Citations:
State v. Green, 301 S.C. 347, 392 S.E.2d 157 (1990) (Direct Appeal).
Green v. South Carolina, 498 U.S. 881 (1990) (Cert. Denied).
Green v. Catoe, 220 F.3d 220 (4th Cir. 2000) (Habeas).
Green v. South Carolina, 121 S.Ct. 2002 (2001) (Cert. Denied).

Final Meal:
None.

Final Words:
Green chose not to give a final statement before his execution.

Internet Sources:

Pro Death Penalty.com

UPDATE: Anthony Green was put to death Friday evening for the killing of a Naval wife and mother out shopping at a mall 15 years ago. On Thursday, Gov. Jim Hodges denied requests from Green's attorneys and humanitarian groups to halt the execution. The state Supreme Court had earlier denied Green's call to stop the execution and the 4th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals denied his appeal Thursday afternoon. The U.S. Supreme Court, Green's last chance for a stay, refused to block Green's execution Friday afternoon. Green died by lethal injection at 6:18 p.m., a prisons official said.

Green, 37, had been on death row since 1988 for the murder of 36-year-old Susan Barbara Babich of Hanahan. "Because of the act of one selfish individual, our family's perspective on society, as well as how we approach everyday activities, has been forever changed," the Babich family wrote in a statement forwarded by her brother Daniel Merton. No one from Babich's or Green's families was present for the execution. The Babich family thanked the jurors on Green's case and the South Carolina justice system. The Babich family's statement said they chose not to attend Friday "for it will serve no purpose in our lives. We seek not mere revenge but what the justice system has deemed necessary and appropriate. Justice has prevailed," they wrote, "and will be served in our conscious absence."

CNN.Com

"Man Executed for Killing Woman at Mall." (AP August 23, 2002)

COLUMBIA, South Carolina (AP) -- A man was executed Friday for shooting a woman in the head with a rifle in a shopping mall parking lot 15 years ago. Anthony Green was sentenced to death in 1988 for the murder of 36-year-old Susan Barbara Babich, a mother of two. He was put to death by injection.

Babich was mugged and shot moments after she parked her car at a Charleston mall in November 1987. Green was arrested about a half-hour later with a rifle and Babich's checkbook in his car. He told police he shot Babich because she saw him sneaking up on her.

Green, 37, chose not to issue a statement before his execution. Nobody from Babich's or Green's families was among the eight witness in gallery. "Because of the act of one selfish individual, our family's perspective on society, as well as how we approach everyday activities, has been forever changed," the Babich family wrote in a statement.

Green is the 27th person executed since South Carolina reinstated the death penalty in 1977 and the second this year.

WFMY - Associated Press

"Convicted Murderer Executed," by Web Producer: Patrick Donovan (AP 8/23/2002)

Columbia, SC - Anthony Green was put to death Friday evening for the killing of a Naval wife and mother out shopping at a mall 15 years ago.

On Thursday, Gov. Jim Hodges denied requests from Green's attorneys and humanitarian groups to halt the execution. The state Supreme Court had earlier denied Green's call to stop the execution and the 4th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals denied his appeal Thursday afternoon. The U.S. Supreme Court, Green's last chance for a stay, refused to block Green's execution Friday afternoon.

Green died by lethal injection at 6:18 p.m., a prisons official said. No protesters were seen outside the prisons complex where executions are held. Green is the 27th person executed since South Carolina reinstated the Death Penalty in 1977 and the second this year.

Green, 37, had been on death row since 1988 for the murder of 36-year-old Susan Barbara Babich of Hanahan. She was robbed and shot in the head with a rifle moments after she parked her car at The Charles Towne Mall in November 1987. Green was arrested about a half-hour later with a rifle and Babich's checkbook in his car. He told police he shot the woman because she saw him sneaking up on her.

"Because of the act of one selfish individual, our family's perspective on society, as well as how we approach everyday activities, has been forever changed," the Babich family wrote in a statement forwarded by her brother Daniel Merton. Green did not issue a statement before his sentence was carried out. No one from Babich's or Green's families attended for the execution.

