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Michael Belcher (right)
was the leader of a group that killed Samantha Payne (left), whose decapitated
body was found tied to a tree in the Talladega National Forest.
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Alabama
man sentenced to die by lethal injection for torture slay of Samantha Payne
David
Boroff
By
DAVID BOROFF
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NEW YORK DAILY NEWS |
APR
03, 2019 | 12:33 PM
An Alabama man convicted in the 2015 torture
slaying of Samantha Payne was sentenced to die by lethal injection on
Wednesday.
Tuscaloosa County Circuit Court Judge Brad Almond
agreed with the recommendation made by a jury that capital punishment was
justified for Michael Belcher.
“Words can’t express my sorrow and grief,” Belcher
said before he was sentenced, according to the Tuscaloosa News.
Prosecutors said that Belcher was the leader of a
group that killed Payne, whose decapitated body was found tied to a tree in the
Talladega National Forest. She was 29.
“I’m sad for Samantha Payne’s terrible suffering
and death,” Tuscaloosa County District Attorney Hays Webb said last month,
according to Tuscaloosa News. “I’m sad for her parents and family, and I’m sad for
the defendant’s family. I am also pleased with law enforcement’s efforts and am
very proud of our staff and lawyers and their work for our community.”
Belcher had offered to plead guilty to murder to
avoid the death penalty, but prosecutors declined. He was convicted by a jury
of capital murder last month.
Defense lawyer Nettie Blum recently said that
Belcher should not have been given a harsher sentence than the other defendants
convicted in Payne’s murder.
“Our system must function fairly,” she said,
according to the Tuscaloosa News. “There were five people doing all those
horrible things to Samantha, not just Michael.”
She added that “putting Michael Belcher to death is
not going to bring Samantha Payne back to her family. Don’t let the state of
Alabama make you a killer.”
He will become the 177th inmate on death row in
Alabama.
INTERNET SOURCE: https://www.nydailynews.com/news/crime/ny-death-penalty-samantha-payne-slay-20190403-tezntpocvjbbfifaodhpgzwafe-story.html
But Samantha Payne’s mother, who sat through disturbing and often graphic portions of the trial, said she didn’t feel the apology was genuine.
“He has never shown any remorse to me, whatsoever,” Susi Payne said. “His statement was that he was sorry for the events that occurred, I don’t think he’s still taken any responsibility for any part of it.”INTERNET SOURCE: https://www.tuscaloosanews.com/news/20190403/convicted-murderer-given-death-penalty-in-tuscaloosa-court
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Michael
Belcher, 34, was sentenced to die by lethal injection for the 2015 torture
death of 29-year-old Samantha Payne
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