North Carolina
November 12, 2004

Frank Chandler was executed by the state of North Carolina on November 12, 2004. Our deepesty sympathies are extended to the family and loved ones of both Doris Poore and Frank Chandler.

The state of North Carolina is scheduled to execute Frank Ray Chandler, a white man Nov. 12 for the 1992 murder of Doris Poore, a ninety-year old woman in Surry County. Chandler broke into Poore's house seeking marijuana when Poore surprised him. Chandler responded by turning and striking her with one fatal blow to her head. He was convicted of felony murder as oppose to capital murder because the incident was not premeditated.

Chandler received a death sentence because the prosecution successfully argued the motive for his crime was pecuniary or monetary game. Committing a crime for monetary gain is one of 11 aggravating standards a crime must meet before a defendant is eligible for a death sentence. However, Chandler broke into the house seeking marijuana. According to the testimony of an investigating officer at the trial, the defendant searched for Poore's pocketbook but was unable to find it. Nothing was stolen before or after Poore's murder contradicting the notion that the victim was killed directly for pecuniary gain.

North Carolina Supreme Court Justice Robert F. Orr issued a dissenting opinion in Chandler's appeal stating that he found a death sentence to be inappropriate for the crime. He noted that the state statute mandates a defendant cannot be sentenced to death unless he or she meets one of the eleven aggravating standards including that of pecuniary gain.

Justice Orr wrote, "While the defendant clearly had pecuniary motive for breaking into Mrs. Poore's house, it is only unsupported speculation that the actual killing had anything to do with pecuniary gain. There are no facts to indicate the motive for Mrs. Poore's murder was of pecuniary gain. Justice Oar further indicated, "The sole aggravating circumstance was improperly submitted and the sentence imposed is disproportionate, the defendant should be resentenced and a life sentence imposed."

Like many death row inmates, Chandler had a trial attorney who was disbarred shortly after his trial. Terry Collins was disbarred in 1998 after pleading guilty to forging birth certificates to help his DWI clients fraudulently obtain driver's licenses. He served jail time for this offense. Collins represented five death row inmates all of whom maintained he did not provide adequate defense. In Chandler's case, Collins failed to disclose that he and his co-counsel had previously represented a key prosecution witness in various felony charges, a serious conflict of interest.

According to a recent report released by the Common Sense Foundation, at least one out of every six inmates on North Carolina's death row, or 35 inmates, were represented by an attorney who was later disbarred. The U.S. Supreme Court has ruled that the constitutional right to a lawyer means an effective lawyer, which one might reasonably conclude excludes attorneys convicted of fraud.

Please write Gov. Easley urging him to commute Frank Chandler's sentence based on the nature of the crime committed and his inadequate legal defense.