DEAD MAN WRITING THE EXECUTION ARTICLES

The Florida Times-Union. Dated: 08 November 1988 (The day after)...

Jeffery Joseph Daugherty, a five-time convicted murderer, said he was beginning a 'journey home' yesterday shortly before he was executed at Florida State Prison for the 1976 robbery-slaying of a hitchhiker in Brevard County.

"Some of you look at this as an execution. I look at it as freedom," said Daugherty, who also killed four other people during a two-month crime spree in two states. "I've been in prison for 13 years. And now I'm going to be free."

The U.S. Supreme Court yesterday denied a request for a stay for Daugherty, setting the stage for the 33 year old Michigan native to become the 19th person to die in Florida's electric chair since 1979.

Daugherty was executed for the murder of Lavonne Patricia Sailer, who was robbed and shot to death in an isolated area near Interstate 95 in Brevard County, according to court records.

He offered no resistance as he was seated and strapped into the electric chair in the death chamber as Department of Corrections officials, witnesses and reporters watched. He occasionally gazed at his priest, the Rev. Bob Baker of St. Augustine, as he spoke softly about giving "my all" to God and told the other 294 inmates on Florida's Death Row to not "give up the fight."

"I hope with all my heart I will be the last sacrificial lamb for a system that is not just," Daugherty said. "This execution is not going to stop anything. It is my time to go, and I'm going home."

After other preparations were made, Daugherty received a one minute bolt of electrical current that jolted him back in the chair. Prison medical officials pronounced him dead at 5:16pm.

As the time for Daugherty's execution grew near, seven death penalty opponents stared at the prison from a field across Florida 16. "It's getting close," said Sister Hannah Daly, director of detention ministries for the Catholic Diocese of Orlando. "We should pray."

After the execution, actress Margot Kidder, who had been visiting friends in Florida, joined the protesters. "I just wanted to come out and show solidarity," said Ms. Kidder, who spoke out in March against the execution of Willie Darden. Darden's March 15 execution was the last in Florida before Daugherty's yesterday.

"It's not an accident that this is the day before the election, an election in which crime has played a great part," Ms. Kidder said.

Separated from the protesters by a fence was Sheila Lee of Starke, the only death penalty supporter to show up yesterday. "A lot of times, I think that it should be televised," she said. "If you actually saw someone put to death, that would be more of a deterrent."

Gov. Bob Martinez signed the death warrant on Daugherty, his second, on Oct. 7. His execution was rescheduled for 5:01pm yesterday after the appellate court denied his appeals but extended his stay through 5pm. The first warrant was signed by Martinez on Aug. 24, 1987, but was stayed by the 11th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals.

Defense attorney John Dean of Washington argued before the Court of Appeals last week that Daugherty's life should be spared because of problems with the instructions given by the judge to the jury, which recommended the death sentence.

Daugherty was sentenced to death on April 27, 1981, for the murder conviction of Ms. Sailer. He has received life sentences for two other murders in Florida and was convicted of two murders in Pennsylvania.

The convictions stemmed from a crime spree by Daugherty and his girlfriend, Bonnie Heath, 54. They drove from Michigan to Florida with his uncle in January 1976 in search of employment and to visit Ms. Heath's children, according to court records.

Daugherty also was convicted of killing Carmen Abrams, 60, during a robbery of an Easy Way food store in Flagler County on Feb. 23, 1976. Within the same week, he killed Betty Campbell, 50, part-owner of a Volusia County pizzeria.

On March 1, 1976, Daugherty and Ms. Heath picked up Ms. Sailer as she was hitchhiking near Melbourne. They took her to an area near the Brevard County dump where she was robbed of $12 and some clothing and shot five times at close range.

They drove to Hollidaysburg, PA where Daugherty on March 4 robbed convenience store clerk Elizabeth Shank and shot her five times in the head. He also was convicted of killing service station attendant George Karns on March 11. Daugherty and Ms. Heath were captured in Virginia about a week later.

Daugherty was transferred from Virginia to Pennsylvania, where he received the death sentence for killing the service station attendant and was sentenced to life in prison for the murder of Ms. Shank.

Daugherty was sent to Florida to stand trial after the Pennsylvania Supreme Court reversed his death sentence. Pennsylvania officials agreed to the move after prosecutors in Florida vowed to seek the death penalty. He received two life sentences for the killings of Ms. Abrams and Ms. Campbell.

ARTICLE #2

The Florida Times-Union- 12 November 1988 (5 days after the execution)...

Jeffery Joseph Daugherty was executed Monday at Florida State Prison, but his girlfriend and accomplice in a cross country crime spree that left at least five people dead in 1976 left prison last year.

