Kevin Stanford, murderer of Barbel Poore

This case involved the daughter of a friend. 

 

January 7, 1981 - Twenty year old Barbel Poore was working at a convenience store on Cane Run Road late at night. She was working to support herself and her baby. Kevin Sanford, 17 ½ years old, and two other black teenagers robbed the store, took Barbel to a restroom and raped her. They then took her to a secluded area where Sanford and his accomplices repeated raped and sodomized her. Sanford then shot Barbel point blank in the face and then in the back of the head.

 

Kentucky Juvenile Court determined that Sanford should be tried as an adult because of the seriousness of his offenses and his long history of past delinquency. He was convicted and sentenced to death. After appeals, the Kentucky Supreme Court affirmed the death sentence.

Sanford had laughed and boasted about his crimes to accomplices, other inmates, and to corrections officers.


1989 - Stanford v. Kentucky, 492 U.S. 361 – The United States Supreme Court sanctioned the imposition of the death penalty. Briefs supporting the affirmation of the capital sentence were filed by the Attorney General of Kentucky, and a number of attorneys general from other states.

Catholic pro life Justice Antonin Scalia wrote the majority opinion upholding the execution. Pro abortion Justice Brennan filed a dissenting opinion, joined by Justices Marshall, Blackmun, and Stevens, all pro abortion.

 

2002 - The Catholic Conference of Kentucky and the Kentucky Bishops called on Governor Patton to commute the death sentence of Kevin Stanford. The bishops said that October is Respect Life month and urged all Catholics to stop the cycle of killing by reflecting on the violence of the death penalty. CCK circulated information to all parishes in the state directing Catholics to contact Governor Patton in support of commuting Stanford’s death sentence. Fr Patrick Delahanty of CCK said that the execution of Sanford would be contrary to the teaching of the Catholic Church.

 

2003 - Governor of Kentucky Paul E. Patton commuted the death sentence of Kevin Stanford.

 

Victor Taylor, murderer of Scott Nelson and Richard Stephenson

September 29, 1984
Scott Christopher Nelson and Richard David Stephenson, two 17 year old Trinity High students, became lost on their way to a high school football game. They stopped at a Moby Dick restaurant at Logan & Oak Streets to get directions. Victor Taylor, 24, and his cousin George Wade said they would lead them to the stadium if they were given a ride. Nelson & Stephenson were instead taken at gunpoint to a vacant lot behind the football stadium of Male High School. They were forced to take off their clothes, hand over their personal property and then were bound and gagged. Victor Taylor sodomized one of them and then shot both in the back of the head . The bodies were found early the next morning

1986

After a change of venue motion due to publicity, the trials of Taylor and Wade were moved to Lexington, Kentucky. Taylor was convicted of kidnapping, robbery, sodomy, and murder. George Wade was convicted of kidnapping, robbery, and murder. George Wade is serving a life sentence at the Kentucky State Reformatory in LaGrange. Taylor is on death row at the Kentucky State Penitentiary in Eddyville. Adding to the consternation of the families, Archbishop Kelly and the Catholic Conference of Kentucky protested the sentence of death.

 

2010

Taylor has appealed his conviction over and over again delaying his execution.
The Kentucky Supreme Court unanimously ruled that Victor Dewayne Taylor is not entitled to another hearing.

 

Scott Nelson's father, Emery, has waited over twenty five years to see the execution happen. Emery Nelson now lives in Florida. "I'm hoping to make a trip back to Kentucky someday real soon and be able to attend his execution. It would give me some satisfaction that justice could be finally carried out. It's been a thing that stays with you constantly. I guess not a day goes by that I don't think about it. And I know there's not a day that goes by that my wife doesn't think about it"

 

Harold McQueen, murderer of Becky O'Hearn

This is pieced together from various newspaper accounts. 

 

In 1980, Rebecca O’Hearn was twenty-two years old and had recently graduated from Eastern Kentucky University in Richmond. Ms. O’Hearn, from a family of teachers, planned to return to school to become a school teacher. Rebecca worked evenings at the Minit Mart Convenience Store in Richmond, Kentucky. On Thursday evening, January 17, 1980, Becky was working alone that night. She was working in order to save enough money to pay tuition at Morehead State University to earn a Master’s Degree.

 

At approximately 11:30 p.m. a Park Ranger stopped by the Minit Mart. He found Becky O’Hearn on the floor behind the counter. She was on her knees and her face was in her hands. She had been shot in the face from a distance of three to six inches. He notified the police and an ambulance. Ms. O’Hearn died shortly thereafter. Becky had also been shot in the back of her neck. That bullet fragmented and entered both her spinal canal and brain stem. Approximately $1,500 cash was taken from the Minit Mart along with a bundle of food stamps. Both the cash register and safe were open. Opening the safe required two keys, one of which was hidden. That each key had to be turned in a certain manner and sequence indicated that Becky was trying to do what she was told.

