Clemency Denied For Corey Hamilton

Wednesday, December 27th 2006, 10:23 am

By: News On 6

OKLAHOMA CITY (AP) -- The Oklahoma State Pardon and Parole Board denied clemency Wednesday for Corey Duane Hamilton, clearing the way for the Tulsa man to be executed next month for killing four employees of a fast-food restaurant.

Attorneys for Hamilton argued that another defendant in the crime actually pulled the trigger, but prosecutors said the evidence was clear that Hamilton was the shooter.

"This isn't a who-done-it case," Assistant Attorney General Jennifer Dickson said. "We know who did it."

Hamilton, 36, is set to be executed by injection Jan. 9 at the Oklahoma State Penitentiary in McAlester.

Family members of Hamilton's victims appeared before the state board Wednesday to oppose his request to be spared the death penalty. The board voted unanimously, 5-0, to deny clemency.

Hamilton was convicted and sentenced to death for the Aug. 17, 1992, murders of Joseph Gooch, 17; Theodore Kindley, 19; Senaida Lara, 27; and Steven Williams, 24. All four victims were shot once at close range in the back of the head, their bodies discovered in a cooler at Lee's Famous Recipe Chicken Restaurant in Tulsa.

Hamilton, the accused shooter, and three other men were convicted in the robbery. Donnie Daniels and William Hamilton, Corey Hamilton's brother, each are serving sentences of life without parole. A third man, Tyrone Johnson, was sentenced to life in prison.

Court documents show the four men were drinking and playing cards on the day of the robbery.

Defense attorneys argued that Hamilton was not the shooter and that Daniels, who testified against him at trial, recanted some of his original testimony. However, Daniels refused to testify at a subsequent evidentiary hearing.

Corey Hamilton's attorneys also raised the possibility that William Hamilton was the shooter and that Corey Hamilton took the blame to spare his brother from the death penalty. Corey Hamilton declined to testify via video conferencing before the board.

"Sometimes I feel that Corey won't talk because he's covering for his brother," said Timothy Payne, assistant federal public defender who's handling Corey Hamilton's federal appeals.

Board members also heard tearful testimony from several of the victims' family members, including Amanda Lara, who was just 6 years old when her mother was killed. She said most of her memories of her mother came from photographs and home videos.

"Sometimes at night I would play those home videos just to hear her laugh," Lara said. "It's just not fair.

"To this day, I haven't let her go."

Senaida Lara's twin sister, Elba Robinson, sobbed while asking the panel to deny clemency.

"Our holidays are not the same anymore. Everything has been torn apart for us since this happened," Robinson said. "The pain is there like it still happened."

Joseph Gooch was the only son of Patricia Hudson, who said Wednesday she never knows how to respond when people ask her if she has children.

"How do I answer that?" she asked. "I've started saying, 'Yes, I'm a mother, and God's baby-sitting."'