January 25, 1996
Web posted at: 9:40 a.m EST
From Correspondent Gary Tuchman
SMYRNA, Delaware (CNN) -- Convicted double-murderer Billy Bailey was executed early Thursday in Delaware. Bailey drew a lot of attention because of the method he chose: death by hanging.
CNN's Gary Tuchman, one of the witnesses to the outdoor execution, said Bailey showed little emotion (145K AIFF sound or 145K WAV sound) as hooded executioners prepared to carry out their duty (179K AIFF sound or 179K WAV sound). Bailey looked like a "rag doll" after the gallows door dropped, Tuchman said (128K AIFF sound or 128K WAV sound). Later, Bailey's attorney, Edmund Lyons, said he found the procedure "barbaric" (196K AIFF sound or 196K WAV sound).
Only a few hundred people live in the tiny town of Cheswold, Delaware. Two of them used to live in a modest home where they grew corn and soybeans, and, more importantly, raised children and grandchildren.
Clara and Gilbert Lambertson were 73 and 80 years old, respectively, when a man named Billy Bailey came into their lives and then ended their lives.
"This was a heinous crime against innocent people. They were elderly, in their own home. They did not know Billy Bailey. He simply intruded and took their lives in a vicious manner," said Delaware Deputy Attorney General Paul Wallace.
Bailey, 49, was convicted of shooting the Lambertsons to death 17 years ago.
Bailey's was the third hanging execution in the United States since the death penalty was reinstated by the U.S. Supreme Court in 1976.
It was the first hanging in Delaware since 1946. Hanging as capital punishment is allowed in just three other states: Montana, New Hampshire, and Washington.
In Delaware's largest city, Wilmington, they rang a bell to protest hanging and the death penalty in general. The protesters are among some who consider hanging cruel and unusual punishment.
"If you drop a man too far you can actually decapitate him. If you don't drop him far enough, you will break his neck, and he'll strangle to death slowly, kicking at the end of the rope," Lyons said before the execution.
The two-story wooden gallows is outdoors on the grounds of the Delaware Correctional Center in Smyrna. The 220-pound Bailey was escorted up 19 steps to a platform, where two unidentified prison staff members in black hoods served as hangmen.
Delaware inmates have the option of dying by lethal injection, but Bailey chose the other method.
"I think that it has a bad image because things can really go wrong. There is no doubt, hanging is not 100 percent certain. Nothing is," Wallace said.
What is certain is the anger and depression that Delbert Lambertson, 70, and Saxton Lambertson, 68, have experienced. They are two of the victims' four children, and witnessed the execution.
"It's something that I think I'm obligated to do on behalf of my father and mother. That's the way I feel. When we see this happen, I can say to my mom and dad, we finally got him," Delbert Lambertson said before the hanging. He and his brother Saxton had no comment after the execution. Dennis Lambertson, a grandson of the victims, said he went to the prison to "see justice done."
Delaware corrections officials make it clear that they prefer lethal injection to hanging, one reason being that they're out of practice. When it comes to experienced practitioners, the condemned man's attorney may have put it best when he said, "It's not as if you can look in the yellow pages under 'h' for hangman."
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