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Each morning before his 7:30 work shift, William Teater stopped at the Minit Mart on Big Hill Avenue for a doughnut and a soft drink. He was greeted by Rebecca O’Hearn, a friendly young woman who knew him by name. On the morning of Jan. 18, 1980, his ritual was interrupted. He saw police cars in the parking lot and assumed the store had been robbed. When the door was unlocked he found something much worse: the manager was mopping up blood from behind the counter. The manager was crying, Teater said. ”He was standing there mopping the blood. It was something you never forget.” “All of us thought so much of her,” recalled Teater. Teater worked back then for a plumbing business and now works at a hospital. ”If you came in here in a bad mood, she would have you laughing.”

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On Thursday, January 17, 1980, Harold McQueen and his girlfriend, Linda Rose, spent the day driving around in the country smoking marijuana, taking valiums and drinking. At about 6:00 p.m. they picked up his 19-year-old half-brother.

 

At approximately 10:00 p.m. Harold McQueen, Keith Burnell and Linda Rose went to the home of their friends Billy Hunter and Bertha Lewis. There were eight or nine people in the apartment that night. At around 11:30 p.m., Harold, Keith and Linda drove to the Minit Mart Store on Big Hill Avenue . Harold drove. He pulled into the parking lot of an apartment complex that backed up to the rear of the Minit Mart. The two half-brothers were armed with a .22 pistol, and a crowbar between them. McQueen and his half-brother got out of the car and told Rose that he would be back in a minute.

 

Harold and Keith walked through the parking lot, around the store and entered through the front door. They ordered Rebecca O’Hearn to empty the cash register and the safe, and she complied. When they left the store minutes later, Rebecca O’Hearn had been shot twice in the head. McQueen and his half-brother returned to their vehicle with some bags. McQueen said, “I know the bitch is dead.” Earlier McQueen had told Linda Rose that “if he ever robbed a place he would never leave an eyewitness. He would leave them lying dead.” Harold McQueen did just that. He killed an innocent young woman in cold blood and left her to die on the floor with all of her hopes and dreams for the future. All for $1,500.

 

Harold McQueen was 27 years old when he murdered Becky O’Hearn. He began his criminal career at the age of 13. His juvenile record included Breaking and Entering, Shoplifting, Truancy, Destroying City Property and Public Intoxication. His adult record includes Cold Checks, Disorderly Conduct, Violation of a Peace Bond, Public Intoxication, Burglary, Pandering, Desertion of the U.S. Army, Hit and Run, Violation of Parole, First Degree Robbery and now Murder.

 

my italics - Don

 Richmond newspaper - Gov. Patton heard a plea for mercy yesterday just hours before ordering an execution date for McQueen. In a 17-minute meeting, Archbishop Thomas C. Kelly of Louisville and Bishop J. Kendrick Williams, head of the Diocese of Lexington, asked Patton to commute McQueen’s death sentence to life in prison without parole. The Catholic church teaches it is wrong for the state or any human to take a life — a stance that not all faiths share. (The Catholic Church has never taught that recourse to the death penalty is immoral and has always supported the right and of States to inflict capital punishment.)

 

Bishop Williams said that “we are convinced that vengeance through killing should not be an option in our society.” Kelly added that “vengeance belongs to the Lord. And life belongs to the Lord.”

(More disinformation. Capital punishment has never been about vengeance but about Justice. Bishop Williams, Kelly’s good friend and confidant, later resigned because of charges of child abuse.)

 

Governor Patton that “I will not, through the power of clemency, substitute my judgment for that of the General Assembly, the courts and the juries of the Commonwealth.”

 

In a letter to Gov. Patton, Charles O’Hearn of Louisville described how McQueen shot his daughter, Becky, 22, in the face after she had quietly complied with an order to open the safe, then shot her again in the back of the neck as she knelt crying on the floor. O’Hearn said in the letter: “I urge you to sign the death warrant and set an execution date.”

 

Harold, age 28, and his 19-year-old half-brother, Keith Burnell, were tried together for the robbery-murder. Burnell testified that McQueen killed O’Hearn. Although Keith Burnell was an active participant in the crimes, he received the minimum 20-year sentence for murder, and was paroled in 1988. A Madison County jury determined that Harold McQueen deserved to die for the cold blooded murder of Becky O’Hearn.

 

Two weeks before the execution, McQueen changed his testimony and said that the shooter was his half-brother, William Keith Burnell. The Kentucky Supreme Court denied all of the six latest efforts to stay the execution. The justices all agreed with Judge Julia Adams of Madison Circuit Court to disallow McQueen's recent claim that he wasn't the triggerman.

 

Linda Rose, the third person, was never charged and testified against McQueen. Weeks before the trial, she fled to Arizona, and had to be returned by law enforcement officials to testify.

 

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The state and the taxpayers went through 17 years of appeals and a huge expense when there was no doubt in anybody’s mind of McQueen's guilt. He was executed in 1997 for the cold blooded murder of Becky O’Hearn.

 

Then there is this:

 

August 7, 1997 – The Record

Archbishop Kelly speaking to the inmates at LaGrange – "So I want to tell you that I regard Harold's death as an injustice. In its own way it was just as unjust as the death of John the Baptist." … "There's no justification for the death of John the Baptist, absolutely none. In our own time, Harold McQueen has been a good example of that."

