Monday, March 12, 2012

I Fervently Oppose the Execution of Timothy Shaun Stemple

In my previous post, I described the case of Timothy Shaun Stemple in considerable detail and voiced my opposition to his execution. Having thought further about his case, I decide to once again voice my opposition, this time more briefly and more forcefully.  Consider this my Reader's Digest version.

There is no doubt that Trisha Stemple was murdered. She had apparently been lured to the side of the road and there killed by being bludgeoned with a baseball bat and/or run over by a car.

There is no doubt that her husband, Shaun Stemple, had nearly a million dollars of insurance on her life. There is no doubt that Shaun was having an affair with Dani Wood.

There is no doubt that Dani Woods' cousin, Terry Hunt, actively participated in the murder. Hunt claims he was contracted by Shaun Temple to murder Trisha Stemple, and that Shaun bludgeoned Trisha with a baseball bat. Shaun Stemple argues that Dani Woods' contracted with her cousin to murder Trisha Stemple, and that he had nothing to do with his wife's death.

Based on Hunt's purchased testimony, and on the purchased testimony of a bevy of jailhouse snitches, the people of Oklahoma convicted Shaun Stemple of capital murder. There is no physical evidence to tie him to the crime. He was convicted entirely on the testimony of disreputable people who benefited from testifying against him.

Even the evidence in the appellate court summary of the case is sufficient to see that both the alleged accomplice and the snitch consortium lied.  This is particularly startling since the appellate summaries are, by law, written from a perspective most favorable to the State.

I'll first discuss some testimony from Terry Hunt I find to be obviously false, repeating some of what I wrote yesterday.

When I first read the appellate decision, I said "No way!" to myself when I read of the violence that allegedly had to be inflicted on Trisha Stemple before she lost consciousness. Allow me to summarize:

"Hunt came up behind Trisha and hit her in the head with the bat."

"The blow did not render Trisha unconscious."

"Stemple took the bat and hit her several more times."

"Stemple and Hunt then placed Trisha's head in front of the tire of the pickup and attempted to run over her head."

"The tire would not roll over Trisha's head so her head was pushed along the pavement."

"After this, Trisha tied to get up."

"Stemple grabbed the bat and hit her several more times."

"The pair then placed Trisha's body under the truck and drove over her chest."

"Trisha rose up on her elbows."

"Stemple hit her again several times with the bat." (Total number of blows to the head with the bat was allegedly 30 to 40.)

"Stemple and Hunt left in the pickup, but decided to turn around to make sure Trisha was dead."

"They noticed that she had crawled into the grass beside the road."

"Stemple then sped up and ran over Trisha as she lay in the grass."

Even Bruce Willis would have succumbed to less violence than Trisha Stemple allegedly withstood.

Couple the unlikelihood of Trisha's alleged durability with the ever-changing story of the star witness, and the situation becomes absurd. Even the prosecutor commented to the judge that "I don't know [if] anything coming out of this guy's mouth is going to be consistent."

If a person's testimony is so pervasively inconsistent, we have another name for that. It's called perjury. The jury and the appellate courts elected to believe those portions of Terry Hunt's testimony that were not inconsistent, and ignore all the inconsistencies / perjuries. This, ladies and gentlemen, is not a valid basis for executing someone.

I now present an image from the stellar web site www.freeshaun.com. First the image, then the explanation.


On the left is the autopsy sketch for Richard Yost, who was killed in another, unrelated murder. Yost was in fact hit in the back of the head 30 times. The fatal beating was recorded on video. The damage to Yost's head is what can be expected from such a beating.

On the right is the autopsy sketch for Trisha Stemple. In the Stemple case, the State's star witness (and the only alleged eye-witness) testified that he and Shaun Stemple had struck Trisha Stemple in the back of her head more than 30 times, perhaps as many as 40 times. He perjured himself when he so claimed. It is obvious from his testimony. It is obvious from the sketch.

Quite simply, the State of Oklahoma purchased Hunt's testimony in exchange for his life. Hunt is now apparently on a probation list as Stemple is scheduled to be executed in four days.

