COP KILLER EXECUTED: TRACY ALAN HANSEN (EXECUTED IN MISSISSIPPI ON JULY 17, 2002)

            On this date, July 17, 2002, a Cop Killer, Tracy Alan Hansen was executed by lethal injection in Mississippi. He was convicted of shooting Trooper David Bruce Ladner on April 10, 1987, the trooper died 2 days later on April 12, 1987. I will post the information about him from clarkprosecutor.org

Tracy Alan Hansen

Trooper David Bruce Ladner

INTERNET SOURCE: http://www.clarkprosecutor.org/html/death/US/hansen785.htm

Summary: On Friday, April 10, 1987, Mississippi Highway Patrol Officer David Bruce Ladner, was patrolling on Interstate 10, when he pulled over a Lincoln driven erratically and speeding. Hansen was driving the Lincoln and his girlfriend, Anita Louise Krecic was also in the vehicle. During the stop, Trooper Ladner asked for permission to search, and both Hansen and Krecic consented, giving fictitious names. In the process, Ladner took the keys to the Continental and placed them in his pocket. It is unclear exactly what happened next, but, at some point, Hansen drew a .38 caliber pistol and shot at Trooper Ladner. To avoid the fire, Ladner ran around the car and dropped to the ground, in an apparent attempt to roll underneath. Hansen managed to get off two shots at close range, each striking Ladner in the back. Still, Ladner managed to get up and make it to the median strip, where a passing motorist took him to the hospital. He died two days later. Hansen had 10 prior felony convictions and had served time in Florida. Krecic was also convicted and sentenced to life imprisonment. 

Citations:

Final Meal:

Broiled lobster, shrimp, scallops and crab meat served with clarified butter and cocktail sauce, fried fish fillet and oysters with tartar sauce, a Pepsi and chocolate morsels.

Final Words:

Hansen gave a rambling speech and prison officials finally removed the microphone, beginning the lethal injection process even as he continued speaking. "I don't mind dying if it gives you closure. I'm guilty. I shot the guy. I panicked. I was running from the law. I shouldn't have had a gun. I didn't want to kill him. I'm sorry, but I know sorry doesn't mean much to some people." 

Tracy Alan Hansen

ProDeathPenalty.com

Cop killer Tracy Alan Hansen is scheduled to be put to death July 17, which would make him the 1st inmate executed in the state since 1989. On Monday, the state Supreme Court set the execution date. The date was set one week after the U.S. Supreme Court denied Hansen's appeal. "No legal impediment exists to deter the resetting of an execution date," the state's highest court said in its order Monday, signed by Justice George C. Carlson Jr. Hansen has exhausted his court appeals, said Assistant Attorney General Marvin 'Sonny' White, who handles capital murder appeals for the state. The chances of Hansen's execution being carried out July 17 are "highly likely now," White said. The execution is set for 6 p.m., Department of Corrections spokeswoman Jennifer Griffin said. Previous executions in the state occurred after midnight. After the U.S. Supreme Court rejected Hansen's appeal, the state attorney general's office requested an execution date from the state Supreme Court.

Hansen is sentenced to die for the April 10, 1987, shooting death of Mississippi Highway Patrolman Bruce Ladner. Ladner died from gunshot wounds in the neck and back after he pulled over Hansen's car on April 10, 1987, for speeding in Harrison County. The American Civil Liberties Union of Mississippi has said Hansen shouldn't be executed because he was represented by an unqualified and unprepared lawyer. Hansen would become the 1st person in the state to die by lethal injection. On July 1, 1998, state law made lethal injection the form of execution for death row inmates. Hansen has been on Mississippi's death row for almost 15 years for the April 10, 1987, shooting death of Mississippi Highway Safety Patrol Officer Bruce Ladner. Mississippi's last execution was in 1989, when Leo Edwards, 36, was put to death in the gas chamber for killing a convenience store clerk during a robbery in Jackson.

Brandon Ladner, who lost his father when he was 11 years old, hopes justice is near. "We have been told so many times that it would be this year, then the next year but it would drag on," said Ladner, 26, a deputy with the Harrison County Sheriff's Department. "Our family is all pro-death penalty, of course, and we are excited that there may be closure." Brandon Ladner said the family has been afraid Hansen would escape before he was ever executed. Family members were told Hansen had planned to escape from Unit 32 at the State Penitentiary on May 28, 2000, with Roy Harper and John Woolard. Harper and Woolard got away but were later recaptured. Hansen never escaped. Ladner was killed after he pulled over Hansen and his ex-girlfriend Anita Krecic during a routine traffic stop on I-10 in Harrison County. Hansen and Krecic were wanted in connection with a robbery in Florida. After Hansen shot Ladner, he and Krecic stole the officer's gun and left the scene in Ladner's patrol car. They were captured a short time later in Hancock County. Both were convicted of murder in Harrison County, but Krecic did not receive the death penalty and remains in prison. Hansen had an appeal denied by the 5th U.S. Court of Appeals in New Orleans in November 2001. At the time, Hansen claimed he was denied effective legal assistance during the penalty phase of his case and had key testimony in his defense excluded.