Skip to main content

Richard Townes Jr. for a robbery murder.

Richard Townes Jr. for a robbery murder.


45 year old Richard Townes Jr. was executed by lethal injection in Virginia on Tuesday January 23rd, 1996. There was a 22-minute delay while medical personnel searched for a vein large enough to insert the needle into.

The drugs were injected through the top Townes’ right foot after unsuccessful attempts to insert the needle in his arms. Townes whispered something unintelligible moments before he was executed at the Greensville Correctional Center.

The U.S. Supreme Court had earlier rejected his requests for a stay and Gov. George Allen refused clemency.

Townes was convicted of shooting Virginia Goebel, a 32-year-old mother of two, to death with a 45 calibre handgun, during a robbery of a Virginia Beach convenience store on April 14, 1985. He took $186.13 from the cash register.

The shooting was apparently to prevent Virginia Goebel identifying him. A previous customer, Dorothy Moore, entered the store around 2:00 a.m. and noticed a man standing at the back of the store. As she left she noticed that he was watching her too. Virginia Goebel’s body was discovered just before 5:00 a.m.

Evidence implicating Townes came primarily from three sources. First, a state firearms expert determined that an empty shell casing found next to the victim's body matched empty casings from a gun traceable to Townes.

Second, Dorothy Moore, was able to positively identify Townes via photos and a line-up as the man she had seen in the store on the night of the murder. Thirdly there was evidence from Townes's cellmate at the Virginia Beach jail, who claimed that Townes had admitted the murder.

Townes represented himself at trial after dismissing two court-appointed attorneys in a protest over the low pay given to lawyers who represent indigent clients.

During the sentencing phase of his 1986 trial, Townes offered no mitigating evidence, questioned no witnesses and did not address the jury.

Townes might have avoided a death penalty and got a sentence of life without the possibility of parole if he had told jurors he was ineligible for parole because of 29 previous felony convictions, including a 1976 incident where he held a taxi driver at gunpoint for six hours in a hostage situation before shooting him four times in the back.


Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

A great story about a little bit of 'humanity' during a terrible war.

A great story about a little bit of 'humanity' during a terrible war.                                                                                      In April 1945, 2nd Lt. Peter During was a South African fighter pilot (N.7 Squadron) running missions over Italy when his Spitfire was shot down by German AA fire. He managed to crash land his plane behind enemy lines where he was immediately captured.   Whilst been escorted to a German Lufwaffe Prisoner of War (POW) camp (he was a pilot and thus his interrogation and imprisonment was the responsibility of the German airforce), he opened a conversation with his captors. He was quickly able to establish that they could already see the writing on the wall, that the war was at an end and Germany would lose it. ...
Post a Comment
Read more

French woman accused of sleeping with Germans during the occupation has her head shaved by vindictive neighbors in village near Marseilles.

French woman accused of sleeping with Germans during the occupation has her head shaved by vindictive neighbors in village near Marseilles.  Antony Beevor wrote: "... In Paris, there were cases of prostitutes kicked to death for having accepted German soldiers as clients. (...) A large number of the victims were prostitutes who had simply plied their trade with Germans as well as Frenchmen, although in some areas it was accepted that their conduct was professional rather than political, others were silly teenagers who had associated with German soldiers out of bravado or boredom.  In a number of cases, female schoolteachers who, living alone, had German soldiers billeted on them, were falsely denounced for having been a "mattress for the boches. (...) Women accused of having had an abortion were also assumed to have consorted with Germans.  Many victims were young mothers, whose husbands were in German prisoner-of-war camps. During the war, they often had no means of supp...
1 comment
Read more

THE TERRIBLE STORY OF THE BATTLE SCARS OF NORMANDY.

 THE TERRIBLE STORY OF THE BATTLE SCARS OF NORMANDY. On June 6, 1944, the Allied forces launched a massive invasion of Normandy, France, which marked a turning point in World War II. The invasion, codenamed "Operation Overlord," involved over 156,000 troops, and was the largest amphibious assault in history. The battle for Normandy beach was a bloody and brutal one, and the scars of that conflict still remain today. The beaches of Normandy, including Omaha, Utah, Juno, Gold, and Sword, were heavily fortified by the German forces, with bunkers, barbed wire, and mines littering the landscape. The Allied forces faced heavy resistance as they landed on the beaches, with many soldiers losing their lives in the initial assault. The fighting was intense and chaotic, with both sides suffering heavy casualties. Today, the scars of that battle are still visible on the beaches of Normandy. The bunkers and fortifications built by the Germans still stand, reminders of the fierce resistanc...
Post a Comment
Read more