North Carolina's Death Row
a waiting game with high stakes
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By CINNY CARROLL
The rate scurry at eight behind a low-slung barrier of
wire while a raw of men aeee rubber bands to catapult
It's a game, owe of the makeshift diversions to pass the
time ea North Carolina's Death Raw. said Stephen Karr
SUhaa is the latoot among five men and two women
seataaeed to die la North CaraUaa under the capital punish
ment law that took effect June 1.1977.
It ie a far cry from the days two years ago when 112 men
and woman crowded Death Row, sealant ed under a law
that demanded death for conviction of murder, rape, arson
and burglary. The new law, which allows Juries discretion
to keepering the capital penalty, has kept the tally low.
?at (he aaeaacoef Death Row has not chafed It is still
a ptoee of Bttle hope, when convicted killers wait with
dritwaat thoaghli to meet their doom, three prisoners said
to interviews with The News and Observer last week
Most of the man oa Death Row are boused, one to a cell,
to one ef the oldest sections of Central Prison in Raleigh,
wham roaches and rats defy extermination. The women
am held in maximum security at the N.C. Correctional
Institution for Women across town.
The exception is CardeU Spaaldtng, a powerfully built
man with much-tattooed arms whs has bean convicted of
murder three times, the last two of fellow inmates Speuld
iag is boaeed in a separate section of the prison, away from
Death Row.
Ipaaldtog, Bill, has bean on Death Row
batons, one of the 111. Because of a technical error in
paperwork ? a failure to seek a stay of hie sentence from
the N?. gnprsme Court ? be came within hours of esecu
tton to Ifll. A reprieve was granted when tte error came to
Bat this time, he believes he may die.
"I feel like, you know, it (the death penalty) is going to
he Imposed down the road. I fori like it's going to be
Imppaad on mo." Spa aiding said in an interview Inst week
to wraom near his ceQ. It is the tightest security eras, deep
within the state s maxiipum-eecuiity prison.
Sfrmldtng was convicted last year of slashing a fellow
tanfrte to death In the recreation yard. He testified at his
trhg that the man had threatened to kill him earlier.
"J don't kave too much book learning, but I've got a lot of
conunon atnee," Spaulding said, "la this place here, when
yow're in a jangle like this, when somebody tells yon to get
^?(M the day^ialRoocoe Simmons died, he said, "I went to
my'jtashahdgotmy Maakout."Speuldiagsaidhehidtbe
abSto'trial that the halfa was passed to Mm hp a
He went iato the recreation yard, he said. "I didn't eren
let Mm get all the way ep on me. I took my shank out and
started doing whet 1 thought he sras going to do to me."
*T?nt-t had been convicted previously, in 1174, of
MBb# a prisoner at Caledonia prison in Halifax County,
where he had bean confined on a M- to 30-year sentence for
killing a Robeson County man In IMP. He first came to
Central Prison ia 1IM.
Prtesa officials believe Spaaldiap is sdaapsrous man. "I
am thsoaliset person ia Central Prison who has to recreate
alone," he said. He has asked to be shifted to the cell block
wMh other Death Row inmates, ladadiag his cousin James
Celvia Jonas, who was convicted of murder sad assigned to
Death Row bat given a new trial by the N.C. Supreme Court
this year. Officials have denied Spauiding's request
?f?1Ltti takes medication ? red and white capsules ?
four times a day "for my nerves, to kesp me calm." he
said. He writes plaintive letters to friends on the outside.
He reads, "not too much fiction' bdt Tim# Playboy aad
Penthouse '?*? he said.
At 4P, he wouid rather die, he said, than spend the rest of
his life in sach a fashion.
"Like, if 1 fo up and sit ia the chair (ia the gas chamber)
aad they kill me, they would be just as guilty as I am."
8peuldtag said. "Any way you look at it, murder's murder.
They're doing that to get revenge.
"I'd rather kill myself than let them kill me, rather than
have this warden have the pleasure of wstchlng me die. 1
would never let him have the pleasure "
Buck Junior Goodman, convicted of the shooting and
tlatMwg death of a farm worker in 1177, feels differently
about dying.
