Post by CCADP on Aug 11, 2005 22:34:09 GMT -5
Tulsa man executed for 1994 slaying of ex-girlfriend
In McAlester, a Tulsa man was put to death Thursday evening for killing
his ex-girlfriend in a jealous rage that prosecutors said claimed 3 other
lives, including the women's children.
Kenneth Eugene Turrentine, 52, died at 6:10 p.m. in Oklahoma's death
chamber, shortly after an injection of drugs stopped his heart.
Less than an hour earlier, the U.S. Supreme Court had denied his
last-minute appeal, clearing the way for the state to carry out his death
sentence for the June 4, 1994 shooting of Anita Richardson, 39.
Turrentine originally was convicted and sentenced to death as well for the
killings of Richardson's 13-year-old son, Martise, and her 22-year-old
daughter Tina Pennington. But a federal appeals court last year threw out
the convictions in the case of Richardson's children because of a judge's
error during the trial.
After the slayings, Turrentine called police and admitted the killings,
police said. He said he was under the influence of antidepressants and
alcohol at the time.
On Thursday, while strapped to a gurney in the death chamber, Turrentine
said he was innocent.
"I've always maintained I've been innocent of crimes charged," he said.
"This is a violation of my 14th Amendment rights. It's not over. With that
being said, Mom, Dad, I love you all. Be strong."
The 14th Amendment to the U.S. Constitution ensures due process of the law
and equal treatment of all citizens and was adopted to protect former
slaves after the Civil War.
Turrentine received a no-parole life term for killing his sister, Avon
Stevenson, 48, the same day.
Prosecutors said Turrentine believed Richardson was seeing other men and
that his sister was helping her deceive him.
He first went to his sister's home and confronted her with his
accusations, they said. When she laughed at him and called him a "punk,"
he shot her in the head. He then went to Richardson's Tulsa home, where
the other shootings occurred.
A week ago, Turrentine told the Pardon and Parole Board about the alcohol
and the antidepressants he'd taken at the time. But in the end, he
couldn't answer the board members' questions about motive.
"I've been struggling with that for years," he said, just before the board
declined to spare him.
Turrentine's mother, Dorothy Vinson, who is also Stevenson's mother, had
begged the board to spare his life, saying, "it wasn't the Kenneth that
everyone knows" who had committed the murders.
But Richardson's sister, Teresa Youngblood, told the board in a letter
about the pain of her family's loss.
"A very small and close-knit family with many years of happiness, love and
joy (as well as problems just as any other family may have) suddenly and
abruptly became even smaller on that sad and horrific night," she wrote.
She described Richardson as "a vibrant, fun-loving, joyful person to be
around." Pennington had been born blind and mentally disabled and had
survived several life-threatening surgeries, she said. And Martise was a
quiet and smart boy, "who loved no one more than his mother," she said.
"The man of the family, he tried to protect his mother on may occasions,
even the night of her death," Youngblood wrote.
Prosecutors contended the killings were calculated. They argued that
Turrentine obtained a .22-caliber pistol from his ex-wife the morning of
the murders and shot all four victims in the head.
Turrentine becomes the 4th condemned inmate to be put to death this year
in Oklahoma, and the 79th overall since the state resumed capital
punishment in 1990.
Turrentine becomes the 35th condemned inmate to be put to death this year
in the USA and the 979th overall since America resumed executions on
January 17, 1977.
(sources: Associated Press, Reuters & Rick Halperin)