Deanna's Daydreamer
05-17-2010, 12:41 AM
JACKSON, Miss. -- Defense attorneys asked the Mississippi Supreme Court to halt the execution of Paul Everette Woodward.
In papers filed Friday, they said they want more time for Woodward to pursue additional appeals or to ask Gov. Haley Barbour to change Woodward's sentence to life in prison.
He is scheduled to be put to death Wednesday at the State Penitentiary at Parchman.
Justice James Graves Jr. has given the state a Monday deadline to file responses.
Woodward, who's now 62, was sentenced to death for the 1986 rape and shooting death of 24-year-old Rhonda Crane, of Escatawpa........
http://www.ca5.uscourts.gov/opinions%5Cpub%5C06/06-70053-CV0.wpd.pdf
Around noon on July 23, 1986, Rhonda Crane, age twenty-four, was
traveling on Mississippi Highway 29 south of New Augusta in Perry
County, Mississippi to join her parents on a camping trip. A white
male driving a white log truck forced her car to stop in the middle
of the road. The white male then exited the truck with a pistol in
his hand and forced Crane to get into his truck. The man then
drove the victim to an isolated area, forced her out of his truck and
into the woods at gunpoint and forced her to have sexual relations
with him. Rhonda Crane was shot in the back of her head and died.
Crane’s automobile was left on the highway with the engine
running, the driver’s door open and her purse on the car seat. A
motorist traveling in a vehicle on the same highway saw a white
colored, unloaded, logging truck moving away from the Crane
vehicle, and notified the authorities. Additionally, a housewife
residing on a bluff along the highway at the location of the Crane
car noted a logging truck with a white cab stop in front of her
driveway. A white male exited and walked toward the back of his
truck and returned with a blonde haired woman wearing yellow
clothing. As he held her by her arm, the male yelled sufficiently
loud for the housewife to hear the words “get in, get in,”
In papers filed Friday, they said they want more time for Woodward to pursue additional appeals or to ask Gov. Haley Barbour to change Woodward's sentence to life in prison.
He is scheduled to be put to death Wednesday at the State Penitentiary at Parchman.
Justice James Graves Jr. has given the state a Monday deadline to file responses.
Woodward, who's now 62, was sentenced to death for the 1986 rape and shooting death of 24-year-old Rhonda Crane, of Escatawpa........
http://www.ca5.uscourts.gov/opinions%5Cpub%5C06/06-70053-CV0.wpd.pdf
Around noon on July 23, 1986, Rhonda Crane, age twenty-four, was
traveling on Mississippi Highway 29 south of New Augusta in Perry
County, Mississippi to join her parents on a camping trip. A white
male driving a white log truck forced her car to stop in the middle
of the road. The white male then exited the truck with a pistol in
his hand and forced Crane to get into his truck. The man then
drove the victim to an isolated area, forced her out of his truck and
into the woods at gunpoint and forced her to have sexual relations
with him. Rhonda Crane was shot in the back of her head and died.
Crane’s automobile was left on the highway with the engine
running, the driver’s door open and her purse on the car seat. A
motorist traveling in a vehicle on the same highway saw a white
colored, unloaded, logging truck moving away from the Crane
vehicle, and notified the authorities. Additionally, a housewife
residing on a bluff along the highway at the location of the Crane
car noted a logging truck with a white cab stop in front of her
driveway. A white male exited and walked toward the back of his
truck and returned with a blonde haired woman wearing yellow
clothing. As he held her by her arm, the male yelled sufficiently
loud for the housewife to hear the words “get in, get in,”