Prison Guard takes pills and 13 people, mostly family killed

[Guest guest]

Wonder what the pills were?

http://www.philly.com/mld/philly/news/10309622.htm?1c

Posted on Wed, Dec. 01, 2004

Killer running out of appeals

If the execution of Banks occurs tomorrow, it will be Pa.'s first since

1999.

By Amy Worden and Schiavo

Inquirer Staff Writers

Just more than 22 years ago, a state prison guard armed with a semiautomatic

rifle burst into the Wilkes-Barre trailer where his ex-girlfriend lived,

embarking on the worst killing rampage by an individual in Pennsylvania history.

When Banks surrendered eight hours later, 13 people - five of them Banks'

young children - were dead. Many of the victims were shot in the head as they

slept.

After a two-decade-long appeal process, including eight years in federal court

that led to two U.S. Supreme Court denials, Banks, 62, is scheduled to die by

lethal injection tomorrow night at the State Correctional Institution at

Rockview near State College.

Amid a flurry of last-minute appeals by Banks' attorneys, a Commonwealth Court

judge issued a stay pending action by the Pennsylvania Supreme Court - which has

ruled against Banks three times before. Banks' brother, , says he is

" resigned to the inevitable, " and one of his attorneys said that, at this point,

there were few legal avenues left. " We have a limited number of options

remaining, " said Wiseman, an attorney with the Federal Defender's Office

in Philadelphia.

If the execution is carried out, Banks will be the first person to be put to

death in Pennsylvania since Heidnik, the Philadelphia " House of Horrors "

killer convicted of murdering two women, was executed in 1999. And he would be

only the fourth put to death since the state reinstated the death penalty in

1978.

With the execution date set, family members of Banks and his many victims have

been forced to relive their painful experience.

Banks says he is " angry because the system knows " his brother " wasn't

competent when he committed the crime " - one of the issues being raised by

defense attorneys.

" I don't know why they have to have his life in their hands, " he said. " Revenge

in this country seems to be more prevalent than ever. We are becoming

barbarians. "

But Ray Hall, whose 24-year-old son, Hall Jr., was killed by Banks as he

walked down a Wilkes-Barre street, believes that Banks is deserving of lethal

injection.

" He was fit to live with three women, to have kids, " Hall said yesterday. " He

was fit enough to get a job. He knew what he was doing, all right. "

..

At the time of the killing rampage, Banks, then 40, was on leave from his job at

the state prison in Camp Hill, near burg. He had been ordered to seek help

after threatening suicide while perched in his guard tower.

Back home in Wilkes-Barre, Banks' personal life was a complex tangle of

relationships with four women and five children. That summer, he lived with

three women - and four of his children - at the same time in his Wilkes-Barre

home, while a fourth girlfriend, with whom he broke up before the shooting,

lived in a nearby suburb with a fifth child.

Banks said his brother received only pills when he sought treatment from a

mental-health clinic after the suicide threat. He said that on the night before

the killings, his brother was taking those pills and drinking gin.

Shortly before 3 a.m. on Sept. 25, 1982, armed with an AR-15 assault rifle,

Banks entered the home where his former girlfriend, their son, her mother and

her nephew lived. Witnesses said he left the blood-spattered mobile home

yelling: " Now I'm going to get them all. "

Banks then went to his house eight miles away and killed eight more people -

three girlfriends and their five children.

On his way out, Banks shot Hall and another stranger outside the house before

surrendering to police. The other victim, Olson, lived to testify against

him.

In June 1983, Banks was convicted and sentenced to die for 12 counts of

first-degree murder and one count of third-degree murder.

Defense attorneys contended that Banks was insane and not competent to stand

trial, arguments they continue to make in their last-ditch attempt to save his

life.

Prosecutors countered that Banks is neither insane nor mentally retarded.

Those arguments surfaced again yesterday in Commonwealth Court, where Judge

Bonnie B. Leadbetter issued a stay of execution that expires once the state

Supreme Court acts.