"There's some crimes that's been worse than others, but
death is ao punishment to a person," he said.
Given a choice between death and life in prison. "I'd a
heap rather be here." he said. "I like me, and I want to live
as long as possible."
Goodman, a thin, squat man called "Shorty." at 49 has
spent 17 or IA years of his adult life in prison, mostly for
armed robbery, he said.
He was charged ia the death of Lester Collins in Cumber
land County, along with two other persons who received
Isuliury for testifying against him, and he doesn't think he
has been treated with justice He also Is serving two life
sentences far armed robbery and kidnapping in the inci
dent His attorney is expected to argue the disparities in
the case as part of Goodman's appeal.
"I wouldn't have the least idea." he uid when asked if he
believed he wuuld be executed eventually "I think about it.
I'd hate te have to go through death and not deserve It.
"They might kill me. and they might not." he said
Sieve lilhaa tries not to dwell on that topic.
"That's what gets you In a bad mood It's why people
commit suicide, why they hang themselves in here." he
said. "I don't believe in that. It's the ultimate sin against
the Lord It's the painful way out."
Silhan. 25, is a native of Texas who came to North
Carolina as an Army enlisted man and married a girl from
Sanford His religion is "Roman Catholic but not holier*
than-thou." he said with a crooked smile
Silhan, father of a young child, was convicted of raping
and stabbing one teen-ager in Cumberland County and
slashing the throat of a second, who survived In a separate
prosecution, he was found guilty of kidnapping a Wake
County couple and forcing the woman to engage in oral sex
with him.
He is unsure whether the death penalty ever will be
imposed. "From reading newspapers and the stuff I've
been told. I think it's discriminatory." he mused "There
are more persons in there for killing whites than blacks "
Convicted killer*: WW tkey new ke killed them*etve*?
... Stephen Korr Silhon
SMI pMM by Jim StrktM
and Cordell "Bill" Spoulding
I ? ? 1
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Under new law, fewer
people line Death Row
By GINNY CARROLL
, , UK) mntw
Like the mercury in a summertime thermometer, the
count of prisoners on North Carolina's Death Row rose
quickly to 112 during the three years before the U.S.
Supreme Court told the state in 1977 it must alter its
method of imposing the capital penalty.
| With the largest Death Row in the nation, the state was
< on the sharp end of the critical spear aimed by capital
punishment foes during those years. Bloodbath predictions
abounded.
But since July 1976. when a high court ruling commuted
the sentences of the 112 to life imprisonment, the tally of
criminals sentenced to die in the state has plunged.
Nine persons ? seven men and two women ? have been
consigned to Death Row since a discretionary law took
effect nearly two years ago, on June 1.1977. The discretion
ary law replaced a statute in which the death sentence was
mandatory in capital crimes.
Legal authorities agreed in recent interviews that the
new law ? placing the burden of death sentence on the jury
and requiring jurors to weigh aggravating and mitigating
factors ? has played a large part in the small population of
Death Row.
Those who work in the court system also agreed that
while some executions in the state are likely, they are
years away.
One of the nine sentenced to die ? Daniel R. Webster ?
administered his own sentence on Nov. C. 1977. by slashing
himself to death with a razor blade in his Central Prison
cell.
A second of the nine ? James Calvin Jones ? has been
granted a new trial by the state Supreme Court.
For the remaining seven, the wait may be a long one,
"two or three years at least," Jack Cozort, legal aide to
Gov. James B. Hunt Jr., said during an interview last
week.
The five men ? Johnny "Raeford" Cherry, Norman
Dale Johnson, Car-del 1 Spaulding, Buck Junior Goodman
and Stephen Karr Silhan ? will wait at Central Prison.
Rebecca Case Detter and Margie Bollard Barfield will pass
their time at the N.C. Correctional Center for Women.
There are indications, however, that the long-delayed
death mechanism will be triggered soon in other Southern
states.
