Citations:
State v. Tucker, 478 S.E.2d 260 (S.C. 1996) (Oakley Murder Direct Appeal).
State v. Tucker, 464 S.E.2d 105 (S.C. 1995) (Mellon Murder Direct Appeal).
State v. Tucker, 512 S.E.2d 99 (S.C. 1999) (Mellon Murder Direct Appeal after Resentencing).

Final Meal:
Pizza, Mountain Dew and two bacon, lettuce and tomato sandwiches.

Final Words:
Tucker's attorney, Teresa Norris of Columbia, read his final statement. "To everyone, I have thought of a million things to say, but they can all be summed up like this. To those I have harmed, my abject apologies and regrets. I am ashamed. To those who must remain and deal with this insane world, my condolences. But be of good cheer. Christ has overcome the world! I know that my redeemer lives. I am leaving this world with a cheerful attitude. Hallelujah."

Internet Sources:

South Carolina Department of Corrections

Inmate: TUCKER, JAMES NEIL
Inmate #: 00004875
SID#: SC00469256
DOB: 01/12/1957
Height: 5' 10"
Weight: 180 lbs.
Build: MEDIUM
Hair: BROWN
Eyes: BLUE
Complexion: FAIR
County of Conviction: CALHOUN
Date of Sentencing: 12/08/1993
Race: Caucasian

Myrtle Beach Online

"S.C. Man Electrocuted for 1992 Murders," by Jeffrey Collins." (Associated Press May 28, 2004)

COLUMBIA, S.C. - A man convicted of killing two women while looking for money 12 years ago was executed Friday in South Carolina's electric chair. James Neil Tucker, 47, was pronounced dead at 6:11 p.m. He was the first person to die by electrocution in more than a year.

Tucker was remorseful in a final statement read to witnesses by his attorney: "To those I have harmed: my abject apologies and regrets. I am ashamed," the statement said.

Tucker was convicted of killing 54-year-old Rosa Lee "Dolly" Oakley in her home in June 1992. He stole $14 from Oakley, then shot her twice in the head. He said he needed money to help his pregnant wife. Tucker was convicted of killing 21-year-old Shannon Mellon six days after killing Oakley. Her hands and legs had been bound and she was shot three times in the head. Tucker took her car and $20.

Tucker was the first person on death row to be executed by electrocution since Eric Bramblett on April 9, 2003, in Virginia, according to the Death Penalty Information Center. He was the first to die in the electric chair in South Carolina since 1996. Condemned inmates in South Carolina currently receive lethal injection, but those sentenced before June 1995 are electrocuted unless they choose injection. Tucker's lawyer said he felt if he made a choice, he would be condoning his own death.

Oakley's husband and Mellon's father witnessed Tucker's execution, but declined to talk to reporters.

TheState.Com

"S.C. executes inmate in electric chair," by Jeffrey Collins. (May 28, 2004)

COLUMBIA, S.C. - James Neil Tucker, who killed two women while looking for money 12 years ago, has been put to death in South Carolina's electric chair.

Moments before his death, Tucker expressed remorse in a statement read by his lawyer Teresa Norris. "To those I have harmed: my abject apologies and regrets. I am ashamed," the statement read. Then a brown hood was placed over Tucker's head and an electrician checked the long, black cord that ran from the ceiling of the death chamber to the wooden chair. The electrician nodded at the warden and about 30 seconds later, a breaker fell with a thump. Tucker's body jerked upward, then the breaker was shut off and he slumped forward in the restraints. A few seconds later, the breaker thumped again and more current was sent for about two minutes. Tucker's body had no reaction. He was officially pronounced dead at 6:11 p.m.

Tucker was executed for killing 54-year-old Rosa Lee "Dolly" Oakley in her Sumter County home in June 1992. He stole $14 from Oakley, then shot her twice in the head. Tucker said he needed money to help his pregnant wife. He also was sentenced to death for killing 21-year-old Shannon Mellon in Calhoun County six days later. Mellon's hands and legs were bound and she was shot three times in the head. Tucker took her car and $20.

Tucker, 47, is the first inmate in the nation to go to the electric chair since Earl Bramblett was executed in Virginia in April 2003, and the first to be electrocuted in South Carolina since 1996. The state allows inmates to choose lethal injection, but Tucker's lawyer said he felt if he made a choice, he would be condoning his own death.

Oakley's husband and Mellon's father watched Tucker's execution. Neither showed emotion as Tucker died, and they didn't talk to reporters after the execution. Witnesses were taken to the death chamber about five minutes before Tucker was scheduled to die. Behind a black curtain, prison officials took him the short distance from his cell to the chair.

Muffled voices could be heard as they strapped Tucker in. Then his minister began praying with him and they both sang a hymn about how Jesus is always with someone no matter what happens. Then pastor Eddie Norris said, "Glory, hallelujah, amen?" "Glory, hallelujah," Tucker said.

Friday's execution ended a life of crime for Tucker. He was sent to an adult prison at 17 for raping an 8-year-old girl and an 83-year-old woman in Utah. He escaped three times from prison while serving that sentence from 1974 to 1991. Last month Tucker tried to escape from death row by threatening a guard with a safety razor blade melted into a toothbrush. He was recaptured minutes later.

Tucker said his stepfather abused him and he was raped by an older prisoner while he was in a psychiatric ward as a young teen, according to Orangeburg lawyer Jay Jackson, who defended Tucker in the Mellon case. "Everything was about him and about his needs. And if his needs were averse to yours, then tough," Jackson said earlier this week. "He just had no sympathy for how his behavior would affect you."

Tucker is the 247th inmate to die in South Carolina's electric chair, which was built in 1912. But he is only the second to be electrocuted since the state first offered lethal injection in 1995. Friday's execution was the fourth in South Carolina this year and the 32nd since the death penalty was reinstated in 1976.