The stay was granted after lawyers for Banks' mother, Yelland, argued that

he is too mentally ill to pursue clemency. They want Leadbetter to allow Yelland

to pursue clemency even though her attorney did not file by the Oct. 15

deadline.

Defense attorney Cristi Charpentier said later that she welcomed the reprieve,

even if it is conditioned on what the higher court will do.

Also Tuesday, the state Supreme Court dismissed one of Banks' last-minute

appeals. Still to be ruled on by the court is whether Banks can seek further

post-conviction appeals - which a lower court denied because Banks missed the

September deadline.

Ray Hall said he was confident that the execution would move forward and plans

to witness it with his son's widow, Theresa, whose daughter was about a year old

at the time of the murder. She said she has awaited Banks' execution ever since.

" It's been such an ordeal, " Theresa Hall said.

..

In the last two years, the death penalty has been the subject of intense

scrutiny across the nation in every branch of government from state legislatures

and governors to the U.S. Supreme Court.

In 2003, prompted by several cases in which innocent people were sentenced to

death, Illinois Gov. commuted the death sentences of 167 death-row

inmates to life in prison.

Last spring, New York's death-penalty statute was ruled unconstitutional.

Connecticut is scheduled in January to execute its first inmate since 1960,

reviving debate over the death penalty in that state.

There are 233 inmates on death row in Pennsylvania, the fourth-highest number in

the nation. There were 244 two years ago, but the courts have vacated some

sentences and reduced others to life in prison, said McNaughton, a

spokeswoman for the state Department of Corrections.

Gov. Rendell, who has signed 26 death warrants since taking office in January

2003, said last week that he supports the death penalty for the most heinous

crimes and that he counts Banks' killing spree as one of those.

" In Mr. Banks' case, I'm for the death penalty, " he said. " I believe it fits. "

Nonetheless, the group Pennsylvania Abolitionists United Against the Death

Penalty launched a letter-writing and phone-call campaign this week asking

Rendell to pardon Banks.

The group plans to hold demonstrations throughout the state, including at

Rendell's Philadelphia office at Broad and Walnut Streets tomorrow.

Luzerne County prosecutors, however, are hopeful that Banks' execution will go

ahead as scheduled, ending 21 years of appeals.

" We are looking forward to closure and some sense of resolution in a matter

which involved the brutal senseless slayings of 13 innocent people, " Luzerne

County District Attorney Lupas said. " It is time for the jury's decision

to be carried out. "

Contact staff writer Amy Worden at 717-783-2584 or aworden@.... This

article contains information from the Associated Press.

Executions in Pa.

Three prisoners have been put to death in Pennsylvania since the commonwealth

reinstated capital punishment in 1978.

May 2, 1995. Zettlemoyer, 39, of Selinsgrove, kidnapped and shot to death

a Sunbury man scheduled to testify against him in a burglary trial.

Aug. 16, 1995. Leon Moser, 52, of Media, murdered his former wife and their two

daughters outside a Montgomery County church after Palm Sunday services.

July 6, 1999. Heidnik, 55, tortured and killed two women in his

Philadelphia home. Known as the " House of Horrors " killer, Heidnik raped and

tortured a total of six women in his basement in the late 1980s.

Execution Evolution

In 1834, Pennsylvania became the first state to abolish public hangings, the

execution method of choice since colonial days. For decades afterward, counties

hanged prisoners inside county jails. In 1913, the state assumed responsibility

for executions, and the electric chair replaced the gallows. From 1915 to 1962,

350 people were electrocuted at Rockview State Prison. The method was changed to

lethal injection in 1990.

Death Row

As of yesterday, 233 inmates awaited execution in Pennsylvania - the nation's

fourth-largest death row behind California, Texas and Florida. Condemned men in

Pennsylvania are held in state prisons at Greene and Graterford; women await

execution at Muncy State Prison.

