Charles Roache was executed by the State of North Carolina for six murders
According to court documents Charles Roache and Chris Lippert were driving around with Chad Watt when an argument took place regarding a flat tire. Roache and Lippert would murder Chad Watt by shooting him twice
The next day Charles Roache and Chris Lippert would pick a random house and would enter. Before they would leave they would murder five people inside of the home: Earl Phillips, 72; his wife, Cora, 71; their son, Eddie, 40; daughter-in-law Mitzi, 44; and granddaughter Katie, 14.
Charles Roache and Chris Lippert would be arrested and convicted
Chris Lippert would be sentenced to life
Charles Roache would be sentenced to death and executed on October 22 2004 by lethal injection
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When Was Charles Roache Executed
Charles Roache was executed on October 22 2004
Charles Roache Case
Charles Wesley Roache, whom the state put to death early today, was no ordinary killer. His execution before dawn this morning by lethal injection at Central Prison in Raleigh ended a most unusual murder case.
To start, Roache and Christopher Wayne Lippard didn’t kill just one person in 1999. Over two days in September, they shot to death six, beginning in Alexander County with the slaying of Chad McKinley Watt, 22, of Statesville. Then they drove down Interstate 40 and murdered a Haywood County family that had just returned home from a local fair: Earl Phillips, 72; his wife, Cora, 71; their son Eddie, 40; their daughter-in-law Mitzi, 44, and granddaughter Katie, 14. It was one of Western North Carolina’s worst mass murders. The motive was robbery.
But then Roache did the unexpected. He waited nearby for police, surrendered and confessed right away, even going so far as to tell police about Watt’s killing, which they didn’t yet know about. Roache, now 30, was sentenced to die. Lippard, 25, got life in prison without parole.
After one mandatory appeal, Roache did what almost no one else on death row does: He gave up years’ worth of further possible appeals and told the state to go ahead and kill him. He said it was to show his remorse and to try to make up for his crimes. “It only takes words to say you’re sorry,” Roache told The Charlotte Observer last week, “but it takes your heart to show it.”
The chemicals involved in lethal injection are intended to stop the heart and the lungs, leading to an unconscious death. On Thursday night, as Roache awaited execution, he had a final meal of sirloin steak, popcorn shrimp, salad with blue cheese dressing, a honey bun and a vanilla Coca-Cola, prison officials told The Associated Press.
Assistant District Attorney Alan Leonard, who prosecuted Roache, said Roache has been contrite since his arrest. Death penalty opponents argued that the state shouldn’t execute Roache without first examining his mental fitness. But Roache told his lawyers to let him die instead.
Witnesses testified during Roache’s sentencing hearing about his family’s long history of violence and abuse of drugs and alcohol. Roache’s maternal grandmother died in front of her daughter in 1958 after her husband doused her with gasoline and set her on fire. According to court filings, Roache’s mother once made him pet a litter of kittens and then watch as she killed them one by one. She set puppies on fire in a barrel and once told Roache that if he went to church something might happen to another of his dogs. The puppy was dead on the doorstep when he returned home. Three of Roache’s teachers testified at his sentencing hearing that Roache was a quiet child who was teased about his stuttering and his last name. He abused alcohol and drugs, and was high and drunk during the slayings.
Ken Rose, director of the Center for Death Penalty Litigation in Durham, said Roache’s abandoning his appeals amounted to state-sponsored suicide. Roache’s lawyer, Jim Cooney of Charlotte, said he followed his client’s request not to keep the case going, though he agreed the state should evaluate Roache. “Charles’ reasons — how can I argue with them?” Cooney told the Observer. “He’s clearly rational. This isn’t a fit of depression.”
http://www.newsobserver.com/news/story/1755416p-8033776c.html