Pro Death Penalty.com

The death penalty is implemented in the state against those who commit murder with one of 10 aggravating circumstances. The minimum age to receive the death penalty is 16. Prior to June 1995, all persons receiving the death penalty were to be executed by electrocution under state law. Legislation signed into law on June 8, 1995, provided the option of lethal injection. A death row inmate, however, has to choose the option in writing 14 days before the execution date, or it is waived. If the person waives the right of election and the sentence was imposed prior to June 8, 1995, the penalty will be administered by electrocution. If the inmate waives the right of election and the penalty was imposed on or after that date, lethal injection will be administered.

"He chose not to choose," said Mark Plowden, spokesman for the S.C. Attorney General's office. Since Tucker was originally sentenced to death in December 1992, under state law he will die in the electric chair. He had until midnight May 15 to choose otherwise.

Charleston Post and Courier

"Tucker appears more at peace as date with electric chair nears." (AP May 28, 2004)

COLUMBIA--As the hours left in his life tick away, James Neil Tucker grows more at peace, while the families of his victims anxiously await the end of an ordeal that began more than a decade ago. Tucker's execution is scheduled for 6 p.m. Friday in the electric chair. His death is near certainty because a month ago Tucker decided to drop an appeal claiming dying by electrocution is cruel and unusual punishment, said his lawyer, Teresa Norris.

The state is putting him to death for shooting Rosa Lee "Dolly" Oakley in the head twice and taking $14 from her purse at her Sumter County home in June 1992. Tucker said he robbed Oakley because his wife was pregnant and he needed money. Tucker also faces a death sentence for killing Shannon Mellon and taking $20 from her while running from police in Calhoun County less than a week later.

The 47-year-old prisoner will be the first inmate to die in the electric chair in the United States in more than a year. He will be the first electrocuted in South Carolina since Larry Gene Bell chose the method in 1996. The electric chair used to be the standard for executions in the U.S. More than 4,200 inmates have been electrocuted since its invention, and state prison statistics show Tucker will be the 247th inmate sent to the chair in South Carolina since it was built in 1912. But in recent years, the less dramatic lethal injection has become the norm because it looks like a much more serene way to die. Nebraska is the only state that still requires electrocution, and South Carolina and five other states give inmates some kind of choice between electrocution or lethal injection.

Tucker didn't actually choose the electric chair. Under South Carolina law, any inmate sent to death row before June 1995 can ask to die by lethal injection. But if no decision is made, the condemned go to the chair by default. "He does not want to be or appear to be in any way a willing participant in this process," Norris said. "To him, when faced with a piece of paper that says we can kill you this way or this way, he refused to participate." When his execution seemed imminent, Tucker and his lawyer talked about filing a final appeal saying electrocution is cruel and unusual punishment. But Norris said Tucker asked her to withdraw the appeal "to allow closure for himself and the victim's families." The state issued its death warrant days later, and Tucker has spent his final weeks preparing for his death, his lawyer said. "Mr. Tucker gets more at peace with the world and himself as his execution draws near," Norris said.

Sometime Thursday or early Friday, prison officials will drive Tucker two hours from death row near Ridgeville to the Capital Punishment Facility in Columbia. The time isn't released for security reasons. Once there, he'll be put in a cell a short distance away from the room where electricians will be preparing South Carolina's 92-year-old electric chair. About an hour before he's scheduled to die, Tucker's head and right leg will be shaved. He'll be given a clean, green jumpsuit with one leg cut out so the electrodes can easily be placed. Prison officials will offer him a shot of Valium -- the modern version of the old slug or two of whisky offered to condemned inmates in the decades ago.

Just moments before he is strapped in the chair, witnesses will file into a small room. They will watch as Tucker is given one extremely powerful jolt for several seconds, a pause and another, weaker jolt that continues at a lower rate for about two minutes. Among the witnesses will be Mellon's father and Oakley's husband. Both have said they hope Friday's execution will help them deal better with 12 years of grief.

James Oakley said he is glad Tucker will die in the electric chair, according to an interview scheduled to air Thursday on Columbia television station WLTX. "I think I feel more relieved that he's going that way because of the things he put her through," James Oakley said. "I walked in the house and seen her and seen what he had done to her."

National Coalition to Abolish the Death Penalty

James Neil Tucker (SC) - May 28, 6 PM EST

The state of South Carolina is scheduled to execute James Neil Tucker, a white man, May 28 for the murder of Rosa Lee Oakley in Sumter County. Calhoun County also holds a death warrant against Mr. Tucker for the murder of Shannon Mellon.

Mr. Tucker is not asking the governor for clemency, nor will he participate in selecting the manner of his execution. Because he refuses to “choose” lethal injection, he will be executed in South Carolina’s default procedure of electrocution.

Like many men on death row, Mr. Tucker experienced childhood physical and sexual abuse at the hands of close family members. Psychiatric experts testified that because of this abuse, Mr. Tucker developed an anti-social personality disorder and entered into the corrections system at age 13. He was incarcerated in adult prison at age 16. Mr. Tucker was failed by the people charged with protecting and nurturing him as a child, failed by Utah’s child-protective services, and will be subsequently put to death at the hands of the state with 2,000 volts of electricity.

Please send a message to Gov. Mark Sanford and tell him that you oppose the execution of James Tucker.

The Sumpter Item

"S.C. executes inmate in electric chair," by Jeffrey Collins. (AP May 28, 2004)

James Neil Tucker, who killed two women while looking for money 12 years ago, has been put to death in South Carolina's electric chair. In his final statement, Tucker expressed remorse. "To those I hurt, I offer my deepest apologies and regrets. I am ashamed," Tucker's attorney, Teresa Norris, read to assembled witnesses.

