Gary Lee Sampson: Difference between revisions
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It is expected that it could be six or seven years before Sampson exhausts all his appeals. {{As of|2006|July}} Sampson remains on [[death row]]. On January 26, 2004, Judge Wolf said on the record (United States v Gary Lee Sampson CR 01-10384 January 26, 2004 page 21), that he found the testimony of the defense expert, Dr. Angela Hegarty to be more credible than that of the government's expert, Dr. Michael Wellner, with regards to whether the defendant suffered from Bipolar Disorder. The fact that the judge held this opinion however did not change the sentence. Not one of the jurors agreed that Sampson was mentally ill. |
It is expected that it could be six or seven years before Sampson exhausts all his appeals. {{As of|2006|July}} Sampson remains on [[death row]]. On January 26, 2004, Judge Wolf said on the record (United States v Gary Lee Sampson CR 01-10384 January 26, 2004 page 21), that he found the testimony of the defense expert, Dr. Angela Hegarty to be more credible than that of the government's expert, Dr. Michael Wellner, with regards to whether the defendant suffered from Bipolar Disorder. The fact that the judge held this opinion however did not change the sentence. Not one of the jurors agreed that Sampson was mentally ill. |
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In 2011, the death penalty decision was vacated by US District Judge Mark L. Wolf after finding that one of the jurors lied during the screening process; a federal appeals court upheld the decision. A retrial was scheduled for February 2015 but was postponed to a later date in September 2015.<ref>http://www.bostonglobe.com/metro/2014/12/23/judge-postpones-death-penalty-trial-convicted-killer-gary-lee-sampson/7zXtgKo1aMpFcIwHBDD8xJ/story.html</ref> |
In 2011, the death penalty decision was vacated by US District Judge Mark L. Wolf after finding that one of the jurors lied during the screening process; a federal appeals court upheld the decision. A retrial was scheduled for February 2015 but was postponed to a later date in September 2015. Sampson has since been transferred to a new prison in order to undergo a mental health evaluation.<ref>http://www.bostonglobe.com/metro/2014/12/23/judge-postpones-death-penalty-trial-convicted-killer-gary-lee-sampson/7zXtgKo1aMpFcIwHBDD8xJ/story.html</ref> |
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==Autobiography== |
==Autobiography== |
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Revision as of 20:13, 8 April 2015
Gary Sampson (born September 29, 1959) is a convicted murderer in Massachusetts, United States. He was raised in Abington, Massachusetts. Before Sampson's conviction for murder he had served eight years imprisonment for robbing banks and had a criminal record some 25 years long.
Offenses
In July 2001 Sampson carjacked and murdered three people: Philip McCloskey (aged 69 of Taunton, Massachusetts), Jonathan Rizzo (aged 19 of Kingston, Massachusetts), and Robert Whitney (aged 58 of Concord, New Hampshire). The murders took place over the course of a week. Sampson told police that, after McCloskey picked him up hitchhiking, he forced him at knifepoint to drive to a secluded area, where he tied him up with his belt and stabbed him 24 times. He also forced Rizzo to a secluded area, tied him to a tree, gagged him, and killed him.
Arguments raised in mitigation
While Sampson's offenses were particularly brutal, matters were raised in mitigation. The day before the first murder he attempted to surrender to police. Telephone records confirmed that Sampson had called the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI). As a fugitive who was facing charges in North Carolina, Sampson could have been taken into custody. The call was accidentally disconnected by an FBI clerk, and no action was taken. After the murders, Sampson surrendered in Vermont and confessed. He subsequently pleaded guilty.
Federal case
Sampson was charged in a federal court in Boston, found guilty and on December 23, 2003 sentenced to death. The jury deliberated for ten hours after hearing six weeks of evidence. Sampson had pleaded guilty, so the jury did not need to decide whether he killed McCloskey and Rizzo, but the jury heard the murders described in graphic detail during the sentencing phase of the trial. Prosecutors portrayed Sampson as a ruthless, calculating killer who preyed on Good Samaritans. Massachusetts does not have the death penalty, after having abolished capital punishment in 1984. The last time the Commonwealth used the penalty was in 1973. It was the first time anyone in Massachusetts has been sentenced to die under the federal death penalty law.
Federal law was changed in 1994 to allow prosecutors to seek the death penalty when a murder is committed during a carjacking.
Place of planned execution
Then-Governor of Massachusetts Mitt Romney denied the Federal government consent to execute Sampson in the Commonwealth of Massachusetts because capital punishment is outlawed there, but New Hampshire's then-Governor Craig R. Benson consented to doing it in that state, so U.S. District Judge Mark L. Wolf ordered that Sampson be executed in New Hampshire, which has the death penalty. He also ordered that Sampson be imprisoned in the Federal prison in Terre Haute, Indiana, while awaiting execution. (Terre Haute is where the Federal death house is located.) New Hampshire currently has one person on its death row, Michael "Stix" Addison. Addison was convicted of killing a Manchester, New Hampshire, police officer. On December 22, 2008, the judge on the case imposed a death sentence, along with 63 years' incarceration for prior convictions stemming from a crime spree in the week leading up to Manchester Police Officer Michael Briggs' murder.
States' rights protests
Death penalty opponents criticised the sentence, saying federal officials had ignored the will of Massachusetts voters. State lawmakers have defeated attempts to reinstate the state death penalty. Protesters outside the courtroom were holding "No Death Penalty in Massachusetts" signs and one girl said that the Federal government had "stepped all over a State which has consistently refused the death penalty."
Appeal and retrial
Sampson’s lawyer, David Ruhnke, said he would appeal.
- "I respect the verdict, but I disagree with it. These are terrible crimes; the victims have suffered terribly," he said. "Those are very difficult circumstances for any jury to look beyond."
It is expected that it could be six or seven years before Sampson exhausts all his appeals. As of July 2006[update] Sampson remains on death row. On January 26, 2004, Judge Wolf said on the record (United States v Gary Lee Sampson CR 01-10384 January 26, 2004 page 21), that he found the testimony of the defense expert, Dr. Angela Hegarty to be more credible than that of the government's expert, Dr. Michael Wellner, with regards to whether the defendant suffered from Bipolar Disorder. The fact that the judge held this opinion however did not change the sentence. Not one of the jurors agreed that Sampson was mentally ill.
In 2011, the death penalty decision was vacated by US District Judge Mark L. Wolf after finding that one of the jurors lied during the screening process; a federal appeals court upheld the decision. A retrial was scheduled for February 2015 but was postponed to a later date in September 2015. Sampson has since been transferred to a new prison in order to undergo a mental health evaluation.[1]
Autobiography
Sampson has worked on an autobiography with writer and evangelical minister Deborah Murphy. The working title is The DNA of a Killer: Society's Child, Gary Lee Sampson. Murphy says the book is a warning to those with early mental illness of the warning signs. Murphy hopes that the book may sway the families of the victims to forgive Sampson and perhaps even speak out against his execution. Relatives have not so far indicated that this is likely. Scott McCloskey said
- "I will never forgive him, ... As far as I'm concerned, Gary Sampson is an evil man. And as far as the death penalty goes, he deserves it and I will be there when it happens."