S.C. man set to be executed today

COLUMBIA — Nearly 12 years ago, reeling from his wife's request for a divorce and the breakup of his family, David Mark Hill stormed into a North Augusta social services office and gunned down three employees he blamed for taking his children.

After eight years on death row, Hill is set today to become the first person put to death in South Carolina since the U.S. Supreme Court affirmed the constitutionality of the three-drug lethal injection cocktail used in dozens of states.

Earlier this year, the South Carolina high court ruled that Hill, 48, could drop his appeals and be executed. Hill had argued that he deserves to die for the Sept. 16, 1996, killings, when he walked into a Department of Social Services office in North Augusta and shot to death his family's case worker and two other employees after losing custody of his children.

Killed were case worker Jimmy Riddle, 52; Josie Curry, 35; and Michael Gregory, 30.

During his 2000 trial, defense witnesses testified that Hill was prompted to go on the shooting spree hours after his wife asked for a divorce and after a social worker accused him of molesting his quadriplegic daughter, a toddler crippled a year earlier in a car accident. After their daughter's ordeal, Hill was sent into a world of depression, seizures and panic attacks, his wife testified.

Hill overdosed twice on antidepressants and muscle relaxers in the spring of 1996. After social workers said they wanted him out of the house, Hill barricaded himself inside with a shotgun, later spent several days in a mental hospital and was ordered by the state to stay away from his family.

Several months later, he returned to the Social Services office and shot Riddle, Curry and Gregory to death. Authorities found Hill a day later, suffering from a self-inflicted gunshot wound to the head.

Since the shootings, the child welfare agency has made some security changes. For several weeks, a police officer was posted at the office, and a security keypad was installed at the main entrance.

"You cannot be too careful," spokeswoman Marilyn Matheus said.

Unlike other states, South Carolina did not put any scheduled executions on hold while the court reviewed the constitutionality of lethal injection. Hill would be the 279th person put to death in South Carolina and the first since Calvin Alphonso Shuler, who was put to death a year ago for killing an armored car guard.

A South Carolina peace group planned to hold a silent vigil and protest Thursday night in Columbia to pray for anyone affected by the shootings, as well as a protest at the prison today.

None of Hill's family members have said they want to witness his execution, and some victims' relatives are planning to attend, prisons spokesman Josh Gelinas said. One of his attorneys said Hill has spent the past few weeks saying goodbye to family members and is mentally prepared for his death.

"He was ready," Lisa Kimbrough said of the moment her client asked his attorneys to request that his appeals be dropped. "He had reached a point where, mentally, he was already there."

David Miller, who also represented Hill, will witness the execution, said Kimbrough, who will not.

"I know David as a person," she said. "He certainly has tried to be thorough in saying his goodbyes."