Inmate still has appeal options
JOSHUA WOLFSON Star-Tribune staff writer | Posted: Wednesday, March 11, 2009 12:00 am
The Wyoming Supreme Court on Wednesday ordered that the execution of the state's lone death row inmate should remain on hold pending additional appeals.
The order comes less than a month after the U.S. Supreme Court rejected a petition to hear the appeal of Dale Wayne Eaton, who was convicted in 2004 of kidnapping, rape and murder.
Following that rejection, Eaton's attorneys notified the state supreme court they plan to file a petition for post-conviction relief in Natrona County District Court. Such petitions ask for a review of alleged constitutional errors.
The petition must be filed within five years of sentencing. A judge signed Eaton's death warrant in May 2004.
Although Eaton has been on death row for almost five years, he is not expected to be executed soon. In addition to his appeal in Natrona County, he can also seek relief at the federal district court level.
In March 2004, a jury convicted Eaton of murdering 18-year-old Lisa Marie Kimmell, who disappeared in 1988 while driving from Colorado to Cody. Fishermen found her body floating in the North Platte River eight days after she vanished, but it was not until 2003 that prosecutors, with the help of DNA evidence, charged Eaton with her death.
Eaton had raped Kimmell, hit her in the head and stabbed her multiple times before throwing her body from Government Bridge off State Highway 220.
At trial, Eaton's attorney admitted his client had raped and killed Kimmell, but argued Eaton had been overcharged. During his state appeal - which was rejected by the Wyoming Supreme Court - Eaton asserted his trial counsel offered ineffective assistance and that jury selection had been unconstitutional.
Wyoming last executed a prisoner in 1992, when Mark Hopkinson was put to death by lethal injection. His execution came 13 years after his sentence.
Hopkinson is the only person executed in Wyoming since the U.S. Supreme Court reinstated the death penalty in 1976.
Reach crime reporter Joshua Wolfson at (307) 266-0582 or at josh.wolfson@trib.com. Read his blog at www.trib.com/blog.