Vermont jury breaks 50-year tradition, sentences man to death

Published: Friday, July 15, 2005

BURLINGTON, Vt. (AP) - A man who kidnapped a supermarket worker and fatally beat her as she prayed for her life was sentenced to death Thursday by a federal jury in Vermont's first capital punishment case in almost a half century. The last execution in Vermont was in 1954.

The jury took only about 10 hours to decide that 25-year-old Donald Fell should be executed.

Fell was found guilty June 24 of kidnapping 53-year-old Terry King as she arrived for work in Rutland, taking her to New York state and bludgeoning her to death during an alcohol and drug-induced stupor. The abduction came as Fell and his accomplice fled after fatally stabbing Fell's mother and a friend of hers.

Vermont has no death penalty, but the killers crossed state lines, so U.S. prosecutors brought charges under a federal law that allows the death penalty for a carjacking that results in death.

Fell had agreed in 2001 to plead guilty in exchange for a sentence of life without parole. But that deal was rejected by then-U.S. Attorney General John Ashcroft, who insisted on the death penalty, partly at the urgings of Fell's relatives.

Fell showed no emotion as the jury's recommendation was read by the clerk.

Robert Lee, charged as Fell's accomplice, hanged himself in prison in 2001, officials said.