Condemned federal inmate changes mind, decides to fight execution

(Terre Haute, Indiana-AP) -- A federal death row inmate from Oklahoma is changing his mind and now wants to fight his execution. <br/><br/>David Paul Hammer waived his right to appeal four months ago and

Monday, May 17th 2004, 11:15 am

By: News On 6

(Terre Haute, Indiana-AP) -- A federal death row inmate from Oklahoma is changing his mind and now wants to fight his execution.

David Paul Hammer waived his right to appeal four months ago and is scheduled to die next month. This is the eighth time Hammer has changed his mind on the question of appealing since he was sentenced in 1998.

Attorney Ronald Travis says Hammer's latest decision to appeal supports the argument he's mentally ill and shouldn't be put to death. Travis plans to file motions today with a federal appeals court asking to have Hammer's appeals reinstated.

Hammer is to die June eighth at the federal prison in Terre Haute, Indiana, for killing his cellmate at a federal prison in Pennsylvania.

Hammer was sent to the Pennsylvania prison after escaping from an Oklahoma state prison in the early 1980s. He had more than 12-hundred years remaining on an Oklahoma sentence for crimes including kidnapping and attempted murder.