Executions Washington State

Charles Rodman Campbell went to the gallows Friday without a word--but not without a struggle. Campbell, 39, had to be subdued with pepper spray and strapped to a board before he could be hanged for the murders of two women and an 8-year-old girl. Campbell was convicted of murdering Renae Wicklund, her 8-year-old daughter, Shannah, and neighbor Barbara Hendrickson at Wicklund's home in 1982. He slashed the throats of all three. Authorities called it a revenge killing.

Charles Rodman Campbell went to the gallows Friday without a word--but not without a struggle. Campbell, 39, had to be subdued with pepper spray and strapped to a board before he could be hanged for the murders of two women and an 8-year-old girl. Campbell was convicted of murdering Renae Wicklund, her 8-year-old daughter, Shannah, and neighbor Barbara Hendrickson at Wicklund's home in 1982. He slashed the throats of all three. Authorities called it a revenge killing.

A man who sought to be put to death after being convicted of killing three boys will be executed Jan. 5, a judge has ruled. Westley Allan Dodd, 31, repeated his wish to skip appeals and be executed during a hearing Monday before Clark County Superior Court Judge Robert Harris. He also chose hanging instead of death by injection. "I don't believe the state has any choice but to carry out my execution," Dodd told the judge.

A Death Row inmate who weighs more than 400 pounds is too heavy to be hanged, his lawyer said. Todd Maybrown said a hanging would likely decapitate Mitchell Rupe, who is sentenced to die for the 1981 murders of two bank tellers during a robbery. "Beheading was a punishment used in barbaric times," Maybrown said. "We don't accept bodily mutilation as a form of punishment now." No execution date has been set.

A civil liberties group Tuesday filed suit to try to block the first execution by hanging in the United States in nearly 30 years, saying the method was a cruel and unusual punishment barred by the U.S. Constitution. A half-dozen of the plaintiffs told a news conference in Seattle they were not seeking to block the execution of Dodd by other means, although many of the plaintiffs, including all of those present, oppose the death penalty.

A three-judge panel of the U.S. 9th Circuit Court of Appeals in San Francisco issued a stay for triple murderer Charles R. Campbell, 34, who had been scheduled Thursday to become the first person executed by hanging in the nation since 1965. The court granted the stay pending its ruling on his appeal and ordered additional briefs submitted by June 21.

Three-time child killer Westley Allan Dodd, who asked that he be afforded the same treatment he gave one of his victims, was executed early today in the nation's first hanging in 28 years. The 31-year-old shipping clerk died just after midnight after a prison official pushed a button that opened a trapdoor and sent Dodd falling the 7-feet, 1-inch length of his gallows rope.

A Death Row inmate who weighs more than 400 pounds is too heavy to be hanged, his lawyer said. Todd Maybrown said a hanging would likely decapitate Mitchell Rupe, who is sentenced to die for the 1981 murders of two bank tellers during a robbery. "Beheading was a punishment used in barbaric times," Maybrown said. "We don't accept bodily mutilation as a form of punishment now." No execution date has been set.

Rwandan officials announced Wednesday that they will publicly execute dozens of defendants convicted in connection with the 1994 genocide in the Central African nation--a decision that alarmed human rights groups and foreign legal experts, some of whom called on the international community to intervene to stop the killings.

Three-time child killer Westley Allan Dodd, who asked that he be afforded the same treatment he gave one of his victims, was executed early today in the nation's first hanging in 28 years. The 31-year-old shipping clerk died just after midnight after a prison official pushed a button that opened a trapdoor and sent Dodd falling the 7-feet, 1-inch length of his gallows rope.

A civil liberties group Tuesday filed suit to try to block the first execution by hanging in the United States in nearly 30 years, saying the method was a cruel and unusual punishment barred by the U.S. Constitution. A half-dozen of the plaintiffs told a news conference in Seattle they were not seeking to block the execution of Dodd by other means, although many of the plaintiffs, including all of those present, oppose the death penalty.

A man who sought to be put to death after being convicted of killing three boys will be executed Jan. 5, a judge has ruled. Westley Allan Dodd, 31, repeated his wish to skip appeals and be executed during a hearing Monday before Clark County Superior Court Judge Robert Harris. He also chose hanging instead of death by injection. "I don't believe the state has any choice but to carry out my execution," Dodd told the judge.

A three-judge panel of the U.S. 9th Circuit Court of Appeals in San Francisco issued a stay for triple murderer Charles R. Campbell, 34, who had been scheduled Thursday to become the first person executed by hanging in the nation since 1965. The court granted the stay pending its ruling on his appeal and ordered additional briefs submitted by June 21.