Hatty Star Urol
Pit Rally
Denounces
Execution
Members of The Campaign
to End the Death Penalty
asked students to sign
petitions for Harvey Green.
By Jamila Vernon
Staff Writer
In a last-ditch effort to save Harvey
Lee Green from execution at 2 a.m.
Friday, five people rallied in the pit
Thursday while two electric chairs sat
on display nearby.
Jon Wexler, a member of The
Campaign to End the Death Penalty,
said the chairs were used because the
“starkness of it gets the point across.”
It costs more money to keep some
one on death row than it does to keep
someone in prison for life, Wexler said.
The rally, organized by members of
CEDP and People of Faith Against the
Death Penalty, consisted of a loud dia
logue between the participants, inform
ing students of Green’s execution while
promoting their stance.
They also invited students to the can
dlelight vigil :hat took place Thursday
night at Central Prison in Raleigh,
where Green was being held.
Along with the electric chairs, there
were posters displaying death row sta
tistics and the governor’s phone num-
GREEN
From Page 1
DTH: There were two people killed.
You only mentioned one?
Green: I don’t have no recollection of
ever starting beating her. I don’t During
the questioning they asked me, ‘Was she
screaming?’ I said, ‘I don’t know. She
may have been.’ ‘Was it getting on your
nerves?’ I said, ‘I
don’t know.’
DTH: How did
alcohol play into
that night?
Green: A guy
came over to the
house and we
For full text of
the interviews,
please go
online at www.
unc.edu/dth.
started drinking that afternoon. We had
wine, got some more and smoked some
dope.
I couldn’t control that the way I
thought. I could control the alcohol. But
sometimes you just can’t.
After the crime ... I’m trying to figure
out in my mind did I really do this?
All I’m seeing is bits and pieces flash
ing through in my mind. I sat down in
the chair, turned on the television,
looked at the news, and they said two
people got beaten to death in Bethel.
I said to myself right then, that’s what
I did.
Right then I wanted to go into the
room and tell papa about it. But I said
VICTIM
From Page 1
DTH: What exacdy do you all think
of the death penalty, and whether it’s
warranted in this particular case?
Bruce-. Well, prior to this happening,
I believed in the death penalty. I always
have. I think it goes back to an eye for
an eye, and a life for a life. This hasn’t
changed that by any means. ... He did
this on his own, and he should pay for it.
Margaret Barnhill: Well, I believed in
capital punishment a long time before
this ever happened. I’ve always believed
in capital punishment. And my view is,
you know, that he committed this mur
der, and like Bruce said, it was not an
accident
He took two people’s lives. It was a
very brutal murder, and two juries - 24
people - have sentenced him to death.
And I think justice should be carried
out; that’s the law. ...
And if he’s been saved, that’s good,
but you know something? That is more
opportunity than his victims got, if they
had desired to seek that route - if they
had needed to.
Bruce. And as you know, if you read
any of the news, they’re trying to make
a racial issue out of this.... This is not a
political issue and this is most definitely
not a racial issue - this is an issue of
right and wrong, and he did two wrongs.
He broke two laws - he broke man’s
law, and he broke God’s law -and it’s
way past time, time that justice be car
ried out.
DTH: What exactly do you hope this
execution tonight is going to give you, in
terms of closure?
Bruce. Well, it’ll never be over, for any
of us. ... It’ll always be there. But this
should relieve some daily tension and
pressure, I guess, on all of us’ minds...
It won’t be the closing of a book but the
closing of a chapter.
Judy. And we’ll know that every year
or so we won’t have to go back to court
and relive all of this.
DTH: How do you all feel about the
fact that he says that he has been saved?
W i - -•••-- h "TTy
Sf jj&l 00|L
DTH/JEFF POULAND
Dennis Markatos, John Johnson and Jon Wexler (left to right) staged a
rally in the Pit on Wednesday against Harvey Lee Green's execution.
ber. Students were encouraged to call
Gov. Jim Hunt personally, as well as
sign a petition to protest the execution.
