A federal judge rejected Wednesday an appeal by condemned murderer Mark Hopkinson and lifted a stay of execution that was issued less than two days before Hopkinson was to die in September 1990.
The long-awaited ruling by U.S. District Judge Richard P. Matsch clears the way for a new execution date to be set for Hopkinson, who was first handed the death sentence in September 1982.Wyoming public defender Leonard Munker was not in his office Wednesday and unavailable to say whether he would appeal the ruling, according to his secretary. It also was unknown when a new execution date might be set.
Hopkinson, now 42 and the only resident of death row at the Wyoming State Penitentiary in Rawlins, in September 1979 was convicted of four counts of first-degree murder and two counts of conspiracy.
Three of the murder convictions stemmed from the bombing deaths in 1977 of an Evanston attorney, his wife and a son. The fourth murder conviction stemmed for the killing in 1979 of Jeffrey Lynn Green, and that murder resulted in the death penalty.
Prosecutors claimed that Hopkinson ordered Green's death from a California prison, where he was serving time on an unrelated conviction, because Green was going to testify against him in connection with the bombing.
Over the years, Hopkinson's case has been appealed numerous times at the state and federal level, including before the U.S. Supreme Court.
His latest appeal was filed on Sept. 21, 1990, and resulted in a stay of execution granted by Matsch during a rare Sunday hearing in federal court. The stay, which came less than 48 hours before Hopkinson was to be executed, was upheld the following day by the 10th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals.
In that appeal, Hopkinson raised five claims of constitutional error, ranging from improper jury instructions to a contention that Wyoming's selection of lethal injection as a means of execution constitutes cruel and unusual punishment.
In dismissing the claims, Matsch said some of the issues had been previously considered and rejected on appeal, while others were viewed as "legally insufficient."
None of the evidence negated Hopkinson's involvement in the Green murder, Matsch said. Conversely, there was "a great deal of evidence" to support the death sentence handed Hopkinson, the judge noted.
Among that was testimony from Green's sister, who said Hopkinson had told her he was going to kill Green, Matsch said. There also was evidence that the defendant had gone to great lengths to obtain a picture of Green prior to his death, he said.
Hopkinson, of Fort Bridger, was sentenced to life in prison for ordering the deaths in 1977 of Evanston attorney Vincent Vehar, his wife and a son. It was the brutal torture slaying of Green, a Mountain View man who had done odd jobs for Hopkinson, that produced the death sentence.
Green was scheduled to testify about the Vehar bombing in 1979 when he disappeared two days before his appearance before a grand jury. His mutilated body was found near an Interstate 80 rest stop near Fort Bridger two days after his mother saw him leave their home with two men.
Green's killers have never been found.