Another South Carolina Execution

Written by Administrator

Thursday, 22 April 2004 00:00

Jason Byram will be executed by the State of South Carolina on Friday April 23. Death penalty opponents have planned two protest events.
On Thursday April 22 at 7 p.m. an interfaith prayer service will be held at the St. Thomas More Chapel, 1610 Greene Street in Columbia.
On Friday April 23 at 5 p.m. those protesting the execution will gather at the prison, 4400 Broad River Road, to protest this execution and urge a moratorium on all executions pending a study of the fairness of this penalty and possible miscarriages of justice. Governor Mark Sanford has the power to veto this execution. Call him at (803)734-2100 today. National Coalition to Abolish the Death Penalty

{IMAGE1}Jason Byram, although guilty of a terrible crime, was born with fetal alcohol syndrome weighing only three pounds, was abandoned by his birth parents, and was shuffled from one foster home to another six times before the age of four. His final adoptive mother admitted to her case worker that she beat him severely, but he was nonetheless allowed to remain with her. These facts were never fully presented as mitigating evidence at his original trial or during the appellate process.

(Columbia-AP) April 2, 2004 - A death row inmate scheduled to die later this month by electrocution instead of lethal injection has changed his mind. Attorney Jay Elliot says his client, Jason Scott Byram, reconsidered because he did not want to put witnesses through the stress of watching him die in the electric chair.

Byram was convicted in 1995 of stabbing 36-year-old Julie Johnson to death in 1993 as she slept on a sofa in her downtown Columbia home while her family slept upstairs. Byram's execution is set for April 23rd.

Elliot says Byram, 38, originally selected electrocution thinking it would be less painful. He says Byram reconsidered, because watching someone die in the electric chair could be quite upsetting.

Electrocutions in South Carolina and throughout the country have been rare in recent years. The Death Penalty Information Center says there have been 21 executions so far this year but none have been by electrocution.

The only inmate to choose to die in the electric chair since lethal injection was offered in this state was Larry Gene Bell in 1996. Bell was convicted of killing two Midlands girls.

The US Supreme Court declined to hear Byram's appeal last week. A federal appeals court had previously rejected Byram's claim that mistakes by his lawyers denied him a fair trial.

Byram would be the third man in South Carolina to be put to death in about a month. David Clayton, convicted of the 1994 killing a Georgetown police officer, died by lethal injection two weeks ago. Hill's execution is the 29th since South Carolina reinstated the death penalty in 1985.

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