“I don’t know it’ll be a whole lot
more effective, (Green) is supposed to
die in 14 hours. But I’m definitely going
to call and I encourage others to call,”
said Eboni Staton, a junior African &
Afro-American studies major.
The organization had been planning
the rally for two weeks, said John
Johnson, a member of both CEDP and
PFADP. Members expected a turnout of
20 to 25 people but continued the
protest despite low turnout
Some students at the rally were not
convinced by the protests. “They need
to get their facts straight. North Carolina
only uses lethal injection, not the electric
chair,” said Kimberlee Dilda, a junior
‘no.’ I wanted to talk to the police about
it but I said ‘no.’ I didn’t know what to
expect. I was fearful.
That night, I couldn’t sleep and I
couldn’t eat. I went outside and saw a
couple of guys drinking wine and liquor.
They knew me and gave me a drink,
and I tried to down it. But as much as I
drank, I couldn’t feel nothing. This thing
beat me down.
And when I told them what hap
pened, my version of it, a weight
seemed like it was just lifted from me.
You know I just said, just thank you
God. I got locked up that night. I
prayed, and I asked the Lord to forgive
me and the family to forgive me.
Basically, I condemned myself. I saw
when I was in my cell, a gendeman
(was) brought back there. He was crying,
and he talking to me. I see him, and I
see him crying but I cannot hear his
words. I cannot hear him.
And it didn’t dawn on me until we
got in court that that was the girl’s father.
And I know that hurt. To know that I
was responsible for his daughter’s death
and that man’s death and really they
could have been avoided.
DTH: What went through your mind
when you were first sentenced?
Green: To tell you the truth, I was
expecting it. My lawyer was expecting it
I was mosdy concerned for my family
and how they would face it.
That whole night after I got here, I
Bruce. I won’t question someone’s
religion.... But I still say there’s a price
to pay for what he did here on earth.
The price is death, and it should take
place as scheduled (Friday) at two
o’clock.
Margaret I agree, and if you would
talk to any of your prison guards, (death
row inmates) all claim they’ve been
saved ... He’s looking for a way out
right now. But whether he’s been saved
or not ... he deserves to be executed,
and we need to be able to get some clo
sure and have time to heal.
DTH: What has that been like having
to go back into court? Do you have to
testify again and again?
Bruce. No, but we have to sit there
and listen to it, see the pictures again.
The only thing I think has probably
saved both families thus far, is we’ve all
had very good memories of Sheila and
Michael.... And those good memories,
good deeds, whatever way you want to
put it, that’s what’s kept us going.
People get killed. We know that.
Dying is a part of life. ... But when
you’ve got something like this, where
somebody, again, just literally takes a
piece of pipe and just beats somebody to
death. ... It’s not anything that you
would wish on your worst enemy.
Judy: But until somebody has walked
in our shoes, I don’t see how they can
say they’re against the death penalty.
DTH: Can you all talk a little bit
about what it was like receiving the
news that your children had actually
been murdered, or in your case, Mrs.
Barnhill, your brother.
Bruce. Well, in our case, our daughter
was supposed to get off work at six
o’clock, and she was always home by 10
minutes past six. If she was going to be
delayed for any reason, she would call.
... She didn’t call us, and it was time for
her to be home.
We called the cleaners. The phone
rang. Of course nobody answered it...
We finally decided ... maybe she’s got
car trouble and can’t call.
So we left our son at home by himself
and told him to lock the doors, we’ll be
home in a few minutes. And we actually
Last Words
biology major from Charlotte.
Nathan Miller, a freshman political
science major from Boone, said, “I think
it’s bullshit - an eye for an eye. I don’t
think people should be able to kill peo
ple and live out their life in prison.”
But some onlookers were in agree
ment with the protesters. “I don’t agree
with (the death penalty), especially if the
majority of people on it are people of
color,” Staton said.