Then a brown hood was placed over Tucker's head and an electrician checked the long, black cord that ran from the ceiling of the death chamber to the wooden chair. The electrician nodded at the warden and less than a minute later, a breaker fell with a thump. Tucker's body jerked upwards, then the breaker was shut off. More current was sent through Tucker's body for about two minutes before he was pronounced dead at 6:11 p.m.

Tucker was executed for killing 54-year-old Rosa Lee "Dolly" Oakley in her Sumter County home in June 1992. He stole $14 from Oakley, then shot her twice in the head. Tucker said he needed money to help his pregnant wife. He also was sentenced to death for killing 21-year-old Shannon Mellon in Calhoun County six days later. Mellon's hands and legs were bound and she was shot three times in the head. Tucker took her car and $20.

Tucker, 47, is the first inmate in the nation to go to the electric chair in more than a year, and the first to be electrocuted in South Carolina since 1996. The state allows inmates to choose lethal injection, but Tucker's lawyer said he felt if he made a choice, he would be condoning his own death.

Charlestown Post and Courier

"Killer facing execution called 'cold'." (AP May 27, 2004)

COLUMBIA--The prosecutor in one of James Neil Tucker's death penalty trials calls the inmate scheduled to die Friday in the electric chair a cold and calculated killer. One of the lawyers who defended Tucker in that case says that's not far off the mark.

Tucker, 47, was sentenced to death in the murders of two Midlands women in the summer of 1992. He will be executed for shooting a Sumter County woman twice in the head at her home and taking $14 from her purse. He also killed a Calhoun County woman with three shots to the head while running from police and took $20 from her purse.

Even to his death, Tucker is defiant. He could have chosen lethal injection, but he decided not to choose and therefore will be electrocuted. "If he makes a choice as to how it is they are going to execute him, then he in effect is sort of submitting himself to the system. And he's just not going to do that," said Orangeburg lawyer Jay Jackson, who defended Tucker in the Calhoun County case.

The man who prosecuted Tucker in that case, Walter Bailey, said reading Tucker's confession to the murders was chilling because he described the crimes "just like any other day in his life." "He's got an IQ of something like 129. He's got a bright mind," Bailey said. "He just had no conscience whatsoever. He was cold." Tucker's problems began in his childhood in Utah when his stepfather would beat him so severely that Tucker would run away. He would commit petty crimes to survive, get arrested and be taken back to his stepfather and beaten again, Jackson said. As a young teen, Tucker was raped by an older inmate in a psychiatric facility, Jackson said. He was sent to an adult jail when he was 16 for raping an 8-year-old girl. "Other than when he escaped from prison, he was in jail for the rest of his life except that time he was out in Sumter," Jackson said.

In his confession, Tucker said he decided to rob his first victim, Dolly Oakley, because he needed money after marrying his pregnant girlfriend. She took their son and left Tucker after his arrest. "Everything was about him and his needs. And if his needs were averse to yours, then tough," Jackson said. "He just had no sympathy for how his behavior would affect you."

The Times and Democrat

"Tucker one of 13 Death Row inmates from T&D region; Other killers await appeals on their death sentences," by Richard Walker.

On Friday, a Utah man will be the fourth person executed in South Carolina this year and the 32nd since the death penalty was reinstated in 1976. Facing two death sentences, James Neil Tucker, 47, is expected to die in South Carolina's electric chair from murders committed in Sumter and Calhoun County.

Of the 69 inmates currently on South Carolina's Death Row, 12 inmates (excluding Tucker) await their fate for crimes committed in The T&D Region in the past 12 years. Most are awaiting a hearing for post-conviction relief. PCR hearings are a standard civil matter where the petitioners, or the people convicted and sentenced, seek to overturn their convictions by questioning their own defense attorneys. The outcome could affect either the conviction or the sentence.

"What the defendant is saying by filing a PCR is that his attorney did not present an adequate defense," 1st Circuit Deputy Solicitor of Orangeburg County Angela G. Avinger said. "What he's saying is that he would have been found innocent if he'd have had a better defense." At that point, the years of waiting for the murderer to be executed begin. While there is a time limit that an inmate has to file for a PCR hearing, it is left up to a circuit judge to work the hearing into his or her schedule. "Once you've filed it, it's sort of an open-ended thing from that point," former 1st Circuit Solicitor Walter Bailey Jr. said. "There's no statute that orders it to take place."

Failing in their PCR hearings, defendants can appeal directly to the South Carolina Supreme Court. If that effort fails, a request can be made for the U.S. Supreme Court to hear the case. The U.S. Supreme Court can decide to rule on the case or it can send the appeal to be heard by the U.S. District Court. If those efforts are unsuccessful, the appeal can be taken to the 4th Circuit U.S. Court of Appeals. If the appeal is denied at that level, it can then be taken before the U.S. Supreme Court one final time.

Here's a look at other Death Row inmates from the region, listed in chronological order, according to the date the crimes took place. A brief synopsis is given for the Orangeburg, Calhoun and Dorchester County cases. Bamberg County currently has no one on death row, according to statistics released from the S.C. Department of Corrections on May 11.

Thomas Ivey

Convicted of killing Orangeburg Sgt. Tommy Harrison and Columbia businessman Robert Montgomery

Two years after a murderous crime spree, Thomas Ivey was found guilty of the 1993 shooting deaths of a popular Orangeburg police officer and a Columbia businessman. In January 1995, the Union Springs, Ala., man was convicted of murdering Orangeburg Department of Public Safety Sgt. Tommy Harrison, 38. He was sentenced to death for the Jan. 15, 1993 shooting.

