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| Elderly Missouri Death Row Inmate Released |
| By Associated Press |
| Published: 09/04/2002 |
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An inmate who at one time was the oldest woman on Missouri's death row has been paroled because of a severe medical condition, a state official said. Faye Copeland, convicted in 1990 along with her husband of fatally shooting five transients at their farm in northwestern Missouri, was paroled on August 30, Department of Corrections spokesman Tim Kniest said Sunday. Copeland, 81, was serving a sentence of life without parole, but Kniest said state law allows the parole board to release such inmates if they are terminally ill or have a medical condition that cannot be cared for in prison. Al Copeland said his mother suffered a stroke on Aug. 10 that left her partially paralyzed and unable to speak. He said she is in a nursing home now. Faye Copeland was the oldest woman on Missouri's death row until a federal judge overturned her sentence in 1999, saying the prosecutor used improper inflammatory arguments during her trial. At the time, she was also believed to have been the oldest woman awaiting execution anywhere in the nation. A judge in May 2001 sentenced Copeland to life without parole, rejecting her attorney's request that she be released for the time she had already served. Authorities said the Copelands, who lived on a farm, used transients in a scheme to buy cattle with bad checks and then killed the men. Faye Copeland's defense during trial was that she was a bystander who was a victim of battered woman's syndrome. Ray Copeland died in 1993 at age 78 while awaiting execution. |
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