The protest went well even though
there was not as much media coverage
as members would have liked, Wexler
said. “These events may not stop the
execution, but we’ve done a good job of
raising consciousness.”
The University Editor can be reached
at udesk@unc.edu.
looked around and said, ‘They got me
on death row. Not in prison, on death
row. This is something here I’m going to
have to deal with.’
That kept leading to the changes in
my life. I could have started in here and
got over to the negative, the drug scene
or played the prison game, as they say.
But I knew I had to change, and I knew
first off the change had to come from
within.
DTH: What are some other experi
ences on death row?
Green: Most people think that in our
situation we’re unloving, uncaring,
unkind - it’s the opposite. Although half
of us at times don’t get along with the
other half we are still a family and try to
look out for each other and try to look
out for other people.
DTH: What have you done to pre
pare?
Green: I have a strong mother; my sis
ters, they pretty strong; my brother, he
hanging on in there. Praying, relying on
God and left it in God’s hands. Asked
him to intervene in some form or fash
ion, and we’re also praying for
Governor Hunt to be merciful. That’s
about all I can do.
DTH: How much have you thought
about this day?
Green: Oh, about 16 years. Sixteen
years of it from day one. You can be sent
to death, and once you get here it’s
always in your face. I’ve seen about 10
went to the cleaners. And as we got
there, of course we saw rescue trucks,
lights flashing. ...
We drove up and parked, and one of
the gendemen ... on the rescue squad ...
said, “You do not need to go in the
building, and I think you would be bet
ter off to stay out here. Something terri
ble has happened.” We already figured
that something terrible had hap
pened. ...
We stayed outside. And they found
out they couldn’t tell us ... what had
happened. (The bodies) were damaged
- I guess would be the word - so bad
they didn’t know if somebody had shot
them. They just didn’t know what had
happened....
I did make a call to a neighbor and
had them go by my house, pick up our
son, and just, I said ‘Go get him. Take
him to your house. Don’t let anybody
talk to him.’ I didn’t even tell them what
the problem was. I just said it was some
thing bad.
Margaret. Well, I got a call from my
first cousin (who was at my mother’s
house), that at that time they thought he
had been shot....
And they called here and they told
me, and well I was, it was just absolute
shock, disbelief....
And I got over there, and (my moth
er) was just, well, she was just all to
pieces....
And so I thought, right then, that I
had to be the support because there was
n’t anyone else to do it....
I was the one who had to deal with
the (State Bureau of Investigation)
agents and the investigation, you know,
of the crime scene.
Bruce. It affects more lives than you
think.
Margaret It affects everybody’s life.
My nine-year-old son at that time had a
very difficult time with it. ... He had
nightmares for months, and I would
hear him crying, and I would go in his
bedroom and he would be crouched in
the far comer. And he would have a
sheer look of terror on his face, and he
would be trembling all over.
He was dreaming that somebody was
Murder Revisited: Dec. 19,1983
A combination of drugs,
alcohol and bitterness led
Harvey Lee Green to beat
two people to death.
Editor's note:The following is a recon
struction of the murders committed by
Harvey Lee Green, Jr. on Dec. 19, 1983
based on news accounts and Daily Tar
Heel interviews with Green and his vic
tims' families conducted just days before
his execution.
By Matthew B. Dees
State & National Editor
Harvey began the afternoon swilling
cheap wine and toking joints with one of
his buddies.
He regularly fended off painful child
hood memories - the death of his half
brother and his parents’ violent mar
riage and bitter divorce -with a steady
stream of booze and drugs.
His friend staggered home around 4
p.m., leaving Harvey stoned and drunk,
unaware that his life would take a dras
tic turn in just a few short hours.
Still intoxicated, Harvey decided to
check the mail about 6:30 p.m.
He donned a field jacket with his
cousin’s toy gun in one of the pockets
and stepped out of his father’s house
into the crisp December evening.
No one, including Harvey, is sure of
what led him to Young’s Cleaners that
night.
