Billy Bailey
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Billy Bailey (1947? - January 25, 1996) was a convicted murderer hanged in Delaware in 1996. He became the third person to be hanged in America since the resumption of executions in 1977 (the other two were Charles Rodman Campbell and Westley Allan Dodd, both in Washington). He is the last person in the United States to be executed in this manner thus far.
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[edit] The crime
Bailey was assigned to the Plummer House, a work release facility in Wilmington, Delaware; however, Bailey escaped later appearing at the home of his foster sister, Sue Ann Coker, in Cheswold, Delaware, saying he was upset and was not going back to the Plummer House.
He and Charles Coker, his foster sister's husband, went on an errand in Coker's truck. Bailey asked Coker to stop at a package store. Bailey entered the store and robbed the clerk at gunpoint. Emerging from the store with a pistol in one hand and a bottle in the other. Bailey told Coker that the police would be arriving and asked to be dropped at Lambertson's Corner, about one and one-half miles away.
At Lambertson's Corner Bailey entered the farmhouse of Gilbert Lambertson, aged 80, and his wife, Clara Lambertson, aged 73. Bailey shot Gilbert Lambertson twice in the chest with a pistol and once in the head with the Lambertsons' shotgun. He also shot Clara Lambertson once in the shoulder with the pistol and once in the abdomen and once in the neck with the shotgun. Both Lambertsons died. Bailey arranged their bodies in chairs and then fled from the scene. He was spotted by a Delaware State Police helicopter as he ran across the Lambertsons' field. He attempted to shoot the helicopter co-pilot with the pistol and was later arrested.
[edit] Conviction
Bailey was found guilty of the murders in 1980. After his conviction the jury held that the crimes "were outrageously or wantonly vile, horrible, or inhuman" and recommended the death penalty.
[edit] Preparations
Delaware had not carried out a hanging for 50 years so sought advice from corrections officials at Walla Walla State Penitentiary in Washington (the only other state that has carried out any hangings recently).
The wooden gallows had been built in the grounds of the Delaware Correctional Center at Smyrna in 1986, as Bailey's first execution date approached. The structure required renovation and strengthening before Bailey could be executed on it. The platform housing the trap door is 15 feet from the ground and is accessed by 23 steps.
Delaware used an execution protocol written by Fred Leuchter. This specifies the use of 30 feet of 3/4 inch diameter Manila hemp rope, boiled to take out stretch and any tendency to coil. The area of the rope sliding inside the knot was lubricated with melted paraffin wax to allow it to slide freely. A black hood is specified by the protocol, as is a sandbag to test the trap door and a "collapse board" to which a prisoner can be strapped if necessary.
Bailey was moved from his prison cell to a caravan close to the gallows in preparation for the execution where he spent his last 24 hours sleeping, eating, watching television, talking with staff and meeting with his sister Betty Odom, 53, the prison chaplain, and his attorney.
For his last meal he had requested a well-done steak, a baked potato with sour cream and butter, buttered rolls, peas and vanilla ice cream.[1]
[edit] Execution
After his appeals failed Bailey was executed by the state of Delaware in 1996. He refused to exercise his option to choose lethal injection as a method of execution and was instead hanged. He became the third person to be hanged in the United States since the 1976 Supreme Court decision Gregg v. Georgia allowed executions, halted in 1967, to resume.
A few minutes before midnight Bailey was led into the yard which was surrounded by prison guards with dogs. His glasses had been removed. He was wearing a prison-issue blue denim coat draped over his shoulders, the top two buttons fastened to keep it from blowing off in the wind. His arms were fastened at his sides.
As is customary, a direct telephone line to the Governor of Delaware (then Thomas R. Carper) was kept open up to the last minute in case of clemency.
Two guards wearing black jumpsuits and black hoods held in place by baseball caps, escorted Bailey who weighed 220 lbs. up the steps to the gallows' platform where he stood with the six coil noose swaying in the night breeze beside him until the forty or so witnesses had entered the compound.
He stood flanked by the guards for nearly five minutes. One faced forward holding Bailey's left arm. The other kept his back to witnesses and held the prisoner's shoulder. Warden Robert Snyder, who was to be the hangman, was standing further to the right.
When the witnesses were in position Bailey was led onto the trap, a nylon webbing strap was placed around his ankles and a black hood pulled down over his head and upper chest. The noose was placed over the hood. Several times Snyder felt at the hood to be certain that the knot was correctly positioned beneath Bailey's left ear.
Bailey stood calmly on the trap and was seen to squeeze his right fist into a tight ball. A moment later, at 12:04 a.m., Warden Snyder holding the gray wooden lever with both hands, released the trapdoor which opened with a loud bang. Five feet of manila rope followed Bailey through the hole and his body jerked to a halt ten feet above the ground. According to one witness it looked like a rag doll with the head over on side at a sharp angle.
Bailey's body spun counter-clockwise six times, then rotated once in the opposite direction. A canvas tarpaulin was now released to conceal the body, just his dangling feet in white tennis shoes remaining visible.
He was pronounced dead eleven minutes later, at 12:15 a.m. EST (0515 GMT) by the doctor.
[edit] Views
Saxton Lambertson, one of the victims' sons, was present at the execution. Asked for his feelings, he stated that his parents "were very innocent people. They were old and small and he was a big brute. He chose to shoot them, so he chose to die."
Chris Lambertson, the victims' great-grandson, stated "Just because Billy Bailey wanted their truck, he killed my great-grandparents. Without a doubt, he should die."
