See Also: Dale Hausner, One of Phoenix's Infamous "Serial Shooters" in 2005-06, To Remain On Death Row
Dale Hausner, part of the "Serial Shooter" team that killed and maimed numerous Valley citizens (and animals) before their 2006 capture, wants to be executed as soon as possible.
At least that's what the 39-year-old death row inmate told the Arizona Supreme Court yesterday in a one-page handwritten letter that became public record today.
"I do not want any more of my appeals filed on my behalf by my appeal team," Hausner wrote, just days after the high court unanimously upheld his conviction and death sentence. "...I want to served with my death warrant to be executed as soon as possible."
A Maricopa County jury convicted Hausner of killing six people, wounding 18 others, and killing several animals during his murderous spree, conducted at different times with his brother Jeff and Mesa pal Sam Dieteman.
Dieteman was sentenced to life for two of the murders and testified against Dale Hausner at trial. Jeff Hausner is serving an 18-year prison sentence for stabbing two people during the year-plus of madness.
The Phoenix Police broke the case in the late summer of 2006, shortly before the agency arrested Mark Goudeau in the infamous "Baseline Killer" case. It was a time of great relief for the community after more than a year of unthinkable fear.
Capital appeals normally take about 20 years from start to finish, sometimes longer. Occasionally, though, so-called "death penalty volunteers"--Hausner now fits into that category--ask the courts to speed things up and be done with it.
Robert Comer, one of Arizona's more infamous murderers of the late-20th century, was a "successful" volunteer, in that the state executed him in May 2007 even though the 50-year-old had several levels of appeals left.
Comer, whose nickname was "Gypsy," told us in a letter we got after his execution, that he truly was ready to die.
"I'm ready, and I've been ready," he wrote from his cell, "though I know there are some people out there who are going to fight me until they put the needle in my arm."
Comer was referring to his own attorneys in that comment, not appellate lawyers representing the State of Arizona.
As for evildoer Hausner, he may not get his way nearly as quickly as he apparently wishes.