SOURCES: Pennsylvania Department of Corrections; Death Penalty Information

Center, Washington; Inquirer staff

[Guest guest]

Wonder what the pills were?

http://www.philly.com/mld/philly/news/10309622.htm?1c

Posted on Wed, Dec. 01, 2004

Killer running out of appeals

If the execution of Banks occurs tomorrow, it will be Pa.'s first since

1999.

By Amy Worden and Schiavo

Inquirer Staff Writers

Just more than 22 years ago, a state prison guard armed with a semiautomatic

rifle burst into the Wilkes-Barre trailer where his ex-girlfriend lived,

embarking on the worst killing rampage by an individual in Pennsylvania history.

When Banks surrendered eight hours later, 13 people - five of them Banks'

young children - were dead. Many of the victims were shot in the head as they

slept.

After a two-decade-long appeal process, including eight years in federal court

that led to two U.S. Supreme Court denials, Banks, 62, is scheduled to die by

lethal injection tomorrow night at the State Correctional Institution at

Rockview near State College.

Amid a flurry of last-minute appeals by Banks' attorneys, a Commonwealth Court

judge issued a stay pending action by the Pennsylvania Supreme Court - which has

ruled against Banks three times before. Banks' brother, , says he is

" resigned to the inevitable, " and one of his attorneys said that, at this point,

there were few legal avenues left. " We have a limited number of options

remaining, " said Wiseman, an attorney with the Federal Defender's Office

in Philadelphia.

If the execution is carried out, Banks will be the first person to be put to

death in Pennsylvania since Heidnik, the Philadelphia " House of Horrors "

killer convicted of murdering two women, was executed in 1999. And he would be

only the fourth put to death since the state reinstated the death penalty in

1978.

With the execution date set, family members of Banks and his many victims have

been forced to relive their painful experience.

Banks says he is " angry because the system knows " his brother " wasn't

competent when he committed the crime " - one of the issues being raised by

defense attorneys.

" I don't know why they have to have his life in their hands, " he said. " Revenge

in this country seems to be more prevalent than ever. We are becoming

barbarians. "

But Ray Hall, whose 24-year-old son, Hall Jr., was killed by Banks as he

walked down a Wilkes-Barre street, believes that Banks is deserving of lethal

injection.

" He was fit to live with three women, to have kids, " Hall said yesterday. " He

was fit enough to get a job. He knew what he was doing, all right. "

..

At the time of the killing rampage, Banks, then 40, was on leave from his job at

the state prison in Camp Hill, near burg. He had been ordered to seek help

after threatening suicide while perched in his guard tower.

Back home in Wilkes-Barre, Banks' personal life was a complex tangle of

relationships with four women and five children. That summer, he lived with

three women - and four of his children - at the same time in his Wilkes-Barre

home, while a fourth girlfriend, with whom he broke up before the shooting,

lived in a nearby suburb with a fifth child.

Banks said his brother received only pills when he sought treatment from a

mental-health clinic after the suicide threat. He said that on the night before

the killings, his brother was taking those pills and drinking gin.

Shortly before 3 a.m. on Sept. 25, 1982, armed with an AR-15 assault rifle,

Banks entered the home where his former girlfriend, their son, her mother and

her nephew lived. Witnesses said he left the blood-spattered mobile home

yelling: " Now I'm going to get them all. "

Banks then went to his house eight miles away and killed eight more people -

three girlfriends and their five children.

On his way out, Banks shot Hall and another stranger outside the house before

surrendering to police. The other victim, Olson, lived to testify against

him.

In June 1983, Banks was convicted and sentenced to die for 12 counts of

first-degree murder and one count of third-degree murder.

Defense attorneys contended that Banks was insane and not competent to stand

trial, arguments they continue to make in their last-ditch attempt to save his

life.

Prosecutors countered that Banks is neither insane nor mentally retarded.

Those arguments surfaced again yesterday in Commonwealth Court, where Judge

Bonnie B. Leadbetter issued a stay of execution that expires once the state

Supreme Court acts.

