Joseph Keel was executed by the State of North Carolina for the murder of John Simmons
According to court documents Joseph Keel would shoot and kill his father in law John Simmons, no motive for the murder was ever established
Joseph Keel who was convicted on a involuntary manslaughter charge for the death of his infant son three years earlier would be arrested, convicted and sentenced to death
Joseph Keel would be executed by lethal injection on November 7 2003
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When Was Joseph Keel Executed
Joseph Keel was executed on November 7 2003
Joseph Keel Case
Convicted murderer Joseph Timothy Keel was executed by lethal injection at Raleigh’s Central Prison early today for killing his father-in-law in Edgecombe County after an argument.
Keel, 39, who confessed to the 1990 killing but claimed he was mentally retarded and mentally ill, was twice sentenced to death. Gov. Mike Easley declined Thursday night to convert Keel’s death sentence to life in prison after the U.S. Supreme Court turned down Keel’s last appeal. “Having carefully reviewed the clemency petition, I find no compelling reasons to invalidate the sentence recommended by two juries and affirmed by the courts,” Easley said in a statement.
In a clemency hearing Tuesday before Easley, Keel’s lead lawyer, Jay Ferguson, argued that Keel should be spared because “he has got the educational and functional ability of a fifth-grader.” Keel suffered head injuries that affected his brain, in addition to other brain damage since birth, which meant he deserved a life sentence instead, Ferguson said. At the time of the murder, Keel was retarded and mentally ill in addition to the brain damage, Ferguson said. Therefore Keel did not have the mental capacity to control his behaviors or understand the consequences, defense experts argued. Keel had a history of hallucinations, paranoia and psychosis, the defense said.
Keel’s lawyers also argued in appeals this week that an alternate juror illegally helped decide Keel’s earlier conviction, in 1987, of involuntary manslaughter in the 1986 death of his infant son. Ferguson raised the issue last week after researchers said they discovered that an alternate juror in that case claimed to have taken part in deliberations. But the juror testified in Edgecombe County Superior Court this week that he was an alternate and never took part in regular deliberations. Prosecutors relied on the involuntary manslaughter conviction, for which Keel served prison time, as the legal reason to justify a death sentence for the slaying four years later of his father-in-law, Johnny Simmons. State lawyers said an alternate juror’s participation in deliberations would have nullified the verdict, but they denied that happened in Keel’s case.
Prosecutors said Keel was a vicious killer of two relatives who who deserved to be put to death. Ferguson said an expert put Keel’s IQ at 70, the cutoff for retardation under state law. But prosecutors said that Keel’s IQ was 87 and that he showed no mental problems in prison, where he earned a GED certificate and took religion courses.
Keel’s last meal was fried chicken, a biscuit, rice, a Diet Coke and a T-bone steak without the bone and with mushrooms and onions, said Pamela Walker, spokeswoman for the state Department of Correction.
Keel’s was the state’s fifth execution scheduled this year, with two more planned so far: John Dennis Daniels’ next week and Robbie James Lyons’ next month.
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