Terry Dennis was executed by the State of Nevada for the murder of Ilona Strumanis
According to court documents Terry Dennis and Ilona Strumanis were in a motel room for several days before Dennis would murder the woman by wrapping a belt around her neck. He would wait several more days before calling the police to report a dead body
Terry Dennis would be arrested, convicted and sentenced to death
Terry Dennis would be executed by lethal injection on August 12 2004
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When Was Terry Dennis Executed
Terry Dennis was executed on August 12 2004
Terry Dennis Case
Death row inmate Terry Dennis offered no final words and died quietly at 9:08 p.m. Thursday for the strangulation of a Reno woman in 1999. “Mr. Dennis was asked if he had any final words, and he did not,” said Jackie Crawford, director of the Department of Corrections. “He was very quiet, and it went very well.”
Dennis, wearing glasses and his head shaved, was escorted into the execution chamber at 8:52 p.m. He appeared calm as five correctional officers with the Nevada State Prison secured him to a table in the former gas chamber. At 8:56 p.m., the shades were drawn across the window so that witnesses could not see into the execution chamber. An intravenous needle then was inserted into Dennis’ arm. Dennis, who had chosen not to pursue appeals, could have stopped the execution at any point, but chose not to do so. At 9:03 p.m., the shades were pulled back and the seven official witnesses watched as three drugs were fed into Dennis’ blood stream. One rendered him unconscious, one stopped his breathing and a third stopped his heart. Dennis was breathing rapidly at first, but at 9:05 p.m. his lips fluttered a few times and he appeared to stop breathing. The chamber door was opened at 9:08 p.m., and a doctor checked Dennis for a pulse. There was none.
It was the 11th execution in Nevada since the Legislature reimposed the death penalty in 1977. It was the second execution this year. Department spokesman Fritz Schlottman said Dennis visited with his brother, Gary Dennis, for two hours Thursday morning. He stayed in the “last night” cell across from the execution chamber, not posting any mail or making any phone calls, Schlottman said. Dennis was offered and took a Valium at 4 p.m. and another at 7 p.m., Schlottman said. Dennis ate his last meal of two cheeseburgers and a Coke, he said. No members of the family of the victim, Ilona Strumanis, 51, appeared as witnesses. Strumanis was originally from Russia, and the department had no contact with relatives, Schlottman said.
Dennis pleaded guilty to the killing, which occurred during a vodka-and-beer binge in a Reno motel room. A three-judge panel sentenced Dennis to death. Outside the prison in the capital, about 25 death penalty protesters quietly demonstrated against the execution of Dennis, 56. Dennis was a volunteer, meaning an inmate sentenced to death who refused to try to appeal his case. Ten of the last 11 executions in Nevada have come when inmates have given up their appeals. He told court officials at one hearing: “Death is preferable to another 15 to 20 years in prison.”
http://www.reviewjournal.com/lvrj_home/2004/Aug-13-Fri-2004/news/24530516.html
