On Friday, a Utah man will be the fourth person executed in South Carolina this year and the 32nd since the death penalty was reinstated in 1976.

Facing two death sentences, James Neil Tucker, 47, is expected to die in South Carolina's electric chair from murders committed in Sumter and Calhoun County.

Of the 69 inmates currently on South Carolina's Death Row, 12 inmates (excluding Tucker) await their fate for crimes committed in The T&D Region in the past 12 years. Most are awaiting a hearing for post-conviction relief.

PCR hearings are a standard civil matter where the petitioners, or the people convicted and sentenced, seek to overturn their convictions by questioning their own defense attorneys.

The outcome could affect either the conviction or the sentence.

"What the defendant is saying by filing a PCR is that his attorney did not present an adequate defense," 1st Circuit Deputy Solicitor of Orangeburg County Angela G. Avinger said. "What he's saying is that he would have been found innocent if he'd have had a better defense."

At that point, the years of waiting for the murderer to be executed begin.

While there is a time limit that an inmate has to file for a PCR hearing, it is left up to a circuit judge to work the hearing into his or her schedule.

"Once you've filed it, it's sort of an open-ended thing from that point," former 1st Circuit Solicitor Walter Bailey Jr. said. "There's no statute that orders it to take place."

Failing in their PCR hearings, defendants can appeal directly to the South Carolina Supreme Court. If that effort fails, a request can be made for the U.S. Supreme Court to hear the case.

The U.S. Supreme Court can decide to rule on the case or it can send the appeal to be heard by the U.S. District Court.

If those efforts are unsuccessful, the appeal can be taken to the 4th Circuit U.S. Court of Appeals.

If the appeal is denied at that level, it can then be taken before the U.S. Supreme Court one final time.

Here's a look at other Death Row inmates from the region, listed in chronological order, according to the date the crimes took place. A brief synopsis is given for the Orangeburg, Calhoun and Dorchester County cases.

Bamberg County currently has no one on death row, according to statistics released from the S.C. Department of Corrections on May 11.

Thomas Ivey

Convicted of killing Orangeburg Sgt. Tommy Harrison and Columbia businessman Robert Montgomery

Two years after a murderous crime spree, Thomas Ivey was found guilty of the 1993 shooting deaths of a popular Orangeburg police officer and a Columbia businessman.

In January 1995, the Union Springs, Ala., man was convicted of murdering Orangeburg Department of Public Safety Sgt. Tommy Harrison, 38. He was sentenced to death for the Jan. 15, 1993 shooting.

According to testimony from the death-penalty phase in the Harrison case, Ivey and Vincent L. Neumon Sr., then 24, of Columbia, kidnapped Robert Montgomery and stole his truck two days before Harrison was killed.

After taking the vehicle, they drove Montgomery to North, where Ivey took him out of the vehicle and shot him twice at close range -- once in the back of the head and once in the chest.

Along with a Columbia woman, the two men then drove to Orangeburg's Prince of Orange Mall.

Harrison arrived at the mall about 5:30 p.m. and found the trio. Harrison was attempting to question Ivey concerning a bad check being passed at Belk when the Alabama prison escapee pulled a .357-caliber Smith and Wesson Magnum and began firing.

Harrison was shot point-blank six times.

Montgomery's body was found outside of North on Jan. 16, 1993; his vehicle was located abandoned in Fairfield County.

In addition to Ivey, Circuit Court Judge David F. McInnis sentenced Neumon to the maximum sentences on both charges, life in prison for the murder and 30 years for the armed robbery.

The woman, Patricia A. Perkins, 30, of Columbia, was charged with forgery in the case.

Ivey, who turns 30 tomorrow, has two PCR hearings currently pending, one for each of the murders.

Herman Hughes

Convicted of killing Kenneth Presley and attempting to kill teenager Kelly Hoffman in St. Matthews

"You will suffer death by electrocution or lethal injection and may God have mercy on your soul," Circuit Court Judge Edward Cottingham told Herman Hughes after a Calhoun County jury found him guilty of murder in September 1995.