Green's attorney Teresa Norris was present and flipped through a Bible before the maroon curtain to the death chamber was opened. As the lethal chemicals were administered, Green's mouth shut tight and his chest rose and fell with steady breaths. His breathing soon became rushed and his head jerked slightly to the left. Norris clutched her Bible as Green lay dying.

The Babich family thanked the jurors on Green's case and the South Carolina justice system. The Babich family's statement said they chose not to attend Friday "for it will serve no purpose in our lives. We seek not mere revenge but what the justice system has deemed necessary and appropriate. "Justice has prevailed," they wrote, "and will be served in our conscious absence."

Opponents of the death penalty argued that Green's execution showed the racial bias in sentencing in South Carolina. Green is black, Babich was white. During his time as a solicitor, now-state Attorney General Charlie Condon sought death sentences in 40 percent of his cases of black-on-white homicide, the South Carolina Coalition to Abolish the Death Penalty said. Condon only sought death, the coalition said, in 2.9 percent of cases in which the victim and defendant were black.

In July, the Inter-American Commission on Human Rights asked South Carolina not to execute Green while it studied whether putting him to death would violate his human rights. The group said if Green were to die at the state's hand before "an opportunity to examine his case, any eventual decision would be rendered moot ... and he would suffer irreparable damage." Condon has said the brutality of Green's crime spoke for itself.

South Carolina Equal Justice Alliance

The Greenville News, July 27, 2002

"Execution date set for man convicted in shooting; Anthony Green sentenced to die August 23 for slaying in 1987," by Jeffrey Collins, Associated Press.

COLUMBIA – The state Supreme Court has set an Aug. 23 execution date for a man convicted of shooting a woman in the head with a rifle during a robbery in the parking lot of a Charleston mall 15 years ago. Anthony Green has exhausted all of his appeals. His lawyer, John Blume, said Green decided against seeking clemency when Gov. Jim Hodges failed to stop the execution of Richard Charles Johnson in May. “If they weren’t going to give it to Richard Johnson when he white and had proof of his innocence, he (Green) figures the governor is certainly not going to give clemency to a black man who admitted to having a role in the shooting,” Blume said.

Susan Babich was shot moments after she parked her car at the Charles Town Square Mall in November 1987. Green was arrested a half-hour later with a rifle and Babich’s checkbook in his car. He told police he killed Babich because when saw him sneaking up on her.

If Green is executed, he would be the 27th man put to death since South Carolina reinstated the death penalty in 1974 and the second executed this year.

Blume has asked an international human rights organization to review whether state Attorney General Charlie Condon, who sent Green to death row as a local prosecutor in Charleston County, is racially biased. Condon was 20 times more likely to seek the death penalty when a black defendant was accused of killing a white victim than when the victim and suspect were black Blume said. If the Inter-American Commission on Human Rights rules Green’s human rights were violated, Blume said he will present the finding to the state Supreme Court and ask for a new trial.

Condon’s spokesman, Robb McBurney, said Green’s appeal to the international organization shows his lawyers are desperate to find anyone who will agree with them. “They have brought this complaint about General Condon up at just about every level in the appeals process, and it has been rejected every time,” McBurney said. “They just can’t find any judges that will agree with them.”

The state Supreme Court ruled 4-1 in May to let Green’s execution move forward despite defense arguments that a racially biased juror was allowed into the jury pool. The justices said Green’s rights weren’t violated because the juror wasn’t picked to hear the trial. But in a spirited dissent, Associate Justice Costa Pleicones said that decision broke the high court’s rulings in other cases.

TheState.Com

"S.C. to Execute Man Today for 1987 Slaying," by Rick Brundrett (August 23, 2002)

The state plans today to execute a man convicted of killing and robbing a mother of two at a Charleston mall 15 years ago. Barring a reprieve, Anthony Green will die by lethal injection at 6 p.m. at the state Department of Corrections' Capital Punishment Facility off Broad River Road in Columbia.

