Death Sentence
In April, 1996, in the Special Housing Unit in the U.S. Penitentiary, Allenwood, Hammer strangled his cellmate, 27-year old Andrew Hunt Marti (Federal Bureau of Prisons# 58008-065) to death using a piece of homemade cord. Writing on a website dedicated to his case in 2001, Hammer could not ‘attribute any motive’ to his actions.
Hammer was sentenced to death by lethal injection on November 4, 1998, in the Middle District of Pennsylvania, having pleaded guilty to the murder. His execution date was set at January 14, 1999 at 10:00 A.M. Initially, Hammer was resigned to his fate, and encouragement to fight his conviction did not motivate him. He waved his right to appeal during his trial, then proceeded to appeal three weeks later, then followed by dismissing his own appeal a further three months later.
Hammer cites the nine year old daughter of fellow death row inmate, Brownsville drug boss Juan Raul Garza, as his motivation to fight his conviction. The daughter, Elizabeth Ann Garza, reportedly told Hammer that ‘his life could make a difference for others.’. Elizabeth Ann’s letter to President Bill Clinton appealing against her own father’s sentence was also reported to have motivated Hammer to appeal his own death sentence.
Hammer himself wrote to President Clinton, asking for his sentence to be changed to life imprisonment rather than the death sentence, describing the death penalty to be ‘plagued by systemic bias, disparity and arbitrariness.’.
On February 11, 2004 the Federal Bureau of Prisons announced that his execution date was set for June 8, 2004.
As of 2010 he is housed in the U.S. Penitentiary, Terre Haute.
Read more about this topic: David Paul Hammer
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