The stay was granted after lawyers for Banks' mother, Yelland, argued that

he is too mentally ill to pursue clemency. They want Leadbetter to allow Yelland

to pursue clemency even though her attorney did not file by the Oct. 15

deadline.

Defense attorney Cristi Charpentier said later that she welcomed the reprieve,

even if it is conditioned on what the higher court will do.

Also Tuesday, the state Supreme Court dismissed one of Banks' last-minute

appeals. Still to be ruled on by the court is whether Banks can seek further

post-conviction appeals - which a lower court denied because Banks missed the

September deadline.

Ray Hall said he was confident that the execution would move forward and plans

to witness it with his son's widow, Theresa, whose daughter was about a year old

at the time of the murder. She said she has awaited Banks' execution ever since.

" It's been such an ordeal, " Theresa Hall said.

..

In the last two years, the death penalty has been the subject of intense

scrutiny across the nation in every branch of government from state legislatures

and governors to the U.S. Supreme Court.

In 2003, prompted by several cases in which innocent people were sentenced to

death, Illinois Gov. commuted the death sentences of 167 death-row

inmates to life in prison.

Last spring, New York's death-penalty statute was ruled unconstitutional.

Connecticut is scheduled in January to execute its first inmate since 1960,

reviving debate over the death penalty in that state.

There are 233 inmates on death row in Pennsylvania, the fourth-highest number in

the nation. There were 244 two years ago, but the courts have vacated some

sentences and reduced others to life in prison, said McNaughton, a

spokeswoman for the state Department of Corrections.

Gov. Rendell, who has signed 26 death warrants since taking office in January

2003, said last week that he supports the death penalty for the most heinous

crimes and that he counts Banks' killing spree as one of those.

" In Mr. Banks' case, I'm for the death penalty, " he said. " I believe it fits. "

Nonetheless, the group Pennsylvania Abolitionists United Against the Death

Penalty launched a letter-writing and phone-call campaign this week asking

Rendell to pardon Banks.

The group plans to hold demonstrations throughout the state, including at

Rendell's Philadelphia office at Broad and Walnut Streets tomorrow.

Luzerne County prosecutors, however, are hopeful that Banks' execution will go

ahead as scheduled, ending 21 years of appeals.

" We are looking forward to closure and some sense of resolution in a matter

which involved the brutal senseless slayings of 13 innocent people, " Luzerne

County District Attorney Lupas said. " It is time for the jury's decision

to be carried out. "

Contact staff writer Amy Worden at 717-783-2584 or aworden@.... This

article contains information from the Associated Press.

Executions in Pa.

Three prisoners have been put to death in Pennsylvania since the commonwealth

reinstated capital punishment in 1978.

May 2, 1995. Zettlemoyer, 39, of Selinsgrove, kidnapped and shot to death

a Sunbury man scheduled to testify against him in a burglary trial.

Aug. 16, 1995. Leon Moser, 52, of Media, murdered his former wife and their two

daughters outside a Montgomery County church after Palm Sunday services.

July 6, 1999. Heidnik, 55, tortured and killed two women in his

Philadelphia home. Known as the " House of Horrors " killer, Heidnik raped and

tortured a total of six women in his basement in the late 1980s.

Execution Evolution

In 1834, Pennsylvania became the first state to abolish public hangings, the

execution method of choice since colonial days. For decades afterward, counties

hanged prisoners inside county jails. In 1913, the state assumed responsibility

for executions, and the electric chair replaced the gallows. From 1915 to 1962,

350 people were electrocuted at Rockview State Prison. The method was changed to

lethal injection in 1990.

Death Row

As of yesterday, 233 inmates awaited execution in Pennsylvania - the nation's

fourth-largest death row behind California, Texas and Florida. Condemned men in

Pennsylvania are held in state prisons at Greene and Graterford; women await

execution at Muncy State Prison.

