William Henry Hance
Encyclopedia
William Henry Hance was a U.S. soldier who is believed to have murdered four women in and around military bases before his arrest in 1978. He was convicted of murdering three of them, and not brought to trial on the fourth. He was executed by the state of Georgia in the electric chair
.
was undergoing a wave of murders of women. Several elderly white women had been killed by a perpetrator nicknamed the Stocking Strangler. In addition, the bodies of two young black prostitutes had been found outside of Fort Benning
nearby.
The disparate groups of victims were linked by a letter to the local police chief written on United States Army
stationery. The handwritten note purported to be from a gang of seven white men who were holding a black woman hostage and would kill her if the Stocking Strangler were not apprehended. The Stocking Strangler was believed to be a black man, and this had been widely reported at the time.
The seven white vigilantes wished to be known as the "Forces of Evil," and wanted the police chief to communicate with them via messages on radio or television. The first letter was followed by others; eventually, a ransom demand of $10,000 was also made to keep the alleged hostage, Gail Jackson, alive. (Jackson was also known as Brenda Gail Faison and other aliases.) The letters were followed by phone calls.
The letters and calls were a hoax intended to divert attention from the real killer. Gail Jackson, the supposed hostage, had been murdered five weeks before she was found, and before the first letter was sent. Her body was discovered in early April, 1978. She was 21 years old.GI Held In Murders, United Press International
April 6, 1978. Retrieved fromNewport Daily News (Rhode Island) via NewspaperArchive.Com November 30, 2008. Soon afterward, following instructions in yet another call from the "Forces of Evil," a second black woman's corpse was found at a rifle range at Fort Benning. Her name was Irene Thirkield. She was 32.
FBI
profiler Robert K. Ressler created a profile which asserted that the killer was one man, not seven; black, not white; single, not well-educated, and probably a low-ranking military man at the fort in his late twenties.
Using the profile and aware that both Jackson and Thirkield were prostitutes, Georgia Bureau of Investigation
officers searched near the fort for bars which had generally black patrons. They were quickly able to identify William Hance and arrest him. He was a Specialist Four attached to an artillery
unit at the fort as a truck driver. Hance had begun his military career as a Marine before joining the Army.Georgia Inmate Executed for Murdering Prostitute, Associated Press
report April 4, 1994. Retrieved from Logansport Pharos-Tribune at NewspaperArchive.Com November 30, 2008.
When confronted with evidence including his handwriting, voice recordings, and shoe prints from the crime scenes, Hance confessed to killing both women and to the killing of a third woman at Fort Benning in September 1977. Karen Hickman, 24, was a white Army private known to date black soldiers and socialize in black pubs.Hance, William Henry: Forces of Evil, Serial Killer Crime Index at Crimezzz.Net. Retrieved November 30, 2008. Hance was not charged with Hickman's murder in the civilian system, but was tried, charged, and convicted by a court martial for her death.
Eventually, Hance was also identified as the killer of a young black woman at Fort Benjamin Harrison
in Indiana. Hance was not charged with this murder.
However, despite his four known femicide
s, he was innocent of the Stocking Strangler murders, eventually attributed to another black man, Carlton Gary
.
. He was the 231st inmate executed nationwide since the U.S. Supreme Court restored the death penalty in 1976 and the 18th in Georgia.
In the hours before his death, the Supreme Court
voted, 6-3, not to consider his appeal. In dissent, Justice Harry Blackmun
said that that even if he had not recently
Hance had an IQ of 75-79 points, which classifies him as "borderline intellectual functioning" on modern medical scales of mental retardation
.
had not even proofread its order denying his stay of execution, and conflated it with another document about some other prisoner. The Georgia Supreme Court denied his appeal by only one vote, 4-3.
One of his jurors at his second sentencing (after the first was reversed for prosecutorial misconduct
), a white woman named Patricia Lemay, came forward to report that other jurors made racial remarks about Hance such as "just one more sorry nigger that no one would miss" and, if executed, he would be "one less nigger to breed."In America, Jury Room Injustice by Bob Herbert, March 30, 1994. New York Times.
