Morris Mason

Morris Odell Mason (March 28, 1954 – June 25, 1985) was an American convicted rapist and murderer who called himself "the killer for the Eastern Shore". He was executed for the murder of Margaret K. Hand, although he was responsible for at least one other murder committed during a killing spree days prior that involved multiple burglaries and sexual assaults. His execution was controversial due to his diagnosis of schizophrenia and developmental disabilities, the latter of which caused activists and even Mason's executioner to worry that Mason was not mentally sound enough to be aware of his impending execution.

Governor Chuck Robb refused to grant clemency to Mason, citing internal memos stating that several psychiatric analyses of Mason indicated that he understood his actions. The memos also showed that Mason had retrieved incriminating evidence from Hand's burning house to avoid implicating himself.

Background

Early life Mason was born in Philadelphia and was raised by his mother in Northampton County, Virginia. When he was a child, he complained that he could hear voices that ordered him to "destroy things." Mason also joined the U.S. Army during the Vietnam War.

Years prior to the crimes that landed Mason on death row, Mason was diagnosed with intellectual disability, having been tested as having an IQ of 66, with another test showing that he had an IQ of 62. On three separate occasions, Mason was also diagnosed with paranoid schizophrenia. He was first placed under involuntary psychiatric commitment when he was 17 years old. For the grand larceny and arson, Mason was sentenced to 20 years in prison with 10 years suspended. It was Mason's first time in prison, but authorities suspected that he may have been responsible for other house fires and burglaries in his teens.

On May 14, 1978, Mason burglarized a house where two sisters, aged 12 and 13, were home alone. The 13-year-old retrieved her father's pistol and attempted to shoot Mason, but he wrested the pistol from her and shot her in the abdomen, leaving her a paraplegic. Mason then kidnapped the 12-year-old and took her to a forest, where he raped and sodomized her, covered her with leaves, and set the leaves on fire. The leaves burned the girl's shirt and hair. Both girls survived the attacks. Later the same day, he burned down an unoccupied house owned by a woman. He was arrested on May 15, the next day. Mason received seven life sentences plus 100 years for his other crimes. Shortly after his conviction and death sentence, Mason gave an interview in which he stated that his situation did not "worry" him and rhetorically asked, "Why should it worry me? I did wrong, right? So I get electrocuted." He spent some of his final hours with Jerry Givens, Virginia's executioner who would ultimately carry out Mason's electrocution. Givens stated afterwards that Mason did not eat all of his sundaes and, instead, told Givens, "I can't eat all this; put it in the freezer for tomorrow." Givens said this made him realize Mason "had no idea" what was happening to him or that he was going to be executed: "He was not kidding or being sarcastic; I knew that he wasn't ready."

Mason also gave at least two interviews in the months leading up to his execution. The first interview was with the Richmond News Leader on January 31, 1985. During the interview, Mason said he could not remember much of Hand's murder beyond breaking into her house, as he had been on drugs and had blacked out; he then apologized for his actions, stating, "I'm totally sorry for doing it, that I broke into [Hand's] house, and, if I hurt her, I'm sorry". He said he recalled hearing voices on the night of the murder instructing him "to destroy something, tear up something," that he "just went on a rampage and tore up something", and that he had first complained of hearing voices in 1974. He asked Deans to escort him to the death chamber. He had no formal last words, although he briefly spoke to Tony Bair to say he would "go out strong just like I promised you." Bair was the warden of the Mecklenburg Correctional Center, where Virginia's death row inmates were held before their transfers to the Virginia State Penitentiary where the execution chamber and electric chair were held.