Wednesday, Nov. 18, 1998 Death row two-timer McDuff executed Killer who was paroled 17 years after first death term commuted dies for '92 slaying By MICHAEL GRACZYK Associated Press
HUNTSVILLE -- Kenneth Allen McDuff, whose nearly three-decade history of ghastly murders earned him the tag of predator and monster, was put to death Tuesday evening for the abduction, rape and strangling of a pregnant mother of two. "I'm ready to be released; release me," McDuff, 52, said before dying. McDuff, whose first death sentence was commuted in the 1970s when the death penalty was ruled unconstitutional, is believed to be the only condemned inmate in the nation ever paroled and then returned to death row for another murder. He was pronounced dead at 6:26 p.m., five minutes after the lethal dose began flowing. McDuff became the 17th Texas inmate put to death this year. He received lethal injection for the 1992 death of Melissa Ann Northrup. "I think my daughter will be at rest," said Brenda Solomon, the victim's mother, in contemplating McDuff's death. While McDuff asked for a final meal of two T-bone steaks, his attorneys were at the U.S. Supreme Court seeking a delay so additional tests could be conducted on hair samples that authorities said linked him to Northrup's slaying. Justices refused Tuesday night to stop the sentence from being carried out. Northrup, 22, was abducted March 1, 1992, from a Waco convenience store where she worked. Her body surfaced weeks later and dozens of miles away in a Dallas County gravel pit. Her hands were tied behind her and she had been strangled with a rope. McDuff also had a second death sentence for the 1991 abduction and slaying of 28-year-old Austin accountant Colleen Reed, and authorities say he may have killed as many as a dozen other people, primarily in Central Texas between Austin and Waco. McDuff, first imprisoned in 1965 for burglary, went to death row in 1968 for fatally shooting in the face two teen-age boys in Fort Worth and raping and strangling with a broomstick their 16-year-old female companion. But while he was awaiting execution, the Supreme Court in 1972 struck down the death penalty as unconstitutional and McDuff's sentence was commuted to life. He won parole about 17 years later when parole board members, facing severe crowding in Texas prisons, released him along with thousands of inmates so they could free space for newly convicted felons. Northrup and Reed were killed a short time later. The subject of a nationwide manhunt, McDuff was arrested without incident in 1992 in Kansas City, where under an assumed name he was working as a trash collector.
That is a horrible tragedy; and a failure of our justice system. Why in hell this man would be paroled is beyond me. Why his sentence would be commuted to life with the possibility of parole from the death penalty is also a mystery. Doesn't that defy logic?
I am not saying that tragedies don't happen. What kind of fool would I be? I do believe that this sort of tragedy is so unbelievably rare that it should not be considered in the decision of whether to maintain the death penalty.
People who intentionally take another's life (without consent from the other) don't deserve a second chance. some people will never realize that what they've done is wrong, but most do. None of them should be given a second chance. Anyone who commits a crime deemed serious enough to be killed over should never be given a second chance. they should die in prison.
In Washington there are laws on the books that enable the state to hold sex-offenders indefinitely, and they were just tested and found constitutional in court in the last several months. (I don't know very well what I'm talking about now, but at least the basic idea of what I just said is true.) This is a blow to civil liberty advocates, but I think it is justified. If the people in our prisons can't be trusted outside of prison, then they shouldn't be let free.
I suppose the over-crowding in the prisons was a result of drug peddlers and third strikers? Do you have a third strike law in Texas? These laws, in my humble opinion, are among the worst ever passed.
