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Hill reticent to the end n No remorse from convicted killer of Georgetown police officer before execution.
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Scott Harper
staff writer
COLUMBIA — At 6:04 p.m. Friday, David Clayton Hill took what appeared to be his last breath.
Thirteen minutes later, it was announced by a warden at the Broad River Correctional Institution in Columbia the sentence handed down against the Georgetown native on Halloween 1995 had been carried out.
Hill, 39, received the death penalty for shooting and killing 37-year-old Georgetown Assistant Police Chief Maj. Spencer Guerry in March 1994.
Guerry had pulled Hill’s car over for having an expired license tag.
At the trial the following year, it took the jury 45 minutes to find Hill guilty, and 80 minutes to sentence him to death.
Friday’s execution brought to a close years of appeals and two weeks of legal maneuvering between Hill’s attorneys and South Carolina Attorney General Henry McMaster on whether the sentence would be rendered or postponed.
On Feb. 20, the State Supreme Court issued the warrant setting March 19 as the execution date. That put into motion a series of last ditch efforts by Hill’s attorney, Jerome Nickerson, to have the procedure halted.
Motions were filed in U.S. District and Circuit Courts for a stay on the grounds that lethal injection is cruel and unusual punishment.
The U.S. District Court granted the stay on March 4 and the 4th District Court of Appeals upheld the stay on March 16.
The attorney general then appealed to the U.S. Supreme Court, which did not issue a ruling until about 2 p.m. Friday, four hours before the scheduled execution.
"The high court vacated the stay of execution to allow the sentence to go forward," McMaster’s spokesman Mark Plowden said in a phone call Friday afternoon.
Nickerson sought to have Gov. Mark Sanford step in, but that request was also denied.
"I have reviewed this matter with my legal counsel and can find no reason to intervene and overturn the findings of an exhaustive judicial process," Sanford said in a statement issued at 4:26 p.m. Friday.
With nothing left to stop the sentence from being rendered, Hill was offered the opportunity for a final meal, but his request was denied.
"All he asked for was a bottle of Dom Perignon champagne, but that is contraband, so he didn’t get it," said prison spokesman John Barkley.
At about the same time Sanford issued his decision, a few protesters opposed to the death penalty began to march as they carried signs along the edge of the prison property.
One of the protesters was Margaret Abbott, who has a son on death row. She said she has known Hill for many years.
"David is young man who has matured since he went to prison. His mother died and he wasn’t able to go to the funeral. His mother didn’t get a chance to have her arms around him for years, but if they execute him tonight, she will have her arms around him because I know where he will go," she said.
At about 5:20 p.m., Hill was escorted about 50 feet from his holding cell to the death chamber, said Barkley, who would not release details of Hill’s demeanor during that final walk.
Out of the view of witnesses, Hill was placed on a gurney and his arms were outstretched and taped down. The IVs were then inserted into his veins.
At about 5:45 p.m., seven of the 11 witnesses were driven the half-mile from the front office of the prison to the small Capital Punishment Facility. They included Spencer Guerry’s widow, Sally; Georgetown Police Chief Dan Furr; former Georgetown Police officer Tracy Newell; Hill’s brother Jeff Scott; Solicitor Greg Hembree and two agents from the South Carolina Law Enforcement Division.
Five minutes later the three media witnesses were allowed in the room.
A muffled voice could be heard from behind the glass and closed curtain for about three minutes. The person was reciting what sounded to be the Lord’s Prayer and the 23rd Psalm.
Then, at 6:01 p.m., the curtain opened with five people standing by Hill’s side. Three of them quickly walked behind another curtain, leaving only Hill and two wardens in the sight of the witnesses.
At the front of the prison, the protesters stopped marching and sat silently in a circle as the execution was taking place.
Hill, wearing a green shirt, with the lower half of his body covered with a white sheet, had his head facing away from the witnesses.
He then turned his head around, and even lifted his head twice momentarily, as if he were trying to see who was in the witness room.
He appeared to make eye contact with both Mrs. Guerry and Furr, who were seated on the front row of chairs, only inches from the window.
His lawyer then read his seven-word final statement: "Read Philippians 1:9-23."
A portion of the passage written by the Apostle Paul states: "Now I want you to know, brothers, that what has happened to me has really served to advance the gospel. As a result, it has become clear throughout the whole palace guard and to everyone else that I am in chains for Christ … For to me, to live is Christ and to die is gain. If I am to go on living in the body, this will mean fruitful labor for me. Yet what shall I choose? I do not know! I am torn between the two: I desire to depart and be with Christ, which is better by far."
Hill’s priest then entered the witness room and Hill looked over and smiled briefly.
Mrs. Guerry later said she did not know who Hill was looking at when he smiled.
He then rested his head and stared at the ceiling. Seconds later he closed his eyes as he exhaled for what seemed to be the final time.
A deafening silence fell over the building for 13 minutes as each of the witnesses stayed focused on Hill, the sixth Georgetonian to be executed in the past century.
At 6:17 p.m., a medical examiner walked in and placed a stethoscope to Hill’s heart and he was pronounced dead.
At a press conference following the execution, Mrs. Guerry, who had wrestled for weeks about whether to be a witness to the sentence, said she made her decision after she arrived at the capital punishment facility.
"When I walked in the witness room door is when I decided. I did it for Spencer," she said.
When asked, Mrs. Guerry said she was not surprised Hill offered no apology or showed no remorse.
"I didn’t expect one," she said.
Hembree echoed Mrs.Guerry’s comments.
It would be appropriate to express some type of remorse … but he chose not to do that and I think that is a comment on his nature," he said.
Mrs. Guerry said she expected Hill to look different once the curtain opened.
"I may be a little naive, because I thought when I first saw him, I expected him to look different because he took my husband and sons’ father away. He looks like you or I. That was very emotional," she said.
Hembree also said Hill’s case should send a clear message to anyone who ever thinks of harming a law enforcement officer.
"This was clearly a case that warranted the death penalty. Anyone who chooses to kill a police officer in the line of duty … will face the possibility of the death penalty. If the jury does hand down a death penalty, we will work with the attorney general’s office to see that sentence is carried out," he said.
Former Solicitor Ralph Wilson, who prosecuted the case against Hill, told the Post and Courier last week he agrees with Hembree.
"If we're going to put police officers on the street to protect us, and not have the most serious penalties when you kill a police officer, we're fighting a losing battle," he said. "You'd have open season on law enforcement."
Nickerson said he worked hard for his client because Hill was "a really decent human being. He's an interesting, thoughtful individual who really cares about other people."
Both Mrs. Guerry and Furr said after they saw the lethal injection method of execution first-hand, they don’t understand how it can be called "cruel" as it has been by many defense attorneys across America.
"I looked at the medication going into Mr. Hill and I saw how peaceful it was for him and I thought how violent it was for my husband," Mrs. Guerry said.
"I was struck by the very humane way Mr. Hill died. I recall being on the scene when Spencer was killed and it was totally different," Furr added.
Contact Scott Harper at 546-4148, ext. 243, or by e-mail at sharper@gtowntimes.com. |
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©Georgetown Times 2004
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