Gov. Jim Hodges and the U.S. 4th Circuit Court of Appeals on Thursday declined to stop the execution. Green's last chance is with the U.S. Supreme Court. Green, 37, would be the second person executed this year in South Carolina and the 27th to die since 1977, when legislators restored the death penalty. Richard Charles Johnson was executed May 3.

Green was sentenced to death in 1988 for fatally shooting Susan Babich with a rifle on Nov. 21, 1987, in the Charles Towne Square Mall parking lot. After he killed her, the jury ruled, he stole her purse. Her husband was in the Navy. They had two children. "We are relieved that the decision to put this individual to death made by the jury so many years ago will finally be honored this week," Babich's relatives wrote to The State.

Green was tried by Charlie Condon, now South Carolina's attorney general. Death penalty opponents say that when Condon was Charleston's solicitor, he targeted blacks who had been charged with killing whites for the death penalty. Condon, the prosecutor from 1981 to 1992 in Charleston and Berkeley counties, denies those allegations. "Those statistical arguments they have been making have been routinely rejected (by the courts). I think my record speaks for itself."

Of the eight death penalty trials he handled, three involved a black defendant and a white victim; two other cases involved a black and a white victim, and a black or white defendant; and the other three cases were "black-on-black" or "white-on-white" murders, Condon said Thursday. Green's lawyers have said Condon sought the death sentence in 40 percent of "black-on-white" homicides, compared with only about 3 percent of "black-on-black" murders. They couldn't be reached Thursday for comment. Green appealed his conviction because, his lawyers argued, a judge allowed a racially biased juror into the jury pool. The state Supreme Court said Green's rights weren't violated because that person wasn't on the jury.

Green's lawyers have tried to postpone the execution by appealing to the Inter-American Commission on Human Rights, but Condon said Thursday the organization has no legal standing in Green's case. Another execution is scheduled for Sept. 13. In that case, the state Supreme Court granted Michael Passaro's wish to die for burning his 2-year-old daughter to death in Myrtle Beach in 1998.

TheState.Com

"Racism in the S.C. Death House," by Wendy Brinker, Guest Columnist. (August 22, 2002)

Anthony "Tony" Green is a 38-year-old African-American man scheduled for execution by the state of South Carolina on Friday. He was convicted in 1987 for the botched robbery and murder of Susan Babich in Charleston County. So why should you care what happens to Anthony Green?

You should care because at the time of his trial in 1988, Charlie Condon, the Charleston County solicitor who made known his preference for an "electric sofa" over an electric chair, pursued the death penalty in an alarmingly racist manner. He sought the death penalty in 40 percent of the cases where the defendant was black and the victim was white, compared to only 2.9 percent of the cases where the defendant and the victim were both black. Likewise, his office pursued the death penalty in 32.3 percent of all cases where the victim was white, but only 5.2 percent when the victim was black.

In Charleston County, the state was 14 times more likely to seek the death penalty in a black defendant/white victim scenario. Such racial bias in the imposition of the death penalty means that, regardless of the circumstances surrounding Tony's case, his race and his victim's race were determining factors in the state's decision to seek death and the jury's willingness to impose it.

Between 1977 and 1990, 13 of 20 cases in which Condon sought the death penalty involved minority defendants. It is implausible that this pattern would emerge if race-neutral criteria were used to determine when to seek the death penalty. Evidence from numerous studies demonstrates that racial bias in the imposition of the death penalty is disturbingly pervasive throughout South Carolina.

In South Carolina, blacks that kill whites are sentenced to death at about three times the rate of whites that kill whites. Even though most murder victims in South Carolina are black, only a fraction of black victim cases result in death sentences. In fact, a person charged with killing someone white is eight times more likely to be sentenced to death than a person charged with killing a black person.

