Hastings Wise was executed by the State of South Carolina for four murders
According to court documents Hastings Wise was fired from his job and would return armed. Before he was done Hastings would shoot and kill four people: 56-year-old Charles Griffeth, 30-year-old David Moore, 27-year-old Sheryl Wood and 31-year-old Leonard Filyaw
Hastings Wise would be arrested, convicted and sentenced to death
Hastings Wise was executed by lethal injection on November 4 2005
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When Was Hastings Wise Executed
Hastings Wise was executed on November 4 2005
Hastings Wise Case
Hastings Wise was put to death by lethal injection Friday night for killing four workers at an Aiken County plant in September 1997 out of revenge for being fired.
Wise made no final statement and never looked at the victims’ families or other witnesses. Instead, he stared at the ceiling and took several deep breaths, pushing them out his cheeks, as the lethal mix of three chemicals went into his veins. His rapid blinking ended with his eyes wide open at about the same time his chest stopped rising. It was about two minutes after the curtain to the death chamber opened. The official time of death was about 10 minutes later at 6:18 p.m. Wise, 51, tried to die the day of the killings, drinking insecticide after the plant emptied. But it only made him violently ill.
“I saw Hastings die a while ago. But he didn’t die a violent death. He died easy. He went to sleep,” said Tommy Thompson, the father of one of the victims, David Moore. Thompson paused to gather himself, then continued. “Should have been harsher. By the fact of what he done, I think he should have suffered more,” he said.
Prosecutors said Wise waited for the afternoon shift change at the R.E. Phelon lawnmower ignition plant so he could make sure all of his targets were there. He only shot people who he thought led to his firing several weeks before or took jobs he wanted, authorities said. At his trial, Wise never disputed his guilt and refused to let witnesses testify for him as jurors chose between the death penalty and life in prison. He then dropped his appeals and asked the state to carry out its sentence.
John Wood, whose daughter Sheryl was killed execution-style as she tried to run away with a gunshot wound to her leg, said he is glad Wise took responsibility. But he was disappointed he had nothing to say before he died. “I was hoping he’d say, ‘I’m sorry,'” Wood said. “But it wasn’t in him.”
Psychiatrists testified Wise came back to the plant several weeks after he was fired because he was angry and felt he was a victim of racism. Wise was black and his four victims were white.
Wise started his rampage by shooting the guard at the front gate in the chest and ripping out the phone lines before entering the plant. Wise first killed the plant’s personnel director, 56-year-old Charles Griffeth, in his office because Griffeth had fired him. Two more victims, 30-year-old Moore and 31-year-old Leonard Filyaw were killed in the tool and dye area where Wise worked, prosecutors said. The final victim, 27-year-old Sheryl Wood, got a job in quality control Wise wanted, according to court testimony. Wise passed up dozens of employees during his rampage, including Zach Bush. The two looked at each other before Wise went to another area of the plant. At his trial, Wise said he didn’t shoot Bush because the two had gotten along.
Bush, now retired, witnessed the execution on behalf of the employees at the plant. He said he struggles because Wise let him live while he killed others, like his good friend Wood. “This beautiful girl,” Bush said, holding up a photo of Wood, “and these three men died because he was angry.” Bush said things at the plant and in Aiken will never be the same. “I just pray God reached down and touched his heart and saved him,” Bush said.
Aiken County Sheriff Michael Hunt and prosecutor Barbara Morgan also attended the execution, along with Wise’s minister. Wise did not want his lawyer or his family there, prison officials said.
Wise ate his final meal of lobster tail, french fries, cole slaw, banana pudding and milk around 4 p.m., Corrections Department spokesman John Barkley said.
Wise is the second person executed in South Carolina this year and the 34th inmate put to death in the state since the death penalty was reinstated in 1976.
http://www.thestate.com/mld/thestate/13085535.htm
