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Taphophilia (dot) Com...
A repository of morbid curiosities:
Thanatology and Taphophile Issues, Cemetery,
Funeral Industry and Death Related News.
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Graveyards of Chicago:
The People, History, Art, and Lore of Cook County Cemeteries
By Matt Hucke And Ursula Bielski. Discover a Chicago That Exists Just Beneath the Surface - About Six Feet Under! Take a tour of Chicago's permanent residents! Please visit the Lake Claremont Press website to purchase your copy of Graveyards of Chicago today!
Green-Wood Cemetery Arcadia Publishing announces the release of Alexandra Mosca's historic account of one of New York's most famous cemeteries. Aracdia Publishing's Images of America series has an extensive catalog of many cemetery publications! Please visit Arcadia Publishing to purchase your copy of Green-Wood Cemetery and to browse other available titles!
Men of Mortuaries Calendar
To purchase your 2008 calendar, learn more about the KAMMCARES Foundation, or to be featured in the 2009 calendar, please visit Men of Mortuaries.
Epitaphs: The Magazine for Cemetery Lovers By Cemetery Lovers
For information regarding subscriptions, single issues, submission guidelines, deadlines, classifieds or advertising for future issues, please visit The Cemetery Club.
Guardians of the Soul: Angels and Innocents, Mourners and Saints, Indiana's remarkable cemetery sculpture
with photography by John Bower and foreword by Claude Cookman is now
available. Please visit
Studio Indiana for more information.
West Springfield Massachusetts: Stories Carved in Stone by Rusty Clark features information on early New England gravestone carvers with more than two hundred photos and illustrations. Please visit the Dog Pond Press website.
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Former Fort Mojave death row inmate dies as free man |
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Written by DeadGirl
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Sunday, 06 November 2005 |
By JIM SECKLER
Wednesday, October 26, 2005 9:27 PM PDT
KINGMAN - A former Fort Mojave man who spent more than 16 years on death row before being released two weeks ago died in California from natural causes.
Clarence David Hill, 57, was convicted in 1989 of first-degree murder in the burning death of his landlord, Dale Edmundson of Mohave Valley. Hill was sentenced to death the following year.
Superior Court Judge Richard Weiss threw out Hill's conviction in April based on DNA testing completed last year.
DNA tests show that Edmundson's blood was not present on Hill's clothing or on his bed sheet, refuting prosecution's main arguments.
Last month, the Arizona Supreme Court upheld Weiss’ ruling to overturn Hill's conviction.
In an Oct. 12 hearing, Hill pleaded guilty to second-degree murder per an Alford - or no contest - plea. An Alford plea allows a defendant to plead guilty without admitting to the crime.
Weiss then proceeded to sentence Hill, per the plea agreement, to time already served in custody. Hill spent 16 years and almost four months in prison for Edmundson's murder.
The normal sentence for a defendant convicted of second-degree murder is 10 to 22 years in prison.
Hill spent more than two days hospitalized at Kingman Regional Medical Center immediately after his release before spending his last days with his sister in Barstow, Calif.
Hill died Monday morning. The official cause of death has not been determined, Hill's attorney, Rick Williams of Bullhead City, said.
Williams continued to maintain his client's innocence. If Hill had been in better health, Hill's case probably would have gone to trial.
“He felt like being free and spending time with his family, he can now give up the ghost,†Williams said. “The prospect of being free and going to trial kept him going.â€
Williams said Hill's freedom was a “gift†to his three sisters.
“They provided Dave support and compassion and gave him the chance to pass on with comfort, dignity and freedom,†Williams said.
Williams said the real culprit is still out there but with the passing of almost two decades, chances are the real killer will never get caught.
Hill, who attended the Oct. 12 hearing in a wheelchair and on oxygen, suffered from scleroderma, pulmonary fibrosis and pulmonary hypertension.
Hill was living on Ed-mundson's property in a trailer free in exchange for doing odd jobs.
Hill was convicted of beating Edmundson in the victim's home off Vander-slice Road, wrapping him in a bed sheet, taking him out into the desert in a pickup and burning him to death.
http://www.mohavedailynews.com/articles/2005/10/27/news/local/local2.txt
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