SOURCES: Pennsylvania Department of Corrections; Death Penalty Information

Center, Washington; Inquirer staff

[Guest guest]

Wonder what the pills were?

http://www.philly.com/mld/philly/news/10309622.htm?1c

Posted on Wed, Dec. 01, 2004

Killer running out of appeals

If the execution of Banks occurs tomorrow, it will be Pa.'s first since

1999.

By Amy Worden and Schiavo

Inquirer Staff Writers

Just more than 22 years ago, a state prison guard armed with a semiautomatic

rifle burst into the Wilkes-Barre trailer where his ex-girlfriend lived,

embarking on the worst killing rampage by an individual in Pennsylvania history.

When Banks surrendered eight hours later, 13 people - five of them Banks'

young children - were dead. Many of the victims were shot in the head as they

slept.

After a two-decade-long appeal process, including eight years in federal court

that led to two U.S. Supreme Court denials, Banks, 62, is scheduled to die by

lethal injection tomorrow night at the State Correctional Institution at

Rockview near State College.

Amid a flurry of last-minute appeals by Banks' attorneys, a Commonwealth Court

judge issued a stay pending action by the Pennsylvania Supreme Court - which has

ruled against Banks three times before. Banks' brother, , says he is

" resigned to the inevitable, " and one of his attorneys said that, at this point,

there were few legal avenues left. " We have a limited number of options

remaining, " said Wiseman, an attorney with the Federal Defender's Office

in Philadelphia.

If the execution is carried out, Banks will be the first person to be put to

death in Pennsylvania since Heidnik, the Philadelphia " House of Horrors "

killer convicted of murdering two women, was executed in 1999. And he would be

only the fourth put to death since the state reinstated the death penalty in

1978.

With the execution date set, family members of Banks and his many victims have

been forced to relive their painful experience.

Banks says he is " angry because the system knows " his brother " wasn't

competent when he committed the crime " - one of the issues being raised by

defense attorneys.

" I don't know why they have to have his life in their hands, " he said. " Revenge

in this country seems to be more prevalent than ever. We are becoming

barbarians. "

But Ray Hall, whose 24-year-old son, Hall Jr., was killed by Banks as he

walked down a Wilkes-Barre street, believes that Banks is deserving of lethal

injection.

" He was fit to live with three women, to have kids, " Hall said yesterday. " He

was fit enough to get a job. He knew what he was doing, all right. "

..

At the time of the killing rampage, Banks, then 40, was on leave from his job at

the state prison in Camp Hill, near burg. He had been ordered to seek help

after threatening suicide while perched in his guard tower.

Back home in Wilkes-Barre, Banks' personal life was a complex tangle of

relationships with four women and five children. That summer, he lived with

three women - and four of his children - at the same time in his Wilkes-Barre

home, while a fourth girlfriend, with whom he broke up before the shooting,

lived in a nearby suburb with a fifth child.

Banks said his brother received only pills when he sought treatment from a

mental-health clinic after the suicide threat. He said that on the night before

the killings, his brother was taking those pills and drinking gin.

Shortly before 3 a.m. on Sept. 25, 1982, armed with an AR-15 assault rifle,

Banks entered the home where his former girlfriend, their son, her mother and

her nephew lived. Witnesses said he left the blood-spattered mobile home

yelling: " Now I'm going to get them all. "

Banks then went to his house eight miles away and killed eight more people -

three girlfriends and their five children.

On his way out, Banks shot Hall and another stranger outside the house before

surrendering to police. The other victim, Olson, lived to testify against

him.

In June 1983, Banks was convicted and sentenced to die for 12 counts of

first-degree murder and one count of third-degree murder.

Defense attorneys contended that Banks was insane and not competent to stand

trial, arguments they continue to make in their last-ditch attempt to save his

life.

Prosecutors countered that Banks is neither insane nor mentally retarded.

Those arguments surfaced again yesterday in Commonwealth Court, where Judge

Bonnie B. Leadbetter issued a stay of execution that expires once the state

Supreme Court acts.

