Convicted killer William Andrews was sentenced Tuesday by 2nd District Judge Ronald O. Hyde to die by lethal injection at the Utah State Prison July 30.
Hyde issued the expected death warrant after attorneys for Andrews and the NAACP made yet another impassioned bid for a life sentence.The issues and emotion were not new, but Hyde told a packed courtroom that he did not have authority to review Andrews' sentence.
Spectators - 90 percent black - shook their heads as Hyde told them, "There is no question that if I set this up for a new sentencing hearing, the Supreme Court would say I was exceeding my authority. I don't have that power."
Attorneys for Andrews urged Hyde to impose a 1992 state law that allows courts to sentence criminals to life without possibility of parole. However, state attorneys argued that the law became effective April 27, 1992, and Andrews was first sentenced to die in 1974.
Hyde agreed that the law probably did not apply to the situation and again stressed that he didn't have authority to review Andrews' sentence. The original trial judge has retired, Hyde said. Appeals courts have repeatedly reviewed arguments that Andrews did not receive a fair trial and rejected those arguments. Hyde said his job now was simply to carry out the sentence imposed on Andrews 18 years ago.
One angry protester outside the courtroom screamed that Hyde was a "white nigger" for refusing to commute Andrews' sentence. Dozens of other blacks inside and outside the courtroom, however, visited quietly with media.
An NAACP leader addressed the courtroom after the judge, Andrews and attorneys for both sides had left. "We have basically 60 days to put together a clemency case for Williams. If we work hard together, I think we will get clemency for him," he said.
Hyde noted that he had to set a death date within 60 days of the hearing. State attorney Robert Wallace asked that the date be toward the end of the week to allow state employees several consecutive working days to prepare for the execution. He suggested July 15 or 16 or July 30 or 31.
Robert Anderson, attorney for Andrews, urged Hyde to select July 30 or 31 because it would give them more time for last-minute appeals.
Tim Ford, lead attorney for Andrews, said they would urge other courts to consider applying Utah's new life-without-parole law.
Andrews is one of the nation's longest standing death row inmates. His case has been before the U.S. Supreme Court five times. In each case various arguments were rejected.
NAACP attorney Steve Hawkins rehashed the old issues before Hyde: the inexperience of Andrews' attorney, the absence of a black on the jury and a note seen by at least one juror that said, "Hang the niggers." Then he tossed in a new issue: Doctrine of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints forbidding blacks before 1974 to hold the priesthood had prejudiced the jury.
The court could not ignore that Mormon doctrine regarding blacks, which "could have had a profound impact on jurors' thinking," Hawkins said. Because of that doctrine, "they did not view William Andrews as a full human being and citizen of the United States."
Wallace dismissed that argument after the hearing. "If Mormon doctrine influenced the jury on Andrews, why didn't it influence the jury on Roberts."
Keith Roberts was the third participant in the 1974 Ogden Hi Fi shop killings that left three dead and two critically injured.
The state repeatedly points to the Roberts acquittal when Andrews' attorneys and black organizations argue Andrews was convicted because of his race.
As it has been for 18 years, race again was at the heart of the Andrews appeal for justice Tuesday. His attorneys stand by their claim that the sentence imposed on Andrews was disproportionately harsh because of his race. They note that other Utah killers convicted of multiple murders - Myron Lance, Walter Kelbach, Joseph Paul Franklin and Mark Hofmann - were not sentenced to die for their crimes. Hyde acknowledged in his ruling that if there is an issue to be reviewed in Andrews' case, it would be that.
However, state attorneys say the question of a disproportionately harsh sentence does not apply to this case because the four-hour orgy of torture and murder that Andrews participated in "is one of the worst, if not the worst, crime in the history of the state of Utah," Wallace said.
State attorneys argue that while Andrews did not pull the trigger that killed or wounded any of the Hi Fi victims, he forcibly poured Drano down their throats. Autopsies revealed that if they had not died of gunshot wounds the victims may have died from Drano-caused burns to chest and stomach organs.
Although Andrews left the Hi Fi shop before Pierre Dale Selby shot the victims, Andrews knew he intended to kill them, the state argued, when Selby's gun ran out of bullets. Selby went out to the van and got Andrews' gun, and Andrews knew the gun was being used to kill people, the state said.
Selby was executed by lethal injection in 1987.
Andrews' attorneys paint a different picture. "He tried to stop this crime," Ford said. "He didn't do a very good job of it. But he was 19 years old. He didn't realized what he had gotten himself into. He left when he couldn't stop the crime."
Ford said he is not dismayed by recent indications that the U.S. Supreme Court is tired of endless appeals by convicted killers. He believes the court is saying it is the state's responsibility to make sure the trial was fair.
Monday afternoon, about 100 people gathered on the state Capitol steps in support of Andrews.
Alberta Henry , president of the NAACP's Salt Lake branch, said that she has been waiting for 18 years for a judge, governor, parole officer or even the prosecuting attorney to say, "Andrews did not get a fair trial."
Although Ronald Coleman, University of Utah vice president of Diversion, was horrified when he found out about the Hi Fi killings in 1974, he said killing Andrews isn't the solution.
"This is a backward system, but two wrongs don't make a right," Coleman said.
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Andrews offers message of hope, gratitude
Here is a statement issued Monday by Hi Fi killer William Andrews:
"I really appreciate the support you all have shown me. Your prayers, your actions and your concern has given me much hope in this hour of need. But not only hope for myself, but for our entire community. Whether I live or die, the community will continue to exist, and we must understand that what has happened to me can happen to anyone in our community: fathers, sons, sisters, brothers - even mothers.
"Your prayers and your actions give me hope because you are showing the judicial system that we are not content with racism, and with the unfairness and favoritism it has shown in the past.
"I would like to especially say a few words to the young people in our community. You need to be careful in choosing your friends. You must stay away from people who take drugs or get involved in crime, because these people will end up pulling you down with them.
"Dear young people, it pains me a great deal to know that I was involved in the crime for which I am accused. I never dreamed that I would be involved in causing hurt or pain to anyone.
And I don't believe that any of us would normally do such a thing. But when you are with friends who are involved in crime, you can find yourself in a situation that you never thought of, that you never dreamed of - and people can end up being seriously hurt. . . .
"Young friends, continue in your education and study hard, because it is through education that you will understand and learn about the systems that affect our lives whether they be education, economic or political systems. Education will help us to work within these systems, and make them work for us.
"I pray every night that I will survive this predicament that I am in. I have no idea what God has in store for me, but deep in my heart, I have no doubt that God has forgiven me for the part that I played in the crime. I know that God walks with me every day, because I see signs of his presence in my life. . . .
"Finally, I pray that the healing could begin, for the victims and the community as a whole."