Edward Hartman was executed by the State of North Carolina for the murder of Herman Smith
According to court documents Edward Hartman would fatally shoot Herman Smith as he sat in his recliner. Hartman who was living with Smith at the time would tell friends that Smith carried large sums of money with him
Edward Hartman would be arrested, convicted and sentenced to death
Edward Hartman would be executed by lethal injection on October 3 2003
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Edward Hartman FAQ
When Was Edward Hartman Executed
Edward Hartman was executed on October 3 2003
Edward Hartman Case
Convicted murderer Eddie Hartman was executed early today for killing his elderly housemate in 1993, after the U.S. Supreme Court and Gov. Mike Easley declined to intervene. Easley denied Hartman clemency about 8 p.m. Thursday, several hours after the U.S. Supreme Court declined to stop the execution and review Hartman’s case. The state Supreme Court had denied Hartman’s latest appeal on Wednesday.
Hartman’s lawyers had asked Easley to convert Hartman’s sentence to life in prison without parole. They argued to the governor and to the courts that Hartman was “singled out for the death penalty because he is gay.” “Cases that result in the ultimate punishment — death — must be free of all forms of discrimination,” said Hartman’s lead lawyer, Heather Wells of Wilmington.
Easley’s public statement denying Hartman clemency didn’t address the gay-bias argument. “After a careful review of this case, I find no sufficient reason to overturn the sentence recommended by the jury and affirmed by the courts,” the statement said. Hartman met Thursday night with his lawyers, said Pamela Walker , spokeswoman for the Department of Correction.
Hartman, 39 , died by lethal injection at Central Prison in Raleigh shortly after 2 a.m. today . His execution was the state’s fourth in six weeks. Hartman’s last meal was a Greek salad, linguini with clam sauce, garlic bread, cheesecake with cherry topping and a Coke, Walker said.
Hartman was sentenced to die for the 1993 murder of Herman Smith , 77, of Conway. After drinking 16 beers, Hartman shot Smith in the back of the head with a pistol one night as Smith sat in a recliner chair in his home, where Hartman lived. Hartman then stole Smith’s money and car. A Northampton County jury convicted Hartman of first-degree murder and armed robbery.
Lawyers for the state opposed Hartman’s request for a reprieve and denied that he had been the victim of unfair prejudice. There was no question of Hartman’s guilt, and he confessed. After his conviction, he sought a life sentence based mostly on his traumatic upbringing, including suffering sexual abuse as an 8-year-old boy, when an uncle repeatedly made him perform oral sex.
Hartman’s lawyers argued that he might have received life in prison instead of a death sentence if District Attorney David Beard had not improperly said several times in front of the trial jury that Hartman was gay, apparently trying to minimize his sexual abuse. Each time, the judge told the jurors to disregard the improper remarks. But not a single juror concluded that Hartman’s repeated sexual abuse mitigated his sentence, although factors such as seeing his mother’s abuse and suicide attempts did.
The state’s lawyers maintain that the jury didn’t consider Hartman’s childhood abuse a mitigating factor because there wasn’t credible evidence of it. The jury found that Hartman’s robbery of Smith outweighed five mitigating factors, including Hartman’s alcoholism.
Several gay organizations, gay officials and critics of the death penalty had urged Easley, a former district attorney, to grant Hartman clemency and publicly disapprove of Beard’s tactics. The state Supreme Court ruled in an earlier appeal that the judge’s instruction to the jury to disregard Beard’s improper statements was enough to correct them.
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