Just slightly more certain is what hap
pened when he stepped in the door and
was greeted by 17-year-old Sheila
Marlene Bland.
of my friends go. Some I knew very per
sonally, and some we just had passing
acquaintances; but they were still part of
the family here, and it hurt each time.
DTH: Do you have hope for clemen
cy?
Green: I always have hope. I have
hope that if he don’t grant me clemency,
that something happens in the courts. 1
hope that God will just change every
thing.
DTH: If Friday does come, what will
you do?
Green: My anger was directed at
myself. I got myself in a situation, in a
bad situation, and it’s strange because
most people would think I’d be mad at
the DA and all that and ... the state.
(The anger) is gone. I hope I’m still in
the same state of mind that I’m in now
cause the Lord will take care of all of
this.
DTH: Does this punishment fit the
crime?
Green: No, it does not. It’s an unfair
practice, doesn’t solve anything but
makes more pain for the other families.
It’s pain for friends. It ain’t a deter
rent. And it ain’t applied fairly.
Most of us on death row come from
poor family backgrounds, minorities,
and it’s no help in the court. If it was
applied more fairly with a set of rules or
guidelines applied to every case, I can
see a state having a death penalty. I
don’t believe in it, but I can understand
® \ Xj§ mSm m
DTH/DAVTD SAND] J-.R
Phil Comfort of Mebane (middle) and Liza Farmer (right) of Carrboro joined other opponents of the death
penalty in front of Central Prison on Thursday night. Harvey Lee Green was executed early Friday morning
trying to murder his mother and daddy.
And I would take him up and put him in
his bed and hold him until he quit trem
bling and went back to sleep.
That February, I got a call at three
o’clock in the morning from my neigh
bor that lives 600 yards down the road,
and she told me that he was at her
house, that he thought that somebody
was trying to murder his parents.
DTH: And how soon after was that?
Margaret That was the following
February. It happened in December....
We live on a farm, so he had walked
across the field, through a 5-foot ditch
that had water in it, and gone to the
house to try and get help for us because
he was having a nightmare.
He could have easily fell in that ditch,
and that would have been Harvey
Green’s third victim.
DTH: I know you’re going to get a lot
The high school senior who worked
part-time at the business was alone
when Harvey tried to rob her with the
toy weapon.
Just then, 33-year-old John Michael
Edmondson, whom friends called Mike,
walked in the store.
Sheila cried out that she was being
robbed, and a scuffle ensued.
Harvey managed to subdue the two
and told them to lie down behind the
counter.
He tried to leave.
But Mike rushed at Harvey, igniting
the fatal struggle.
Harvey grabbed an iron pipe 27 inch
es long and an inch in diameter and
began beating Mike in the head.
“I hit him and hit him and hit him,
and then he finally let go,” Harvey said
in his confession to police.
“I hit him three times until he lay
there.”
Sheila then began screaming and the
pipe-wielding Harvey silenced her with
at least two blows to the head.
Harvey took the bloodied weapon,
$3.50 in pennies from the cash register
and S2O from Mike before hurrying
back to his home.
Then the cleaner’s phone rang.
Sheila’s parents were wondering why
their daughter was late.
No one answered.
At 6:55 p.m., Frances Young, the wife
of the store’s owner, stopped by the
business when she noticed lights were
still on nearly an hour after closing time.
She entered and saw the bodies of the
student employee and an unknown man
strewn on the floor in pools of blood.
When police arrived, the severe dam
it.
DTH: Are you happy with yourself'
Green: Yes, I am. Although, I might
not be the man I should be, I’m not the
man that I was. Back then, that man,
that 23-year-old man, he had a problem.
He had a problem with drugs, with alco
hol - he had a problem with living.
If you had a problem, you go to mom
or brother or church before you go
across the color line and go to the white
people. And although mom and dad
didn’t teach me that, I knew. I thought,
can’t go to them because those people
don’t know me.
