Mary jean planetsuzy is a cynical bid to
help Trump claim the mantel of law-and-order candidate leading up
to Election Day. Supporters say Trump is bringing long-overdue
justice to victims and their families.
LeCroy broke into the Cherrylog, Georgia, mountain home of Joann
Lee Tiesler on Oct. 7, 2001, and waited for her to return from a
shopping trip. When she walked through the door, LeCroy struck her
with a shotgun, bound and raped her. He then slashed her throat and
repeatedly stabbed her in the back.
LeCroy had known Tiesler because she lived near a relative’s
home and would often wave to her as he drove by. He later told
investigators he’d come to believe she might have been his old
babysitter he called Tinkerbell, who LeCroy claimed sexually
molested him as a child. After killing Tiesler, he realized that
couldn’t possibly be true.
Two days after killing Tiesler, LeCroy was arrested driving
Tiesler’s truck after passing a U.S. checkpoint in Minnesota
heading to Canada.
Authorities found a note LeCroy wrote before his arrest in which
he asked Tiesler for forgiveness, according to court filings. “You
were an angel and I killed you,” it read. “I am a vagabond and
doomed to hell.”
"Today justice was finally served. William LeCroy died a
peaceful death in stark contrast to the horror he imposed on my
daughter Joann,” the victim’s father, Tom Tiesler, said in a
statement.
“I am unaware that he ever showed any remorse for his evil
actions, his life of crime or for the horrific burden he caused
Joann’s loved ones," the statement read.
A few hours before the execution, Battista, waiting near the
prison, held a bag of caramel chocolate that she said was LeCroy’s
favorite. In conversations with him in the days leading up to the
execution, she said he had been contemplating his likely death and
sounded resigned.
“He said, ‘You know, once we were not and then we are and then
we are not,’” she said. “He was reflective. He didn’t seem
agitated.”
LeCroy joined the Army at 17 but was soon was discharged for
going AWOL and later spoke about an interest in witchcraft that
began during a previous stint in prison for burglary, child
molestation and other charges.
He had ruminated for days before the slaying about how Tiesler
was Tinkerbell and that assaulting her would reverse a hex she put
on him. After he cut her throat, he went to Tiesler’s computer to
search for books about witchcraft, court filings said.
He was convicted in 2004 on a federal charge of carjacking
resulting in death and a jury recommended a death sentence.
LeCroy's lawyers had unsuccessfully tried to halt the execution
and argued that his trial lawyers didn’t properly emphasize
evidence about his upbringing and mental health that could have
persuaded jurors not to impose a death sentence. Their last-minute
appeal to the U.S. Supreme Court was also rejected.
Over previous 56 years, before the Trump administration’s reboot
of executions this year, the federal government had executed just
three people — all in the early 2000s. Oklahoma City bomber Timothy
McVeigh was among them.
