Federal inmate decides to fight death sentence

Attorneys for David Paul Hammer say his flip-flop decision shows he is mentally ill, should not be executed.

By Fred Kelly

fred.kelly@indystar.com

May 17, 2004

A federal Death Row inmate scheduled to die next month in Terre Haute has asked his attorneys to fight for his right to appeal after waiving it four months ago.

Attorneys for David Paul Hammer, who would become the fourth person put to death in Terre Haute since 2001, say that Hammer has changed his mind on the issue at least eight times in the six years since he was sentenced.

Hammer's change of heart buttresses arguments that he is mentally ill and should not be executed, said Ronald Travis, one of his attorneys.

"There is something going on in his head that I cannot account for," Travis said. "He has got issues. If you can look at his life and say 'Execute him,' something is wrong."

Hammer's execution has prompted plans for demonstrations from death penalty opponents. Organizers anticipate at least 200 demonstrators will stage marches and vigils.

"His case is starting to receive a lot of attention," said Charles Kafoure, president of the Indiana Information Center on the Abolition of Capital Punishment.

Three men -- including Oklahoma City bomber Timothy McVeigh -- have been put to death by lethal injection in Terre Haute since 2001, when the government ended a 38-year hiatus on federal executions.

Hammer has falsely claimed responsibility for at least two murders he did not commit, said his evil alter ego "Jocko" led him to kill his cellmate in 1996 and changed his mind about challenging his death sentence at least eight times, lawyers said.

In October 2000, he dropped all of his court appeals, before applying for clemency from President Bill Clinton less than a month before his execution date.

A federal prosecutor said he was unaware Hammer was seeking to have his execution stayed.

However, "we do not believe for a minute" that he is insane, said Frederick Martin, assistant U.S. attorney in Williamsport, Pa.

Hammer deserves to die because he wrote a note threatening that he "would kill again," Martin said.

Hammer, 45, was sentenced to death for the 1996 strangulation death of cellmate Andrew Marti at the Allenwood Federal Penitentiary in Pennsylvania.

Officials set the execution date earlier this year when Hammer waived pending appeals in the case.

His attorneys were to file motions with the U.S. Court of Appeals in Philadelphia today to have his appeals reinstated. The motion contends that Hammer's lawyers were not present at a January hearing when a federal judge allowed him to waive his pending appeals.

A panel of three judges could delay Hammer's execution while it tries to make a decision.

In the early 1980s, Hammer was sent to prison at age 19 in Oklahoma for more than 1,200 years for a slew of crimes, including attempted murder, kidnapping and armed robbery.

Hammer's antics in prison remain legendary, said Jerry Massie, spokesman for the Oklahoma Department of Corrections.

He once paid $5 for a certificate that stated he was a minister with the Universal Life Church and solicited money through the mail from contributors.

Hammer bragged that he made $175,000 through mail fraud, but no one knows if that is true, Massie said.

In 1989, he made a bomb threat that shut down the state Capitol and the Oklahoma County Courthouse. Another time, he used a prison employee's credit card to send flowers to a prison warden, officials said.

"He was doing it for fun," Massie said. "He was very manipulative."

Hammer used a telephone to tell the FBI and news reporters that he played a role in the death of famed 1970s social activist Karen Silkwood. Authorities also found no evidence to support his claims that he used a prison telephone to order the killings of two men in the mid-1980s.

Hammer also has made unsubstantiated claims he had information about a crime in Michigan, said Martin, the prosecutor.

"He does things just to get attention," he said.

By 1993, Oklahoma authorities had become so fed up they asked federal corrections officials to house him in their facilities.

In April 1996, Hammer convinced Marti to pretend he was taken hostage and promised to hurt him only slightly, court records say.

Hammer then tied Marti's legs and arms with a homemade rope and strangled him.

At trial, defense lawyers prepared an insanity defense for Hammer, arguing that he suffers from multiple personality disorder.

People afflicted with the condition show two or more distinct personalities that cause the person to act in different ways.

However, Hammer refused to follow his lawyer's advice and pleaded guilty to murder. A jury in 1998 sentenced him to death.

Since then he has changed his mind eight to 10 times about whether to challenge his death sentence, lawyers said.

In January, he posted a letter on an Internet site that stated he would no longer fight his pending execution.

"Its not unusual for a guy on Death Row to change his mind," said David Ruhnke, one of his attorneys. "Some would prefer death to life in prison."

Attorneys and acquaintances say Hammer's problems stem from a troubled childhood.

Born in Holdenville, Okla., Hammer suffered physical and sexual abuse from relatives starting at age 6, Travis said.

He was beaten, scalded and "locked in closets," Travis said. "Some of the things were worse than what happened to the prisoners in Iraq."

His father, John, worked as a migrant farmer and moved his wife and three children from town to town.

The family did not send Hammer to school often because they needed him to work farm fields for money, Travis said.

"They were dirt poor," he said. "If you (read) 'The Grapes of Wrath,' that was their life."

By age 14, he was using drugs heavily and stealing, relatives said.

Hammer had gained such a reputation as a troublemaker that parents warned their children to stay away from him, said Curtis Parks, 46, Hammer's former brother-in-law.

"He started running with the wrong crowd," Parks said. "He was always trying to swindle people out of money.

"He was very smart. He could have went to college and made a lot money. He wanted his money the quick way."