Now it don’t make no difference. If a
man can help me, I don’t care if he’s
polka dot, blue, black or white. There
are people you don’t' caTe about that
care about you.
DTH: What js one thing ypu want
people to know about yourself?
Green: I’m a gentle soul. I’m kind and
considerate. 1 did a wrong -a terrible
wrong by my hand, and I am sorry for
that, and I didn’t mean to do this. It just
happened and I am deeply sorry for
this.
If they don’t want to forgive the
crime, please forgive me. That’s all I ask.
DTH: Why shouldn’t you be execut
ed?
Green: This was not a capital crime in
my eyes. I killed people, yes. It was
emotional, it happened a couple of days
before Christmas, and I can understand
of people at the prison who are going to
be there in opposition to the death
penalty and to this execution in specific.
They might call you murderers....
Judy: I know I’m not a murderer. He’s
the murderer, and if he gets if he
deserves it
Margaret I’m gonna walk right on out
of there with my head up and keep right
on going.
DTH: Mrs. Barnhill, could you tell
me a little bit about your relationship
with your brother?
Margaret There were three of us. I
had two brothers, and we were all seven
years apart and he was the youngest....
Mike and I were close because our
father had died, and my mother’s health
was not good, so we had to both help
look after her.
Also, his job was teaching children
with learning disabilities. And both of
Friday, September 24, 1999
age to the two victims’ heads led inves
tigators initially to believe the victims
had been shot.
Meanwhile, Sheila’s worried parents
were making their way to Young’s,
expecting to see their daughter stranded
on the side of the road because of car
trouble.
They didn’t expect to see the flashmg
sirens of police cruisers and ambulances,
nor did they expect a rescue squad offi
cer and family friend to meet them at
their car with a warning:
“You do not need to go in the build
ing ... Something terrible has hap
pened.”
Several blocks away, a television
news broadcast was informing the now
sober Harvey of what he had done
Confused and scared, Haivey
ambled down the street and tried, as he
had so many times before, to take solace
in a bottle.
But this time was different.
The liquor would not take hold
would not let him temporarily escape
the torturous thoughts of his actions.
This would haunt Harvey for 11 days,
until New Years’ Day 1984, when he
admitted to police that he was the killer
Harvey laid down in his cell that
night, a setting that would become all
too familiar during the next 15 years
and asked God and the victims’ families
for forgiveness.
“I said, Lord, this is in your hands
now,” Harvey prayed.
“I done messed my life up, and it s in
your hands.”
The State & National Editor can be
reached at stntdesk@unc.edu.
SURVEY SAYS...
DTH readers hit the paper's online site to
vote on their stance on the death penalty.
47%
of the responses were
fi for the death penalty
53%
-o /t of the responses
I were against the death
penalty
people being mad. I care about the peo
ple who hate me. I love them. I can’t
say I hate and then love Christ.
DTH: Does this week feel different?
' Grffn: Yes, it do. It’s not only me, but
the people around me. They have been
morj kind, more courteous. They aie
trying to keep my mind off it, but 1
know what they are doing.
It’s eating them up, too. It’s hard
being with somebody for 16 years and
knowing you’re both facing the same
thing, and it comes down and it’s your
turn today.
We try to get by the best we can. We
try to uphold and lift up each other but
like I say, we ain’t a bunch of saints.
When so-and-so has a problem, some
one goes down and tries to help them.
The City Editor can be reached
at citydesk@unc.edu.
my children were learning disabled
and that was one reason the youngest
son had such a hard time.
DTH: And how old w'as Mike m
1983?
Margaret He was 33. He had his mas
ter’s in education and had already
applied to Carolina to work for his doc
torate. He liked working with children.
DTH. What if the governor decides to
stay the execution? Are you going to
fight for die completion of this?
Bruce: As long as I’m breathing.
Margaret As long as I’m breathing
and able to take a step....
DTH. How much do you think ot this
these days?
Judy: Not many days go by uiai I
don’t think about it.
The City Editor can be reacheo
at citydesk@unc edu
5