Nidal Hasan – white, age 39
Sentenced to death in Fort Hood, Texas (Military)
By: a military jury
Date of crime: 11/5/09
Prosecution’s case/defense response: Hasan was sentenced to death after carrying out a shooting attack on a group of unarmed Fort Hood soldiers, killing 13 and injuring or endangering 32 others. The prosecution urged the jury not to consider Hasan’ desire for martyrdom in deciding whether to sentence him to death
Sources: States News Serv. 8/30/13; Austin Am.-Statesman 8/29/13.
Kaboni Savage – black, age 29
Sentenced to death in Eastern District of Pennsylvania (Fed.)
By: a jury
Date of crime: 10/9/04
Prosecution’s case/defense response: Drug kingpin Savage, already serving a 30-year term for a drug-trafficking conviction, was sentenced to death for gunning down one man, ordering the killing of five others, and masterminding a firebombing from prison that killed 4 children and 2 women. The victims were the mother, son, and relatives of Eugene Coleman, a government witness, who was preparing to testify against Savage. Defense attorneys relied on witness testimony to portray Savage as a cheerful, playful child, not inherently evil. Expert witness testimony focused on Savage’s upbringing filled with poverty, loss, exposure to drugs and crime. Prosecutors argued that Savage was the only family member to commit multiple murders despite the family’s background.
Sources: Phila. Inquirer 9/22/13, 5/29/13; US Official News (Pak.) 6/16/13.
Ronell Wilson—black, age 21 (re-sentence after appellate reversal)
Sentenced to death in the federal Eastern District of New York (Fed.)
By: a jury
Date of crime: 2003
Prosecution’s case/defense response: Wilson, a gang member, shot to death execution-style undercover police officers James Nemorin and Rodney Andrews, who were posing as buyers in a gun “sting” operation. They believed they were going to purchase a submachine gun from Wilson, but instead he decided to rob them, and then shot them. His first sentence was reversed due to prosecutorial errors in closing argument. At the resentencing the defense presented evidence that Wilson had a terrible childhood in a crime-infested housing project with a crack-addicted mother. The prosecution presented evidence that Wilson had a long history of violent crime, and had acted violently while incarcerated—with the help of a female correctional officer with whom he had an affair in the prison and impregnated.
Sources: New York Times 9/11/13; Staten Island Advance 9/6/13; AP Online 7/24/13.