According to testimony from the death-penalty phase in the Harrison case, Ivey and Vincent L. Neumon Sr., then 24, of Columbia, kidnapped Robert Montgomery and stole his truck two days before Harrison was killed. After taking the vehicle, they drove Montgomery to North, where Ivey took him out of the vehicle and shot him twice at close range -- once in the back of the head and once in the chest. Along with a Columbia woman, the two men then drove to Orangeburg's Prince of Orange Mall.

Harrison arrived at the mall about 5:30 p.m. and found the trio. Harrison was attempting to question Ivey concerning a bad check being passed at Belk when the Alabama prison escapee pulled a .357-caliber Smith and Wesson Magnum and began firing. Harrison was shot point-blank six times. Montgomery's body was found outside of North on Jan. 16, 1993; his vehicle was located abandoned in Fairfield County.

In addition to Ivey, Circuit Court Judge David F. McInnis sentenced Neumon to the maximum sentences on both charges, life in prison for the murder and 30 years for the armed robbery. The woman, Patricia A. Perkins, 30, of Columbia, was charged with forgery in the case. Ivey, who turns 30 tomorrow, has two PCR hearings currently pending, one for each of the murders.

Herman Hughes

Convicted of killing Kenneth Presley and attempting to kill teenager Kelly Hoffman in St. Matthews

"You will suffer death by electrocution or lethal injection and may God have mercy on your soul," Circuit Court Judge Edward Cottingham told Herman Hughes after a Calhoun County jury found him guilty of murder in September 1995. Hughes, who was 16 at the time of the killing on March 18, 1994, was convicted of murdering Kenneth Presley, 20, and attempting to murder 18-year-old Kelly Hoffman of St. Matthews while holding up the Blue Diamond video poker establishment just outside of St. Matthews. Presley was shot three times in the head and Hoffman was shot once in the head and once in the chest.

Hughes has a PCR hearing pending before Circuit Judge Paula H. Thomas. In addition, Hughes' case is one of seven being taken before the state Supreme Court in order to set guidelines to determine whether someone is mentally retarded and can't face the death penalty. Defense lawyers say Hughes was put in learning-disabled classes in second grade and failed two grades. He was taking eighth-grade classes at the time of the shooting.

Roger Dale Johnson Jr.

Convicted of killing Kimberly Sue Edwards with a machete

In February 1996, a Calhoun County jury spent less than a hour before finding Roger Dale Johnson Jr. of Greenville guilty of murder. Four days later, Johnson, now 42, was sentenced to death for kidnapping and murder in the slaying of 30-year-old Kimberly Sue Edwards of Taylors. Edwards' body was discovered by passing motorists on June 17, 1994, off Interstate 26 about a mile west of S.C. Highway 6 in Calhoun County. She bled to death after being hacked multiple times with a machete.

Johnson's accomplice, his girlfriend Jackie Lee Henderson King, 39, of Greer, testified at Johnson's trial, saying Edwards was abducted from Chars Restaurant in Greenville before being driven to Calhoun County. "The next thing I heard was Kimberly Sue Edwards saying, 'I see what you've got in your hands,'" King testified. "I saw the machete come up and go down. I heard her bones crunch ... like dogs eating chicken bones. I saw it once, but I heard her bones crunch twice." When Johnson re-entered the vehicle in which the pair were traveling, "He left the bloody machete next to me." "He said, 'You and I are bonded for life now that you've seen me kill somebody,'" King testified. Johnson has a PCR hearing scheduled for Nov. 1 before Judge Diane Goodstein.

Bayan Aleksey

Convicted of killing Highway Patrol 1st Sgt. Frankie Lingard

Bayan Aleksey of Philadelphia was found guilty in August 1998 for shooting Highway Patrol 1st Sgt. Frankie Lingard. On Dec. 31, 1997, Lingard was patrolling Interstate 95 near Santee with narcotics officer Deputy Lin Shirer from Calhoun County. It was around 11:30 p.m. when Lingard pulled over a white Mustang GT with Delaware license plates. At Aleksey's trial, prosecutors entered into evidence radio transmissions that recorded Lingard's last moments alive. "G8 Orangeburg ... I-95, 97-mile marker southbound ... white Ford Mustang ... 982722..." Lingard's words trailed off to static and finally silence.

Seconds later, a terror-stricken Deputy Shirer screamed into his handset. "Orangeburg! Orangeburg 1033! Officer down, he's hit!" Torn by four 9-mm bullets, Lingard bled to death in the roadway after the routine traffic stop turned deadly just minutes before the new year. Aleksey is awaiting a post-hearing briefing before Circuit Judge Diane Goodstein.

Charles O. Shuler

Convicted of killing three women -- Linda Williams, Dorothy Gates and Stacy Williams

Charles O. Shuler, 53, of Elloree, was sentenced to die in March 2001 for murdering his former girlfriend, her mother and her daughter on Sept. 8, 1999. Brandishing a 12-gauge shotgun, Shuler broke into Linda Williams' Myrtle Drive home near Cordova and opened fire on the women. During Shuler's trial three years ago, Bailey promised "a voice from the grave" and offered a 911 recording to seal Shuler's fate. "I've been shot!" 13-year-old Stacy Williams told an Orangeburg County 911 emergency dispatcher on Sept. 8, 1999. "Who shot you?" the dispatcher asked. "Charles Shuler," the girl replied.

Orangeburg County Sheriff's Office investigators charged Shuler in the shooting deaths of Linda Williams, 38; her mother, Dorothy Gates, 63; and her 13-year-old daughter, Stacy. A jury spent little more than an hour before finding Shuler guilty. He was later sentenced to death. Shuler has a PCR hearing scheduled for June 28 at the Orangeburg Courthouse. Circuit Judge Casey Manning is scheduled to reside.