Senseless, random violence is difficult to comprehend. Susan Babich was a daughter, sister, wife and mother. It's hard to imagine the injustice her family must feel. It's hard to understand what possessed Tony that afternoon. Although he had a drug problem, people who knew him were shocked. He had no prior arrests and, by all accounts, was a good, well-mannered kid with an impressive high school record and stellar basketball skills.

It's understandable for Susan's family to want revenge for her death, but revenge is not what drives our judicial system. Everyone, even people suspected of heinous crimes, is equal and entitled to certain protections under the law. That is how we, as a society, prevent further injustices from happening. The laws and rules of due process, as they apply to misdemeanors right up to capital offenses, must be administered fairly and available to everyone.

Race plays a dominant role in the courtrooms across our state. There are 3,855 black men per 100,000 in prison, compared to 588 per 100,000 white men. Blacks are admitted to prison on drug charges at a rate that is 13.4 times greater than that of whites. And race undeniably plays a factor in the most profound decision a government can make -- who lives and who dies.

Both the legality and motive for such a practice demand critical examination. Anthony Green is looking to a federal court to prohibit his execution while his case is under consideration by the Inter-American Commission on Human Rights. This commission has asked the state not to go forward until it can determine if any international human rights laws, such as race discrimination in the application of South Carolina's death penalty, have been violated.

While it may be difficult for us to view Tony Green as a victim as he awaits execution on Friday, it is not difficult to see the statistical patterns emerging as we delve into the race disparities present in capital sentencing. When the system fails one of us, the system fails us all.

South Carolina Attorney General

(Columbia, S.C.) Attorney General Charlie Condon announced today that the South Carolina Supreme Court has issued an Execution Order for Anthony Green and has set the date of execution for August 23.

Green was convicted on September 28, 1988 of murder and armed robbery arising from the November 21, 1987 shooting of Ms. Susan Babich at the Charles Town Square Mall parking lot. Ms. Babich, 36 years old at the time, was shot in the head and was robbed moments after she parked her car. On October 1, 1988, a jury recommended a sentence of death for Green. The case was prosecuted by Condon when he was Solicitor of the Ninth Circuit.

Green has exhausted all state and federal court appeal remedies. Barring further court intervention, he will be executed four weeks from today. “Fourteen years have gone by since Anthony Green was sentenced to death by a jury of his peers for this brutal slaying,” Condon said. “The victim’s family and friends deserve closure to this traumatic experience. Justice needs to be done and the jury’s sentence of death needs to be carried out.”

South Carolina Department of Corrections

NCADP National Execution Alert

Anthony Green - Scheduled Execution Date and Time: 8/23/02 6:00 PM EST.

Anthony Green, a 37-year old black male, is scheduled to be executed by the State of South Carolina for the murder of Susan Babich. Green, who is near the end of his appeals, has appealed to the Inter-American Commission on Human Rights alleging that South Carolina’s justice system is racially biased.

Green was sentenced to death in Charleston County, South Carolina in 1988. At this time, statistics show that prosecutors were 20 times more likely to seek a death sentence against a black man who murdered a white, than a white who murdered a white. In his term as Solicitor General, Charlie Condon sought the death penalty in 40 percent of the cases involving a black defendant and a white victim, and only 2.9 percent of the time in which both defendant and victim were white. Green’s lawyers have also alleged they were denied the right to appeal the fact that Green’s jury included one person who admitted to racial bias.

Green has not asked his lawyers to seek clemency from Gov. Hodges after the execution of Richard Johnson earlier this year. Seeing that the Governor would not grant clemency to a white man on death row, Green believes he has little chance since he is black. Please petition Gov. Hodges and ask that the justice system of South Carolina be examined for racial bias.

Charleston.Net

COLUMBIA - Death row inmate Anthony Green asked the U.S. Supreme Court Friday to stop his Aug. 23 execution while an international commission studies whether putting him to death would violate his human rights. Green, who was convicted of killing a Hanahan woman in 1987, also has asked Gov. Jim Hodges to grant him a reprieve. That request is pending.