Bonnie Jean Heath, 54, was released from Florida Correctional Institution on July 10, 1987 after twice being convicted of second degree murder in two of three Florida slayings, a Department of Corrections spokeswoman said. Ms. Heath never testified against Daugherty, yet she avoided prosecution and harsher punishment for a variety of reasons involving the cases, including Daugherty's conflicting statements about her role in the killings.

Daugherty, 33, was executed for the March 1, 1976, slaying of Lavonne Patricia Sailer in Brevard County. She was picked up hitchhiking by Daugherty and Ms. Heath and taken to a remote area where she was robbed of $12 and some clothing before being shot.

In a taped statement introduced at his trial, Daugherty blamed Ms. Sailer's death on Ms. Heath. He claimed she told him to leave no witnesses. "As far as I'm concerned, she [Ms. Heath] had her finger on the trigger with me," Daugherty said.

But Ms. Heath was never prosecuted for the murder. State Attorney Norm Wolfinger of Titusville said there were weaknesses in a possible case against her because Daugherty also told Pennsylvania authorities that she was not involved in the killings. "You can only go with what you have," Wolfinger said. "We felt we could get Jeff Daugherty for the death penalty, and we did. But we felt that to pursue Bonnie for criminal prosecution would not have gotten us anywhere."

Wolfinger said he doesn't think justice was served on Ms. Heath for her involvement in the crime spree. "She certainly was in the midst of all these homicides," he said.

Ms. Heath was released from Florida Correctional Institution, located 10 miles north of Ocala, with $100 and a bus ticket to Tampa under an inmate release assistance program. Her location is unknown.

Daugherty, Ms. Heath and his uncle drove from Michigan to Florida in January 1976 in search of employment and to visit her children. Daugherty told authorities that the robberies began as the trio ran out of money.

The first killing might have been in Alabama, where authorities suspect Daugherty in the slaying of a Demopolis businessman during a robbery on Feb. 19, 1976. District Attorney Nathan Watkins of Demopolis told a reporter this week that Daugherty's girlfriend fingered him as the triggerman in the killing.

Watkins said Daugherty was not charged because there was little solid evidence against him and because he was already on Death Row in Florida. He did not give a reason for not prosecuting Ms. Heath.

Daugherty killed Carman Abrams during a Feb. 23, 1976 robbery of a convenience store in Flagler County. He also stabbed Betty Campbell during a robbery of her pizzeria in Volusia County on March 1.

After the Florida killings, the three drove to Pennsylvania, where several brutal robberies and slayings occurred in mid-March in Blair County. Daugherty was convicted of killing convenience store clerk Elizabeth Shank and received a life sentence. He also was convicted of killing gasoline station attendant George Karns, but the Pennsylvania Supreme Court overturned his death sentence in that case.

Daugherty was transferred from Pennsylvania to Florida after prosecutors in Florida vowed to seek the death penalty against him.

In his taped statement played at his trial, Daugherty said he wanted to only knock Ms. Sailer unconscious but was told by Ms. Heath to shoot her. "I shot her twice and Bonnie said, 'She's not dead. I can hear her breathing.' I thought I'd done enough, but Bonnie said to shoot her again," Daugherty said.

At a clemency hearing in 1983 before Gov. Bob Graham and the Cabinet, Daugherty's attorney said his client was emotionally dominated by Ms. Heath. He was 20 and she was 41 when the crimes occurred.

Pennsylvania prosecutor Thomas J. Peeples this week called Daugherty "the most amoral individual I ever met."

"He had no feeling for anyone other than Bonnie Heath," Peeples said.

Ms. Heath was convicted in the Shank and Karns murders and the robbery of a music store in Pennsylvania. In at least one of the trials, Ms. Heath depicted herself as psychological slave to the brutal Daugherty. She claimed he told her what to wear, how to act, when to have sex and when to stand or sit.

The Pennsylvania Supreme Court later ordered new trials for Ms. Heath on the murder charges. Prosecutors decided to drop the cases because she was on trial in Florida. The court also reversed the robbery conviction, and that case was dropped by prosecutors because of the time since the robbery and because the music store owner had died.

In Florida, Ms. Heath received two concurrent 25 year prison sentences for her involvement in the murders of Ms. Abrams and Ms. Campbell. She was released early from the Florida prison with credit for good behavior and about five years served in county jails, said a Department of Corrections spokeswoman.

Both articles were from the Jacksonville newspaper, The Florida Times-Union. Here's their website: http://www.jacksonville.com/