There was only one black juror, a 26-year-old woman named Gayle Lewis Daniels. According to Lemay, Daniels was subjected to racial invective in the jury room. According to both Lemay and Daniels herself, Daniels refused to vote for the death penalty. The other jurors ignored her and reported to the judge that they were unanimous. When the jury was polled in the presence of the court, Daniels was by then too frightened to speak up. The other jurors had told her that she could be convicted of perjury
if she continued to hold out, since she had testified, during jury selection, that she could vote for the death penalty.In America; Mr. Hance's "Perfect Punishment", by Bob Herbert, March 27, 1994. New York Times.
The evidence of Lemay and Daniels outraged many press outlets. Said one newspaper afterwards,
At a law school conference the following year, attorney Ronald J. Tabak stated at some length his opinion that Hance's race contributed to the sentence.Conference Proceedings: The Death Penalty in the Twenty-First Century, December 1995, American University
Law Review.
Electric chair
Execution by electrocution, usually performed using an electric chair, is an execution method originating in the United States in which the condemned person is strapped to a specially built wooden chair and electrocuted through electrodes placed on the body...
.
Investigation
In 1978, Columbus, GeorgiaColumbus, Georgia
Columbus is a city in and the county seat of Muscogee County, Georgia, United States, with which it is consolidated. As of the 2010 census, the city had a population of 189,885. It is the principal city of the Columbus, Georgia metropolitan area, which, in 2009, had an estimated population of 292,795...
was undergoing a wave of murders of women. Several elderly white women had been killed by a perpetrator nicknamed the Stocking Strangler. In addition, the bodies of two young black prostitutes had been found outside of Fort Benning
Fort Benning
Fort Benning is a United States Army post located southeast of the city of Columbus in Muscogee and Chattahoochee counties in Georgia and Russell County, Alabama...
nearby.
The disparate groups of victims were linked by a letter to the local police chief written on United States Army
United States Army
The United States Army is the main branch of the United States Armed Forces responsible for land-based military operations. It is the largest and oldest established branch of the U.S. military, and is one of seven U.S. uniformed services...
stationery. The handwritten note purported to be from a gang of seven white men who were holding a black woman hostage and would kill her if the Stocking Strangler were not apprehended. The Stocking Strangler was believed to be a black man, and this had been widely reported at the time.
The seven white vigilantes wished to be known as the "Forces of Evil," and wanted the police chief to communicate with them via messages on radio or television. The first letter was followed by others; eventually, a ransom demand of $10,000 was also made to keep the alleged hostage, Gail Jackson, alive. (Jackson was also known as Brenda Gail Faison and other aliases.) The letters were followed by phone calls.
The letters and calls were a hoax intended to divert attention from the real killer. Gail Jackson, the supposed hostage, had been murdered five weeks before she was found, and before the first letter was sent. Her body was discovered in early April, 1978. She was 21 years old.GI Held In Murders, United Press International
United Press International
United Press International is a once-major international news agency, whose newswires, photo, news film and audio services provided news material to thousands of newspapers, magazines and radio and television stations for most of the twentieth century...
April 6, 1978. Retrieved fromNewport Daily News (Rhode Island) via NewspaperArchive.Com November 30, 2008. Soon afterward, following instructions in yet another call from the "Forces of Evil," a second black woman's corpse was found at a rifle range at Fort Benning. Her name was Irene Thirkield. She was 32.
FBI
Federal Bureau of Investigation
The Federal Bureau of Investigation is an agency of the United States Department of Justice that serves as both a federal criminal investigative body and an internal intelligence agency . The FBI has investigative jurisdiction over violations of more than 200 categories of federal crime...
profiler Robert K. Ressler created a profile which asserted that the killer was one man, not seven; black, not white; single, not well-educated, and probably a low-ranking military man at the fort in his late twenties.
