Oklahoma Attorney General News Release

News Release - W.A. Drew Edmondson, Attorney General - 05/20/02

Execution Date Requested for Cannon

Attorney General Drew Edmondson today requested an execution date for death row inmate Randall Eugene Cannon. The United States Supreme Court today denied Cannon's final appeal.

Cannon, 42, was convicted of the June 1985 murder of 84-year-old Addie Hawley in Oklahoma City. Hawley was abducted from her northwest Oklahoma City home at about 10 p.m., June 24, 1985. She was found later that night lying nude and incoherent in a vacant lot. She died at Baptist Hospital in the early morning hours of June 25. She had been badly beaten and more than 65 percent of her body had been severely burned. Cannon's co-defendant, Loyd Lafevers, was executed Jan. 30, 2001, for his part in the crime.

"It is the practice of this office, before an execution date is requested, to examine each case to determine if the testing of DNA evidence should occur," said Edmondson. "We have determined, after a thorough review of this case, that DNA testing would be of no value and would have no relevance as to actual innocence. I see nothing that should stand in the way of this execution being carried out."

ProDeathPenalty.Com

The Oklahoma state Court of Criminal Appeals set a July 23 execution date for a man convicted of beating an 84-year-old woman to death in 1985. Randall Eugene Cannon, 42, was convicted of first-degree murder and sentenced to death for the slaying of Addie Hawley, 84, in June 1985. The woman was taken from her northwest Oklahoma City home. Cannon and a co-defendant locked her in the trunk of her car and took her to a remote area and then beat her and set her and the car on fire, the attorney general's office said. Cannon's co-defendant, Lloyd LaFevers, was executed Jan. 30, 2001, for the crime.

On the night of June 24, 1985, the lives of Loyd LaFevers and Randall Cannon became entwined forever with that of Colorado state Sen. Ken Chlouber. Prior to LaFevers execution, Chlouber declared his plans to watch LaFevers' execution in McAlester, Okla. Addie Hawley was the aunt of Colorado state Sen. Ken Chlouber. "This guy committed the most horrible murder you could ever imagine," Chlouber said of the man convicted of killing his aunt. "It was almost 16 years ago. And this guy has continued to live - and live very well - at taxpayers' expense. I mean, this guy should have been exterminated that very next day. I would have been glad to do it for them, without hesitation." LaFevers and Cannon murdered the matriarch of Chlouber's extended Oklahoma family, 84-year-old Addie Hawley. They did it in such a vicious manner that even today, years after the crime, the officers who investigated it remember it for its cruelty. "I think this trip should be dedicated to seeing this vicious murderer fly through the gates of hell, and I want to be there when he does," said Chlouber.

LaFevers and Cannon broke into Hawley's Oklahoma City home shortly after she returned from church. The men went to Hawley's house because they wanted to steal her car, according to trial testimony. After breaking into the home, they severely beat Hawley and stuffed her into the trunk of her car. They eventually drove her to a vacant lot, set her on fire and torched the car. When firefighters responded to the report of a grass fire, they found a nude and barely alive Hawley in the middle of a burned vacant lot. Based on a jailhouse confession, Oklahoma investigators are convinced Hawley also was repeatedly raped by LaFevers. He was acquitted of a rape charge. Hawley was still conscious when firefighters found her. They poured bottle after bottle of saline solution on the burns that covered 60% of her body. Her words were incomprehensible.

By the time Chlouber's mother and brother arrived at Baptist Hospital, she was near death and couldn't speak at all. "There were no last words. That kind of always bothered my mom. You always want to say goodbye," Chlouber said. "I guess what bothered me more - or as much - was the effect it had on my mom." His mother went from being an "outgoing country gal" to a virtual recluse. After her sister's murder, his mother had new locks installed on her doors and windows. "It virtually made her a prisoner in her own home," Chlouber said. His mother, while still a teenager, had moved from the Texas Panhandle to Oklahoma City to live with her sister after Hawley married. While she attended high school in Oklahoma City, Chlouber's mother lived with Hawley. The 2 became "incredibly close. My aunt Addie was the oldest of all my momma's brothers and sisters. So she was kind of the head of the family," said Chlouber. "Everything happened at Aunt Addie's, everything happened there. This was the woman (Hawley) who in her whole life I don't think she ever did anything wrong. We have so many gray areas in society anymore. Right and wrong was very clear to her." Chlouber says he has never wanted to sit down with the killers. "I have no desire to talk to him," said Chlouber. "I'd like to kill him. I'd like to kill him in the same manner he executed my aunt. I know my momma wouldn't be proud of me for saying that. I'm probably not proud of myself for saying that. But that is just the way it is. There is no way around that. It's real life, real people."

