Death Sentence, whether he can waive appeal to be determined

[awakening2lite]

Inman sentenced to die

April 22, 2009 - 07:18 p.m. EST
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Jerry Buck Inman, who was convicted of strangling a Clemson University student to death in 2006, was sentenced to die for the crime on Wednesday afternoon.




PICKENS — Judge Ned Miller sentenced admitted killer Jerry Buck Inman to death Wednesday afternoon for raping and strangling Clemson University student Tiffany Marie Souers with her bikini top.


In pronouncing his sentence, Judge Miller described Inman “as a tortured soul whose inner demons will never leave him.” The judge also sentenced Inman to 30 years imprisonment each on the burglary and criminal sexual conduct charges, but did not sentence him for kidnapping since it was in concurrence with the murder.


Inman, who showed no reaction to the verdict, told the judge that he has repeatedly shown that he cannot be rehabilitated and is incapable of functioning inside prison or in society.


“There is only one viable sentence that can be imposed for someone like me and I ask that you give me that sentence,” Inman read from a prepared statement.



continued at source: http://www.upstatetoday.com/news/2009/apr/22/inman-sentenced-die/

[awakening2lite]

Inman's execution not likely to be soon, experts say

Convicted killer will face competency hearings even if he waives appeal

April 24, 2008

Throughout his trial, Jerry Buck Inman used virtually every opportunity to convince a judge not to listen to his defense attorney's pleas to spare him a death sentence.


The serial rapist said he deserved to die for raping and killing Clemson University student Tiffany Souers, and the defense lawyer he sought to undermine has said he's convinced Inman will "at some point" waive his right to appeal the death sentence handed down Wednesday in Pickens.


Yet -- as he currently sits on death row in the Lowcountry with a July 27 execution date hanging over him -- Inman's stated intentions not to fight his execution likely won't be enough to have his execution fulfilled this year or perhaps even the next, experts say.


The main roadblock to Inman's death wish will be whether the courts decide that Inman is competent to waive his rights to appeal, University of South Carolina law professor Kenneth Gaines said.


"It's still going to be a delay," Gaines said. "If somebody waives their right to appeal, then you've got to have all kinds of competency questions answered. Are they in their right mind? Are they even competent to waive their rights?"


One inmate, Edward Lee Elmore, has been on South Carolina's death row since 1982 following decades of appeals, according to prison records.
The next inmate scheduled for execution -- on May 8 -- Thomas Ivey, was sentenced to death in 1995, records show.


And even the swiftest execution in recent history took two years from the time of the inmate's conviction to the time he successfully waived his appeals, said Mark Plowden, spokesman for state Attorney General Henry McMaster.


The question of competency was a central component in the two-year delay in the execution of Michael Passaro -- a killer who, like Inman, professed a desire to die.


In that case, Passaro -- who in August 2000 was sentenced to death for strapping his 2-year-old daughter into a child-restraint seat in Myrtle Beach and burning her alive during a custody dispute with the girl's mother -- repeatedly fought his attorneys' efforts to appeal on his behalf.


During his trial, Passaro instructed his attorneys not to present closing arguments, according to a South Carolina Supreme Court ruling that found Passaro competent to waive his appeals.



Passaro believed that upon his death he would be reunited with his daughter and his first wife, who had died tragically years earlier, according to the ruling. He was executed by lethal injection in September 2002.


During Inman's sentencing trial, the 38-year-old serial rapist -- who pleaded guilty to killing Souers in May 2006, nine months after being released from prison where he had been since he was a teenager for the 1987 rape of a Florida woman -- repeatedly told Circuit Judge Ned Miller to sentence him to death.


Several times throughout the trial, Inman impeded defense efforts to convince the judge that life in prison was a more appropriate sentence, his attorney, Jim Bannister, told The Greenville News.


However, Bannister said he has a commitment to offer Inman a spirited defense and will file notice of appeal within the week.


The issue of Inman's competency to waive appeals will first go before the same circuit court that sentenced him, Gaines said.


The night he was sentenced, Inman joined 57 other death row inmates in South Carolina, almost all of whom live at the Lieber Correctional Institution in Ridgeville where he is housed.


Like other death row inmates, Inman will undergo an extensive evaluation process to determine how he will be incarcerated, state prisons spokesman Josh Gelinas said.


http://www.greenvilleonline.com/article/20090424/NEWS01/904240333/1001