Using the profile and aware that both Jackson and Thirkield were prostitutes, Georgia Bureau of Investigation
Georgia Bureau of Investigation
The Georgia Bureau of Investigation or GBI is an independent, U.S. state of Georgia agency that provides assistance to the state's criminal justice system in the areas of criminal investigations, forensic laboratory services and computerized criminal justice information.-Organization:The agency is...
officers searched near the fort for bars which had generally black patrons. They were quickly able to identify William Hance and arrest him. He was a Specialist Four attached to an artillery
Artillery
Originally applied to any group of infantry primarily armed with projectile weapons, artillery has over time become limited in meaning to refer only to those engines of war that operate by projection of munitions far beyond the range of effect of personal weapons...
unit at the fort as a truck driver. Hance had begun his military career as a Marine before joining the Army.Georgia Inmate Executed for Murdering Prostitute, Associated Press
Associated Press
The Associated Press is an American news agency. The AP is a cooperative owned by its contributing newspapers, radio and television stations in the United States, which both contribute stories to the AP and use material written by its staff journalists...
report April 4, 1994. Retrieved from Logansport Pharos-Tribune at NewspaperArchive.Com November 30, 2008.
When confronted with evidence including his handwriting, voice recordings, and shoe prints from the crime scenes, Hance confessed to killing both women and to the killing of a third woman at Fort Benning in September 1977. Karen Hickman, 24, was a white Army private known to date black soldiers and socialize in black pubs.Hance, William Henry: Forces of Evil, Serial Killer Crime Index at Crimezzz.Net. Retrieved November 30, 2008. Hance was not charged with Hickman's murder in the civilian system, but was tried, charged, and convicted by a court martial for her death.
Eventually, Hance was also identified as the killer of a young black woman at Fort Benjamin Harrison
Fort Benjamin Harrison
Fort Benjamin Harrison was a U.S. Army post located in suburban Lawrence, Indiana, northeast of Indianapolis. It is named for the 23rd United States President, Benjamin Harrison. Land was purchased in 1903, with the post being officially named for President Harrison in honor of Indianapolis being...
in Indiana. Hance was not charged with this murder.
However, despite his four known femicide
Femicide
Femicide was first used in England in 1801 to signify "the killing of a woman." In 1848, this term was published in Wharton's Law Lexicon, suggesting that it had become a prosecutable offense. Another term used is feminicide.-First feminist definition:...
s, he was innocent of the Stocking Strangler murders, eventually attributed to another black man, Carlton Gary
Carlton Gary
Carlton Michael Gary is an American serial killer convicted of the murders of elderly women in Columbus, Georgia from 1977-1978. He is believed responsible for several more in Albany and Syracuse, New York....
.
Legal cases
Hance's convictions resulted in several legal cases in three different court systems—courts martial, Georgia state courts, and the federal court system—of which these are a partial list. The flurry of last-minute attempts to secure a stay of execution are not included in this section. See "Controversy" below.Military courts
- Hance was convicted in a military court, but not tried in civilian courts, for the murder of Irene Thirkield.Georgia Executes Murderer After Brief Stay From Court, April 1, 1994, New York Times.
- Hance was also tried and convicted in a court martial, but not a civilian court, for the murder of Karen Hickman.
- During his court martial for the murder of Irene Thirkield, Hance received a life sentence which was reversed when jurors decided he lacked the mental capacity for premeditation. Doubts on Death Row, April 11, 1994, TIME Magazine.
- For the deaths of both Hickman and Thirkield, Hance's final court martial sentence was life at hard labor. The convictions were set aside in 1980 and he was not retried by the military court system.
Civilian courts
- Hance v. State, 245 Ga. 856, 268 S.E.2d 339, cert.CertiorariCertiorari is a type of writ seeking judicial review, recognized in U.S., Roman, English, Philippine, and other law. Certiorari is the present passive infinitive of the Latin certiorare...
denied, 449 U.S. 1067, 101 S.Ct. 796, 66 L.Ed.2d 611 (1980). In this case, Hance's conviction and sentence of death in the Jackson murder were affirmed by the Georgia Supreme Court. The Thirkield murder is also included in the Court's summation of the facts.