Chlouber said he's felt a little guilty being in Colorado, removed from what happened in Oklahoma. "It was always so devastating to my mom and to everybody down there that was still there," Chlouber said. "And of course, I was the one when growing up who couldn't wait to get out of that dirt. I wanted Oklahoma in that rear view mirror. "So now I'm determined to see this through to conclusion. I just want to be there for the end. I want to see that period at the end of his sentence."

UPDATE: Randall E. Cannon, 42, was pronounced dead at 6:05 p.m. Tuesday after receiving an injection. Asked if he had any last words, Cannon said, "No," then looked at the ceiling and took a deep breath. The Supreme Court earlier Tuesday rejected his final appeal. Cannon had argued that the court's June decision requiring that juries - not judges - hand down death sentences indirectly affected his case.

Oklahoma Coalition to Abolish the Death Penalty

"Don't Kill My Grandpa" - Condemned Man's Family Made Last Plea Before Execution.

Randall Cannon did not want his family to watch him die. Instead they gathered together in front of the Governor's Mansion and the Oklahoma State Penitentiary in protest and prayer with death penalty opponents they'd never met before.

Randall's father waited outside the prison to escort his son's body home. He also left behind an only daughter, Kerri, who was joined by her children, her husband and her husband's mother, long-time OCADP supporter and anti-death penalty activist Sue Norton, outside the Mansion. As a family they huddled together and wore signs that asked the State of Oklahoma not to kill their grandpa. After "Grandpa Randy's" death was announced, Grandma Sue read a statement:

"Randall Eugene Cannon's Execution Night," by Sue Norton. (July 30, 2002)

I relate to the victim's family members of Ms. Addie Hawley, as I too am the step-daughter of two people killed in a double homicide in Oklahoma. The one thing that I have grown to realize is that killing people who kill people is not the way to make people know that killing is wrong. Killing Randall Cannon will not bring Ms. Hawley back. It will not make her family's hurt go away.

God gave me a daughter-in-law who has a father on death row. God knew I would understand her pain. She was only five years old when that murder took place. Today, she will become a murder victim's family member as will Matthew and Amy, her children and my grandchildren and Randall Cannon's grandchildren. We are sending mixed signals to our children today, telling them it is not okay for them to kill, however it is okay for the state to kill. What I would like to know is why aren't we teaching in the high chair instead of the electric chair? Or giving the medicine of love instead of the poison of hate and vengeance?

We as adults may see a monster, but children are able to see beyond to the true heart. Thank God for children and their tenderness. We can watch and learn from them about acceptance and love. How do I explain to my grandchildren in years to come why it was okay for the State to murder her grandfather in 2002? Yes, he must have committed a crime, as the justice system says that he did, but God forgave him.

The State of Oklahoma calls it ... "Execution" God calls it ... "Murder" Jesus came to this earth sent by God to show us how to forgive. Why can't we?

We are executing Randall tonight, and guess what, we are sending him straight to heaven. He accepted Jesus Christ as his Savior in his teens. He will be living in a mansion up on a hilltop tonight, and walking streets of gold. Praise God! Randall will not be living in a hell hole called H-Unit. The joke is on Oklahoma! You just spent $3,000,000 to kill a man and send him to heaven!

The Lamp of Hope (Associated Press & Rick Halperin)

July 23, 2002 - OKLAHOMA EXECUTION

Randall Eugene Cannon executed for 1985 slaying of 84-year-old woman

Randall Eugene Cannon was executed Tuesday for the 1985 slaying of an 84-year-old woman who was abducted from her Oklahoma City home, badly beaten and burned. Cannon, 42, was pronounced dead at 6:05 p.m. after receiving a lethal combination of drugs. The state's 3rd execution this year and its 134th in history came after Cannon's appeal for a stay from the U.S. Supreme Court was rejected.

Cannon was sentenced to die for the 1985 killing of Addie Hawley, who was abducted from her Oklahoma City home the night of June 24 and found hours later nude and incoherent in a vacant lot. She had been beaten and had severe burns over 60 % to 65 % of her body. Authorities say Hawley, who died the next day, had moved 10 to 15 feet while burning. "Of the 80 or 90 homicides I've worked in the last 21 years, when you consider only cases with single victims, this was the meanest killing I've ever been associated with," said Lou Keel, an Oklahoma County prosecutor who prosecuted Cannon.