Most states have had habitual offender laws on the books for years, although not nearly as sensationalized as California. Here in Texas, if you commit certain felonies and have two prior felony convictions (not meaning probations, etc.--meaning that you have actually GONE to prison twice) then your punishment range is from 25-99 years. I think the problem with California's law (if I remember correctly) was that it calls for mandatory life, no? I also think that's unfair. There are some situations that just don't merit that. As for what causes the overcrowding, I don't know. What I can tell you though is that I usually see a drug defendant 8-12 times, 5-6 rehabs later before prison even becomes an option I'd consider. (I'm talking felony offenses, not little misdemeanor shit.) Very few make it to that point...they usually die (o.d. or drug-related violence) before they get there. Before 1994 the drug laws in Texas were, to say the least, draconian. It is different now, and there are plenty of other options available other than prison. That's not saying that if a person gets to a certain point in the system that they won't eventually go to prison--they will. But it happens far less frequently than before.
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From:
Food For Thought
Death row two-timer McDuff executed
Killer who was paroled 17 years after first death term commuted dies for '92 slaying
By MICHAEL GRACZYK
Associated Press
HUNTSVILLE -- Kenneth Allen McDuff, whose nearly three-decade history of ghastly murders earned him the tag of predator and monster, was put to death Tuesday evening for the abduction, rape and strangling of a pregnant mother of two.
"I'm ready to be released; release me," McDuff, 52, said before dying.
McDuff, whose first death sentence was commuted in the 1970s when the death penalty was ruled unconstitutional, is believed to be the only condemned inmate in the nation ever paroled and then returned to death row for another murder.
He was pronounced dead at 6:26 p.m., five minutes after the lethal dose began flowing.
McDuff became the 17th Texas inmate put to death this year. He received lethal injection for the 1992 death of Melissa Ann Northrup.
"I think my daughter will be at rest," said Brenda Solomon, the victim's mother, in contemplating McDuff's death.
While McDuff asked for a final meal of two T-bone steaks, his attorneys were at the U.S. Supreme Court seeking a delay so additional tests could be conducted on hair samples that authorities said linked him to Northrup's slaying. Justices refused Tuesday night to stop the sentence from being carried out.
Northrup, 22, was abducted March 1, 1992, from a Waco convenience store where she worked. Her body surfaced weeks later and dozens of miles away in a Dallas County gravel pit. Her hands were tied behind her and she had been strangled with a rope.
McDuff also had a second death sentence for the 1991 abduction and slaying of 28-year-old Austin accountant Colleen Reed, and authorities say he may have killed as many as a dozen other people, primarily in Central Texas between Austin and Waco.
McDuff, first imprisoned in 1965 for burglary, went to death row in 1968 for fatally shooting in the face two teen-age boys in Fort Worth and raping and strangling with a broomstick their 16-year-old female companion.
But while he was awaiting execution, the Supreme Court in 1972 struck down the death penalty as unconstitutional and McDuff's sentence was commuted to life.
He won parole about 17 years later when parole board members, facing severe crowding in Texas prisons, released him along with thousands of inmates so they could free space for newly convicted felons. Northrup and Reed were killed a short time later.
The subject of a nationwide manhunt, McDuff was arrested without incident in 1992 in Kansas City, where under an assumed name he was working as a trash collector.
From:
Re: Food For Thought
I am not saying that tragedies don't happen. What kind of fool would I be? I do believe that this sort of tragedy is so unbelievably rare that it should not be considered in the decision of whether to maintain the death penalty.
People who intentionally take another's life (without consent from the other) don't deserve a second chance. some people will never realize that what they've done is wrong, but most do. None of them should be given a second chance. Anyone who commits a crime deemed serious enough to be killed over should never be given a second chance. they should die in prison.
In Washington there are laws on the books that enable the state to hold sex-offenders indefinitely, and they were just tested and found constitutional in court in the last several months. (I don't know very well what I'm talking about now, but at least the basic idea of what I just said is true.) This is a blow to civil liberty advocates, but I think it is justified. If the people in our prisons can't be trusted outside of prison, then they shouldn't be let free.
I suppose the over-crowding in the prisons was a result of drug peddlers and third strikers? Do you have a third strike law in Texas? These laws, in my humble opinion, are among the worst ever passed.
From:
Re: Food For Thought