United States Court of Appeals
For the Fourth Circuit

After 15 years on death row, Leroy Joseph "Ricky" Drayton, twice convicted and sentenced to death for the abduction and murder of a 19-year-old Charleston County gas station clerk, is to be executed by lethal in 12 november 1999. 

The body of Rhonda Darlene Smith was found near an abandoned coal trestle along the Cooper River in February 1984. 

She had a 5-month-old child and was the sister of former state Rep. Sandi Wofford, who later worked to get passage of a victims' bill of rights and is a victim's advocate for state Attorney General Charlie Condon.  Wofford did not want to be interviewed, attorney general's spokesman Robb McBurney said. 

Several witnesses said they saw Drayton, who now is 44 years old, and Smith drive up to the Kaye gas station where she worked early on Feb. 11, 1984.

They said Smith opened the store and helped customers, and neither she nor Drayton appeared nervous or distressed. But prosecutors said Drayton later robbed the store and kidnapped Smith.

Drayton told police she was the one who stole more than $300 and offered it to him.  He also said she voluntarily went with him to the coal trestle, where he tripped and the .357-caliber pistol he had accidentally fired, hitting Smith between the eyes. 

The conviction was reversed by the state Supreme Court a year later. The jurors should have been told to decide whether Drayton's statement to police was voluntary, the court said. 

Drayton was not allowed to see his mother or a lawyer while he was being questioned by police, said one of his lawyers, John Blume. 

Drayton was convicted again at his retrial and last month the U.S. Supreme Court refused without comment to hear his appeal.  "The idea that she would be snatched from her workplace and driven to this desolate area late at night - the terror she must have suffered,"  said Condon, who was the local prosecutor in Charleston both times Drayton was tried.

Leroy Joseph "Ricky" Drayton, 44, 99-11-12, South Carolina

A man who was twice convicted and sentenced to death for kidnapping and murdering a 19-year-old gas station clerk was executed by injection Friday.

Leroy Joseph "Ricky" Drayton, 44, fatally shot Rhonda Darlene Smith near an abandoned coal trestle on Feb. 11, 1984.

Several witnesses said they saw Drayton and Smith drive up to the Kaye gas station where she worked. They said Smith opened the store and helped customers, and neither she nor Drayton appeared nervous.

But prosecutors said Drayton later robbed the store of more than $300 and kidnapped Smith.

Drayton told police Smith stole the money and gave it to him and that she went with him to the coal trestle voluntarily. He said he accidentally shot her when he tripped and his .357-caliber pistol fired, hitting Smith in the forehead.

Drayton's 1st conviction was reversed after the state Supreme Court ruled that jurors should have been told to decide whether Drayton's statement to police was voluntary. He was convicted again at retrial.

Drayton becomes the 3rd condemned inmate to be put to death in South Carolina this year, and the 23rd overall since the state resumed capital punishment on Jan. 10m, 1986. South Carolina carried out 7 executions last year.

(sources: Associated Press & Rick Halperin