Feds to begin executing death row inmates. What that means for Horry County murderers
Five death-row inmates are scheduled to be executed later this year after Attorney General William Barr’s decision this week to resurrect capital punishment following a nearly two-decade hiatus.
South Carolina currently has three sitting on death row: Dylann Roof, Brandon Basham and Chadrick Fulks. Basham and Fulks killed two women, including a 44-year-old woman in Horry County.
The Department of Justice announced its decision Thursday, authorizing the execution of those who have been convicted of murdering, and in some cases torturing and raping, the most vulnerable, including children and the elderly.
“The Department of Justice has sought the death penalty against the worst criminals, including these five murderers, each of whom was convicted by a jury of his peers after a full and fair proceeding,” Barr said in a news release. “The Justice Department upholds the rule of law—and we owe it to the victims and their families to carry forward the sentence imposed by our justice system.”
Daniel Lewis Lee, Lezmond Mitchell, Wesley Ira Purkey, Alfred Bourgeois and Dustin Lee Honken will be executed in December and January.
The last federal execution was performed in 2003. There are currently 62 people on federal death row.
Brandon Basham and Chadrick Fulks
Chadrick Fulks, of West Virginia, and Brandon Basham, of Kentucky, killed two women, including a 44-year-old woman in Horry County.
The pair, who were cellmates and escaped from a Kentucky jail in 2002, went on a 17-day crime spree through Kentucky, Tennessee, West Virginia, North Carolina and South Carolina.
Fulks and Basham were sentenced to death in December 2004 for the kidnapping and killing of Galivants Ferry resident Alice Donovan. Donovan was taken from a Walmart parking lot in Conway in November 2002, with Fulks aiding police in finding her remains in 2009.
Both men also pleaded guilty and were sentenced to life in prison for abducting and killing 19-year-old Samantha Burns, a Marshall University student last seen in November 2002.
Burns, of West Hamlin, W.Va., disappeared after calling her mother to tell her she was leaving a mall about 15 miles away from her home. When Burns didn’t make it home, her disappearance set off a massive manhunt that led to her burned-out vehicle about 15 minutes south of Huntington.
Burns’ body has never been found, despite assistance from Fulks.
Soon after Burns’ abduction, the men came to the Myrtle Beach area and committed crimes here, including carjacking and kidnapping Donovan, which led to her death.
Both men made attempts to appeal their convictions and death sentence but all were denied. Basham’s last appeal was denied in 2015, with Fulks in 2013 requesting that his remaining appeals be stopped, stating that he was ready to accept his execution date.
Basham and Fulks are being held on federal death row in Terre Haute, Ind., awaiting execution.
Dylann Roof
Dylann Roof gunned down and murdered nine African-American parishioners at Charleston’s Mother Emanuel AME Church in June 2015.
Roof, a self-described white supremacist from Columbia, was convicted on 33 federal charges relating to the shooting. He was sentenced to death on those charges.
He also pleaded guilty to 13 state charges — including nine counts of murder, three counts of attempted murder and a weapons charge — for life sentences without parole.
Roof is also being held on federal death row in Terre Haute awaiting execution.
Brandon Council
One more South Carolina inmate could be added to DOJ’s execution list.
Federal officials plan to seek the death penalty against Brandon Council, the man accused of killing two women during a Conway bank heist in August 2017.
Council, of Wilson, North Carolina, was indicted in September 2017 for armed robbery resulting in death, using a firearm in violent crime that resulted in the murder and being a felon in possession of a firearm. He is accused of shooting Kathryn “Katie” Davis Skeen and Donna Major while robbing the CresCom Bank in Conway on Aug. 21.
The two worked at the bank at the time of the robbery.
The judge has ruled that Council’s videotaped confession can be played in his upcoming trial, which has jury selection scheduled for the end of August. Council’s defense attorney has said his client would plead guilty if federal officials would take the death penalty off the table.
This story was originally published July 25, 2019 at 11:26 AM with the headline "Feds to begin executing death row inmates. What that means for Horry County murderers."