The stay was granted after lawyers for Banks' mother, Yelland, argued that

he is too mentally ill to pursue clemency. They want Leadbetter to allow Yelland

to pursue clemency even though her attorney did not file by the Oct. 15

deadline.

Defense attorney Cristi Charpentier said later that she welcomed the reprieve,

even if it is conditioned on what the higher court will do.

Also Tuesday, the state Supreme Court dismissed one of Banks' last-minute

appeals. Still to be ruled on by the court is whether Banks can seek further

post-conviction appeals - which a lower court denied because Banks missed the

September deadline.

Ray Hall said he was confident that the execution would move forward and plans

to witness it with his son's widow, Theresa, whose daughter was about a year old

at the time of the murder. She said she has awaited Banks' execution ever since.

" It's been such an ordeal, " Theresa Hall said.

..

In the last two years, the death penalty has been the subject of intense

scrutiny across the nation in every branch of government from state legislatures

and governors to the U.S. Supreme Court.

In 2003, prompted by several cases in which innocent people were sentenced to

death, Illinois Gov. commuted the death sentences of 167 death-row

inmates to life in prison.

Last spring, New York's death-penalty statute was ruled unconstitutional.

Connecticut is scheduled in January to execute its first inmate since 1960,

reviving debate over the death penalty in that state.

There are 233 inmates on death row in Pennsylvania, the fourth-highest number in

the nation. There were 244 two years ago, but the courts have vacated some

sentences and reduced others to life in prison, said McNaughton, a

spokeswoman for the state Department of Corrections.

Gov. Rendell, who has signed 26 death warrants since taking office in January

2003, said last week that he supports the death penalty for the most heinous

crimes and that he counts Banks' killing spree as one of those.

" In Mr. Banks' case, I'm for the death penalty, " he said. " I believe it fits. "

Nonetheless, the group Pennsylvania Abolitionists United Against the Death

Penalty launched a letter-writing and phone-call campaign this week asking

Rendell to pardon Banks.

The group plans to hold demonstrations throughout the state, including at

Rendell's Philadelphia office at Broad and Walnut Streets tomorrow.

Luzerne County prosecutors, however, are hopeful that Banks' execution will go

ahead as scheduled, ending 21 years of appeals.

" We are looking forward to closure and some sense of resolution in a matter

which involved the brutal senseless slayings of 13 innocent people, " Luzerne

County District Attorney Lupas said. " It is time for the jury's decision

to be carried out. "

Contact staff writer Amy Worden at 717-783-2584 or aworden@.... This

article contains information from the Associated Press.

Executions in Pa.

Three prisoners have been put to death in Pennsylvania since the commonwealth

reinstated capital punishment in 1978.

May 2, 1995. Zettlemoyer, 39, of Selinsgrove, kidnapped and shot to death

a Sunbury man scheduled to testify against him in a burglary trial.

Aug. 16, 1995. Leon Moser, 52, of Media, murdered his former wife and their two

daughters outside a Montgomery County church after Palm Sunday services.

July 6, 1999. Heidnik, 55, tortured and killed two women in his

Philadelphia home. Known as the " House of Horrors " killer, Heidnik raped and

tortured a total of six women in his basement in the late 1980s.

Execution Evolution

In 1834, Pennsylvania became the first state to abolish public hangings, the

execution method of choice since colonial days. For decades afterward, counties

hanged prisoners inside county jails. In 1913, the state assumed responsibility

for executions, and the electric chair replaced the gallows. From 1915 to 1962,

350 people were electrocuted at Rockview State Prison. The method was changed to

lethal injection in 1990.

Death Row

As of yesterday, 233 inmates awaited execution in Pennsylvania - the nation's

fourth-largest death row behind California, Texas and Florida. Condemned men in

Pennsylvania are held in state prisons at Greene and Graterford; women await

execution at Muncy State Prison.

