Three Nevada death row convicts lose U.S. Supreme Court appeals

Tuesday, Oct. 5, 1999 | 9:31 a.m.

The nation's highest court refused Monday, without comment, to hear the appeals of James Chappell, Marlo Thomas and Gregory Leonard.

Chappell was sentenced to die for killing Deborah Panos, the mother of his three children, by stabbing her repeatedly with a kitchen knife in 1995. The murders occurred after his release from prison, where he was doing time for domestic battery.

Chappell petitioned the U.S. Supreme Court after the Nevada Supreme Court ruled there was no merit to a defense argument that Chappell, who is black, may have been the victim of racism because he was tried by an all-white jury for murdering a white woman.

His lawyer also argued the crime could have been manslaughter because Chappell said he acted in the heat of passion after becoming enraged about a love-letter Panos got from another man.

The Nevada court said any mitigating circumstances were clearly outweighed by aggravating factors including the possibility that the victim was raped before she was killed.

Leonard was sentenced to death by injection for strangling a man whose body was found by police who saw the victim's feet sticking out from under Leonard's bed.

Tony Antee's body was discovered when police raided Leonard's apartment in January 1995 to arrest him for the murder a few weeks earlier of Thomas Williams, who was robbed of a few pieces of jewelry and some guns.

Thomas was sentenced to die for the stabbing deaths of two employees at a Las Vegas steakhouse in April 1996. He had been fired from the Lone Star Steakhouse several weeks earlier.

The victims, Carl Dixon, 23, and Matthew Gianakis, 21, were killed when Thomas robbed the establishment with his 15-year-old brother-in-law.