Cannon, who was raised in Tulsa and had a history of drug use, admitted he watched co-defendant Loyd Lafevers commit the crimes but did nothing to stop them. However, the state argued and the jury found that Cannon played a more direct role in Hawley's death.

Cannon also pleaded no contest to charges related to the June 25, 1985, beatings of an 81-year-old woman and her granddaughter. Prosecutors allege Cannon and Lafevers, who was executed in January 2001, assaulted and robbed two other women around the same time.

Cannon appealed to the Supreme Court Monday, arguing that justices' June ruling requiring that juries not judges hand down death sentences indirectly affected his case. That ruling reinstated an older case requiring that every fact-finding decision in a trial be made beyond a reasonable doubt, said Cannon's attorney Jack Fisher. That means juries applying capital punishment must find that aggravating factors in support of death outweigh beyond a reasonable doubt mitigating ones against death, Fisher said. Oklahoma's standard only requires that one outweigh the other, he said. But justices, who were asked to apply that ruling retroactively to older cases like Cannon's, declined to hear the case.

About a dozen relatives of Hawley and Cannon's other victims came to McAlester to witness Cannon's execution, the 1st held since the state changed the time from 9 p.m. Only Fisher and his wife came for Cannon. Cannon ate his last meal about noon while he waited to hear if the Supreme Court would grant his stay. The Oklahoma Pardon and Parole Board voted 4-0 on July 9 to deny Cannon's request for clemency.

The state executed David Wayne Woodruff on Jan. 31 for the 1985 killing of an Oklahoma City jeweler. Woodruff's accomplice was executed Jan. 29.

Cannon becomes the 51st condemned inmate to be put to death since the state resumed capital punishment in 1990. Cannon also becomes the 37th condemned inmate to be put to death this year in the USA and the 786th overall since America resumed executions on January 17, 1977.

Canadian Coalition to Abolish the Death Penalty

RANDALL E. CANNON'S PEN PAL REQUEST:

Date of Birth : 04/21/1960. I'm 5'11", blonde hair, blue eyes, divorced, I have a 19 yrs daughter, 8 month old granddaughter, I've been locked up since 1985 on Death Row. I like to read books, listen to music, watch TV, "exercise", I like watching football, baseball, hockey, tennis, gymnastics, swimming, auto racing, etc...I draw from time to time, used to crochet, as well as work with plastic canvas, occasionally. The only things we can have mailed to us are "books-magazines, photos, money orders" the books, magazines have to be sent by the bookstore / publisher ! The photos cannot be Polaroid's and of course the money orders have to have inmate name and number ! I don't have any photos of myself, I haven't bought any in a long time. These people charge $1.50 each. But if someone wants one I'll try to take one. I also like poetry ! Thank you sincerely,

National Coalition to Abolish the Death Penalty

Randall Cannon - Scheduled Execution Date and Time: 7/23/02 7:00 PM EST.

Randall Cannon, a 42 year old white male, is scheduled to be executed by the State of Oklahoma for the murder of 84-year old Addie Hawley.

Several serious concerns surround Cannon’s trial and subsequent conviction, including the expert testimony of the now-infamous Joyce Gilchrist. Gilchrist is famous for her participation in thousands of criminal cases in Oklahoma, most of which are now under investigation by the FBI for substandard and often fraudulent forensics work. Gilchrist was fired in Sept. of 2001 for “laboratory mismanagement, criticism from court challenges and flawed casework analysis,” according to Oklahoma City Police Chief M. T. Berry. Gilchrist participated in at least 23 cases where a defendant was sentenced to death and has either been executed or is awaiting execution. At least one lawsuit has been filed to investigate forensic testimony from Ms. Gilchrist that eventually led to an execution. In short, expert testimony from Joyce Gilchrist is clearly suspect.

In Cannon’s trial, Joyce Gilchrist served as a prosecution witness, testifying to the accuracy of blood tests on the clothes of Cannon and his accomplice Lloyd LaFevers. While affirming Cannon’s conviction, the U.S. 10th Circuit Court of Appeals admitted that during LaFevers’ trial Gilchrist had lied about similar blood tests. Since this shocking account of misconduct came to light, Cannon has requested that DNA tests be performed on the available evidence to support his assertation that he did not murder Ms. Hawley. The Court of Appeals denied his request for further forensic examination of the evidence, in spite of the fact that forensic testimony used to convict him was essentially manufactured.