Samuel L. Stokes

Convicted of killing and sexually assaulting Connie Snipes

Samuel L. Stokes was sent to the S.C. Department of Corrections on Halloween Day 1999 after being found guilty on charges of murder, kidnapping, criminal conspiracy and first-degree criminal sexual misconduct. The charges against the 37-year-old Orangeburg man were levied after the nearly nude body of Connie Snipes, 21, who lived near Bamberg, was found in Branchville in May 1998. She had been shot twice in the head and an autopsy showed she had been sexually assaulted. Stokes and Snipes were acquaintances prior to the mutilation and killing of Snipes.

Dorchester County cases:

-- After fleeing from law enforcement for a year, Joseph Gardner was apprehended in Detroit and returned to South Carolina to answer why he committed a racially motivated murder the previous year. At his 1995 trial, Gardner stated he killed a North Charleston woman in retaliation for hundreds of years of white oppression. On Dec. 30, 1992, the woman had an argument with her boyfriend at a bar. As she attempted to walk home, she was picked up by Gardner and several others, who raped her.

-- In November 1998, Calvin Shuler stood calmly as the court clerk announced the jury's verdict to each of the offenses with which he was charged in connection with the death of a 77-year-old armored car guard. On Dec. 3, 1997, Shuler initially used a .25-caliber handgun, purchased by his mother before she died in 1995, to commandeer an armored car. He later reeled off some 43 rounds from an SKS assault rifle into the car. However, forensics evidence presented at Shuler's trial revealed armored car guard James "J.B." Brooks' last act was to fire his service revolver through a wire mesh separating Shuler and the cargo area of the vehicle. Shuler was severely wounded as a result.

-- In 1994, Timothy Rogers, 35, was convicted in the 1992 murder of a 9-year-old girl. In December 2000, the state Supreme Court reaffirmed the death sentence and unanimously upheld Rogers' sentence.

-- Kenneth Simmons, 43, was sentenced to die for raping and killing an 87-year-old woman in Dorchester County in September 1996. A psychologist testified Simmons' IQ was 69 and that he functions mentally in the lowest 1 percent of the population. Like Hughes, Simmons' case is being taken before the state Supreme Court for review.

-- John Edward Weik was convicted in 1999 for the shotgun slaying of 27-year-old Susan Hutto Krasae at her home in Knightsville. She was the mother of Weik's son, Daniel. Weik had confessed that he fired at least four shotgun blasts into Krasae. Weik later appealed that he was not competent to stand trial, but the state Supreme Court justices disagreed.

-- Raindrops tapping against windowpanes and the quiet sobs of family members were the only sounds heard after a man gave testimony of the last hours of an Orangeburg woman's life. In a plea agreement with solicitors, James Tawain Gadson gave eyewitness testimony concerning the Feb. 16, 2001 shooting death of 21-year-old Kandee Louise Martin. Marion (a.k.a. "J.R.") Bowman Jr., 21, of 220 Lockett St., Branchville, was found guilty of murder and arson in connection with Martin's murder. Bowman was sentenced to death after his May 2002 trial.

Tucker's fate

Barring any intervention from the governor's office, James Neil Tucker, 47, will be put to death for the murder of two women in 1992. Tucker is scheduled to be put to death Friday for killing Rosa Lee Oakley, 54, of Sumter County. His appeal for the killing of 20-year-old St. Matthews resident Shannon Lynn Mellon becomes a moot point Friday, the day his execution is scheduled. By not applying to the South Carolina Department of Corrections by May 14, Tucker chose not to choose lethal injection, which automatically relegates him to die in the state's electric chair. He is scheduled to be executed at 6 p.m. Friday.

Charleston Post and Courier

"A tough family life, poor choices and years in prison shaped James Neil Tucker into a killer," by Richard Walker.

James Neil Tucker is days away from becoming the first death row inmate to die in the electric chair in South Carolina since 1996. Tucker, 47, is scheduled to be put to death Friday for killing a Sumter County woman. His death row appeal for the killing of 20-year-old St. Matthews resident Shannon Lynn Mellon becomes a moot point Friday, the day his execution is scheduled.

Those who were required to learn the man in-depth - former 1st Circuit Solicitor Walter Bailey, who prosecuted Tucker's case, and James "Jay" Jackson, Tucker's lead defense counsel - have contrasting opinions about who he is: a cold-hearted, calculating serial killer or a misguided man overcome by the grim circumstances of his life. And through a confession he wrote for posterity 12 years ago, Tucker himself gives insight into the man now facing the electric chair and how he got to this point.

Bailey said the Utah man is nothing short of an intelligent, yet evil monster with little emotion who deserves his fate for killing the two women. Jackson says that given different circumstances, Tucker could have been a positive leader in any given community.

'Criminal' looks to escape abuse

James Neil Tucker was born Jan. 12, 1957, the oldest of two children. His divorced mother later married a Mormon man who had three children of his own. Another child was added to the family after this union. Jackson said this family arrangement was detrimental to a young Tucker, which could have played a part in his decisions later in life - specifically, at the time of the killings. Tucker's stepfather was abusive to him, Jackson said, sometimes going overboard on punishment. "He (Tucker) would run away, commit petty crimes so he would be taken out of the home," Jackson said. "He'd get caught, and they'd take him right back home."

In some states, legal age is 17. The available public documents concerning Tucker's criminal record show that as a 17-year-old, he was incarcerated for rape in 1974. "She was an elderly lady," Bailey said. "I think she was almost blind, too. All of his victims appear to be women. He's very calculating." Tucker was sentenced in the Salt Lake County District Court to a one- to 15-year sentence. Salt Lake County court records indicate Tucker was incarcerated again in 1978 for escape and theft. On each charge, he was again sentenced to one to 15 years in prison.

