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MISSOURI (USA): PAUL GOODWIN EXECUTED
December 10, 2014: Paul Goodwin, 48, White was executed in Missouri.
Goodwin was sentenced to death in December, 1999 for the March 1, 1998 fatal beating of a 63-year-old woman, Joan Crotts, 63, with a hammer. Goodwin was a former neighbor who felt Crotts played a role in getting him kicked out of a boarding house. Police found a handwritten note that read, "You are next" on the kitchen table. Fingerprints from the note and a Pepsi can matched Goodwin's. His hearing aid was also found inside Crotts' home. He admitted the crime after his arrest. Efforts to spare Goodwin's life centered on his low IQ and claims that executing him would violate a U.S. Supreme Court ruling prohibiting the death penalty for the mentally disabled. Attorney Jennifer Herndon said Goodwin had an IQ of 73, and some tests suggested it was even lower. But Goodwin's fate was sealed when Gov. Jay Nixon denied a clemency request and the U.S. Supreme Court turned down legal appeals — one on the mental competency question and one concerning Missouri's use of an execution drug purchased from an unidentified compounding pharmacy.
Goodwin becomes the 10th inmate to be put to death this year in Missouri and the 80th overall since the state resumed capital punishment in 1989.
Goodwin becomes the 35th inmate to be put to death this year in the USA and the 1394nd overall since the nation resumed executions on January 17, 1977. (Sources: The Associated Press, 10/12/2014)
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