When a government official is found lying in a death penalty case, every case in which that person played any role should be circumspect. Executing a person for a crime less than that of the death penalty is a corruption of our system of justice, and executing an innocent is a crime too grave to contemplate. Tell Oklahoma to suspend all executions so that a further investigation can determine the number of people who were unjustly convicted by false testimony.

The Death House

Hawley was found alive but later died, with 65 percent of her body burned. Cannon and Lafevers confessed to the crime, but blamed each other for actually killing Hawley.

In his appeals, one of the issues Cannon has raised is that he had previously suffered brain damage when a police officer hit him over the head with a flashlight. He said the resulting mental disorder “prevented him from using appropriate judgment in the incident which caused the victim’s death.” His appeals lawyer argued, unsuccessfully, that Cannon’s trial lawyer should have brought these issues before the jury when it was deciding whether to give Cannon a death sentence. Cannon’s appeals lawyer have also argued that blood found on Cannon’s pants should have analyzed for DNA.

A police chemist, who was later fired, testified at Cannon’s trial that the blood found on Cannon’s pants was the same type as the victim. The chemist, Joyce Gilchrist, whose testimony had helped send 23 persons to death row, was fired in September following criticism of her work. Her testimony and analysis of evidence had resulted in a man being sent to prison for a rape he didn’t commit. The man was later released from prison after DNA testing proved that he wasn’t the rapist. Several courts overturned cases on the grounds that Gilchrist testified beyond what was scientific. Gilchrist was fired for alleged mismanagement and flawed casework analysis. She has filed a lawsuit to regain her job.

Denver Post (Diane Carman June 25, 2002)

This whole issue of fairness is exasperating to Sen. Ken Chlouber. The Leadville Republican, Colorado's most vocal proponent of the death penalty, thinks worrying about being fair to convicted murderers is misguided.

So when the U.S. Supreme Court overturned the state statute that permits judges to impose the death sentence, Chlouber was irritable. Here, he spent a good portion of the last legislative session trying to change the law so that a lone trial judge could decide the sentence in a capital murder case - making it clear his intention was to generate more executions - and now he's been tripped up by the feds.

On Monday, the court ruled that the U.S. Constitution guarantees even a capital murder defendant "a jury of one's peers." The 7-2 decision said laws in several states - including Colorado - violate defendants' rights. Chlouber was disgusted. "I'm pretty one-sided about this, but I think I'm doing it for the right reason. I'm trying to support the victims and their families." Eight death-penalty cases have been decided since a three-judge panel system became law here. Three men were sentenced to death; five to life in prison. Chlouber said it's a discouraging record. "We changed the law in '95, thinking this would support those of us who wanted capital punishment used more frequently and more appropriately. It didn't work out that way."

Chlouber said in a three-judge panel, two judges always were new to the case. Faced with thousands of pages of trial transcripts and a man's life in the balance, "that left them in the position that they'd rather be safe than sorry." Worse yet, Chlouber said, one judge on every panel often was troubled by the death penalty, making a unanimous decision to execute tough to deliver. "From my perspective, it turned out worse than a unanimous jury." Now the three guys who were sentenced to death after 1995 likely will have their sentences invalidated by the ruling. Francisco Martinez Jr., William "Cody" Neal and George Woldt are the "worst of the worst" in Chlouber's mind. "They've gone through a system that very much favored the killer over the victim, and they still were given the death sentence."

So while lawmakers argue over how to comply with the Supreme Court's ruling and whether to convene a special session of the legislature, Chlouber will be making a pilgrimage to his own personal cathedral of justice. For the second time in 18 months, he'll travel to Oklahoma to witness an execution. He watched as Loyd LaFevers was executed in January 2001. He'll be there when Randall Cannon is put to death on July 23. The men raped and murdered Chlouber's 84-year-old aunt.

Chlouber said he can't understand how courts can sentence convicted murderers to life in prison when they could be executed. The killers take the lives of their victims "in cold blood," he said. He called them "sadistic." When LaFevers was put to death, Chlouber said he was "happy." He said it without the slightest hint of irony. Because if he was capable of seeing the irony there, well, it would only upset him that much more.