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David Dawson Case

David F. Dawson was put to death early today for the 1986 murder of a Kenton woman. Dawson, 46, was pronounced dead by lethal injection at 12:05 a.m. at Delaware Correctional Center. He spent his last hours sleeping, eating, reading, writing letters, talking to Department of Correction staff and visiting with his family and friends and his spiritual adviser and attorney. On April 17, Dawson admitted to stabbing Madeline M. Kisner to death after he and 3 other inmates escaped from DCC in December 1986. The confession came during an unsuccessful commutation bid before the Board of Pardons and followed 14 years of denials and appeals.

Dawson separated from his fellow escapees and entered Mrs. Kisner’s Kenton-area home, where he bound and gagged the 44-year-old bookkeeper before stabbing her 12 times in the chest and neck. When asked during the pardons hearing why he killed Mrs. Kisner, Dawson blamed drugs and alcohol. Using Mrs. Kisner’s car to flee, he spent that night drinking in 2 Milford-area bars. He was captured the next day near Lincoln after falling asleep in another stolen car. The other escapees – Mark McCoy, Richard Irwin and Larry Nave – were later arrested in St. George, Utah, and were not involved in murdering Mrs. Kisner.

The jury hearing the case in June 1988 spent three hours deliberating before finding Dawson guilty of 1st-degree murder. The 8 men and 4 women then took an hour and a half to unanimously recommend a death sentence. Calling Dawson a “depraved character,” Superior Court Judge Henry du Pont Ridgely followed that recommendation and originally sentenced him to die later that year. That date and 3 others -in 1993, 1994 and March -were postponed through a series of appeals. When Dawson and the 3 other inmates broke out of prison in 1986, he had 6 years left to serve on a 12-year sentence for theft and other charges. The escape from DCC was not Dawson’s 1st. He escaped 3 times from a maximum security juvenile facility before 1973. In July 1975, Dawson fled through a fence at the pretrial annex building near Prices Corner. In February 1983, he walked away from the Plummer Center in Wilmington, turning a one-day furlough into a 4-month excursion.

In his hearing with the Board of Pardons last week, Dawson said he had gone to school in Milford and Harrington. During the hearing, Deputy Attorney General John Williams said Dawson had an “extensive” criminal record. Mr. Williams said Dawson was jailed for burglary at age 11. He was committed to Ferris School at 13 in 1968, his 1st of 5 trips to the school. Before he was an adult, Dawson was charged with 3 escapes and 2 attempted escapes. His adult record, according to Mr. Williams, included 14 felony convictions and adult escapes.

There are 15 men on death row in Delaware. Dawson becomes the 1st condemned inmate to be put to death this year in Delaware and the 12th overall since the state resumed capital punishment in1992. Dawson becomes the 27th condemned inmate to be put to death this year in the USA and the 710th overall since America resumed executions on January 17, 1977.

David Dawson was executed by the State of Montana for a triple murder

According to court documents David Dawson would break into a hotel room where he would gag the four people inside and three of which would die from their injuries: Monica and David Rodstein, along with their 11 year old son Andrew. A fifteen year old girl would survive the attack

David Dawson was arrested, convicted and sentenced to death

David Dawson was executed by lethal injection on August 11 2006

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When Was David Dawson Executed

David Dawson was executed on August 11 2006

David Dawson Case

Convicted killer David Dawson, who fought for two years to end his appeals and be put to death, was executed early Friday morning by lethal injection at Montana State Prison. Dawson, who was convicted of killing three members of a Billings family in 1986, was pronounced dead at 12:06 a.m. Dawson was the first person executed in Montana since 1998.

Legal questions hung over David Dawson’s execution until only hours before the three-time murderer was set to be put to death early Friday morning. Clarity came just before 5 p.m. Thursday seven hours before Dawson’s scheduled execution when the Montana Supreme Court denied a request to postpone the death to allow for a lawsuit over whether lethal injection is cruel and unusual punishment. The seven-member court unanimously rejected an effort to stall the execution, offering no explanation and writing that they would not reconsider the order.

Dawson kidnapped and murdered three members of a Billings family including an 11-year-old boy in 1986. Only the family’s teenaged daughter survived. She was rescued by Billings police officers, who arrested Dawson and found the bodies of her family. Dawson two years ago stopped all efforts to commute or suspend his death sentence and has disavowed the latest effort.

A coalition of groups led by American Civil Liberties Union of Montana, but including church groups, lawmakers and others argued that the way Montana practices lethal injection could expose the condemned to excruciating pain before death, violating the ban on cruel and unusual punishment. The groups first asked the Montana Supreme Court to stop the execution on July 11, a month before the execution. That case began a long legal road. The Montana Supreme Court denied that initial request, prompting the groups to ask the high court to reconsider. That effort, too, failed.

Next, the groups took the case to federal court in Missoula. A U.S. District Court judge also denied their effort. Finally, the case wound up in state District Court in Helena for a hearing Wednesday, just 35 hours before Dawson was sentenced to die. Judge Jeffrey Sherlock also denied the case Thursday morning, prompting the appeal to the Montana Supreme Court where the case originally began almost a month ago.

At issue were several arguments. The civil liberties groups raised the concern that if the three drugs administered in lethal injection were improperly used, the condemned would not be unconscious at the time of death and would experience the pain caused by the lethal drug cocktail. One of the major debates was whether the groups, who do not represent Dawson and have no ties to him, can bring a suit arguing Dawson’s constitutional rights may be violated when Dawson himself has chosen the execution.

In the end, Ron Waterman, the Helena attorney representing the groups, said he didn’t think the case would be appealed further. But he said Thursday’s Supreme Court decision and Dawson’s death is not the end. “This issue will not stop, and it will not go away,’’ he said.

Waterman said he anticipated future challenges involving the three remaining men under a death sentence in Montana to challenge Montana’s lethal injection method. And ultimately, he said, courts will show that “putting Mr. Dawson to death …is unconstitutional.’’ One option for the groups is to try to change Montana law regarding lethal injection at the upcoming 2007 Legislature. Waterman said he was skeptical such an effort may succeed, but had higher hopes for a future court case.

He said capital punishment doesn’t really deter crimes, but is done out of retribution. “The difficulty of an eye-for-an-eye and tooth-for-tooth retribution is that all too often all the parties become partially blind,’’ he said. “I still continue to believe that retribution has no place in the American system of justice.’’

http://www.helenair.com/articles/2006/08/11/montana_top/a01081106_01.txt