James Red Dog was executed by the State of Delaware for the murder of Hugh Pennington
According to court documents James Red Dog was nineteen when he would murder a man during a robbery in 1973. In 1977 while on a furlough from prison he would escape and later murder two more men in Los Angeles. While in prison Red Dog would murder a fellow inmate. Somehow prison officials were able to get a deal with Red Dog that saw him cooperating and being placed in the Federal Witness Protection Program
James Red Dog would be sent to Delaware where eight months later he would murder Hugh Pennington over a slight
James Red Dog would be arrested, convicted and sentenced to death
James Red Dog would be executed by lethal injection on March 3 1993
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When Was James Red Dog Executed
James Red Dog was executed on March 3 1993
James Red Dog Case
James Allen Red Dog, a five-time killer who said he wanted to be a martyr to the American Indian movement, died defiant Wednesday after being given a lethal injection in Delaware’s execution chamber.
Red Dog, 39, was pronounced dead at 10:28 a.m. by Warden Roy Snyder.
Before entering the death chamber, the Lakota Sioux joined in a spiritual ceremony with his Sioux adviser, John Mosette. In a final statement, Red Dog thanked his family and friends, especially his public defender Edward Pankowski Jr., for their support and kindness and then said to the remaining witnesses, ‘As for the rest of you, you all can kiss my ass.’
Red Dog pleaded no contest in 1992 to slitting the throat of motel accountant Hugh Pennington in February 1991 at the victim’s suburban Wilmington, Del. home. Red Dog had been jailed for four killings in other states but at the time of the Delaware killing was on parole and in the federal witness protection program.
He was the second person to be executed by Delaware since it reinstated the death penalty in 1992. Stephen Pennell was executed by lethal injection in March 1992 for the murder of five prostitutes. The last execution before that was in 1946, by hanging.
As the injection began to take effect, Red Dog choked briefly then said to his wife, Bonnie Red Dog, who was with Pankowski and Mosette in the witness chamber, ‘I’m going home, babe.’
According to media witnesses, she responded, ‘I know, I know. I love you. I’ll be there soon.’
Then they mouthed ‘I love you’ until he lapsed into a coma. A few minutes later the color drained from Red Dog’s face and the curtains to the death chamber were drawn.
Pankowski said attempts to halt the execution late Tuesday were called off at Red Dog’s request. A spiritual adviser of the Sioux who had tried to counsel Red Dog to fight the execution was not at the prison when he died.
Charles Thunderhawk Lone Wolf, a representative of Dr. Arrol Looking Horse, the spiritual leader of the Sioux nation, had said their position was Red Dog would not die as a martyr but would be committing suicide. Lone Wolf had denounced Mosette as a fraud at a prayer vigil in Wilmington Tuesday.
About two dozen demonstrators, among them a handful of Indians, protested the execution.
The Rev. William C. Lawler, a Roman Catholic priest and member of the Delaware Committee to Abolish the Death Penalty, said their protest, while symbolic, ‘may raise the consciousness of the futility of the death penalty. It’s awful — as if killing one more person will help.’
Red Dog is expected to be buried on the reservation where he was born and raised near Poplar, Mont.
An 11th grade dropout who was discharged from the Marines after a barfight, Red Dog was sentenced to prison in 1973 for robbing and killing a pizza parlor owner. He committed two more killings during an escape that ended in recapture after a few months.
In 1983, while an inmate in the federal prison in Marion, Ill., Red Dog supplied drugs to a gang that used them to kill another prisoner. His cooperation with investigators won him parole in 1989, and he was placed in the witness protection program in Wilmington.
However, for security reasons, federal officials did not tell local authorities that Red Dog was in the area.