The S.C. Supreme Court on Thursday denied Green's request for a stay. Executing Green, who is black, could violate international law because South Carolina is more likely than other states to seek the death penalty against black people whose victims were white, said Green's attorney, E. Fielding Pringle of Columbia. Last month, the Inter-American Commission on Human Rights asked South Carolina not to execute Green until it can complete its review, Pringle said. It also asked the U.S. Department of State to respond in 60 days, she said. If Green were executed "before the commission has an opportunity to examine his case, any eventual decision would be rendered moot ... and he would suffer irreparable damage," the IAHRC said.

Green, 37, of Charleston, is scheduled to die by lethal injection for the shooting death of Susan Barbara Babich in November 1987. If Green is put to death, Babich's relatives said they do not plan to watch him die. Green was convicted in October 1988 of shooting Babich, 36, in the head and robbing her after she had been shopping at Charles Towne Square Mall. She had returned to_ her car when Green shot her with a rifle. Green was arrested a half-hour later with a rifle and Babich's checkbook in his car.

Babich's relatives reject the idea that his planned execution would violate his human rights. A spokesman for the S.C. Attorney General has said the IAHRC has no jurisdiction in the case. But as an IAHRC member, the United States has signed treaties that forbid the arbitrary use of the death penalty and supports the elimination of all forms of racial discrimination, Pringle said. In the years that Green has been on death row, the series of appeals in his case has caused Babich's family to painfully relive her death, said Babich's sister, Jane Zoon of New Jersey.

"It is about time," she said. "My family is very happy to see that it will finally be over with." Babich's daughter, Michele Lutzkanin of New Mexico, said if executing Green would be a deterrent to murder she supports it. "But I do not gain any personal satisfaction from this," she said. A 15-year delay in setting an execution date, she said, dilutes the reason for the death penalty. "I believe (the execution) should have been swifter," she said. "People have forgotten what happened in Charleston and forgotten my mother."

ABOLISH Archives (AP May 7, 2002)

Just 3 days after South Carolina's latest execution, the state Supreme Court has made a decision that places another inmate closer to the death chamber.

Justices voted 4-1 Monday to let Anthony Green's death sentence stand. Green was convicted of shooting a woman in the head with a rifle in the parking lot of the Charles Towne Shopping Mall in November 1987 and taking her purse.

Green can ask the state Supreme Court to reconsider its ruling, and if that fails, appeal to the U.S. Supreme Court, attorney general's office spokesman Robb McBurney said. After that, the state will set an execution date. Unless a court intervenes, Green could be put to death by the end of the year, McBurney said.

Green's lawyers argued that his conviction should be overturned because the trial judge allowed a racially biased juror into the jury pool. But the justices ruled that since the juror wasn't picked to hear the trial, Green's rights weren't violated. That's a change from earlier rulings, which said if a juror was improperly put into the jury pool and defense lawyers had dismissed as many people off the jury as they could, then a conviction could be overturned even if the juror never heard testimony in the case.

The court's decision to break from earlier rulings is fine, but the court shouldn't apply the new standard to a man who faces the death penalty, Justice Costa Pleicones said in his dissent. He called the move "shocking to the universal sense of justice."

In his 2 years on the high court, Pleicones has sided with the defense in at least 3 death penalty cases, often advocating the state take extreme caution before sending an inmate to the death chamber.

(source: Associated Press)

Green v. Catoe, 220 F.3d 220 (4th Cir. 2000) (Habeas).

Green was tried by jury in Charleston County, South Carolina. The jury found Green guilty of murder and armed robbery and, after a sep- arate sentencing proceeding, recommended a sentence of death. On direct appeal, the Supreme Court of South Carolina upheld Green's conviction and sentence. See State v. Green, 392 S.E.2d 157, 158 (S.C. 1990). Following the exhaustion of his remaining state remedies, including an application for post-conviction relief, Green filed a petition for federal habeas corpus relief. The district court then con- sidered and dismissed his petition. With its dismissal, the district court granted Green a certificate of appealability to this Court.