Sept. 10
TEXAS:
Death row inmate loses appeal
One of 2 men sentenced to death row from Hunt County for a 1998 beating
death has lost another appeal of his conviction for capital murder.
Former South Dakota residents Billy John Galloway and Kevin Scott Varga
were both convicted of capital murder and received the death penalty,
Galloway in March 2000 and Varga in November 2000.
Galloway, 40, lost an appeal Wednesday from the 5th U.S. Circuit Court of
Appeals in New Orleans. Galloway was seeking a "Certificate of
Appealability" (COA) which would have allowed him to appeal an earlier
order by the district court. Galloway alleged ineffective assistance of
counsel and a failure to present mitigating evidence of child abuse and
drug abuse.
The Court of Appeals denied the COA on all grounds.
Varga lost a similar appeal before the 5th Circuit in April.
Galloway, Varga and Deannee Ann Bayless, all of Sioux Falls, S.D., and
Venus Anderson, of Revilla, S.D., were convicted of involvement with the
beating death of Maj. David Lawrence Logie in Greenville on Sept. 7, 1998.
Bayless and Anderson were alleged to have lured Logie, of Fayetteville,
N.C., to a location behind a local business along Interstate 30, where he
was beaten to death and had his car, credit cards and money stolen.
The 4 defendants were later arrested in San Antonio where Anderson
informed authorities of the whereabouts of Logie's body. The same
individuals were accused in the indictments filed against them to have
participated in the similar murder of David L. McCoy, 48, of Wichita,
Kan., on Sept. 6, 1998.
Galloway and Varga were convicted of capital murder and sentenced to death
by lethal injection. Bayless and Anderson entered pleas to reduced charges
and received lesser sentences.
The Texas Court of Criminal Appeals upheld both of the defendant's
convictions in separate rulings during 2003.
Neither Galloway nor Varga had execution dates scheduled as of Wednesday.
(source: Greenville Herald-Banner)