Richard Snell was executed by the State of Arkansas for two murders
According to court documents Richard Snell was an active member in a White Supremacist group. He would along with two accomplices would enter a pawn shop where he would shoot and kill William Stumpp as he believed the victim was Jewish
Six months later Richard Snell would be involved in a shootout with Arkansas State Trooper Louis P. Bryant where the Officer would be fatally shot and killed
Richard Snell would be arrested, convicted and sentenced to death
Snell would be executed on April 19 1995
Richard Snell Photos
Richard Snell Case
Richard Wayne Snell, a white supremacist who expressed no remorse for killing a Jewish businessman and a black police officer, was put to death by lethal injection on Wednesday night, but not before delivering a threat to Gov. Jim Guy Tucker, who declined to block his execution.
“Governor Tucker, look over your shoulder; justice is coming,” Mr. Snell was quoted as saying by witnesses to his execution. “I wouldn’t trade places with you or any of your cronies. Hell has victories; I am at peace.”
Mr. Snell, 64, was pronounced dead at 9:16 P.M. by the Lincoln County coroner.
Mr. Snell was convicted of the 1984 murder of a Texarkana, Ark., pawnbroker, William Stumpp, during a robbery and of the 1985 killing of an Arkansas state trooper, Louis Bryant, who had stopped Mr. Snell’s car for a traffic violation
Mr. Snell appeared last week before the Arkansas clemency board, but quoted Hitler’s deputy, Rudolf Hess, and demanded to be either executed or set free. He also said he would “probably” shoot Trooper Bryant again “under the same circumstances.” The six-member board responded by recommending unanimously that Governor Tucker not reduce Mr. Snell’s sentence. Mr. Tucker followed the panel’s advice.
Arkansas authorities said Mr. Snell had maintained his ties to radical-right organizations during the 10 years he awaited execution on death row. In the days immediately preceeding Mr. Snell’s death, fliers proclaiming his innocence and accusing President Clinton and Mr. Tucker of treason and other crimes began circulating in the state.
Last-minute appeals by Mr. Snell’s lawyers were refused. A window of opportunity appeared to open earlier on Wednesday when the United States Supreme Court ruled, in Kyles v. Whitley, that misstatements by district attorneys to juries regarding prosecution witnesses were grounds for review. By coincidence, Mr. Snell’s lead lawyer, Jeff Rosenzweig of Little Rock, had long argued that Arkansas prosecutors “artificially enhanced the credibility” of the principal witness against his client by overstating the time the witness, an accomplice to the killing of Mr. Stumpp, would serve under a plea bargain.
But Judge Susan Weber Wright of Federal District Court in Little Rock refused to stay the execution, and a panel of the Eighth United States Circuit Court of Appeals agreed that “Snell’s reliance on Kyles is misplaced.”
Associate Justice Clarence Thomas, acting for the Supreme Court, declined to hear a further appeal.
“Mr. Snell had asked that no appeals be undertaken unless Kyles was decided, so we would have been derelict had we not attempted to obtain a stay,” said Mr. Rosenzweig, who was assisted by William Currier, an associate in the Manhattan law firm of Case and White, and Beth Haroules, a staff lawyer with the New York office of the American Civil Liberties Union.
In the late 1980’s Richard Snell and several co-defendants were tried for sedition in Fort Smith, Ark. The charges stemmed from their association with the Covenant, the Sword and the Arm of the Lord, a paramilitary organization that had headquarters in the north Arkansas hill country. Mr. Snell had already been convicted of the Stumpp and Bryant murders and had been sentenced to death. All the defendants, Mr. Snell included, were acquitted.
While insisting they had taken no extraordinary precautions against possible efforts to interfere with the execution, the police were visible at the Cummins Unit of the Arkansas prison system. Mr. Snell was taken to the execution site here on Monday by National Guard helicopter before dawn.