- Hance v. Zant, 456 U.S. 965, 102 S.Ct. 2046, 72 L.Ed.2d 491 (1982). The United States Supreme Court denied certiorariCertiorariCertiorari is a type of writ seeking judicial review, recognized in U.S., Roman, English, Philippine, and other law. Certiorari is the present passive infinitive of the Latin certiorare...
in Hance's habeas corpusHabeas corpusis a writ, or legal action, through which a prisoner can be released from unlawful detention. The remedy can be sought by the prisoner or by another person coming to his aid. Habeas corpus originated in the English legal system, but it is now available in many nations...
appeal in the Jackson murder. - William Henry Hance, Petitioner, v. Walter D. Zant, Warden, Georgia Diagnostic And Classification Center, Respondent United States Court of Appeals, Eleventh Circuit. 696 F.2d 940, cert. denied, 463 U.S. 1210, 103 S.Ct. 3544, 77 L.Ed.2d 1393 (1983). After the U.S. Supreme Court declined to hear his first habeas petition in the Jackson case in 1982, the federal appellate court for the 11th Circuit, which includes Georgia, affirmed Hance's conviction but ordered a retrial of the sentencing stage because the prosecutor's closing argument rendered the sentencing proceeding fundamentally unfair, and because two jurors were improperly excluded in violation of Witherspoon v. IllinoisWitherspoon v. IllinoisWitherspoon v. Illinois, 391 U.S. 510 , was a U.S. Supreme Court case where the court ruled that a state statute providing the state unlimited challenge for cause of jurors who might have any objection to the death penalty gave too much bias in favor of the prosecution.The Court said, The decision...
, a case about unjust challenges to jury members regarding their death penalty beliefs. The federal appellate court therefore ordered the state court system to provide a new, more fair, sentencing phase trial for the murder of Jackson.
- Hance v. State, 254 Ga. 575, 332 S.E.2d 287, cert. denied, 474 U.S. 1038, 106 S.Ct. 606, 88 L.Ed.2d 584 (1985). After a second sentencing trial resulted in another death sentence for the murder of Jackson, the Georgia Supreme Court affirmed the death sentence.
- Hance filed another petition for habeas corpus in the Superior Court of Butts County, which is a Georgia state trial court. That court denied his petition after holding an evidentiary hearing.
- Hance v. Kemp, 258 Ga. 649, 373 S.E.2d 184 (1988), cert. denied, 490 U.S. 1012, 109 S.Ct. 1658, 104 L.Ed.2d 172 (1989) The Georgia Supreme Court affirmed the denial of habeas corpus by the Superior Court of Butts County, and in 1989, the U.S. Supreme Court refused to hear his appeal of the 1988 Georgia Supreme Court ruling.
- After the Georgia Supreme Court affirmed the denial of habeas corpus by the Superior Court of Butts County in 1988, Hance then filed a new petition for habeas corpus in the federal District Court for the Middle District of Georgia; that court denied the petition without holding an evidentiary hearing. Hance then appealed to the federal appellate court for the 11th Circuit, which decided the case in January, 1993.
- William Henry Hance, Petitioner-appellant, v. Walter Zant, Warden, Georgia Diagnostic & Classification Center, Respondent-appellee United States Court of Appeals, Eleventh Circuit. 981 F.2d 1180 (Jan. 6, 1993). Rehearing and Rehearing En Banc Denied March 11, 1993. In a relatively brief order, a panel of the federal appellate court in the 11th Circuit denied Hance's habeas appeal in the Jackson murder, and denied him the opportunity to present his case to the full appellate bench (instead of the panel).