He was in and out of prison for the next 10 years except for periods when he would escape. "Other than that, he's been in jail his whole life," Jackson said. "James is one of those who, if he has enough time, makes good decisions. On impulse, he's not a good thinker. I think that's what led to these murders."

Tucker admitted in his confession that one factor leading to the murder of Shannon Mellon ion 1992 was a connection to Calhoun County. During one of his brief periods of freedom, he was in the St. Matthews area after he befriended a South Carolina man who was also incarcerated in the Utah prison system. Tucker escaped from that prison three times, including remaining free for five years in the 1980s. It was contact with the South Carolina inmate that led Tucker to this state. A business advertising job openings for farm managers brought Tucker and his companion to Calhoun County. Once here, Webb Carroll's Training Center, a horse farm east of St. Matthews, employed the two men in 1984. Through that job, Tucker became familiar with Calhoun County, a familiarity that years later would turn tragic for the family of Shannon Mellon.

Back and forth between St. Matthews and Spartanburg, Tucker was arrested and sent back to prison in Spartanburg County for housebreaking and larceny and sentenced to 10 years. "He puts himself in bad positions by robbery, petty theft. I think he truly regrets these decisions," Jackson said. With a charge of escape against him, the state of Utah reclaimed Tucker in 1988 after he was released from a South Carolina prison. He then served another one- to 15-year sentence in Utah.

During Tucker's various prison terms in Utah from 1974 to 1991, he was cited 13 times for violations in the state's prison system. Those charges range from being out of bounds to escape. While in Utah's prison system, Tucker learned to drive, and, perhaps more amazingly, obtained his pilot's license, Bailey said. On Oct. 17, 1978, he was cited for having two shanks (knives), a file and a piece of Plexiglas in possession. On Dec. 16, 1982, he was cited for using drugs or intoxicants he had somehow obtained while in prison. The last entry on Tucker's prison record indicates that on June 26, 1991, he was found in possession of contraband while still incarcerated. Almost to the day a year later, a Sumter woman was found dead of two close-range gunshot wounds.

The killing spree starts in S.C.

In March 1992, Tucker returned to South Carolina and married his pregnant girlfriend, Marcia, in Sumter. With a child on the way, Tucker said it "seemed like every time I brought home a paycheck, I was further in debt, and that's why I started this whole thing." It began at a horse farm in Sumter County. Tucker had been eyeing it for several days as a robbery target. Possibly, he was weary of a normal life or missing excitement from a life of crime. Whatever the reason, Tucker approached a woman who stood in her yard on Hialeah Parkway in Sumter.

The woman's name was Rosa Lee "Dolly" Oakley. The date was June 25, 1992. After pulling out a .25-caliber handgun, Tucker forced the woman into her home. But a knock at the door gave the 54-year-old woman one last chance to escape. Oakley answered the door to find a man asking the whereabouts of one of her acquaintances. When the man began to drive away, Oakley ran after him screaming, "Don't leave me, he's going to kill me," according to Tucker's confession statement. Despite dragging the woman for a short distance, the man sped away. Tucker picked the woman up and forced her back into the house. He then took $14 from Oakley's purse. When Oakley lunged for a telephone, Tucker's .25-caliber handgun barked once. Oakley was struck in the head. Then, "I shot her again before I left just because, as stupid as it sounds, I thought she was suffering," Tucker said in his confession. "So I put her out of her misery."

Within hours after the murder, police were looking for Tucker. For the next few days, he laid low in the Sumter area. Twice he slipped through police sweeps through areas where he was hiding. By hiding out in delivery trucks as they made their rounds, even once clutching the undercarriage of an 18-wheeler, he made his way to St. Matthews - and Webb Carroll's Training Center. He stole a station wagon from a St. Matthews funeral home, but that vehicle was abandoned after Tucker got it stuck in a wooded area. He said in his confession that he began thinking of the training center where he thought he could steal another car. He made his way to a cottage off Belleville Road owned by the training center. Two vehicles were in the yard - a Chevrolet Blazer and a Ford Mustang. That house on the horse farm is where Shannon Lynn Mellon was living out her dream to become a female horse jockey.

The date was July 1, 1992. It was the day Mellon's dreams ended. "I listened through the walls, and I determined that there were two people in this house, a man and a woman," Tucker said afterward. "I laid up outside this house trying to put a plan together in my head. My intent was to go in this house and shoot both of these people and to take one of those vehicles and whatever money they had together. That was my intent."

Before Tucker could decide an entry plan, the man inside the home walked out and drove away in the Blazer. A screen door was the only obstacle that remained between the murderer and Mellon. Tucker cut his way through the screen and bound a sleeping Mellon with masking tape. He then helped himself to a glass of milk in her refrigerator. "At this time, I had decided that I was going to kill this girl and leave her body in the woods," Tucker stated. "And that would give me more time until they found that body. She was laying facing the wall with her back to the door. I shot her in the back of the head." Rummaging through Mellon's purse, Tucker found a $20 bill. "Then about that time, she came to and she said, 'I can't see,'" Tucker stated. "And I shot her again in the head." Using Mellon's own travel bag, Tucker packed some of the woman's jeans he found in the cottage. He then prepared to leave. "When I zipped up the bag, I could hear her breathing - her breathing was real ragged like she couldn't get air," Tucker said. "At that time, I shot her again - the third time and I don't know exactly - I think it was around her temple." He then stole Mellon's Ford Mustang and made his way to Spartanburg where he stayed with acquaintances for a few days.

