David Dawson was executed by the State of Montana for a triple murder
According to court documents David Dawson would break into a hotel room where he would gag the four people inside and three of which would die from their injuries: Monica and David Rodstein, along with their 11 year old son Andrew. A fifteen year old girl would survive the attack
David Dawson was arrested, convicted and sentenced to death
David Dawson was executed by lethal injection on August 11 2006
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When Was David Dawson Executed
David Dawson was executed on August 11 2006
David Dawson Case
Convicted killer David Dawson, who fought for two years to end his appeals and be put to death, was executed early Friday morning by lethal injection at Montana State Prison. Dawson, who was convicted of killing three members of a Billings family in 1986, was pronounced dead at 12:06 a.m. Dawson was the first person executed in Montana since 1998.
Legal questions hung over David Dawson’s execution until only hours before the three-time murderer was set to be put to death early Friday morning. Clarity came just before 5 p.m. Thursday seven hours before Dawson’s scheduled execution when the Montana Supreme Court denied a request to postpone the death to allow for a lawsuit over whether lethal injection is cruel and unusual punishment. The seven-member court unanimously rejected an effort to stall the execution, offering no explanation and writing that they would not reconsider the order.
Dawson kidnapped and murdered three members of a Billings family including an 11-year-old boy in 1986. Only the family’s teenaged daughter survived. She was rescued by Billings police officers, who arrested Dawson and found the bodies of her family. Dawson two years ago stopped all efforts to commute or suspend his death sentence and has disavowed the latest effort.
A coalition of groups led by American Civil Liberties Union of Montana, but including church groups, lawmakers and others argued that the way Montana practices lethal injection could expose the condemned to excruciating pain before death, violating the ban on cruel and unusual punishment. The groups first asked the Montana Supreme Court to stop the execution on July 11, a month before the execution. That case began a long legal road. The Montana Supreme Court denied that initial request, prompting the groups to ask the high court to reconsider. That effort, too, failed.
Next, the groups took the case to federal court in Missoula. A U.S. District Court judge also denied their effort. Finally, the case wound up in state District Court in Helena for a hearing Wednesday, just 35 hours before Dawson was sentenced to die. Judge Jeffrey Sherlock also denied the case Thursday morning, prompting the appeal to the Montana Supreme Court where the case originally began almost a month ago.
At issue were several arguments. The civil liberties groups raised the concern that if the three drugs administered in lethal injection were improperly used, the condemned would not be unconscious at the time of death and would experience the pain caused by the lethal drug cocktail. One of the major debates was whether the groups, who do not represent Dawson and have no ties to him, can bring a suit arguing Dawson’s constitutional rights may be violated when Dawson himself has chosen the execution.
In the end, Ron Waterman, the Helena attorney representing the groups, said he didn’t think the case would be appealed further. But he said Thursday’s Supreme Court decision and Dawson’s death is not the end. “This issue will not stop, and it will not go away,’’ he said.
Waterman said he anticipated future challenges involving the three remaining men under a death sentence in Montana to challenge Montana’s lethal injection method. And ultimately, he said, courts will show that “putting Mr. Dawson to death …is unconstitutional.’’ One option for the groups is to try to change Montana law regarding lethal injection at the upcoming 2007 Legislature. Waterman said he was skeptical such an effort may succeed, but had higher hopes for a future court case.
He said capital punishment doesn’t really deter crimes, but is done out of retribution. “The difficulty of an eye-for-an-eye and tooth-for-tooth retribution is that all too often all the parties become partially blind,’’ he said. “I still continue to believe that retribution has no place in the American system of justice.’’
http://www.helenair.com/articles/2006/08/11/montana_top/a01081106_01.txt