SOURCES: Pennsylvania Department of Corrections; Death Penalty Information

Center, Washington; Inquirer staff

[Guest guest]

Wonder what the pills were?

http://www.philly.com/mld/philly/news/10309622.htm?1c

Posted on Wed, Dec. 01, 2004

Killer running out of appeals

If the execution of Banks occurs tomorrow, it will be Pa.'s first since

1999.

By Amy Worden and Schiavo

Inquirer Staff Writers

Just more than 22 years ago, a state prison guard armed with a semiautomatic

rifle burst into the Wilkes-Barre trailer where his ex-girlfriend lived,

embarking on the worst killing rampage by an individual in Pennsylvania history.

When Banks surrendered eight hours later, 13 people - five of them Banks'

young children - were dead. Many of the victims were shot in the head as they

slept.

After a two-decade-long appeal process, including eight years in federal court

that led to two U.S. Supreme Court denials, Banks, 62, is scheduled to die by

lethal injection tomorrow night at the State Correctional Institution at

Rockview near State College.

Amid a flurry of last-minute appeals by Banks' attorneys, a Commonwealth Court

judge issued a stay pending action by the Pennsylvania Supreme Court - which has

ruled against Banks three times before. Banks' brother, , says he is

" resigned to the inevitable, " and one of his attorneys said that, at this point,

there were few legal avenues left. " We have a limited number of options

remaining, " said Wiseman, an attorney with the Federal Defender's Office

in Philadelphia.

If the execution is carried out, Banks will be the first person to be put to

death in Pennsylvania since Heidnik, the Philadelphia " House of Horrors "

killer convicted of murdering two women, was executed in 1999. And he would be

only the fourth put to death since the state reinstated the death penalty in

1978.

With the execution date set, family members of Banks and his many victims have

been forced to relive their painful experience.

Banks says he is " angry because the system knows " his brother " wasn't

competent when he committed the crime " - one of the issues being raised by

defense attorneys.

" I don't know why they have to have his life in their hands, " he said. " Revenge

in this country seems to be more prevalent than ever. We are becoming

barbarians. "

But Ray Hall, whose 24-year-old son, Hall Jr., was killed by Banks as he

walked down a Wilkes-Barre street, believes that Banks is deserving of lethal

injection.

" He was fit to live with three women, to have kids, " Hall said yesterday. " He

was fit enough to get a job. He knew what he was doing, all right. "

..

At the time of the killing rampage, Banks, then 40, was on leave from his job at

the state prison in Camp Hill, near burg. He had been ordered to seek help

after threatening suicide while perched in his guard tower.

Back home in Wilkes-Barre, Banks' personal life was a complex tangle of

relationships with four women and five children. That summer, he lived with

three women - and four of his children - at the same time in his Wilkes-Barre

home, while a fourth girlfriend, with whom he broke up before the shooting,

lived in a nearby suburb with a fifth child.

Banks said his brother received only pills when he sought treatment from a

mental-health clinic after the suicide threat. He said that on the night before

the killings, his brother was taking those pills and drinking gin.

Shortly before 3 a.m. on Sept. 25, 1982, armed with an AR-15 assault rifle,

Banks entered the home where his former girlfriend, their son, her mother and

her nephew lived. Witnesses said he left the blood-spattered mobile home

yelling: " Now I'm going to get them all. "

Banks then went to his house eight miles away and killed eight more people -

three girlfriends and their five children.

On his way out, Banks shot Hall and another stranger outside the house before

surrendering to police. The other victim, Olson, lived to testify against

him.

In June 1983, Banks was convicted and sentenced to die for 12 counts of

first-degree murder and one count of third-degree murder.

Defense attorneys contended that Banks was insane and not competent to stand

trial, arguments they continue to make in their last-ditch attempt to save his

life.

Prosecutors countered that Banks is neither insane nor mentally retarded.

Those arguments surfaced again yesterday in Commonwealth Court, where Judge

Bonnie B. Leadbetter issued a stay of execution that expires once the state

Supreme Court acts.