Execution
Hance was sentenced to death in civilian court for the murder of Gail Jackson and in military court for the death of Irene Thirkield. His military death sentence for Thirkield was overturned. His civilian death sentence for Jackson was not. He was executed by the state of Georgia on March 31, 1994, via the electric chairElectric chair
Execution by electrocution, usually performed using an electric chair, is an execution method originating in the United States in which the condemned person is strapped to a specially built wooden chair and electrocuted through electrodes placed on the body...
. He was the 231st inmate executed nationwide since the U.S. Supreme Court restored the death penalty in 1976 and the 18th in Georgia.
In the hours before his death, the Supreme Court
Supreme Court of the United States
The Supreme Court of the United States is the highest court in the United States. It has ultimate appellate jurisdiction over all state and federal courts, and original jurisdiction over a small range of cases...
voted, 6-3, not to consider his appeal. In dissent, Justice Harry Blackmun
Harry Blackmun
Harold Andrew Blackmun was an Associate Justice of the Supreme Court of the United States from 1970 until 1994. He is best known as the author of Roe v. Wade.- Early years and professional career :...
said that that even if he had not recently
Hance had an IQ of 75-79 points, which classifies him as "borderline intellectual functioning" on modern medical scales of mental retardation
Mental retardation
Mental retardation is a generalized disorder appearing before adulthood, characterized by significantly impaired cognitive functioning and deficits in two or more adaptive behaviors...
.
Controversy
Other issues besides Hance's mental and psychiatric status had created controversy prior to the day of his electrocution, and one—the question of racial bias in the state sentencing jury—veritably exploded afterwards. The Georgia State Board of Pardons and ParolesGeorgia State Board of Pardons and Paroles
The Georgia State Board of Pardons and Paroles is a five-member committee authorized to grant paroles, pardons, reprieves, remissions, commutations, and, according to the Board's website, "to restore civil and political rights". Created by Constitutional amendment in 1943, it is part of the...
had not even proofread its order denying his stay of execution, and conflated it with another document about some other prisoner. The Georgia Supreme Court denied his appeal by only one vote, 4-3.
One of his jurors at his second sentencing (after the first was reversed for prosecutorial misconduct
Prosecutorial misconduct
In jurisprudence, prosecutorial misconduct is a procedural defense; via which, a defendant may argue that they should not be held criminally liable for actions which may have broken the law, because the prosecution acted in an "inappropriate" or "unfair" manner. Such arguments may involve...
), a white woman named Patricia Lemay, came forward to report that other jurors made racial remarks about Hance such as "just one more sorry nigger that no one would miss" and, if executed, he would be "one less nigger to breed."In America, Jury Room Injustice by Bob Herbert, March 30, 1994. New York Times.
There was only one black juror, a 26-year-old woman named Gayle Lewis Daniels. According to Lemay, Daniels was subjected to racial invective in the jury room. According to both Lemay and Daniels herself, Daniels refused to vote for the death penalty. The other jurors ignored her and reported to the judge that they were unanimous. When the jury was polled in the presence of the court, Daniels was by then too frightened to speak up. The other jurors had told her that she could be convicted of perjury
Perjury
Perjury, also known as forswearing, is the willful act of swearing a false oath or affirmation to tell the truth, whether spoken or in writing, concerning matters material to a judicial proceeding. That is, the witness falsely promises to tell the truth about matters which affect the outcome of the...
if she continued to hold out, since she had testified, during jury selection, that she could vote for the death penalty.In America; Mr. Hance's "Perfect Punishment", by Bob Herbert, March 27, 1994. New York Times.
The evidence of Lemay and Daniels outraged many press outlets. Said one newspaper afterwards,
At a law school conference the following year, attorney Ronald J. Tabak stated at some length his opinion that Hance's race contributed to the sentence.Conference Proceedings: The Death Penalty in the Twenty-First Century, December 1995, American University
American University
American University is a private, Methodist, liberal arts, and research university in Washington, D.C. The university was chartered by an Act of Congress on December 5, 1892 as "The American University", which was approved by President Benjamin Harrison on February 24, 1893...
Law Review.