Citations:
State v. Young, 409 S.E.2d 352 (1991).
State v. Young, 459 S.E.2d 84 (1995).
Young v. South Carolina, 516 U.S. 1051 (1996) (cert. denied).

Internet Sources:

Pro Death Penalty.com

UPDATE: After 12 years on South Carolina's death row for killing an Anderson County school principal, Kevin Dean Young died Friday at 6:18 p.m. from lethal injection. Young along with 2 other men were convicted for the robbery and killing of Dennis Hepler, a 35-year-old principal of West Franklin Elementary School near downtown Anderson on Aug. 31, 1988. Hepler had stayed late at the school to get it ready for opening for the school year. After Hepler handed over his wallet, he was fatally shot. Marilyn Alexander remembers the Wednesday night, 12 years ago, when she learned by phone her only brother, an elementary school principal, had been shot to death outside his Anderson school. Robbers took $67 from him and fired 2 shots, 1 into his head, another into his back.

Alexander, a church secretary, was at the prison, but did not want to see the execution as it occurred Friday. "I will feel that justice has been done," she said in an interview earlier this week. Through the years, Alexander has awakened crying in the night, she said. Nightmares of her brother's murder track her sleep. Alone, she cared for their dying mother. "But the hardest part," she said, "remains dealing with those Wednesday night fears that something bad is going to happen to another family member."

The South Carolina Supreme Court on Wednesday denied the latest of Young's appeals, which raised questions about the qualifications and potential conflicts of interest of some of his appeals lawyers. Young's request for clemency from Gov. Jim Hodges was rejected. Young is the 1st inmate executed since David Rocheville of Duncan was put to death last December. Daniel Westbrook, one of Young's lawyers, read a brief statement in which Young asked God, Allah to forgive him.

Also convicted in connection with Hepler's death were William Henry Bell, who is on death row with appeals still pending; John Glenn, convicted of armed robbery and accessory and sentenced to 35 years and Arthur Ray Jones, who drove the 3 men away from the shooting scene. Jones pleaded guilty to an accessory charge and was sentenced to 10 years, with all but 7 1/2 months suspended. Glenn told police the 3 men were searching for someone to rob. He later testified before a jury that they were drunk but never planned anything. Whatever their intentions, Bell and Young surprised Hepler as he left the West Franklin Elementary School about 10 p.m., court testimony shows. They demanded his wallet. Hepler flipped it to the men, police said, and the men shot him. The men used the money later to buy cocaine, police said.

Hepler left behind a wife, and 3 young daughters, who are now teen-agers. Mrs. Hepler died in 1993 from breast cancer. "In effect, he orphaned those girls," Doug Kessel, Hepler's brother-in-law, said of Young. "They've had to grow up without parents." Kessel, who lives in Montgomery, Ala. and is married to the sister of Hepler's wife, was among the witnesses to the execution. Kessel said Hepler's daughters, who are being raised by an aunt and grandmother, have mixed feelings. "They really kind of wanted to be there but didn't," he said. But Kessel had no such qualms. For years, the 42-year-old auto repairman has traveled back and forth to attend Young's 2 trials and many court hearings. "I'm ready for it to be over with," he said.

Shortly after 6 p.m., the 2 executioners sent 3 drugs into Young's arms. The 1st, Pentothal, rendered Young unconscious. A dose of procuronium bromide, a muscle relaxer, followed, causing Young to stop breathing. Finally, potassium chloride was injected, stopping his heart. In Anderson, the school where Hepler was shot has since been closed and turned into a community center. City officials wrote about Hepler's death and how the community came together to create the center in their successful application for designation as an All-American City. Hepler has not been forgotten. A park was named in his honor in 1992. His memory also lives in the hearts of his former church softball teammates, who wore his name and number on their sleeves for years after his death and begin each season by remembering him in prayer.

law.emory.edu

Not long after nightfall on August 31, 1988, Young and two cohorts, William Bell and John Glenn, accosted Dennis Hepler on the grounds of the West Franklin Street Elementary School in Anderson, South Carolina. Hepler, the school's principal, was working late that evening. During this encounter, Hepler was fatally shot in the back with a .25 caliber pistol. Young and the others fled the scene with Hepler's wallet, which contained less than seventy dollars. Young was soon apprehended and charged with murder, of which he was convicted by a jury on May 18, 1989. That same jury subsequently found Young to have murdered Hepler in the commission of an armed robbery, and it recommended that Young be sentenced to death. The trial court sentenced Young in accordance with the jury's recommendation, but that sentence was vacated on appeal because of numerous evidentiary errors infecting the sentencing phase. See State v. Young, 409 S.E.2d 352 (S.C. 1991) (affirming murder conviction but remanding for resentencing). In June 1993, the question of Young's sentence was presented to a second jury. At the conclusion of those proceedings, Young was again sentenced to death based on the jury's finding that Young had murdered Hepler in the course of an armed robbery. The Supreme Court of South Carolina affirmed Young's sentence, State v. Young, 459 S.E.2d 84 (S.C. 1995) ("Young II"), and the Supreme Court of the United States denied review, Young v. South Carolina, 516 U.S. 1051 (1996).