Tucker's plans fall apart

The fugitive was arrested 10 days later in Maggie Valley, N.C. As a police officer questioned him, Tucker went for the officer's service weapon. "Most criminals get caught because they're stupid," Bailey said. "He got caught because of good police work." The day following his arrest, while at the Haywood County Sheriff's Department in Waynesville, N.C., Tucker gave a 48-page confession to South Carolina Law Enforcement Division agent Perry Herod and Sumter County Sheriff's Department Detective Glenn Harrell. "He said the first time I met him that he'd created a difficult job for us with that confession," Jackson said. "We were there trying to save his life, trying to get him life in prison without parole. At no time did anyone deny what he did or minimize it in any way."

Prior to his murder trials, psychiatrists diagnosed the Utah man as having a strong anti-social disorder, Bailey said. "They feel the victims are for their own disposal, and they have no remorse for what they do," Bailey said. "And you add a superior intelligence on to that and it makes for an evil person." Tucker and his wife Marcia divorced in the years following his death sentence. The couple's son was born in November 1992 while he was in prison. In his December 1993 trial for Mellon's death, a Calhoun County jury deliberated for less than 30 minutes before finding Tucker guilty of murder. He was then sentenced to death. A Sumter County jury did the same a year later in Oakley's murder trial. In that case, a jury spent 45 minutes deciding Tucker should die. During a retrial of the penalty phase of Tucker's Calhoun County case, the Utah man was again sentenced to death. "In essence, you have three trials - two in Calhoun County and one in Sumter - 36 jurors who sentenced him to death," Bailey said.

It may have been Tucker's knack for escape that gave jurors second thoughts concerning Jackson's plea for the Utah man's life. "I think if they (jurors) had given him life in prison, and he had escaped and killed someone else, they'd have had a hard time living with that," Jackson said. "That's just what I think, based on no evidence whatsoever." Only last month, Tucker seemed to address that very question. The death row inmate had his privileges revoked after pulling a razor blade on a guard escorting him in from a recreation area. After taking the guard's keys, however, Tucker was caught and put back in his cell within a few minutes. "I think his IQ was 129," Bailey said. "Given his intelligence, coupled with the fact he's a psychopath, makes him one of the most dangerous people I've ever seen."

Tucker had until May 14 to choose lethal injection as his form of execution. That deadline passed without a request from him. Since Tucker was originally sentenced to death prior to a 1995 change in state law, he will die in the electric chair. Last week, Tucker wrote a letter to Jackson thanking him and co-counsel Lewis Lanier for their efforts. Saying he felt it "the right thing to do," Jackson and Lanier were scheduled to visit Tucker this past Wednesday. "The sad part, in my view, is if he was raised in a different circumstance, he could have been a doctor, a lawyer, an engineer," Jackson said. "He's certainly got the intelligence."

Bailey doesn't agree. Tucker's excuse was that he needed money. Two women are dead as a result. "So his solution was to go out to Mellon's home, to Oakley's home, and kill them?" Bailey said. "I believe that the world is better off if he is not breathing the same air as the rest of the world." Regardless of their stance on Tucker, Bailey and Jackson agree that the families of Oakley and Mellon are forever left with an empty chair at holidays, one less birthday to celebrate, one less Christmas present to wrap.

The 1996 retrial in Calhoun County placed Mellon's case behind Oakley's time-wise, technically placing Tucker in the electric chair for the Sumter woman's murder. "I don't know ... I made the situation what is was," Tucker said in his confession. "I take the responsibility for her death." The Utah man who placed a value of less than $35 on the lives of two women is scheduled to die at 6 p.m. Friday.

ABOLISH Archives

Just to clarify and I won't say anything beyond this on the list or elsewhere, but I notice on the CCADP website and some off-list emails (and there seems to be some taint in the media since we're not talking) that Tucker is listed as a volunteer. He is not. He went through all of the normal course of appeals and was facing the imminent release of a real execution order.

S.C. allows the inmates to choose between the electric chair and lethal injection. Tucker refuses to choose, however, because he does not want it to even appear that he is a willing participant in this process in any way. Since he won't choose, the fallback for him under state law is the electric chair.

Knowing that, when he was denied by the U.S. Supreme Court last Monday and facing an imminent execution order, I filed litigation alleging that the electric chair is cruel and unusual and filed a stay motion to allow that litigation to go forward. After further thought and consideration (and Tucker is a very intelligent guy), he decided to withdraw that litigation. I won't address his reasons, but that's all he withdrew. He is not now nor has he ever been a "volunteer" for the death penalty.

So CCADP, please fix your website, and anyone else with this understanding, please fix that too. He is not a volunteer. He has simply chosen to avoid fighting and potentially delaying (by a few weeks or months at best probably) his inevitable death and allowing closure for himself and for the victim's families.

State v. Tucker, 478 S.E.2d 260 (S.C. 1996) (Oakley Murder Direct Appeal).

Defendant was convicted in the Circuit Court, Sumter County, Thomas W. Cooper, Jr., J., of murder, kidnapping, armed robbery, possession of a weapon during a crime, first-degree burglary, third-degree burglary, and larceny. Defendant was sentenced to death, and he appealed. The Supreme Court, Waller, J., held that: (1) burglary charges were properly joined with murder charges; (2) pretrial publicity did not require change of venue; (3) photographs of crime scene were admissible; (4) solicitor's improper closing argument did not require new trial; (5) defendant was not entitled to jury instruction on included offense of involuntary manslaughter; (6) solicitor's statements to media during trial did not require change of venue; (7) defendant's prior convictions of rape and escape were admissible at sentencing phase; (8) defendant was not prejudiced by evidence regarding security posted in courtroom during trial; (9) any error in submitting aggravating circumstance that two or more persons were murdered by defendant by one act was harmless; and (10) death sentence was not disproportionate to that imposed in similar cases. Affirmed.

WALLER, Justice:
Appellant James Neil Tucker appeals his convictions of murder, kidnapping, armed robbery, possession of a weapon during a crime, first degree burglary (two counts), third degree burglary, and larceny. He was sentenced to death for the murder. This appeal consolidates his direct appeal with the mandatory review provisions of S.C.Code Ann. § 16-3-25(C) (1985). We affirm.

