Terrance James was executed by the State of Oklahoma for a prison murder
According to court documents Terrance James was at the county jail when he heard that Mark Berry was a snitch. Along with two fellow inmates Terrance would attack Mark Berry strangling him with a wire causing his death
Terrance James would be convicted and sentenced to death
Terrance James would be executed by lethal injection on May 22 2001
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When Was Terrance James Executed
Terrance James was executed on May 22 2001
Terrance James Case
A Durant man was executed Tuesday night for killing a partner in crime 18 years ago in a jail cell.
Terrance Anthony James, 41, died by an injection of drugs at 9:06 p.m. at the Oklahoma State Penitentiary in McAlester. He was the 12th inmate executed in Oklahoma this year.
James was convicted in the Feb. 6, 1983, death of Mark Allen “Corkey” Berry, 25, of Durant. Berry was strangled and hanged in the former Muskogee City-Federal jail.
When the curtain to the death chamber opened, James was asked if he had any last words. He looked up at two female relatives and an investigator who were witnesses and jokingly stuck out his tongue at them
“I just want to nod at my family, and I just did,” James said.
The execution began at 9:04 p.m. James snorted and wheezed as the drugs flowed through his body, then he lost consciousness. His breathing noticeably stopped a short time later.
Tuesday afternoon, the state Court of Criminal Appeals declined to overturn a lower court ruling against a stay.
Twelve relatives of Berry were at the penitentiary during the execution.
Berry’s sister, Mary J. Nelson, said there are penalties for breaking the law and James knew that when he made the choice to kill her brother.
“My brother didn’t have a choice. He didn’t choose to die, and he didn’t want to die and leave behind three small children to grow up without a father. Terrance James made that choice for him and at the same time sealed his own fate.”
Witnesses for James included a sister, brother, cousin, aunt and an investigator for the federal public defender’s office.
For a last meal, James requested a bacon cheeseburger, a pizza and a banana malt.
James, Berry and Dennis Earl Brown of Durant were indicted on federal counts involving theft of arms from the National Guard Armory in Durant. James pleaded guilty in January 1983 to one count of theft of government property. He got a five-year prison sentence.
But he and Brown were convinced that Berry was responsible for their arrests.
Berry was killed while he and Brown played cards in the jail about 4:30 a.m. James approached Berry from behind, wrapped a wire around his neck and strangled him, according to the attorney general’s office.
Brown held Berry’s feet and put his hand over Berry’s mouth. James, Brown and Samuel Raymond Van Woudenberg, an inmate from Tulsa, then hung Berry’s body in a shower stall.
Van Woudenberg is on death row, but his sentence is being reviewed. A competency hearing is set for June 8 in McAlester, Edmondson said.
Brown pleaded guilty to second-degree murder and received 35 years in prison because he was willing to testify against James and Van Woudenberg and because he was less culpable, said Edmondson, who was Muskogee County District Attorney at the time.
https://www.oklahoman.com/story/news/2001/05/23/inmate-executed-for-jail-slaying/62145657007/