Apparently the only barrier to the execution in Florida of
John Spenkelink is a clemency board hearing later this
month. If that fails to stop the death order, Spenkelink
could be executed in about three months, making him the
first person executed against his will in the United States
since 1967.
The last prisoner executed in North Carolina was Theo
dore Boy kin in 1961.
The NAACP Legal Defense and Education Fund, which
has coordinated anti-death penalty efforts from its New
York headquarters, fears that the execution of Spenkelink
could achieve the same effect as the little Dutch boy
removing his finger from the dike, loosing a flood of deaths.
In North Carolina, the legal barriers to execution have
not gone beyond initial stages. The state Supreme Court,
I
Buck Junior Goodman
'1 like me, and I want to live as long as possible.
collecting cases (or comparison, has not yet affirmed a
death sentence.
The court, by law, is sllowed to measure one death
sentence decided by a jury against others to ensure the
sanction is not discriminatory.
Prosecutors are comparing, too, said District Attorney
Dan K. Edwards Jr. of Durham. In forums, they have
discussed the necessity to restrict death prosecutions to the
most heinous cases, he said.
"If we don't reserve capital treatment for the worst
cases, the Supreme Court won't have a good basis to
compare," he said in an interview last week. "District
attorneys generally are seeking the death penalty only in
aggravated cases. That's one very positive result of the
new law."
I
It Is also a (actor us holding down the Death Row coont.
he There are others
Under the law atrickea by the U%. Supreme Court, the
death penalty was impound automatically (or all persons
convicted of a capital crime. Now. a jury must weigh
aggravating and mitigating (acton of the crime and crimi
nal before deciding death In a hearing separate from the
conviction phase of the trial.
"We're pretty much bach to where we were before the
mandatory law," said Raleigh lawyer WadeM Smith, who
defended CardeU Spooling during his Wake Superior Court
murder trial. Before the mandatory law. juries were al
lowed to recommend mercy in appropriate cases
The mandatory death law alao applied to four crimes ?
first-degree murder, rape, burglary and anon. Conrt
recalled. Murder is the only crime now punishable by death
in North Carolina.
Death row has taken on a new look in another respect
Under the mandatory law. a majority of its prisoners were
blacks or Indians. Five of the current seven under death
sentence are white.
While the number may be too small (or a racial compari
son. the same pattern has developed in Florida, after
whose law North Carolina patterned its present death
statute. Sixty percent of the ISO Death Row prisoners there
are white.
"The only reason the death penalty Was discriminatory
before 1972 was probably because of black-raping-white
cases." said Raymond Marfcy.
Warriors Win Darrle
Lose War
by LD MaJcaim
Lmbcrton- Host Lumberton
Sr. High exploded for three
runs in the top of the fourth
inning to defeat the Pembroke
Warriors 5-2 in the champion
ship game of the Lumberton
Easter Invitation here last
Friday night.
Going the distance for the
Pirates was Ricky Ivey who
fanned 13 and walked only 4.
Glenn Thomas took the loss for
Pembroke.
It was a game marred by
questionable officiating and a
brief fight in the second inning
between Warrior fist baseman
Bobby Taylor and Pirate Mike
Parnell.
Pembroke picked. up their two
runs in the bottom ot the first
inning. David Leek walked on
four pitches and subsequently
advanced to second base and
onto third on a passed ball
before scoring on a Mike
Sampson single. Mike likewise
stole second and gained third
on an errant Ricky Ivey pitch.
Kelvin Sampson hit a sharp
single up the middle to drive in
the Warrior's second run. A
strikeout ended the inning.
The Pirates managed one run
in each of the next two innings
before scoring three in the
highly controversial fourth inn
ing. With one out in the top of
the fourth and a runner on
base. Mike Parnell hit a sharp
grounder to Warrior shortstop
Mike Sampson. Sampson's
throw to first was just wide
and as Bobby Taylor stretched
for it, Parnell crashed into him
jarring the ball loose. A Taylor
right sent Parnell to the
ground and brought both
teams out of their dugouts. A
lengthy argument ensued &
when the dust had cleared
things were even more con
fused than before. Neither
player was ejected from the ?
game although Warrior coach
Ronnie Chavis did pull Taylor
from the game.