See the www.freeshaun.com site for an accident reconstruction of how Trisha Stemple more likely died. See the site also for a discussion of Stemple's absurd confession given to the State's covey of snitches. No one confesses to fellow inmates by putting it in writing and beginning with  "I [your name here] ... did with malice aforethought murder [someone]." The freeshaun site provides evidence that Shaun's family and children were indeed being threatened by the State's snitches. In this case, the people of Oklahoma may have been party to threatening Stemple's children and extorting their grandparents, and yet they still insist on executing Stemple based on the testimony of a confessed murderer and ruthless jailhouse snitches.

Here is something I did not mention last night. There was a witness who drove by the crime scene perhaps just before the crime was committed. That witness saw two people standing by the truck that was used in the murder. One person was Terry Hunt. The other was a large man wearing faded blue jeans. That other person was not Shaun Stemple. Consider the following segment of Terry Hunt's cross-examination.

Q. Are you aware that among those cars somebody saw a large man out there approximately your uncle's size wearing faded out blue jeans?

A. I wasn't aware of that.

Q. You didn't know that?

A. No, sir.

Q. Mr. Stemple, you say, on that night was wearing Adidas clothing, right?

A. Yes, he was wearing windbreaker Adidas outfit.

I fear that we are going to soon execute a fellow human based on such foolishness. I can do nothing but watch in horror and pound the keys of this beat up laptop.

I fervently oppose the execution of Timothy Shaun Stemple.

ADDENDUM: Timothy Shaun Stemple has been executed by the people of Oklahoma.

26 comments:

Anonymous said...

I understand all you have written here, but I am curious of one thing (and I'm asking this honestly not to try to make a point): you say that Terry Hunt's testimony is untrustworthy, yet you use, at the end of this writing a copy of Terry Hunt's testimony. What is the purpose of that? I'm trying to understand if this is a testimony that is consistent or not, or am I missing something?

tsj said...

Anon,
Not only is Terry Hunt's testimony internally inconsistent with itself, it is externally inconsistent with what little third party testimony exists in this case.

Anonymous said...

I love how you omit the fact that it was Stemple's truck that was used in the murder.

Anonymous said...

Was it identified as Stemple's truck, or how did they know that?

Also one question tsj, where was it specified that she was hit in the head multiple times? I saw hit but not specifically the head.

Mike

Anonymous said...

Geez, 'purchased' testimony by the state, physical evidence that doesn't match the statement made by the state's key witness, and no physical evidence linking Stemple to the crime! They can't execute this man. I don't know that is he innocent considering he had plenty of motive, but you can't execute him based on the state's case.

Al

Anonymous said...

Was it identified as Stemple's truck, or how did they know that?

Hunt testified that they used Stemple's truck.
Indep. wit drove by at the time and saw a red truck parked behind a dark subcompact car with a flat.
Tread marks matched Stemple's red truck.
Stemple got rid of the truck after the murder.

Anonymous said...

So the one contention would be the witness who said he saw two people standing there. Was he able to identify both people there? I would disregard exact attire if possible.

Mike

Anonymous said...

The witness who drove by saw a 6'2" man who weighed around 240 lbs. wore faded blue jeans, starter jacket and baseball cap. He worked at the Pepsi Plant down the road. He knew the exact time he passed the truck and victim's car parked there because he always timed himself on his way to work to know if he would clock in on time. He slowed down to view the perpatrator(s) clearly. His written statement the day of the event and his trial testimony matched. He was one of the most reliable witnesses!

Anonymous said...

I heard they found no DNA evidence on the bat nor on the balled up cellephane. If a bat wrapped in cellophane had been used to kill this woman how could there have been no blood or DNA evidence on/in the balled up cellophane? There were also no finger prints or blood on the bat? This sounds questionable to me.

Anonymous said...

