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SD Gov. dropped the ball on this one

Liberty Belle

Well-known member
Why not turn these three monsters over to Poage's family to do with what they will? Let them do whatever they want to the creeps that tortured and killed their son. Where is the justice for the families of the victims or for us when we are forced to pay millions to keep these guys fed and warm for the rest of their lives?

Mother goads governor for justice
By Scott Aust, Journal Staff Writer


RAPID CITY - The mother of murder victim Chester Allan Poage urged Gov. Mike Rounds on Saturday to reconsider his decision to postpone the execution of Elijah Page and allow her son’s murderer to be executed immediately.

Poage addressed reporters at the main entrance of the Pennington County Courthouse, with her daughter Samantha Poage and Lawrence County State’s Attorney John Fitzgerald, who prosecuted Page, at her side. Poage called Rounds’ last-minute decision to halt Page’s execution a cruel mistreatment of her family by a governor who is playing politics.

“We have suffered the trauma of the violent, senseless death of Chester, who was tortured for hours, and now this miscarriage of justice is more than we can bear,” she said. “The explanation given for the last-minute reprieve is absurd and leaves us feeling numb and ill.”

Rounds issued a written statement in response to Poage’s news conference.

“I cannot imagine the pain the Poage family has endured over these past six years,” Rounds said. “Elijah Page will be executed. There are people who think my decision to delay the execution is politically motivated. That is simply not true. If politics were the motivation, we would have let the execution proceed and closed our eyes to the law.

“Justice will be delivered for the murder of Chester Poage. Mr. Page will remain on death row for a few more months until our law is corrected, and the execution will be carried out.”

Elijah Page, 24, of Athens, Texas, pleaded guilty to first-degree murder in 2001 for his part in the brutal slaying of 19-year-old Chester Poage of Spearfish.

Page and two other men beat, stabbed, stoned and tortured Poage for more than two hours — as the victim begged for his life — before killing him in Higgins Gulch south of Spearfish. The murder, which arose from a robbery, was in March 2000.

In January, Page requested an end to his appeals after the South Dakota Supreme Court upheld his death sentence by a 3-2 vote.

Rounds postponed the execution late Tuesday afternoon, hours before it was scheduled, citing conflict between South Dakota’s two-drug lethal injection law and the three-drug injection planned for Page.

The execution was postponed until at least July to give the Legislature an opportunity to change the law.

Poage urged Rounds to “stop playing both sides” as part of election-year politicking and carry out the death sentence under existing state law. She said Rounds first wasn’t going to interfere, then came up with an excuse to appease death-penalty opponents while also appearing to support the death penalty.

“Take a stand, Gov. Rounds. Do what’s right. Either believe in it or not and stick to it,” she said. “It is ridiculous that you waited until the last minute to determine what the law was and in the meantime jerked my family around.”

Poage described the weeks leading up to Page’s scheduled death as a rollercoaster ride of high anxiety that has left her family in emotional turmoil since its premature conclusion.

“It put me into shock. I was without words. This execution was something we hoped would bring closure and a sense of justice for my son Chester,” she said.

Page was fully aware of the method that was going to be used in the execution and still wanted to proceed, Poage said. She doesn’t understand how state leaders could be so indecisive.

“What has been done is totally ridiculous,” she said. “It’s cruel. It’s cruel to get caught up in the middle. It’s not serving the citizens well to have a governor that’s pulling a trick like this.”

Poage said Rounds has not called or contacted her with either an apology or an explanation. Poage found out that the execution was called off when a penitentiary official called her motel room. She has had no communication, either verbal or written, from the governor or the governor’s office.

“What has taken place is disappointing and appalling,” she said. “I have been deeply affected by this since the day of my son’s death, and it’s all bringing it back again, the state not working on my family’s behalf, on my son’s behalf.”

The system works when the right people work on your behalf, Poage said. She doesn’t believe Rounds or Attorney General Larry Long have done their jobs.

“It’s just not right. He needs to do what’s right, and he needs to do it now,” she said. “My family was a good family. My family was loving, compassionate, had faith, brought children up to believe and trust in the future without any question, and I brought my children up the same way. In a loving home.”

Poage said that to some extent it might be true that Page would be punished more by spending the rest of his life in prison, mulling over his crime and his victim, instead of receiving a quick death. But there comes a time to pay the ultimate penalty for a crime such as this.

“Page has had the last six years to sweat and live it over and over,” she said. “You can look at it that he does have to think about it every day behind four walls, but there still has to be an ultimate penalty. This does need to take place.”

Contact Scott Aust at 394-8415, or [email protected]
September 3, 2006
http://rapidcityjournal.com/articles/2006/09/03/news/top/news01.txt
 

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