Fight the Death Penalty USA

A man twice sentenced to die for robbing and killing a principal on the steps of an elementary school was executed by lethal injection Friday after the governor and the U.S. Supreme Court turned down last-ditch appeals. Kevin Dean Young, 32, and 2 other men were convicted of taking $67 from Dennis Hepler, 35, as he walked out of school in August 1988. Young's lawyers conceded he shot Helper, but said another man may have fired the fatal shot. Young said he fell backward and shot Hepler after the principal threw his wallet and swung at him.

Gov. Jim Hodges refused Friday to commute the death sentence. Later in the day, the Supreme Court, unanimously and without comment, denied a stay of execution. Young's attorney read a final statement: "If I said I was sorry, few if any would believe me, so I am not going dwell on that issue. I asked God, Allah, to forgive me, not man." Young was convicted in 1989 and sentenced to death, but the state Supreme Court returned the case to trial court for new sentencing. In 1993, another jury sentenced him to die. In his latest appeal, Young said among other things that his lawyers should have challenged the makeup of the 2nd jury pool, which was 91% white. Young is black; Hepler was white.

Co-defendant William Henry Bell, who also faces execution, has an appeal pending before the state Supreme Court. The 3rd man, John Glenn, was convicted of armed robbery and sentenced to 25 years in prison. He was denied parole last month. Young becomes the 1st condemned inmate to be executed this year in South Carolina, and the 25th overall since the state resumed capital punishment in 1985. Young becomes the 72nd condemned inmate to be put to death this year in the USA and the 670th overall since America resumed executions on January 17, 1977. (sources: Associated Press & Rick Halperin)

After 12 years on South Carolina's death row for killing an Anderson County school principal, Kevin Dean Young died Friday at 6:18 p.m. from lethal injection. It was the 1st execution in the Palmetto State this year. His attorney read a brief statement before the execution occurred. Young along with 2 other men were convicted for the robbery and killing of Dennis Hepler, a 35-year-old principal of West Franklin Elementary School near downtown Anderson on Aug. 31, 1988. Hepler had stayed late at the school to get it ready for opening for the school year. After Hepler handed over his wallet, he was fatally shot. Marilyn Alexander remembers the Wednesday night, 12 years ago, when she learned by phone her only brother, an elementary school principal, had been shot to death outside his Anderson school. Robbers took $67 from him and fired 2 shots, 1 into his head, another into his back.

Alexander, a church secretary, was at the prison, but did not want to see the execution as it occurred Friday. "I will feel that justice has been done," she said in an interview earlier this week. Through the years, Alexander has awakened crying in the night, she said. Nightmares of her brother's murder track her sleep. Alone, she cared for their dying mother. "But the hardest part," she said, "remains dealing with those Wednesday night fears that something bad is going to happen to another family member." The South Carolina Supreme Court on Wednesday denied the latest of Young's appeals, which raised questions about the qualifications and potential conflicts of interest of some of his appeals lawyers. Young's request for clemency from Gov. Jim Hodges was rejected. Young is the 1st inmate executed since David Rocheville of Duncan was put to death last December. Daniel Westbrook, one of Young's lawyers, read a brief statement in which Young asked God, Allah to forgive him.

Also convicted in connection with Hepler's death were William Henry Bell, who is on death row with appeals still pending; John Glenn, convicted of armed robbery and accessory and sentenced to 35 years and Arthur Ray Jones, who drove the 3 men away from the shooting scene. Jones pleaded guilty to an accessory charge and was sentenced to 10 years, with all but 7 1/2 months suspended. Glenn told police the 3 men were searching for someone to rob. He later testified before a jury that they were drunk but never planned anything.

Whatever their intentions, Bell and Young surprised Hepler as he left the West Franklin Elementary School about 10 p.m., court testimony shows. They demanded his wallet. Hepler flipped it to the men, police said, and the men shot him. The men used the money later to buy cocaine, police said. Hepler left behind a wife, and 3 young daughters, who are now teen- agers. Mrs. Hepler died in 1993 from breast cancer. "In effect, he orphaned those girls," Doug Kessel, Hepler's brother-in-law, said of Young. "They've had to grow up without parents." Kessel, who lives in Montgomery, Ala. and is married to the sister of Hepler's wife, was among the witnesses to the execution. Kessel said Hepler's daughters, who are being raised by an aunt and grandmother, have mixed feelings. "They really kind of wanted to be there but didn't," he said. But Kessel had no such qualms. For years, the 42-year-old auto repairman has traveled back and forth to attend Young's 2 trials and many court hearings. "I'm ready for it to be over with," he said.

