South Dakota Schedules Its First Execution in 59 Years

Elijah Page, 24, will find out at a hearing Monday whether the same judge who handed down his death sentence will agree to let that sentence be carried out without further appeals. Page has asked for permission to fire his lawyer, give up his right to appeals, and die by injection for his participation in the brutal slaying of 19-year old Chester Poage in March 2000. Page and two other men were convicted of stabbing, beating, and torturing Poage in the Black Hills section of western South Dakota.

Judge Warren Johnson of Deadwood, the judge who sentenced Page to die, told Page at a hearing in May that he would consider his request only after a mental evaluation. "If the results show you’re competent to make the decisions," Johnson said, "I will be inclined to honor your decision." Page’s lawyer, Mike Butler, said that he believes his client’s request to be executed is equivalent to a suicide attempt.

Page and Briley Piper, 25, of Anchorage, Alaska, planned to steal a stereo, television, and other property from the home of Poage’s mother in Spearfish, South Dakota. They enlisted the help of a third man, Darrell Hoadley, 26, of Lead, South Dakota. Page and Piper opted to plead guilty, but Hoadley chose to stand trial, and as a result he was the one who gave the court the grisly details of what happened the night of March 13, 2000.

According to Hoadley, Page and Piper decided to kill Poage so there would be no witness to their theft. He said that Piper stabbed Poage three times in the neck and head, and Page kicked him 30 to 40 times in the head, tearing his ears off. He then hit him on the head with some large rocks. Hoadley said the attack lasted at least two hours, and he participated only near the end when he hit Poage with two large rocks because he was afraid Piper and Page would kill him if he interfered or tried to leave. Hoadley was convicted and a split jury sentenced him to life in prison. Page and Piper, who both pleaded guilty, were both sentenced to die.

Having a guilty plea answered by a death sentence is rare, according to Richard Dieter, executive director of the Death Penalty Information Center. Page’s wish to forgo the appeals process is also rare. "There have been quite a few people…who have waived part of their appeals," said Dieter. However, he added, it is "somewhat unusual to waive every possible appeal," as Page has requested. His appeals thus far have failed, with the state Supreme Court upholding his death sentence.

South Dakota had a death penalty when it became a state in 1889, but abolished it in 1915, only to reinstate it again in 1939. Capital punishment was again abolished from 1977 to 1979 after the U.S. Supreme Court ruled that existing death penalty laws were unconstitutional. The current death penalty statute has been in place in South Dakota since 1979, but it is rarely imposed by juries despite South Dakota prosecutors seeking it in some cases. A death sentence is almost never imposed by judges, so Page’s case is a rarity in many ways.

Page is scheduled to be executed the week of August 28 at the state penitentiary in Sioux Falls. If the sentence is carried out, Page will be the first person to be executed in South Dakota since 1947. Besides Page and Piper, there are two other men on death row in South Dakota, but their cases are still under appeal.