John Daniels was executed by the State of North Carolina for the murder of his aunt Isabella Crawford
According to court documents John Daniels would go to the home of his Aunt Isabella Crawford to ask a favor. When she said no John Daniels would attack her before strangling her with a electric cord. Daniels would flee the residence and head back to his home where he would attack his wife and son with a hammer injuring both before setting the house on fire
John Daniels would be arrested, convicted and sentenced to death
John Daniels would be executed by lethal injection on November 14 2003
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John Daniels was executed on November 14 2003
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A Charlotte man was executed early Friday for the 1990 strangling of his aunt after failed appeals that focused on whether inaccurate testimony was given at his murder trial. John Dennis Daniels, 46, was pronounced dead at 2:15 a.m. following a lethal injection at Central Prison in Raleigh, according to Department of Correction spokeswoman Pam Walker. Daniels was the sixth prisoner to be executed this year in North Carolina.
A jury sentenced Daniels to death for fatally choking 77-year-old Isabella Daniels Crawford in her house with an ironing cord. He also was convicted of assaulting his wife and son with a hammer, assaulting his neighbor with a knife and attempting to burn his house after Crawford was killed.
The state Supreme Court on Thursday rejected Daniels’ request to stop the execution so a hearing could be held on a psychiatrist’s claim that her testimony during the sentencing phase of his trial was incorrect. Later Thursday, Gov. Mike Easley refused to commute Daniels’ sentence to life in prison, saying he saw “no compelling reasons to invalidate the sentence recommended by the jury and affirmed by the courts.”
Daniels had been having marital problems and was behind on his rent when he went to his aunt’s house in Charlotte on Jan. 17, 1990, to ask for money and for his wife, Dianne, and son, Jonathan Maurice, to live with her. Crawford refused and said she was going to call his mother, Viola Daniels. Daniels hit her in the face and choked her with the cord. He took $70 to $80 and went to his house. Daniels had consumed a bottle of wine and at least two beers before killing Crawford and smoked crack cocaine before the other attacks.
Daniels’ lawyers had asked Easley at a clemency hearing Wednesday to consider the statement of retired psychiatrist Cynthia White of Las Vegas. During the penalty phase of his trial, White testified that Daniels wasn’t influenced by alcohol or cocaine he had consumed and showed no remorse.
White said she didn’t know at the time that Daniels tried to burn his house to kill himself after killing his aunt. She also said she didn’t know the amount of cocaine and alcohol he ingested. White also told the governor that prosecutors didn’t give her Daniels’ complete medical record and left out information about suicide attempts, brain damage and his history of depression. She also said she never interviewed Daniels, who had signed a confession.
The psychiatrist issue was raised in Daniels’ earliest appeal after his conviction and courts rejected it, ruling that an expert witness isn’t required to interview a defendant. The state Attorney General’s Office told the Supreme Court that Daniels was eligible for the death penalty regardless of White’s testimony. A Superior Court judge declined earlier this week to block the execution. The sentence was warranted under law because the crime was committed for monetary gain, was especially cruel and was part of conduct that included violence to others, the state said.
In addition to defense lawyers, Easley met with prosecutors and with a granddaughter of the victim, who said Crawford’s family concluded she would have opposed the death penalty.
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