Shortly after 6 p.m., the 2 executioners sent 3 drugs into Young's arms. The 1st, Pentothal, rendered Young unconscious. A dose of procuronium bromide, a muscle relaxer, followed, causing Young to stop breathing. Finally, potassium chloride was injected, stopping his heart. In Anderson, the school where Hepler was shot has since been closed and turned into a community center. City officials wrote about Hepler's death and how the community came together to create the center in their successful application for designation as an All-American City. Hepler has not been forgotten. A park was named in his honor in 1992. His memory also lives in the hearts of his former church softball teammates, who wore his name and number on their sleeves for years after his death and begin each season by remembering him in prayer. (source: The Greenville News)

South Carolina Attorney General

(Columbia, S.C.) Attorney General Charlie Condon announced today that the South Carolina Supreme Court has set Friday November 3, 2000 as the execution date for Kevin Dean Young. Young was convicted and sentenced to death on May 23, 1989 for the August 31, 1988 shooting of West Franklin Elementary School Principal Dennis Hepler in Anderson County. He was sentenced to death again in June of 1993 after the SC Supreme Court overturned the sentence in August of 1991. He has now exhausted all State and Federal appeals. His co-defendant William Henry Bell, currently has an appeal pending before the SC Supreme Court. Another co-defendant John Glenn was convicted of armed robbery and sentenced to 25 years in prison in 1988. He will be up for parole at a hearing on Wednesday October 18 in Columbia. Young and Bell shot Hepler to death on the school steps, robbing him of 67 dollars which was used to buy cocaine. His wife, Brenda died of cancer in 1995. They had three children.

"This was a brutal execution-style murder of a beloved Principal in the shadow of the schoolhouse door. Mr. Hepler was slain over 67 dollars to buy drugs. It is time to make it clear that South Carolina treasures Mr. Hepler's life and that his life cannot be snuffed out for a line of cocaine," Condon said.

South Carolina Department of Corrections

NCADP National Execution Alert

James Mann was a former prosecutor who claimed to have sent more defendants to the electric chair than any other prosecutor in the United States. He was also the attorney of Kevin Dean Young during his murder trial in 1989 and his task was to defend Kevin against the murder charge and attempt to avoid a death sentence. Kevin’s case is another example of both ineffective legal representation for poor defendants and the racial disparities in the implementation of the death penalty.

Kevin was charged with the 1988 murder of Dennis Hepler. During the trial process James Mann did not coordinate his strategy with Kevin. Like a good prosecutor, Mann started his opening statement with the clear argument that the defendant was “technically” and “morally” guilty of murder. This concession of guilt was issued without the consent of Young and despite the uncertainty which remained about the question if Kevin or co-defendant William Bell fired the fatal shot. The District Court later stated that during the guilt phase James Mann “abandoned his role as a ‘defense’ attorney and reverted to his long role as a prosecuting attorney.”

Even after the trial Kevin’s chances were reduced by ineffective assistance of counsel. His post-conviction lawyers Christopher Olsen and Douglas Patrick did not met the the statutory qualifications. Neither met the mandatory criteria of the South Carolina Uniform Post-Conviction Procedure Act, which requires that, in capital state post-conviction relief actions, “at least one of the attorneys appointed to represent applicant must have previously represented a death row inmate.”

It was a black-on-white crime and African-Americans were underrepresented on jury. A June 1998 study of the Death Penalty Information Center shows that of the Chief District Attorneys in all U.S. counties, 98 percent are white. Between 1983 and 1993 the rate at which eligible black defendants were sentenced to death was nearly 40 percent higher than the rate for other eligible defendants.

Augusta Chronicle

COLUMBIA - The man convicted of shooting an Anderson principal on the school steps and robbing him of $67 will be executed next month, the state Supreme Court says. Kevin Dean Young is scheduled to be put to death Nov. 3.

Mr. Young shot West Franklin Elementary School Principal Dennis Hepler outside the school Aug. 31, 1988, said state Attorney General Charlie Condon. He robbed Mr. Hepler and used the money to buy cocaine, Mr. Condon said. Mr. Young first was convicted in 1989 and sentenced to death, but the South Carolina Supreme Court, citing errors in the sentencing phase, sent the case back to the trial court. In 1993, another jury sentenced him to die, and that was upheld by the state's high court. Mr. Young has exhausted all state and federal appeals, Mr. Condon said.

Mr. Young's co-defendant, William Henry Bell, has an appeal pending before the state Supreme Court. Another co-defendant, John Glenn, was convicted of armed robbery and sentenced to 25 years in prison in 1988. He will be up for parole at a hearing Wednesday.