The final three innings saw
the two teams battle to a
scoreless draw.
I
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James Small Added
To Death Row Ranks
Ralelgb-Robeson County owns ? lot of nefarious records. The
county has the most school systems in North Carolina and
now holds the record for being the birth place for more people
on death row than any of the state's 100 counties.
Until the death penalty was meted out to James Small
Tuesday in Robeson County's Superior Court. Indians from
Robeson County made up 25% of the populance on Death
Row in Central Prison. Small, a white, was given the death
penally for the contract killing of his estranged wife. The
man. Paul Lowery. an Indian, accused of carrying out Small's
death directive, received a life sentence.
Small will add to the population of death row in Raleigh
which includes two women and five men besides himself.
Already on death row are: Car da I Spa aid lug. an Indian
native of Robeson County: Back Junior Goodman, another
Indian native of Robeson County; Vclmo Idlnd Borfleld, a
white woman from Robeson County; Steven Carl SHhae. from
nearby Cumberland County; Rebecca Taca Defter, convicted
of poisioning her husband with arsenic two years ago; Johnny
Cherry, found guilty of murdering a convenience store clerk;
and Norman Dale Jikaaan. convicted in separate trials of
murdering a ten year old boy and an elderly woman.
Jatties Small received the death penalty for ordering the
"contract" killing of his estranged wife. Evelyn Hamilton
Small, on the fateful night of November 14. 1978 when Paul
Lowery carried out her strangulation murder, according to the
jury's verdict.
Lowery was given life in prison for his conviction in the
murder of Mrs. Small. The prosecution had contended that
Small, who had filed for divorce from his wife, hired Lowery
and an accomplice. Vincent Johnson, to kill his wife because
he was afraid he would lose his house, his convenience store
in Red Springs, and the custody of his two young children.
Johnson testified during the trial that he accompanied
Lowery to the Small residence at the behest of Small and that
Lowery strangled Evelyn Small in her bed while he kept watch
on the children across the hall. Seemingly entry to the Small
residence was gained via a key obtained from James Small.
Small claimed that the murder was a conspiracy between
Lowery and Shirley Scott, his former girl friend, whom he had
recently broken up with.
Ms. Scott, charged with conspiracy, and Johnson, charged
with first degree murder, have not been tried yet.
Lowery. following a question from his attorney. Donald
Bullard of Pembroke, swore on his mother and father's
graves that he did not kill Evelyn Small earlier in the trial.
Judge Donald Smith and D.A. Joe Freeman Britt both
noted that this was the first time someone contracting a
murder was charged and convicted of first degree murder.
Indians probably make up less than one percent of North
Carolina's populace but 25%?of the death row population is
made up of Indians born in Robeson County where some
.10.000 Indians live.
As noted earlier both Spaulding and Goodman are Indians
born in Robeson County. Until granted a new trial for errors
made by b.A. Joe Freeman Britt. James Calvin Jones,
another Indian from Robeson County, also was on death row.
He is awaiting a new trail.
That means that out of 8 people on death row-(until Jone's
new trial) three of them were Indian males from Robeson
County. Another one on death row. Velma Bullard Barfled. a
white woman accused of the arsenic poisoning of the man she
intended to marry, was also convicted from Robeson County.
Thus far the N.C. Supreme Court has ruled on only one case,
after hearing testimony, and that was In the case of Jones who
was ordered a new trail. Decisions are pending on the caee of
Spaulding and Cherry. The court has also heard testimony in
the case of Norman Dale Johnson but has not rendered a
decision.
Until the U.S. Supreme Court overturned North Carolina's
death penalty In 1978 there were more than 100 on Central
Prison s Death Row awaiting the gas chamber The last man
to die in the gat chamber In North Carolina waa Theoderc
Boykin In IMl,
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