Ralph Davis, 61, 99-04-28 - Missouri
A 61-year-old man who killed his estranged wife was executed by
injection early Wednesday, the oldest Missouri inmate put to death
since capital punishment was reinstated in 1977.
Previously, the oldest inmate executed since Missouri resumed the
death penalty in 1989 was Emmett Nave, who was 55 when he was put to
death in 1996.
Ralph Davis was convicted of killing his wife, Susan, in part on the
strength of DNA evidence. The body of the 35-year-old woman was
never found.
His last words, in a written statement, were to his son and daughter-in-law:
"My body is gone but my spirit is with you. I'm just going to sleep.
Love you. Dad."
Mrs. Davis disappeared in 1986 after leaving her job at Westinghouse
Electric Corp. in Columbia. 3 weeks earlier, she had filed assault
charges against her husband. She claimed he was abusive and had once
held a gun to her head.
On the same day she vanished, prosecutors said, Davis bought a .12-gauge
shotgun from a sporting goods store. Davis told police he didn't
know what had become of his wife. He claimed she abused drugs and
speculated that she had run away with another man, perhaps to Texas.
Investigators lacked solid evidence until 1988, when they found the
woman's car in Davis' storage locker near Jefferson City. Shotgun
pellets had blasted through the driver's side window. Bone fragments,
blood and human tissue were found inside. The investigators were
looking for her 1986 Ford Escort since Davis had failed to keep up
with payments.
A medical examiner determined there was so much blood it could only
have resulted from a fatal wound. DNA evidence showed that Mrs.
Davis was the victim.
In appeals to the 8th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals and the U.S.
Supreme Court, and in a clemency request to Carnahan, Davis claimed
bad lawyers put him in his predicament.
Davis was originally charged with 2nd-degree murder in the death of
his wife. The 1st-degree murder charge was filed only after Davis'
original lawyer filed for a continuance in the original case.
Prosecutors had warned that if the continuance was filed, they would
upgrade the charge to 1st-degree murder.
"What lawyer would put his client at risk like that?" Davis asked.
Susan Davis' mother and brother have said that if Davis admitted to
the crime, and said where he hid her body, they would consider
joining in a clemency request.
"Why should I do that when I didn't do anything?" Davis said in an
interview with The Associated Press.
Robert Davis, the couple's 21-year-old son, was reunited Monday with
his father for the 1st time since Robert and his sister, now 17,
were taken away following the arrest of Ralph Davis in 1988.
"I love him," Robert Davis told the AP. "He is my last living parent.
Despite the fact of what he's accused of, he's still my dad."
Davis' attorney, Elizabeth Carlyle, said he suffers from a disorder
that causes him to block out traumatic events. Even if he committed
the crime, he wouldn't remember it, she said.
Ralph Davis, then a Columbia insurance agent, told police he didn't
know what had become of his wife. He claimed she abused drugs and
speculated that she had run away with another man, perhaps to Texas.
Prior to the national moratorium on the death penalty, Allen Lambis,
73, died in the gas chamber in Jefferson City in 1944 for a murder
in Mississippi County. John Williamson, 63, was executed in 1939 for
a murder in Ste. Genevieve County.
Davis becomes the 5th condemned inmate to be put to death this year
in Missouri, and the 37th overall since the state resumed capital
punishment on Jan. 6, 1989.
Missouri has never executed more than 6 men in a year. That total
could be matched by the end of May. Jessie Lee Wise is scheduled to
die by injection May 26 for beating a woman to death with a pipe
wrench in suburban St. Louis in 1988.
Darrell Mease was scheduled for execution in February for killing
the paraplegic grandson of his former drug partner. But Carnahan
commuted Mease's sentence to life in prison after a personal request
from Pope John Paul II during the pope's January visit to St. Louis.
Davis also becomes the 37th condemned inmate to be put to death this
year in the USA, and the 537th overall since America resumed capital
punishment on Jan. 17, 1977.
(sources:
Associated Press and Rick Halperin)
Ralph
Davis, an insurance broker, murdered Susan Davis, his wife in
1986. Susan had been having an unhidden affair and Davis killed her
as a result.
The trial
was the first in Missouri in which DNA fingerprinting was used. The
body of the 35-year-old woman was never found. Mrs. Davis
disappeared in 1986 after leaving her job at Westinghouse Electric
Corp. in Columbia.
3 weeks
earlier, she had filed assault charges against her husband. She
claimed he was abusive and had once held a gun to her head. On the
same day she vanished Davis bought a .12-gauge shotgun from a
sporting goods store.
Davis told
police he didn't know what had become of his wife. He claimed she
abused drugs and speculated that she had run away with another man,
perhaps to Texas.
Investigators lacked solid evidence until 1988, when they found the
woman's car in Davis' storage locker near Jefferson City. Shotgun
pellets had blasted through the driver's side window. Bone fragments,
blood and human tissue were found inside.
The
investigators were looking for her 1986 Ford Escort since Davis had
failed to keep up with payments. A medical examiner determined there
was so much blood it could only have resulted from a fatal wound.
DNA evidence showed that Mrs. Davis was the victim.