(one small point - John was innocent, Harold cruely ended the life of a young woman.)

 

Dec 4, 1997 – The Record

Archbishop Kelly, speaking about capital punishment to the young women at Assumption High School .– "They [the State] don't have the right to kill in you name. That's one of the biggest things you have to learn." …"Our biggest problem is getting past the vengeance …and I did not find that interest in our girls today. They don't seem to be in that vindictive mode." … "Harold would have been a great witness, a great guide, somebody who could have brought much to the world." 

   --------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

  below is miscellaneous trial info 

 

Harold’s Petition for a Writ of Certiorari to the United States Supreme Court was denied on June 2, 1997. He filed Petition for Rehearing on or before June 27, as is his right under that court’s Rule 44.

 

McQueen filed a lawsuit in federal court, arguing that it would be unconstitutional to kill him in the electric chair because it is a cruel and unusual form of punishment. His attorney in that case, David Friedman of the American Civil Liberties Union of Kentucky, said he will seek a preliminary injunction to block the state from executing McQueen in the electric chair until the case is resolved.

 

Gov. Patton said in a prepared statement that the courts have thoroughly reviewed McQueen’s conviction and death sentence and upheld them.

 

McQueen has faced death warrants before. Governor Martha Layne Collins signed 1 in 1984 and Patton signed 1 in 1996. Both expired because he had not yet exhausted all 9 stages of his court appeals. He reached the end of those appeals June 2, when the US Supreme Court declined a 3rd time to hear his case. It is most unlikely that the high court will grant his attorneys’ request to reconsider. The earliest date Patton could have chosen for McQueen’s execution was 25 days after the Supreme Court’s decision, or June 27.

 

McQueen’s execution capped a day in which his attorneys worked feverishly on a series of last-minute legal maneuvers in federal and state courts to save him from the electric chair. They formally asked Gov. Paul Patton to grant clemency. Patton, though, did not budge. ”I do not believe it is proper, through the power of clemency, to substitute my judgment for that of the General Assembly, the courts and the juries of this commonwealth,” Patton said.

 

With clemency denied, McQueen’s lawyers filed suit in Franklin Circuit Court, which also turned down their request. Later, the state Supreme Court rejected that claim as well. The attorneys also sued in Lyon Circuit Court, claiming that prison officials were not giving them adequate access to McQueen. That issue was resolved when the attorneys agreed to follow a schedule that had been approved by McQueen on Monday. Five other suits were pending before the U.S. Supreme Court, which turned down all five late Monday night and cleared the way for the execution to take place.

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McQueen v. Commonwealth, 669 S.W.2d 519 (Ky. 1983), cert. denied, 469 U.S. 893 (1984).

 

Defendant was convicted in the Madison Circuit Court, James S. Chenault, J., of first-degree robbery and murder in the course thereof, and he appealed. The Supreme Court, Gant, J., held that: (1) denial of defendant’s request for either a statistician or an expert on death-qualified jurors was not an abuse of discretion where the individual’s personal attendance at a hearing, if any could be held, would not have enhanced his treatises on the subject; (2) indefinite, ambiguous reference made by a police officer to a “polygraph examiner” while being cross-examined by defense counsel in connection with officer’s investigation of a witness for State in case was not prejudicially erroneous inasmuch as it did not amount to a statement that any test had been administered or, if so, to whom it had been administered; (3) it was not error to allow the Commonwealth to bring to the attention of the jury that the victim was a living person, more than just a nameless void left somewhere on the face of the community; and (4) sentence of death imposed upon conviction of first- degree robbery and murder in the course thereof was not imposed under the influence of passion, prejudice, or any other arbitrary factor and was supported by aggravating circumstances in case. Affirmed. Leibson, J., dissented and filed opinion.

 

GANT, Justice.

Appellant was convicted of first degree robbery and murder in the course thereof, *521 and sentenced to 20 years and death, respectively. The crimes occurred on January 17, 1980, during an armed robbery of a Minit Mart, the store clerk being shot in the head from a distance of three to six inches and then through the back of the neck. The evidence of guilt was so overwhelming it will not be discussed herein, except as it relates to assignment of error by appellant.

 

McQueen v. Commonwealth, 721 S.W.2d 694 (Ky. 1986), cert. denied, 481 U.S. 1059 (1987).

 

Defendant brought Rule 11.42 motion alleging ineffective assistance of counsel and challenging conviction of murder, robbery and sentence of death. The Madison Circuit Court, James S. Chenault, J., overruled defendant’s motion and defendant appealed. The Supreme Court, Wintersheimer, J., held that: (1) defendant was not deprived of effective assistance of counsel at trial or penalty phase of trial; (2) request by defendant to interview jurors to determine impact of dismissal of juror upon verdict was properly denied; (3) defendant was not denied fair hearing by Court’s refusal to recognize proposed expert death penalty attorney; (4) testimony of attorney and admission of private memorandum against defendant’s counsel was correctly refused; and (5) defendant was not denied due process of law due to court’s refusal to order provision of funds necessary to pay expert witnesses for Rule 11.42 hearing. Affirmed.