Gary Lee Sampson

Gary L. Sampson
Born (1959-09-29) September 29, 1959
Weymouth, Massachusetts
Nationality American
Known for Pleaded guilty to killing three strangers in Massachusetts and New Hampshire, was then sentenced to death by a federal jury in Boston in December 2003
Home town Abington, Massachusetts
Children 3

Gary L. Sampson (born September 29, 1959) is an American man convicted of three murders and sentenced to death by a federal jury in Massachusetts, United States. The last executions in Massachusetts were Philip Bellino and Edward Gertson in 1947.[1]

During three days in 2001, Sampson killed three strangers: retired pipefitter Philip McCloskey in Marshfield, Massachusetts, college student Jonathan Rizzo in Plymouth, Massachusetts, and politician Robert Whitney in Meredith, New Hampshire. He also attempted to kill another stranger: William Gregory, in Vermont. Sampson pleaded guilty on September 9, 2003, and was sentenced to death on December 23, 2003, by a federal jury in Massachusetts.[2][3] (He received the death penalty for the two Massachusetts killings, and a life sentence for the New Hampshire case.)[4]

Even though Sampson pleaded guilty, a federal jury trial was held to determine if he would be sentenced to death or life in prison. During the sentencing trial, medical professionals for the defense testified that Sampson was diagnosed with dyslexia as a child, has bipolar disorder, and "suffered from a significant mental impairment" during the killings. The defense also noted that the day before the first murder, Sampson had tried to surrender to the FBI (on bank robbery charges out of North Carolina), but the FBI operator hung up on him. A psychiatrist hired by the prosecution testified to his opinion that Sampson has antisocial personality disorder and not bipolar disorder.[5][6][7][8]

In 2011, Sampson's death sentence was thrown out due to jury misconduct, and he was scheduled for a second sentencing trial on September 16, 2015.[9] This retrial was stalled by the prosecution in September.[10]

Early and personal life

Gary Sampson, who was born in Weymouth, Massachusetts, and raised in Abington, Massachusetts, was diagnosed with dyslexia as a child but was denied special education because of his intelligence. He dropped out of school in the 9th grade. His parents are Charlotte and Elbert "Herc" Sampson. His father worked as a firefighter, ice cream truck driver, and salesman. Sampson has said his father called him "retarded" and physically abused him throughout his childhood.[5][11][12] At age four, he fell and hit his head, resulting in a brain injury.[13][14]

Sampson had been frequently arrested as a juvenile, and as an adult, was caught on surveillance tape robbing five banks in North Carolina while in disguise. Gerald Hege, sheriff of Davidson County, N.C., stated that Sampson had lived with cross-dressers and transvestites, and had learned "elaborate makeup" from them. "He learned how to change his appearance."[15][16]

As of 2003, Sampson had been married and divorced 5 times, and is the father of 3 children. His first marriage was when he was 17 years old.[11][17] In 1995, after being released from jail on a theft charge, he moved to Tamworth, New Hampshire, where he met Karen Alexander. In June 1997, Sampson and Alexander were married; she was pregnant by Sampson at the time. Shortly after, he moved to South Carolina with a woman he had recently met, and Alexander filed for divorce that same year. Sampson was arrested in May 1998, and met Amanda Newcomb while jailed. When Newcomb's grandfather posted Sampson's bail, Sampson and Newcomb married in October 1998. By the end of November, Sampson had moved to North Carolina, where he had a relationship with Ricky Carter, "a transvestite who recalled him as angry with the world and having an explosive temper." When Carter kicked him out of their apartment, Sampson met and wooed Karen Anderson in April 2001. Samson attempted to force Anderson to assist him in his robberies; she refused, but Sampson began his bank robbery spree, robbing five banks in 3 months.[18][19][20]

Crimes and death penalty trial

In July 2001 Sampson carjacked and murdered three people: Philip McCloskey (aged 69 of Taunton, Massachusetts), Jonathan Rizzo (aged 19 of Kingston, Massachusetts), and Robert Whitney (aged 58 of Concord, New Hampshire). The murders took place over the course of a week. Sampson told police that, after McCloskey picked him up hitchhiking, he forced him at knifepoint to drive to a secluded area, where he tied him up with his belt and stabbed him 24 times. He also forced Rizzo to a secluded area, tied him to a tree, gagged him, and killed him.

