This is one of those things that could only happen in America.
http://dailynews.yahoo.com/h/nm/20000525/ts/crime_auction_1.html
Thursday May 25 4:07 PM ET
Texas Inmate Auctions Execution Seats on eBay
FORT WORTH, Texas (Reuters) - A Texas death row inmate tried to sell seats for his execution on Internet auction site eBay, but the listing was removed before he got any bids, a newspaper reported on Thursday.
Michael Toney, sentenced to die for the 1985 bombing deaths of three people, wanted to sell the rights to witness seats at his still unscheduled execution and give the money to his two daughters, the Fort Worth Star Telegram said.
Had there been any takers, bidding would have started at $100. Prosecutors were not eligible to bid.
``My name is Michael Toney. Most people call me 'Cowboy.' I am on Texas death row awaiting execution for a crime I did not commit,'' said the eBay listing, which was posted on Wednesday for several hours before the company removed it.
``I do not know what kind of people would donate money to watch an innocent man be murdered. However, I do know there are people out there that will,'' he wrote.
Condemned inmates in Texas, which leads the nation in meting out capital punishment, are
permitted to have five witnesses at their execution in the state death chamber at the Walls
prison unit in Huntsville, Texas. The inmates are killed by lethal injection.
But Texas Department of Criminal Justice spokesman Larry Fitzgerald told Reuters that no bidders would be allowed in.
``The bottom line policy is that our executive director of prisons has final say on who attends an execution, period,'' he said.
``The inmate has to make that list out and that list has to be approved weeks before an execution.''
``Clever idea, but it never had a chance to get off the ground,'' Fitzgerald said.
eBay direct of communications Kevin Pursglove said the listing was removed because Toney violated several eBay policies,
the main one being that he did not have the right to sell the seats.
``This is an individual who is not the rightful owner. He cannot sell those seats,'' he told Reuters.
Pursglove said eBay does not screen auction listings before they are posted. The firm found out about Toney's sale when the Star-Telegram reporter called, he said.
Toney killed three people in Lake Worth, Texas when he placed a briefcase bomb outside their mobile home. The murders went unsolved for a decade until he bragged about the killings to a fellow inmate while in jail for another offense.
A woman who testified against Toney, but now is a friend, told the Star-Telegram she set up the listing for him because he said it would help his efforts to prove his innocence.
He has been conducting a letter-writing campaign in hopes of reversing his conviction. In the eBay listing, Toney asked anyone interested in the case to write or visit him in prison.
Toney's case is still under legal appeal, so no execution date has been set.
http://dailynews.yahoo.com/h/nm/20000525/ts/crime_auction_1.html
Thursday May 25 4:07 PM ET
Texas Inmate Auctions Execution Seats on eBay
FORT WORTH, Texas (Reuters) - A Texas death row inmate tried to sell seats for his execution on Internet auction site eBay, but the listing was removed before he got any bids, a newspaper reported on Thursday.
Michael Toney, sentenced to die for the 1985 bombing deaths of three people, wanted to sell the rights to witness seats at his still unscheduled execution and give the money to his two daughters, the Fort Worth Star Telegram said.
Had there been any takers, bidding would have started at $100. Prosecutors were not eligible to bid.
``My name is Michael Toney. Most people call me 'Cowboy.' I am on Texas death row awaiting execution for a crime I did not commit,'' said the eBay listing, which was posted on Wednesday for several hours before the company removed it.
``I do not know what kind of people would donate money to watch an innocent man be murdered. However, I do know there are people out there that will,'' he wrote.
Condemned inmates in Texas, which leads the nation in meting out capital punishment, are
permitted to have five witnesses at their execution in the state death chamber at the Walls
prison unit in Huntsville, Texas. The inmates are killed by lethal injection.
But Texas Department of Criminal Justice spokesman Larry Fitzgerald told Reuters that no bidders would be allowed in.
``The bottom line policy is that our executive director of prisons has final say on who attends an execution, period,'' he said.
``The inmate has to make that list out and that list has to be approved weeks before an execution.''
``Clever idea, but it never had a chance to get off the ground,'' Fitzgerald said.
eBay direct of communications Kevin Pursglove said the listing was removed because Toney violated several eBay policies,
the main one being that he did not have the right to sell the seats.
``This is an individual who is not the rightful owner. He cannot sell those seats,'' he told Reuters.
Pursglove said eBay does not screen auction listings before they are posted. The firm found out about Toney's sale when the Star-Telegram reporter called, he said.
Toney killed three people in Lake Worth, Texas when he placed a briefcase bomb outside their mobile home. The murders went unsolved for a decade until he bragged about the killings to a fellow inmate while in jail for another offense.
A woman who testified against Toney, but now is a friend, told the Star-Telegram she set up the listing for him because he said it would help his efforts to prove his innocence.
He has been conducting a letter-writing campaign in hopes of reversing his conviction. In the eBay listing, Toney asked anyone interested in the case to write or visit him in prison.
Toney's case is still under legal appeal, so no execution date has been set.
