committed their crimes before the law was enacted.
If the justices refuse
to hear the case, Dawson's last hope would be for the state Board of Pardons
to recommend that his sentence be commuted to life in prison.
Such a recommendation
would leave the decision up to Gov.-elect Ruth Ann Minner. During her tenure
as head of the Board of Pardons, the board has never recommended a commutation
in a capital case.
(source: NewsJournal)
There will be a sense of deja vu when convicted murderer David F. Dawson is wheeled into the death chamber to die early Thursday at the Delaware Correctional Center.
The script is already written. Like a well-rehearsed Broadway drama, each participant knows the role he or she will perform.
"When we arrive, the person is already strapped to the gurney with the IVs already in place," said Rep. Clifford G. "Biff" Lee, R-Laurel, who has acted as an official witness in 10 of the last 11 state executions.
He said there are different groups escorted into the witness area, from official witnesses, to the victim's family, to the condemned person's family.
"Once everybody is in, Warden (Robert E.) Snyder asks the person if they have a last statement," Rep. Lee said.
"At the conclusion of their statement, things go on."
Dawson, 46, is scheduled to be executed by lethal injection shortly after 12:01 a.m. for killing Madeline M. Kisner.
Mrs. Kisner, a 44-year-old bookkeeper, was found stabbed to death in her home near Kenton. She had been bound, gagged and stabbed 12 times in the chest and neck.
Following more than 14 years of denials and lengthy appeals, Dawson finally admitted he killed Mrs. Kisner after he and three others escaped from DCC Dec. 1, 1986.
The confession came April 17 as Dawson pleaded unsuccessfully for his life in front of the state Board of Pardons.
With all appeals now exhausted, Dawson will be strapped to a gurney late tonight and moved into the execution room where he will die from a combination of lethal chemicals injected into his outstretched arm.
It is a process that's been repeated 10 times during the last decade.
There also was 1 hanging.
Chemicals cannot be injected into Dawson's arm until the clock says 12:01 a.m. because Thursday is the official date set by the court for the execution.
Regulations mandate death must occur between 12:01 and 3 a.m. on the day set by the court. The law was signed by former Gov. Thomas R. Carper in 1994 and has been on the books for the state's last 8 executions.
The executioner is an unidentified Department of Correction official who controls the chemical flow from an adjoining room. The room has a one-way window looking in to where the condemned man lies.
In the old days, an outside person was hired as executioner. During 1991, to save money, the job went to a DOC staff member.
The position is voluntary.
And while Dawson is only the 2nd inmate to be put to death in the state's new lethal-injection chamber at DCC, procedures haven't changed much since Delaware reinstated capital punishment a decade ago.
Dawson's will be the state's 12th court-ordered execution since serial killer Steven B. Pennell was put to death March 14, 1992.
Before Pennell, there had not been an execution in Delaware since 1946.
The most recent was Dwayne L. Weeks on Nov. 17, 2000.
DOC spokesperson Beth Welch said the department spends about $16,000 to put an inmate to death.
Dawson will spend his last hours with family members and clergy, if he chooses. He will have a wide choice of foods for his last meal. He will also be offered a light sedative to calm his nerves before he is strapped to the gurney.
Death will occur in a matter of minutes.
A high-ranking DOC official will appear outside just moments after Dawson dies to announce the time of his demise to the protest groups.
The new execution chamber was constructed as part of the massive expansion project recently completed at DCC.
Although lethal injection has been the law in Delaware since June 1986, there is also a gallows at the prison.
That's because the law stipulated that persons sentenced to death before 1986 have the choice of choosing death by either lethal injection or hanging.
If a choice is not made, DOC imposes hanging.
Convicted murderer Billy Bailey chose the noose and became the only inmate in 55 years to die on the gallows when he was hanged Jan. 25, 1996.
Only 1 death row inmate still has that choice. On Dec. 20, 1982, James W. Riley, 40, was sentenced to death. He has yet to receive an execution date and has not publicly stated a preference as to how he will die.
According to Mrs. Welch, 25 people were hanged in Delaware between 1902 when formal record keeping started - and 1946. Eight of the condemned were white and 17 were black.
One of the 25 was the last woman executed in the state, May H. Carey, who 20 was hanged in 1935 for murder.
(source: Newszap)
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