Tracy Hansen was executed by the State of Mississippi for the murder of Highway Patrol Officer David Bruce Ladner
According to court documents Tracy Hansen was pulled over for driving erratically. When Highway Patrol Officer David Bruce Ladner was walking back to his vehicle Hansen would pull out a gun and start firing, striking and killing the officer
Tracy Hansen would be arrested, convicted and sentenced to death
Tracy Hansen would be executed by lethal injection on July 17 2002
Tracy Hansen Photos
Tracy Hansen FAQ
When Was Tracy Hansen Executed
Tracy Hansen was executed on July 17 2002
Tracy Hansen Case
It took 15 years for Tracy Alan Hansen to run out of legal appeals but only about 10 minutes for him to be put to death Wednesday. Fifteen years after he killed state Trooper David Bruce Ladner by pumping one bullet in his shoulder and another in his back, Hansen paid with his life by lethal injection at the State Penitentiary at Parchman. “I don’t mind dying if it gives you closure,” Hansen said to the Ladner family before the drugs were pumped into the IVs in his arms. State Pathologist Steven Hayne pronounced Hansen dead at 6:32 p.m., about 10 minutes after the lethal injection began, state Department of Corrections officials and media witnesses said.
Media witnesses said Hansen gave a rambling speech before he was put to death. Witnesses said prison officials finally removed the microphone, beginning the lethal injection process even as he continued speaking. ” ‘I’m guilty. I shot the guy. I panicked. I was running from the law. I shouldn’t have had a gun,’ ” witnesses quoted Hansen as saying. ” ‘I didn’t want to kill him.’ ” He apologized to the Ladner family, saying: “I’m sorry, but I know sorry doesn’t mean much to some people,” adding he hoped Ladner’s family would now be able put the tragedy behind them.
The execution appeared painless, with Hansen exhaling once and closing his eyes, the eight media witnesses said. “Justice was done,” Herman Cox, a Gulfport attorney who acted as spokesman for the Ladner family, said after the execution. Ladner’s brother, Kirk, and the slain trooper’s two sons witnessed the execution, as did Cox. Cox, who prosecuted Hansen as an assistant Harrison County district attorney in 1987, said Hansen died painlessly. That wasn’t the case for Ladner, who died 36 hours after being shot in the back with Hansen’s second bullet, he said. “May God have mercy on Tracy Hansen,” Cox said.
Hansen and his girlfriend Anita Krecic were wanted in Florida at the time for a string of robberies stretching from Fort Lauderdale to Gainesville. Convicted of capital murder, Krecic is serving a life sentence at the Central Mississippi Correctional Facility in Rankin County. Sixty Ladner family members, friends and law enforcement officers arrived by chartered bus from Gulfport at the penitentiary at 3:40 p.m. The bus was escorted by Mississippi Highway Patrol vehicles. Tracy Alan Hansen’s body will be cremated by the American Cremation Society of Memphis.
Hansen was talkative and appeared anxious Wednesday before his execution, MDOC spokeswoman Jennifer Griffin said. She said Hansen also mailed 23 letters, but her staff doesn’t know who they went to. Hansen’s last meal consisted of broiled lobster, shrimp, scallops and crab meat served with clarified butter and cocktail sauce. He also had fried fish fillet and oysters with tartar sauce, a Pepsi and chocolate morsels. Hansen’s attorneys, Charles Press and Debra Sabah, who witnessed the execution, said their client was “remorseful and wishes the best for the Ladner family.”
Hansen requested that none of his family witness his execution, but the condemned inmate made calls Wednesday to his father Lawrence Hansen of Orlando, Fla. Efforts by The Clarion-Ledger to reach Hansen’s family, including his father, were unsuccessful Wednesday. Other calls Hansen made Wednesday were to longtime friend Rhea Abbott of Aberdeen, Wash., who operates a prison ministry and lost a son and daughter-in-law to a violent crime. Abbott said Hansen should have been punished, but not put to death. “There were extenuating circumstances, and he has shown nothing but remorse.”
Numerous Hansen supporters, many from foreign countries, sent letters to Gov. Ronnie Musgrove asking him to grant clemency. Musgrove refused. In a statement after the execution, the governor said: “There are too many other death penalty cases still awaiting some type of resolution. Fifteen years is too long for the families of the victims and the state of Mississippi to wait for justice to be served.”
Attorney General Mike Moore, who witnessed the execution, said he hopes it will bring some closure for the Ladner family. Moore said he gave the OK for the execution after his office checked as late as 5:55 p.m. Wednesday to make sure no stays had been granted. A small group of protesters gathered about 90 minutes before Hansen’s execution at the gates of the penitentiary. A smaller group of supporters of victims stood nearby.
http://www.clarionledger.com/news/0207/18/m01.html