The stay was granted after lawyers for Banks' mother, Yelland, argued that

he is too mentally ill to pursue clemency. They want Leadbetter to allow Yelland

to pursue clemency even though her attorney did not file by the Oct. 15

deadline.

Defense attorney Cristi Charpentier said later that she welcomed the reprieve,

even if it is conditioned on what the higher court will do.

Also Tuesday, the state Supreme Court dismissed one of Banks' last-minute

appeals. Still to be ruled on by the court is whether Banks can seek further

post-conviction appeals - which a lower court denied because Banks missed the

September deadline.

Ray Hall said he was confident that the execution would move forward and plans

to witness it with his son's widow, Theresa, whose daughter was about a year old

at the time of the murder. She said she has awaited Banks' execution ever since.

" It's been such an ordeal, " Theresa Hall said.

..

In the last two years, the death penalty has been the subject of intense

scrutiny across the nation in every branch of government from state legislatures

and governors to the U.S. Supreme Court.

In 2003, prompted by several cases in which innocent people were sentenced to

death, Illinois Gov. commuted the death sentences of 167 death-row

inmates to life in prison.

Last spring, New York's death-penalty statute was ruled unconstitutional.

Connecticut is scheduled in January to execute its first inmate since 1960,

reviving debate over the death penalty in that state.

There are 233 inmates on death row in Pennsylvania, the fourth-highest number in

the nation. There were 244 two years ago, but the courts have vacated some

sentences and reduced others to life in prison, said McNaughton, a

spokeswoman for the state Department of Corrections.

Gov. Rendell, who has signed 26 death warrants since taking office in January

2003, said last week that he supports the death penalty for the most heinous

crimes and that he counts Banks' killing spree as one of those.

" In Mr. Banks' case, I'm for the death penalty, " he said. " I believe it fits. "

Nonetheless, the group Pennsylvania Abolitionists United Against the Death

Penalty launched a letter-writing and phone-call campaign this week asking

Rendell to pardon Banks.

The group plans to hold demonstrations throughout the state, including at

Rendell's Philadelphia office at Broad and Walnut Streets tomorrow.

Luzerne County prosecutors, however, are hopeful that Banks' execution will go

ahead as scheduled, ending 21 years of appeals.

" We are looking forward to closure and some sense of resolution in a matter

which involved the brutal senseless slayings of 13 innocent people, " Luzerne

County District Attorney Lupas said. " It is time for the jury's decision

to be carried out. "

Contact staff writer Amy Worden at 717-783-2584 or aworden@.... This

article contains information from the Associated Press.

Executions in Pa.

Three prisoners have been put to death in Pennsylvania since the commonwealth

reinstated capital punishment in 1978.

May 2, 1995. Zettlemoyer, 39, of Selinsgrove, kidnapped and shot to death

a Sunbury man scheduled to testify against him in a burglary trial.

Aug. 16, 1995. Leon Moser, 52, of Media, murdered his former wife and their two

daughters outside a Montgomery County church after Palm Sunday services.

July 6, 1999. Heidnik, 55, tortured and killed two women in his

Philadelphia home. Known as the " House of Horrors " killer, Heidnik raped and

tortured a total of six women in his basement in the late 1980s.

Execution Evolution

In 1834, Pennsylvania became the first state to abolish public hangings, the

execution method of choice since colonial days. For decades afterward, counties

hanged prisoners inside county jails. In 1913, the state assumed responsibility

for executions, and the electric chair replaced the gallows. From 1915 to 1962,

350 people were electrocuted at Rockview State Prison. The method was changed to

lethal injection in 1990.

Death Row

As of yesterday, 233 inmates awaited execution in Pennsylvania - the nation's

fourth-largest death row behind California, Texas and Florida. Condemned men in

Pennsylvania are held in state prisons at Greene and Graterford; women await

execution at Muncy State Prison.

SOURCES: Pennsylvania Department of Corrections; Death Penalty Information

Center, Washington; Inquirer staff