FACTS

On June 25, 1992, Rosa Lee Dolly Oakley ("Victim") was in her yard when Appellant pulled his car into her driveway. He talked to Victim long enough to make sure she was alone, then pulled out a gun and forced her into the house and her bedroom. He was preparing to tape Victim up when Joe Black rang the doorbell. Black and James Howard (outside in the car) were looking for Victim's husband. Both appellant and Victim went out into the driveway after Black. Victim began screaming, "Don't leave me, he's going to kill me," holding on to Black's arm as he sat in Howard's car. Howard panicked and left. Appellant pulled Victim away from the retreating car, dragged her back into the house, took fourteen dollars from her purse, and shot her twice in the head at close range. He testified he shot her the first time when she tried to grab the gun. As he was leaving, he shot her again to "put her out of her misery."

On the run from police, Appellant broke into the Christian Fellowship Church on June 26-27, 1992, and into Kenneth Parker's mobile home between June 27-29, 1992. Appellant then hitched rides under trucks until he got to Calhoun County, where he killed another person while attempting to get a car and money to escape police looking for him on the Oakley murder. Appellant was tried, convicted, and sentenced to death for this subsequent murder ("Mellon murder") before going on trial for the present offenses. Appellant was caught July 10, 1992 in Maggie Valley, North Carolina and gave a detailed confession to police.

At trial, Appellant was found guilty of murder, first degree burglary, armed robbery, and possession of a weapon during a violent crime for his actions at the Oakley residence. He was found guilty of third degree burglary for the break-in at Christian Fellowship Church. He was found guilty of first degree burglary and larceny for the break-in at Parker's mobile home. He was sentenced to death at a separate proceeding upon a jury's recommendation.

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We find the sentence imposed proportionate to that in similar cases and is not arbitrary, excessive nor disproportionate to the crime in this case. We also find the evidence supports the finding of aggravating circumstances. For the foregoing reasons, Appellant's convictions and death sentence are AFFIRMED.

State v. Tucker, 464 S.E.2d 105 (S.C. 1995) (Mellon Murder Direct Appeal).

Defendant was convicted of capital murder and other offenses following jury trial in the Circuit Court, Calhoun County, Edward B. Cottingham, J., and he appealed. The Supreme Court, Moore, J., held that: (1) shackling of defendant during trial did not violate his due process and equal protection rights; (2) evidence was sufficient to sustain disqualification of juror based on his opposition to death penalty; (3) admission of testimony of police officers regarding defendant's resistance to arrest, even if erroneously cumulative of defendant's confession, was harmless error; and (4) defendant was parole ineligible, and thus trial court's refusal to allow him to bring that fact to jury's attention violated his rights under Simmons and required remand for resentencing. Affirmed in part, reversed in part and remanded.

MOORE, Justice:
This is a death penalty case. Appellant James Neil Tucker appeals his convictions and sentence. We affirm his convictions, reverse his sentence, and remand for resentencing.

FACTS

Tucker broke into Shannon Mellon's house in the early morning hours of July 2, 1992. Armed with a gun, he taped her wrists and ankles behind her back and left her on her bed while he searched for things to steal. [FN1] Tucker then reentered Shannon's bedroom and shot her once in the head. While he was packing some of Shannon's clean clothes to take with him, Shannon regained consciousness, sat up, and said she could not see. Tucker shot her a second time in the head. He continued to pack and when he heard Shannon's labored breathing, he shot her a third time in the head. He then wrapped Shannon's body in a sheet and dragged it into the woods behind the house. Her body was discovered a week later. Tucker stole Shannon's car and drove to Spartanburg where he stayed with a friend for several days. He was apprehended in Maggie Valley, N.C., on July 10, 1992.

FN1. Tucker was running from police who were looking for him for the murder of Rosalee Oakley in Sumter County. He was convicted and sentenced to death for Rosalee's murder in December 1994.

His trial was held from November 29--December 7, 1993. He was convicted of murder, armed robbery, grand larceny, and first degree burglary.

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Here, the trial judge refused to give a parole ineligibility charge and also precluded appellant from arguing parole ineligibility to the jury when he ruled parole eligibility should not be considered by the jury. Appellant was entitled to a charge on parole ineligibility. Therefore, we reverse his sentence and remand for resentencing. AFFIRMED IN PART; REVERSED IN PART; AND REMANDED.

State v. Tucker, 512 S.E.2d 99 (S.C. 1999) (Mellon Murder Direct Appeal after Resentencing).

Following reversal of murder defendant's death sentence, 320 S.C. 206, 464 S.E.2d 105, the Circuit Court, Calhoun County, Thomas W. Cooper, J., again imposed death sentence. Defendant appealed. Upon denial of petition for rehearing, the Supreme Court, Moore, J., held that: (1) no Batson violation occurred; (2) prospective juror who was Jehovah's Witness minister was properly excused for cause; (3) defendant's testimony from his prior trial was not hearsay; and (4) submission of kidnapping as aggravating circumstance was proper. Affirmed.

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We have conducted the proportionality review pursuant to S.C.Code Ann. § 16-3-25 (1985). We find the sentence was not the result of passion, prejudice, or other arbitrary factor and the evidence supports the jury's finding of the aggravating circumstances. Further, we find the sentence is not excessive or disproportionate to the penalty imposed in similar cases. State v. Chaffee, 285 S.C. 21, 328 S.E.2d 464 (1984), cert. denied, 471 U.S. 1009, 105 S.Ct. 1878, 85 L.Ed.2d 170 (1985). Accordingly, appellant's sentence is AFFIRMED.