As execution nears, authorities weigh witness confession
COLUMBIA, S.C. (AP) -- Days before Richard Charles Johnson is to<br>be executed for shooting a South Carolina state trooper to death 14<br>years ago, a woman has stepped forward to say she's guilty
Wednesday, October 27th 1999, 12:00 am
By: News On 6
COLUMBIA, S.C. (AP) -- Days before Richard Charles Johnson is to be executed for shooting a South Carolina state trooper to death 14 years ago, a woman has stepped forward to say she's guilty of the crime.
But officials doubt her credibility and say the execution will likely proceed as planned.
Johnson's own appeal for clemency has been joined by the state's new Roman Catholic bishop, who wants Gov. Jim Hodges to reduce Johnson's sentence to life without parole in light of the new information. Johnson is scheduled to die Friday by lethal injection.
In a sworn affidavit submitted last week, Connie Sue Hess says she killed trooper Bruce K. Smalls in September 1985.
Johnson, 36, of Morehead City, N.C., was convicted of killing a Virginia man who gave him, Hess and another man a ride. He was also convicted of killing Smalls, who pulled over the motor home they were in.
Recanting earlier testimony, Hess also said in the statement that the other man, not Johnson, killed the motor home's owner.
Hess said she confessed to ease her conscience, and had lied originally "because I did not want to die. The solicitor told me I would fry if I had anything to do with it."
Johnson's lawyer has appealed to the state Supreme Court to postpone the execution, and Johnson has petitioned the governor's office to have his sentence commuted.
Hess' statements may be challenged because of her mental history, the Omaha (Neb.) World-Herald reported today. The newspaper said Hess has spent time in mental institutions and currently lives in a supervised apartment complex for the mentally ill.
"I think that without a doubt her credibility is an issue," Robb McBurney, a spokesman for the South Carolina attorney general's office, told the newspaper. He said the attorney general's office is reviewing her statement and will advise the court.
Attempts by both the newspaper and The Associated Press to reach Hess and her family were unsuccessful.
Neither Hess nor the third hitchhiker were prosecuted in the case. Whether she will now be prosecuted has not been determined, but she could face murder, obstruction of justice and perjury charges, McBurney said.
Hodges will not make a decision about the execution until the case is reviewed by the attorney general and the local prosecutor's office, said spokesman Nina Brock. And Hess' statement has not altered preparations for the state's third execution this year.
"We're still going ahead ... until we hear something different from the courts," said John Barkley, a Corrections Department spokesman.
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