Hughes, who was 16 at the time of the killing on March 18, 1994, was convicted of murdering Kenneth Presley, 20, and attempting to murder 18-year-old Kelly Hoffman of St. Matthews while holding up the Blue Diamond video poker establishment just outside of St. Matthews.

Presley was shot three times in the head and Hoffman was shot once in the head and once in the chest.

Hughes has a PCR hearing pending before Circuit Judge Paula H. Thomas.

In addition, Hughes' case is one of seven being taken before the state Supreme Court in order to set guidelines to determine whether someone is mentally retarded and can't face the death penalty.

Defense lawyers say Hughes was put in learning-disabled classes in second grade and failed two grades. He was taking eighth-grade classes at the time of the shooting.

Roger Dale Johnson Jr.

Convicted of killing Kimberly Sue Edwards with a machete

In February 1996, a Calhoun County jury spent less than a hour before finding Roger Dale Johnson Jr. of Greenville guilty of murder.

Four days later, Johnson, now 42, was sentenced to death for kidnapping and murder in the slaying of 30-year-old Kimberly Sue Edwards of Taylors.

Edwards' body was discovered by passing motorists on June 17, 1994, off Interstate 26 about a mile west of S.C. Highway 6 in Calhoun County. She bled to death after being hacked multiple times with a machete.

Johnson's accomplice, his girlfriend Jackie Lee Henderson King, 39, of Greer, testified at Johnson's trial, saying Edwards was abducted from Chars Restaurant in Greenville before being driven to Calhoun County.

"The next thing I heard was Kimberly Sue Edwards saying, 'I see what you've got in your hands,'" King testified. "I saw the machete come up and go down. I heard her bones crunch ... like dogs eating chicken bones. I saw it once, but I heard her bones crunch twice."

When Johnson re-entered the vehicle in which the pair were traveling, "He left the bloody machete next to me."

"He said, 'You and I are bonded for life now that you've seen me kill somebody,'" King testified.

Johnson has a PCR hearing scheduled for Nov. 1 before Judge Diane Goodstein.

Bayan Aleksey

Convicted of killing Highway Patrol 1st Sgt. Frankie Lingard

Bayan Aleksey of Philadelphia was found guilty in August 1998 for shooting Highway Patrol 1st Sgt. Frankie Lingard.

On Dec. 31, 1997, Lingard was patrolling Interstate 95 near Santee with narcotics officer Deputy Lin Shirer from Calhoun County. It was around 11:30 p.m. when Lingard pulled over a white Mustang GT with Delaware license plates.

At Aleksey's trial, prosecutors entered into evidence radio transmissions that recorded Lingard's last moments alive.

"G8 Orangeburg ... I-95, 97-mile marker southbound ... white Ford Mustang ... 982722..." Lingard's words trailed off to static and finally silence.

Seconds later, a terror-stricken Deputy Shirer screamed into his handset. "Orangeburg! Orangeburg 1033! Officer down, he's hit!"

Torn by four 9-mm bullets, Lingard bled to death in the roadway after the routine traffic stop turned deadly just minutes before the new year.

Aleksey is awaiting a post-hearing briefing before Circuit Judge Diane Goodstein.

Charles O. Shuler

Convicted of killing three women -- Linda Williams, Dorothy Gates and Stacy Williams

Charles O. Shuler, 53, of Elloree, was sentenced to die in March 2001 for murdering his former girlfriend, her mother and her daughter on Sept. 8, 1999.

Brandishing a 12-gauge shotgun, Shuler broke into Linda Williams' Myrtle Drive home near Cordova and opened fire on the women.

During Shuler's trial three years ago, Bailey promised "a voice from the grave" and offered a 911 recording to seal Shuler's fate.

"I've been shot!" 13-year-old Stacy Williams told an Orangeburg County 911 emergency dispatcher on Sept. 8, 1999.

"Who shot you?" the dispatcher asked.

"Charles Shuler," the girl replied.

Orangeburg County Sheriff's Office investigators charged Shuler in the shooting deaths of Linda Williams, 38; her mother, Dorothy Gates, 63; and her 13-year-old daughter, Stacy.

