Steven Hill was executed by the State of Arkansas for the murder of State Police Investigator Robert Klein
According to court documents Steven Hill and Michael Anthony Cox would escape from a prison work detail. The two would break into a home and tie up the occupants. When the police arrived Robert Klein would be fatally shot
Steven Hill would be arrested, convicted and sentenced to death
Steven Hill would be executed by lethal injection on May 7 1992
Steven Hill Case
A man who killed a state police investigator in 1984 was executed by lethal injection tonight after Gov. Bill Clinton denied him clemency.
Mr. Clinton had interrupted his Presidential campaign to return to Little Rock on Wednesday night and review the case of the 25-year-old prisoner, Steven Douglas Hill, the youngest of 35 inmates on the state’s death row.
Mr. Hill was pronouced dead at 9:10 P.M., eight minutes after he had been injected with the drugs.
The Governor’s decision to deny clemency was relayed through a spokesman late today. There was no accompanying statement. Mr. Clinton’s decision left Mr. Hill’s fate in the hands of the United States Supreme Court, which later today denied an appeal filed by Mr. Hill’s lawyer, Mark Cambiano.
As Governor, Mr. Clinton has scheduled executions for 26 prisoners, of whom four have so far been put to death. He has never granted clemency for a death-row inmmate. “We do support the death penalty for cop killers, multiple murderers and drug kingpins,” he said earlier this year.
Death penalty opponents claim Mr. Clinton’s stance on capital punishment is dictated by politics.
“He’s not dying to be President, but he is killing to be President,” said Carrie Rengers of the local chapter of Amnesty International.
A black, brain-damaged inmate was executed Jan. 24 in Arkansas, drawing criticism from death penalty foes and black leaders. Two others — a mass murderer and a man who killed a police officer — were executed in June 1990.
Mr. Hill was an 18-year-old state prisoner in 1984 when he and another prisoner, Michael Anthony Cox, escaped while on a work detail. They tied up the occupants of a central Arkansas home, stealing weapons and a truck before heading to a nearby house. The police surrounded the house, and a state police investigator, Robert Klein, was killed by a shotgun blast.
Mr. Hill, whose confession was videotaped by the police, was sentenced to death for the killing. Mr. Cox, sentenced to 86 years for related crimes, later said it was he — and not Mr. Hill — who had pulled the trigger. But state prosecutors, a Federal judge and the state parole board have said they do not believe Mr. Cox, who they say has changed his account several times