The day before the first murder, he attempted to surrender to police.[6][7][21] Telephone records confirmed that Sampson had called the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI). As a fugitive who was facing bank robbery charges in North Carolina, Sampson could have been taken into custody. The call was accidentally disconnected by an FBI clerk, and no action was taken. After the murders, Sampson surrendered in Vermont and confessed. He subsequently pleaded guilty.

Sampson was charged in a federal court in Boston, found guilty and, on December 23, 2003, sentenced to death. The jury deliberated for ten hours after hearing six weeks of evidence. Sampson had pleaded guilty, so the jury did not need to decide whether he killed McCloskey and Rizzo, but the jury heard the murders described in graphic detail during the sentencing phase of the trial. Prosecutors portrayed Sampson as a ruthless, calculating killer who preyed on good samaritans. Massachusetts does not have the death penalty, after having abolished capital punishment in 1984. The last time the Commonwealth used the penalty was in 1974. It was the first time anyone in Massachusetts has been sentenced to die under the federal death penalty law. Federal law was changed in 1994 to allow prosecutors to seek the death penalty when a murder is committed during a carjacking.

Place of planned execution

Then-Governor of Massachusetts Mitt Romney denied the federal government consent to execute Sampson in the Commonwealth of Massachusetts because capital punishment is outlawed there, but New Hampshire's then-Governor Craig R. Benson consented to doing it in that state, so U.S. District Judge Mark L. Wolf ordered that Sampson be executed in New Hampshire, which has the death penalty.[22] Sampson is imprisoned United States Penitentiary, Terre Haute in Indiana, where federal death row inmates are executed.[23]

Appeal process

After Sampson was sentenced to death, his lawyer David Ruhnke said he would appeal.[24] As of May 2015 Sampson remains on death row. In 2011, the death penalty decision was vacated by the US District judge after finding that one of the jurors lied during the screening process; a federal appeals court upheld the decision. Therefore, there will be another sentencing trial.[25]

Second sentencing trial

A sentencing retrial was first scheduled for February 2015, but was postponed to September 16, 2015.[26] Judge Wolf said that one reason for the delay until September was because Sampson had been transferred to a different prison to undergo a mental health evaluation which had an effect of "obstructing his lawyers’ efforts to meet with him."[27]

A week before the September sentencing retrial was to begin, it was "stalled while prosecutors decide whether to appeal a federal judge’s refusal to step down from the case." Prosecutors were given until October 13 to decide if they would appeal the judge's decision.[10] On October 28, in an 89-page ruling, Judge Wolf rejected numerous defense motions, ruling that jurors will be able to consider the death penalty.[28]

