Alabama executes Derrick O'Neal Mason

Derrick O'Neal Mason

A man who committed the execution-style killing of a Huntsville convenience store clerk in 1994 has been executed.

Derrick O'Neal Mason, 37, was sentenced to die by lethal injection at 6 p.m. at Holman Correctional Institute in Atmore. He was pronounced dead at 6:49 p.m.

In the final hours before the execution, Mason refused to eat breakfast and he wasn't expected to eat dinner, either, prison officials said. He did not request a special last meal, saying he was fasting today. Several people visited him at the prison, and five of Mason's family members were expected to witness the execution, while 4 of the victim's relatives were set to be witnesses. Their names were not released.

Mason apologized to the victim's family in his final statement. It was his second apology to the family -- the first was via letter two or three years after Cagle's death, and was issued out of "deep remorse and sadness," according to the executive director of Project Hope to Abolish the Death Penalty.

Mason's lawyers filed emergency appeals with the Alabama Supreme Court and the U.S. Supreme Court asking that his scheduled execution be postponed for further review of his death penalty sentence. Those appeals were denied.

Gov. Robert Bentley on Wednesday afternoon declined to commute Mason's sentence to life in prison without the chance of parole.

Retired Madison County Circuit Court Judge Loyd Little wanted the governor to commute the death sentence, saying he had been on the bench 6 months when he issued his ruling and has since realized "it really was not the right decision."

Mason made Cagle remove her clothes and shot her at close range "while she sat naked and completely vulnerable" to Mason, Little said at sentencing.

Mason shot Cagle in the face at close range with a .380-caliber pistol after he saw that the first shot didn't kill her.

Little said during sentencing that Mason's crime was "extremely wicked, shockingly evil, outrageously wicked and vile and cruel, and with the actions of the defendant designed to inflict a high degree of pain and fear in the victim, with utter indifference to, or even enjoyment of, the suffering of this victim."

Mason is the 5th condemned inmate executed in Alabama this year and the 2nd from Huntsville. Leroy White was executed Jan. 13 for the shotgun slaying of his estranged wife, Ruby White, at her Evans Drive home in 1988. Mason becomes the 54th condemned inmate to be put to death since Alabama resumed capital punishment in 1983.

Mason becomes the 36th condemned inmate to be put to death this year in the USA and the 1270th overall since the nation resumed executions on January 17, 1977.

Sources: Huntsville Times and Rick Halperin, Sept. 23, 2011

State of Alabama Executes Derrick Mason Even Though Sentencing Judge Admits His Death Sentence Was a Mistake

The State of Alabama executed Derrick Mason today even though the sentencing judge who condemned him to die admitted his judgment was a mistake, born of his own inexperience and that of Mr. Mason's trial lawyers.

Madison County Circuit Judge Loyd H. Little, Jr., asked Alabama Governor Robert Bentley to commute to life imprisonment without parole the death sentence Judge Little had imposed on Derrick Mason.  In a letter to the governor, Judge Little admitted his own lack of experience led him to impose the wrong sentence in Mr. Mason's case - his 1st capital trial.

The judge also attributed the erroneous sentence to Mr. Mason's appointed trial lawyers' lack of experience. A brother and sister team who each had less than 5 years of experience and had never before participated in a trial, Mr. Mason's lawyers failed to present evidence that Mr. Mason was under the influence of drugs known to induce hallucinations and psychosis at the time of the crime. They also failed to present evidence about Mr. Mason's past struggles with drug addiction, mental health problems, and that he was the victim of physical and sexual abuse.

If they had effectively presented mitigating evidence about Derrick Mason's age (19), mental health issues, and lack of significant criminal record, Judge Little wrote, it would have changed the jury's vote and Judge Little's sentence.

Judge Little's letter also shows that the prosecutor's reliance on illegal hearsay evidence to obtain the death penalty in this case should have resulted in a new sentencing hearing for Mr. Mason. In 2010, the Eleventh Circuit Court of Appeals held that the State violated Mr. Mason's right to confront witnesses against him when it introduced a statement from an unidentified informant that Derrick Mason committed the murder because he was "out of control" and was "trying to make a name for himself."

The Eleventh Circuit did not grant Mr. Mason a new trial becuase it found that the illegal evidence did not impact the decision to sentence Mr. Mason to death. Since that decision, however, Judge Little has conceded that the evidence in the case case does not support the death penalty.

Mr. Mason is black and the victim in this case is white. The Madison County District Attorney's Office, which prosecuted Mr. Mason, has discriminated against African Americans during jury selection in other capital cases. In Mr. Mason's case, lawyers asked the Alabama Supreme Court to stay his execution because the prosecutor engaged in similar conduct at his trial. The court refused to do so this morning.

Governor Bentley denied Judge Little's request to commute Derrick Mason's sentence to life imprisonment without parole yesterday. He is the 5th person put to death by the State of Alabama this year.

Alabama is the only state in the country without a state-funded program to provide legal assistance to death row prisoners and has the nation's highest per capita death sentencing and execution rates.

Source: EJI, Sept. 24, 2011