Killer Wants New Trial?

When I read this news report this morning I literally had to get up and take a walk to blow off steam.  It was like a punch in the stomach that took my breath away!  

Attorney: Fulks should get new trial in killing

Posted: Feb 22, 2010 9:41 AM ESTUpdated: Feb 22, 2010 9:46 AM EST

COLUMBIA, SC (AP) - Attorneys for a man on federal death row after being convicted of kidnapping and murdering a South Carolina woman say their client should not be executed and deserves a new trial.

Chadrick Fulks' new defense team says he should get a new trial because his original lawyers were ineffective. They're expected to begin making those arguments at a hearing Monday in federal court in Columbia. Fulks is expected to appear by video conference from federal death row in Terre Haute, IN.

Fulks and co-defendant Brandon Basham were convicted of killing Alice Donovan during a two-week crime spree after they escaped from a Kentucky jail in 2002.

Attorney Beattie Ashmore says his client's assistance in finding Donovan's remains should be taken into account in determining his fate.

So Chadrick Fulks, a confessed killer, has a new team of attorneys saying that his original team was ineffective.  Ineffective at what!?  Fulks and Basham got caught, were convicted and sentenced to death.  Why do they have the right to a "do-over?"  Alice Donovan and Samantha Burns are still dead, they will never have a chance at a "do-over!"

I'm so sick of hearing about killers and their rights!  What about Alice's rights, what about Samantha's rights?  What about the rights of their surviving families?  Our justice system has gone insane when they grant convicted killers more than enough legal representation, paid for by taxpayers, when the families of the victim can barely pay for a funeral in many cases!  What about their rights!?

So Fulks and his new attorney feel that because he finally told where he and Basham stashed Alice's body that he is hoping to get a pass on his death sentence?  What the attorneys didn't say was that it took him 6 damned years to do it!  Could this be the reason Fulks has lead searchers for Samantha Burns on a wild goose chase based on his information? Samantha has yet to be found!  Does he think that Samantha's family should take that into account when he asks for a new trial?

The insanity has to stop!  I will remind you that this is not a questionable case where circumstantial evidence convicted Fulks and Basham, where DNA evidence may prove them innocent.  I've read the appeal  where they told every grisly detail of what they did to their victims.  They were found guilty and sentenced to death and these families will not find peace until the evil stops rearing it's ugly head as a reminder.

It doesn't matter that Alice Donovan found a happy life in South Carolina, or that Samantha Burns was working towards a good career, these two snuffed out everything for them and their families.  

Frankly, I'm sick of them, period.   Yes, Angie, "with bells on."

COMMENT FROM ALICE'S DAUGHTER:

This whole thing is just utterly crazy and I can't even believe that it is happening. I never thought or dreamed in a million years that we would be in this situation six years later. In 2004 we sat in a federal court room and listened to what he and Basham did to our mother. We saw their clothes, we saw pictures and we saw video of them carjacking my mother. I had to get on the stand and testify because I was the person that my mother spoke to while she was captured and then I had to get up on the stand again for the Victims Impact Statement. I had to sit in the court room for hours starring at the back of this bastards head. And never once did he look at me or the rest of my mothers family. He is the biggest coward I have ever seen...We had to listen to his ex-wife tell us about how he abused her and the little baby Miles..This man is a monster no matter how you look at him...And just because he "finally" decided to lead people to my mother does not make him a decent human being...To me he is still the piece of shit that raped and murdered my mother and he deserves to die!

I honestly don't know what I am going to do if I have to go through another trial. The agony of it all is more than words can explain..I can remember when we were told that the jury had come to a verdict. We all walked into the court room..The court room was full to the point where people were standing. The room was full of federal court marshalls..And as we sat there waiting for the jury to enter and give the judge their verdict it seemed like eternity. As the judge read the paper, my mind drifted off to a far away place and I could barely hear his voice. With tears falling from my eyes, and my inner voice begging for him to die...And then I heard the judge say death....With the tears still streaming from my eyes, I smiled with relief and began to sob for my mom....Justice was served or so I thought.....