A jury spent little more than an hour before finding Shuler guilty. He was later sentenced to death.

Shuler has a PCR hearing scheduled for June 28 at the Orangeburg Courthouse. Circuit Judge Casey Manning is scheduled to reside.

Samuel L. Stokes

Convicted of killing and sexually assaulting Connie Snipes

Samuel L. Stokes was sent to the S.C. Department of Corrections on Halloween Day 1999 after being found guilty on charges of murder, kidnapping, criminal conspiracy and first-degree criminal sexual misconduct.

The charges against the 37-year-old Orangeburg man were levied after the nearly nude body of Connie Snipes, 21, who lived near Bamberg, was found in Branchville in May 1998. She had been shot twice in the head and an autopsy showed she had been sexually assaulted.

Stokes and Snipes were acquaintances prior to the mutilation and killing of Snipes.

Dorchester County cases:

-- After fleeing from law enforcement for a year, Joseph Gardner was apprehended in Detroit and returned to South Carolina to answer why he committed a racially motivated murder the previous year.

At his 1995 trial, Gardner stated he killed a North Charleston woman in retaliation for hundreds of years of white oppression.

On Dec. 30, 1992, the woman had an argument with her boyfriend at a bar. As she attempted to walk home, she was picked up by Gardner and several others, who raped her.

-- In November 1998, Calvin Shuler stood calmly as the court clerk announced the jury's verdict to each of the offenses with which he was charged in connection with the death of a 77-year-old armored car guard.

On Dec. 3, 1997, Shuler initially used a .25-caliber handgun, purchased by his mother before she died in 1995, to commandeer an armored car. He later reeled off some 43 rounds from an SKS assault rifle into the car.

However, forensics evidence presented at Shuler's trial revealed armored car guard James "J.B." Brooks' last act was to fire his service revolver through a wire mesh separating Shuler and the cargo area of the vehicle.

Shuler was severely wounded as a result.

-- In 1994, Timothy Rogers, 35, was convicted in the 1992 murder of a 9-year-old girl. In December 2000, the state Supreme Court reaffirmed the death sentence and unanimously upheld Rogers' sentence.

-- Kenneth Simmons, 43, was sentenced to die for raping and killing an 87-year-old woman in Dorchester County in September 1996.

A psychologist testified Simmons' IQ was 69 and that he functions mentally in the lowest 1 percent of the population. Like Hughes, Simmons' case is being taken before the state Supreme Court for review.

-- John Edward Weik was convicted in 1999 for the shotgun slaying of 27-year-old Susan Hutto Krasae at her home in Knightsville. She was the mother of Weik's son, Daniel. Weik had confessed that he fired at least four shotgun blasts into Krasae.

Weik later appealed that he was not competent to stand trial, but the state Supreme Court justices disagreed.

-- Raindrops tapping against windowpanes and the quiet sobs of family members were the only sounds heard after a man gave testimony of the last hours of an Orangeburg woman's life.

In a plea agreement with solicitors, James Tawain Gadson gave eyewitness testimony concerning the Feb. 16, 2001 shooting death of 21-year-old Kandee Louise Martin.

Marion (a.k.a. "J.R.") Bowman Jr., 21, of 220 Lockett St., Branchville, was found guilty of murder and arson in connection with Martin's murder.

Bowman was sentenced to death after his May 2002 trial.

Tucker's fate

Barring any intervention from the governor's office, James Neil Tucker, 47, will be put to death for the murder of two women in 1992.

Tucker is scheduled to be put to death Friday for killing Rosa Lee Oakley, 54, of Sumter County. His appeal for the killing of 20-year-old St. Matthews resident Shannon Lynn Mellon becomes a moot point Friday, the day his execution is scheduled.

By not applying to the South Carolina Department of Corrections by May 14, Tucker chose not to choose lethal injection, which automatically relegates him to die in the state's electric chair.

He is scheduled to be executed at 6 p.m. Friday.

T&D Staff Writer Richard Walker can be reached by e-mail at rwalker@timesanddemocrat.com or by phone at 803-533-5516.

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