A convicted murderer who denied any involvement for two decades now says his killed a little girl. In Thursday’s federal court case challenging South Dakota’s method of lethal injection, Donald Moeller himself answered questions aloud in his last action to avoid the death penalty.
When Judge Lawrence Piersol asks death row inmate Donald Moeller questions, he gets answers. At a hearing on October 4, 2012, Moeller tells the court his level of education, where he lives in the state penitentiary, what he reads and whether he’s been treated by a psychiatrist. Then Judge Piersol asks Donald Moeller what crime sent him to prison.
"I kidnapped, raped, and murdered Rebecca O’Connell on May 5th, 1990," Moeller says.
Those words come directly from Moeller’s mouth. He sits calmly facing the judge, his bright orange jumpsuit a stark contrast to the wood-paneled walls and nearby dark-suited attorneys.
This is the first time Moeller himself has spoken that admission in court. Weeks ago, in a state case, his attorney remarked Moeller accepts death as the consequences of his actions. Even that much acknowledgement surprised attorney Scott Abdallah.
"Here’s a person that from day one adamantly denied his involvement in this case and never, ever waivered from that," Abdallah says. "Then all of the sudden out of the blue this summer we get this admission after twenty years. I was absolutely shocked."
Abdallah was the prosecutor in Lincoln County when the state retried Moeller’s capital punishment case in 1997. South Dakota’s Supreme Court overturned Moeller’s first murder conviction and death sentence levied five years before. That left the Abdallah, not yet 30 years old, to retry the grisly case.
"This was a nine-year-old girl who was tortured beyond belief. I mean, this is one of the most gruesome, horrific crimes that the state had ever seen and will ever see," Abdallah says. "She was abducted from north Sioux Falls. She was then kidnapped and taken to out by Lake Alvin. She was brutally stabbed and raped multiple times and just left in a field."
Abdallah says hundreds of people contributed to the conviction and subsequent death sentence. Abdallah’s case against Moeller incorporated advancing DNA analysis, but it lacked details of Moeller’s extensive criminal record, which the high court threw out. Abdallah says, all the while, Donald Moeller claimed he was not the person who killed Becky O’Connell. More than two decades later, that’s changed.
"At least that he has decided to come to the realization that he wants to accept some responsibility for what he did and accepts the penalty and now understands that he needs to pay the ultimate price."
Donald Moeller is now 60 years old. His hair is gray to white and long. So is his beard. He looks at the judge through coke-bottle glasses as the judge asks him to describe his understanding of punishment for the crime.
"Death penalty by lethal injection. Sometime after the 28th of October," Moeller says. "They'll put me in a holding area in the old prison hospital and I'll wait until sometime later, at their convenience, they’ll take me to a room, strap me down, inject poison into my arm and kill me. "
That injection is the center of Moeller’s federal court case. South Dakota Attorney General Marty Jackley says questioning the state’s lethal injection protocol is Moeller’s last chance in court to avoid the death penalty.
"This is the last pending action by Donald Moeller. As the court had indicated as we began the proceedings that the South Dakota Supreme Court and the United States Supreme Court have already made the decision on guilt and on the sentence of death," Jackley says. "Really the only thing that is occurring in these proceedings is the method of the way that South Dakota carries out an execution."
But Donald Moeller wants to end the debate over the drug protocol before it even starts. The hearing takes a different turn, pitting Donald Moeller and his state-appointed lawyer against a team of federal attorneys who want to prolong the time ahead of execution.
The federal judge considers what's called a stipulation for dismissal. Moeller’s South Dakota Attorney, Mark Marshall, filed the paperwork, which tosses the case and prevents Moeller from filing the lawsuit again. Judge Lawrence Piersol asks Moeller whether he understands what happens if his case is dismissed.
"The state will go ahead and execute me on or after October 28th," Moeller says.
Judge Piersol asks Moeller if he understands that his other representation, two Arkansas federal public defenders, disagree with that move.
"Yes," Moeller says. "They also think I’m crazy."
Those attorneys argue Moeller shouldn’t even talk to the judge, because they don’t believe the convicted murderer is competent to waive his rights. They also say Moeller’s fundamentally finding a way to commit suicide by ending court proceedings.
Moeller tells the judge he’s tried to fire the federal attorneys. He also says, "I don’t want to die. I want to pay what I owe."
The state sides with Moeller’s local attorney that this is the convicted killer’s call and that Moeller is capable of that choice.
"I indicated to the court what I believe the law is that Donald Moeller is able to make a knowing and voluntary decision to end these proceedings and to accept the responsibility for his actions," Attorney General Marty Jackley says.
Inside the courtoom, the judge asks Moeller why he’s trying to stop any legal action that could delay his death sentence.
"I killed the little girl. It is just that the punishment needs to be concluded," Moeller says. " I believe that as a plain old guy. I believe that from my Bible."
This case challenging South Dakota’s drug protocol is the last chance for Moeller to delay his execution. Instead of trying to lengthen the process, he takes that opportunity not to argue for his life but to finally admit his guilt.
The judge says he must decide if Moeller’s request for dismissal is made competently and on his own; then he can dismiss the case. Otherwise the judge may decide the court must hold additional hearings and attorneys may argue the merits of South Dakota’s lethal injection protocol.
