Donald Lehman (1933 – January 8, 1981) was an American man who was murdered in front of his family by four men in

Arkansas Arkansas ( ) is a landlocked state in the West South Central region of the Southern United States. It borders Missouri to the north, Tennessee and Mississippi to the east, Louisiana to the south, Texas to the southwest, and Oklahoma ...

. All four men – James William Holmes, Hoyt Franklin Clines, Michael Orndorff, and Darryl Richley – were convicted of

capital murder Capital murder refers to a category of murder in some parts of the US for which the perpetrator is eligible for the death penalty. In its original sense, capital murder was a statutory offence of aggravated murder in Great Britain, Northern Irela ...

and

sentenced to death Capital punishment, also known as the death penalty and formerly called judicial homicide, is the state-sanctioned killing of a person as punishment for actual or supposed misconduct. The sentence ordering that an offender be punished in s ...

, although Orndorff's sentence was reduced to life without parole on appeal. The other three were all executed one by one on August 3, 1994. It was the first triple execution in the United States in the post-''

Gregg v. Georgia ''Gregg v. Georgia'', ''Proffitt v. Florida'', ''Jurek v. Texas'', ''Woodson v. North Carolina'', and ''Roberts v. Louisiana'', 428 U.S. 153 (1976), is a landmark decision of the U.S. Supreme Court. It reaffirmed the Court's acceptance of the ...

'' modern era.

Murder

Donald Lehman, his wife, Virginia, and their daughter, Vicki, were at their home when four men wearing ski masks rang the doorbell and forced their way inside. The intruders shot Lehman three times and severely beat him with a motorcycle drive chain in front of his family. The intruders stole more than $1,000 and several guns, according to court documents. Holmes, Richley, Clines, and Orndorff were arrested later that day. They were tried jointly for capital murder and aggravated robbery. All of them were found guilty and sentenced to death. Orndorff later had his sentence overturned on appeal, and Lehman's family agreed to a life sentence in his case.

Executions

After the

U.S. Supreme Court The Supreme Court of the United States (SCOTUS) is the highest court in the federal judiciary of the United States. It has ultimate appellate jurisdiction over all U.S. federal court cases, and over state court cases that turn on question ...

rejected arguments they were being treated like "hogs at a slaughter", Clines, Richley, and Holmes were all executed by

lethal injection Lethal injection is the practice of injecting one or more drugs into a person (typically a barbiturate, paralytic, and potassium) for the express purpose of causing death. The main application for this procedure is capital punishment, but t ...

on August 3, 1994. All three of them declined to make final statements. Clines was executed first, and was pronounced dead at 7:11 p.m. Richley was pronounced dead 58 minutes later, followed by Holmes at 9:24 p.m.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Lehman, Donald 1981 in Arkansas 1981 murders in the United States Deaths by person in Arkansas January 1981 in the United States People murdered in Arkansas Capital murder cases

Murder

Executions

See also

References