References

  1. ↑ "The death penalty in Massachusetts Facts and History". March 2008. Retrieved November 20, 2015. The last executions were on May 9, 1947 when Phillip Bellino and Edward Gertson, both convicted of murdering Robert William, were electrocuted at Charlestown State Prison.
  2. ↑ "TIMELINE: Gary Sampson’s life of crime and punishment". The Patriot Ledger. August 30, 2010. Retrieved May 19, 2015.
  3. ↑ "Death for Sampson". The Boston Globe. December 24, 2003. Retrieved May 19, 2015.
  4. ↑ "Feds cite prison misconduct in carjack death penalty case". WCVB. March 31, 2014. Retrieved May 19, 2015.
  5. 1 2 Shelley Murphy (December 19, 2003). "Sampson jury hears pleas for life, death". The Boston Globe via Boston.com. Retrieved May 19, 2015.
  6. 1 2 Milton J. Valencia (December 20, 2013). "Prosecutors again seek death penalty for serial killer". The Boston Globe. Retrieved May 19, 2015. At the original trial, Sampson’s lawyers had argued several mitigating factors. They noted that he had tried to surrender to authorities before the first murder, but an FBI clerk accidentally disconnected the call.
  7. 1 2 Shelley Murphy (May 21, 2004). "Murder victim's family sues FBI over disconnected call Says clerk's error led to rampage by Gary Sampson". The Boston Globe. Retrieved May 19, 2015.
  8. ↑ Elizabeth Mehren (November 6, 2003). "Death Debated for a Confessed Killer". Los Angeles Times. Retrieved May 19, 2015.
  9. ↑ Neal Simpson, The Patriot Ledger (April 21, 2015). "Judge refuses to rule out death penalty for killer Gary Lee Sampson". WCVB. Retrieved May 20, 2015.
  10. 1 2 Denise Lavoie, AP Legal Affairs Writer (September 10, 2015). "Massachusetts Death Penalty Retrial Halted In Carjack Deaths". Retrieved November 20, 2015. The retrial of a man sentenced to death for killing two Massachusetts residents in 2001 is stalled while prosecutors decide whether to appeal a federal judge’s refusal to step down from the case.
  11. 1 2 "Killer's parents severed all ties to son". The Boston Herald. December 3, 2003. Retrieved May 19, 2015. (Subscription required.)
  12. ↑ Sue Reinert (August 2, 2001). "Sampson record spanned four states". The Patriot Ledger. Retrieved May 20, 2015. He was born at South Shore Hospital in Weymouth on Sept. 29, 1959.
  13. ↑ "Gary Lee Sampson's lawyers appear in court ahead of resentencing trial". My FOX Boston. April 15, 2015. Retrieved May 19, 2015.
  14. ↑ Fox Butterfield (August 2, 2001). "Police Arrest Man in Killings And Carjackings in 3 States". The New York Times. Retrieved May 19, 2015.
  15. ↑ Fox Butterfield (August 2, 2001). "Police Arrest Man in Killings And Carjackings in 3 States". The New York Times. Retrieved November 20, 2015. 'He had the unusual M.O. of robbing the banks dressed as a woman, with elaborate makeup he had learned from the transvestites,' the sheriff said.
  16. ↑ Harry R. Weber (August 2, 2006). "Arraignment for Man Accused in Killing Spree". ABC News. Retrieved November 20, 2015. 'He lives with cross-dressers and transvestites,' Hege said. 'He learned how to change his appearance.'
  17. ↑ J.M. Hirsch (August 12, 2001). "Something snapped: Man accused in New England killings left trail of transformations and lies". Associated Press via The Standard-Times (New Bedford). Retrieved May 19, 2015.
  18. ↑ J.M. Hirsch (August 12, 2001, updated Jan. 12, 2011). "Something snapped: Man accused in New England killings left trail of transformations and lies". Associated Press via South Coast Today. Retrieved November 20, 2015. Check date values in: |date= (help)
  19. ↑ Shelley Murphy (December 13, 2003). "Ex-wife urges jury to spare Sampson". The Boston Globe. Retrieved May 19, 2015.
  20. ↑ U.S. v. SAMPSON, 2004
  21. ↑ Elizabeth Mehren (November 6, 2003). "Death Debated for a Confessed Killer". Los Angeles Times. Retrieved May 19, 2015. The controversy in the case is complicated by the fact that Sampson telephoned the Boston office of the FBI and offered to surrender before killing his three victims. William H. Anderson, the clerk who took the call, originally told investigators that he had not received a call from Sampson. In March, Wolf sentenced Anderson to six months in federal prison for lying to the investigators after phone records proved Sampson had indeed placed the call.
  22. ↑ Corey Licht (May 9, 2013). "First Circuit May Hear Gary Sampson Death Penalty Case". FindLaw blog. Retrieved May 19, 2015. Mitt Romney, who was governor at the time, refused to consent to the execution because capital punishment had been outlawed in the state. New Hampshire agreed to conduct the execution in Massachusetts' place. However, before the execution could take place, Judge Mark L. Wolf of the U.S. District Court in Boston ordered a new sentencing trial for Sampson.
  23. ↑ "Sentence to be appealed". The Boston Globe. December 24, 2003. Retrieved May 19, 2015.
  24. ↑ Martin Finucane (December 24, 2003). "Federal jury: Death for Mass. mens killer". Associated Press. Retrieved May 19, 2015.
  25. ↑ Milton J. Valencia (December 17, 2014). "Gary Lee Sampson in court for 1st time in decade". The Boston Globe. Retrieved May 19, 2015. Prosecutors sought the death penalty in 2003, and a jury agreed, but US District Judge Mark L. Wolf vacated that sentence in 2011, after finding that one of the jurors had lied on a questionnaire about her encounters with law enforcement. The judge said he would have excluded her from the jury had he known, and a federal appeals court upheld the decision.
  26. ↑ Neal Simpson, The Patriot Ledger (April 21, 2015). "Judge refuses to rule out death penalty for killer Gary Lee Sampson". WCVB. Retrieved November 20, 2015.
  27. ↑ "Judge postpones death penalty trial of convicted killer". BostonGlobe.com. Retrieved November 20, 2015.
  28. ↑ Laurel J. Sweet (October 28, 2015). "Judge: Death penalty still an option for spree killer Sampson". Boston Herald. Retrieved November 20, 2015.

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