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David Dene Martin
American convicted mass murderer executed in Louisiana From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
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David Dene Martin (February 24, 1952 – January 4, 1985) was an American mass murderer who was sentenced to death for the murders of four people in 1977. Martin, a former church youth counsellor, entered a Bayou Blue trailer on August 14, 1977, shooting and killing his wife's lover and three other people present at the area itself. Martin was charged and found guilty of all four counts of first degree murder at the end of his trial. He was consequently sentenced to death and executed by the electric chair on January 4, 1985.[1][2]
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Personal life
Born in Keene, Texas on February 24, 1952, David Dene Martin relocated to Louisiana in 1973 after he got married, and at Houma, Martin worked as a church youth counsellor and led many of the social outreach programs, often providing aid to many troubled youths, conducting weekend rap sessions with teenagers and play folk songs. Apart from his counselling profession, Martin was also working various jobs to support himself, such as a maintenance man, carpenter and door-to-door salesman.[3]
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1977 Bayou Blue trailer shooting
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On August 14, 1977, 25-year-old David Martin perpetuated a shooting that claimed the lives of four people in Bayou Blue, Louisiana.
Days prior to the incident, Martin had discovered his wife, who was working at a restaurant lounge, engaging in an affair with the restaurant owner Bobby Todd and did not want to resign, and he also formulated an intention to split up with his wife and get back at her lover out of jealousy. Martin had even stole a gun from an ex-convict and told his next-door neighbour that he planned to shoot Todd.[4]
On that fateful day, Martin went to a trailer in Bayou Blue, where Todd resided. Apart from 33-year-old Todd, three other people were present at the trailer; the three were identified as 27-year-old Terry Hebert, 19-year-old Anne Tierney, and 19-year-old Sandra Brake. After his arrival at the trailer, Martin confronted Todd at gunpoint, and assuming that Martin was a robber, Todd handed him several rolls of money, but Martin still shot him twice in the chest, before he proceeded to shoot Hebert and the two women several more times, killing them as well. In total, Martin had fired 15 shots inside the trailer.[4][5]
According to autopsy reports, Hebert was shot five times in the back and side, with two bullets penetrating his heart. Brake was shot twice in the heart and bore defensive wounds on her wrist and arm, suggesting an attempt to protect herself. Tierney was struck by six bullets, with wounds to her chest, abdomen, and face.[4]
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Murder trial and appeals
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Trial
A day after the shooting, David Martin was arrested and charged with four counts of first degree murder.[6]
Between April 3 and April 11, 1978, the trial of Martin took place before a Lafourche Parish jury for four counts of first-degree murder, and he was convicted of all charges after the end of his trial.[4]
On April 24, 1978, David Martin was sentenced to death by the trial court upon the jury's unanimous recommendation for capital punishment.[4]
Appeals
On October 8, 1979, the Louisiana Supreme Court dismissed Martin's direct appeal against his death sentence.[4]
In 1980, the U.S. Supreme Court voted six to three to reject Martin's appeal.[7]
On August 12, 1981, U.S. District Judge Jack Murphy Gordon turned down Martin's federal appeal against his death sentence.[8]
On August 15, 1983, the 5th Circuit Court of Appeals rejected Martin's appeal.[9] In this appeal, Martin's lawyers argued that Martin had committed the murders under the influence of drugs and alcohol, and it was additionally compounded by the emotional damage caused by his wife's affair and birth of his daughter who had a brain disability, but the court rejected it and found that the killings were all planned in advance and his conviction should stand.[10]
On August 2, 1984, Martin's petition for a re-hearing of his appeal was also dismissed by the 5th Circuit Court of Appeals.[11]
First and second death warrants
In January 1981, a death warrant was approved for Martin, scheduling his upcoming execution date as February 13, 1981.[12]
On February 9, 1981, the Louisiana Supreme Court rejected Martin's last-ditch appeal and refused to grant a stay of execution.[13][14][15]
On February 10, 1981, two days before the scheduled execution of Martin, U.S. District Judge Jack Gordon allowed a federal appeal of Martin and granted him a temporary stay of execution, thus cancelling his first execution date.[16][17][18] Apart from Martin's execution, another condemned inmate from Louisiana, Benjamin Berry, also had his execution date, which originally fell in the same month as Martin, cancelled due to a pending appeal.[19]
Several months later, a second death warrant was issued, re-scheduling the execution date as September 18, 1981. However, a federal appeal filed by Martin's lawyers led to a second stay of execution less than two weeks before the new date of execution.[20][21][22]
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Execution
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Four years after he was nearly executed, David Martin's third death warrant was issued, re-scheduling his execution to take place on January 4, 1985. In fact, prior to the scheduled execution of Martin, there were six more convicts on Louisiana's death row who were executed within a span of 13 months since late 1983, sparking concerns over the increased rate of executions in Louisiana.[23]
On December 27, 1984, it was reported that Martin would appear before the state's parole board for a clemency hearing on January 3, 1985.[24] Martin's lawyers and family members sought mercy from the parole board on account of the difficulties he faced in his life up until the murders, including his wife's infidelity and financial problems, and continued to assert that the influence of drugs and alcohol caused him to kill the victims, which were out of character.[25] In the end, the Louisiana Pardon Board refused the clemency petition of Martin on January 3, 1985, hours before the scheduled execution of Martin.[26][27]
On January 4, 1985, 32-year-old David Dene Martin was put to death by the electric chair at the Louisiana State Penitentiary. For his last meal, Martin did not make a special request, but was given a meal set of sloppy joes and French fries. He also declined to make a final statement before his death sentence was carried out.[28][29]
On the date of the execution, some individuals mounted a public protest to show support for the death penalty and Martin's execution, and they were the family members of Faith Hathaway, who was murdered by serial killer Robert Lee Willie (who was executed eight days before Martin). At the same time, about 20 death penalty opponents held a one-hour vigil outside the governor's mansion to protest against the execution.[30][31]
Martin was the 33rd person to be executed in the United States after the nationwide resumption of capital punishment since 1976.[32] Martin was additionally the seventh convict to be executed in Louisiana since 1983, the year when Louisiana resumed the use of capital punishment and conducted its first execution.[33] For the following two years after Martin was executed, the state of Louisiana did not carry out another execution due to legal challenges,[34][35] until Benjamin Berry, who was convicted of the murder of a police officer, was put to death on June 7, 1987.[36]
For the next four decades after the occurrence of the 1977 Bayou Blue murders, Martin was the last person to be sentenced to death in Lafourche Parish. In 2009, Amy Hebert — who murdered her two children — came close to becoming the first person since Martin to receive the death penalty in Lafourche Parish. However, the jury failed to reach a unanimous decision for capital punishment, resulting in a sentence of life without parole. It was not until 2018 that David Brown, convicted of killing a woman and her two children, was sentenced to death, becoming the first person in 40 years to receive the death penalty in Lafourche Parish since Martin.[37][38]
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See also
References
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