Tuesday, May 25, 1999
Kentucky killer slated to die today
BY ROBERT GARRETT
The Courier-Journal
Three federal appellate judges refused Monday to block the execution of Kentucky death-row inmate Eddie Harper, who has said he wants no more delays and is scheduled to die tonight.
The three-judge panel of the U.S. Court of Appeals for the 6th Circuit in Cincinnati unanimously rejected claims by Mr. Harper's former law yers that a federal district court judge committed four errors in a hearing on Mr. Harper's competence.
The public defenders, with whom Mr. Harper has battled for nearly a year, claimed he is mentally ill and shouldn't be allowed to decide to drop further appeals.
Mr. Harper, 50, was convicted in 1982 of murdering his adoptive parents in Jefferson County. He is scheduled to be executed at 7 p.m. CDT today at the Kentucky State Penitentiary in Eddyville, but the public defenders said they would appeal.
The execution would be the first in Kentucky to be per formed by injection and the first in the state in modern times of a condemned person who has waived his rights to appeal.
It would be the state's second execution since the death penalty was reinstated by the U.S. Supreme Court in 1976.
Appellate Judge Alice M. Batchelder of Medina, Ohio, writing for fellow judges Eugene Siler Jr. of London, Ky., and Karen Nelson Moore of Cleveland, said U.S. District Judge Joseph McKinley of Owensboro made no obvious error Wednesday when he found no “reasonable cause” to doubt Mr. Harper's competence.
Judge McKinley said such facts as Mr. Harper's history of mental illness, the mental illness of members of his biological family and his infatuation with a female investigator for the public defenders were insufficient to create a reasonable doubt.
Judge Batchelder also rejected public defenders' arguments that Judge McKinley should have: given public defenders more time to prepare; ordered the government to pay for examinations of Mr. Harper by two psychiatrists; and disqualified prison officials and Attorney General Ben Chandler from the case because of conflicts of interest.
Rebecca DiLoreto, a top official of the Department of Public Advocacy, which provides lawyers for indigent criminal defendants, said the public defenders will appeal the ruling to the entire 6th Circuit and, if that fails, ask the U.S. Supreme Court to hear their appeal.
She said the three-judge panel should have made its own review of Judge McKinley's factual findings and not applied a less-strict, “abuse of discretion standard.”
Ms. DiLoreto expressed disappointment that the appellate judges did not address the claim of pubic defenders Randy Wheeler and Susan Martin that Judge McKinley held a full-blown competency hearing last week when he had said beforehand only that he would conduct a preliminary hearing. “They didn't know ... how much (evidence) they were supposed to be prepared to present,” Ms. DiLoreto said.
She added that Mr. Harper's continuing effort to communicate with Valerie Bryan, the investigator he says he loves, suggests he is
delusional.
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