I just read this post about the Supreme Court debating the validity of criminal witnesses. There was a debate between 2 justices that this practice of 'testimony for hire' only creates unreliable 'lying' witnesses. This is the link:
http://www.snitching.org/innocence/
Terry Hunt as well as other jail house snitches were thus 'testimonies for hire' as this article talks about.

Anonymous said...

Terry Hunt would not be a snitch in this case because he was part of the crime, so I don't think that would play.

The defense's reenactment of the scene doesn't fit either with the the witness who saw them arguing with the two cars. So the story of the defense is that the wife at midnight either decided to stop on the side of the road or got a flat and somehow the Terry and possibly his uncle found her and then ran her over with the truck and then left? A woman stopping after midnight on the shoulder????? Why did she stop according to the defense?

Also the video tape talking to the author hurts his case pretty bad because he acknowledges someone saw him and his truck at or near the scene. How would he know that?

Mike

Anonymous said...

Stemple told the police that he last saw his wife when she got up and went out to get some medicine from WalMart's at 2:30 am. I don't find that credible either.

Anonymous said...

The victim had no point of impact injuries below the knees which are typical when a car hits a pedestrian.

In the defense reconstruction, they had the victim coming up over the embankment and on to the highway, bent over with her torso in a horizontal position, what they called a defensive position, and being struck by the truck. That is just plain preposterous. It's ridiculous.

Anonymous said...

All this bickering isn't unnecessary folks, he'll be dead within an hour. Just chill.

Anonymous said...

No one is bickering. You chill.

Anonymous said...

why does shaun continue to say.......she died almost "instantly" when he was supposedly making warm milk for his son, while he had no CLUE where his wife was..........the the MIDDLE of the night !!!! I would have piled up the kids, and gone and looked for her. Also, he had to of given Terry Hunt......his truck.........to KILL............Trisha !!!!! So, there is NOT ONE vehicle in their driveway.........in the morning !!! That's nuts !!! So how did he go looking for her...in what car, who's car ??? Also, WHO found her body, the police ? And who would let their wife leave a sick child and be the one to go BUY medicine, a father should go, not the mother. More leads to his lies, than to the lies of Terry Hunt here.

Anonymous said...

God will judge us all. Where has compassion and mercy gone?
Andy

Anonymous said...

Where has compassion and mercy gone?

Where was Stemple's for his wife?

jp said...

no matter what, both families shouldn't have had to bury their child. That is a pain no one should have to feel.

Anonymous said...

Follow the Money! He had a million dollar life insurance policy on her.That's incentive! I grew up with Shaun he was trouble from day one.He came from a nice family but he was always in trouble & would punch holes through the wall with his hand and head.He was always unstable is all ican say! Thats why when my Family heard this happened to his wife we werent supprised they convicted Shaun!

Anonymous said...

the above is true, a nice home, but it was destroyed inside...by mischief and fun, by anger? by who ? no one knew for sure, but the family knew

Anonymous said...

It was Stemple's truck. They found Trisha's blood and bits of her clothes on the truck. The truck was registered to Stemple. Regardless, if Terry Hunt did it, how did he know Trisha would be out at that time? He would only know if Shaun had told them.

Anonymous said...

First of all I am the nephew of Timothy Shaun Stemple. I have only met him once since he has been in jail for over 15 years! I was finally able to meet him the day before he was murdered by the very state I used to be proud of.I have lost all respect for the government of Oklahoma and the government of the USA, all of it is messed up.My family held a press conference for news on 8. In short channel 8 turned against us and took the side of Terry Hunt. When I met Shaun there was not a man broken down knowing he was going to die the next day. There was a man that made jokes and held his head high even though he knew he was being betrayed by his own country. Anyone that even barley looks at the evidence against him can see that there us no possible way he could have killed Trisha Stemple.

Unknown said...

Don't forget who the true victim was!!!

Anonymous said...

The murder of Trisha Temple was premeditated, planned and carried out. One of the offenders git convicted and sentenced to death.
The State of Oklahoma executed the convicted killer as he deserved.
End of the story

Anonymous said...

This man killed his wife. Brutally.

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