Samuel Flippen is sched­uled to be exe­cut­ed on August 18 in North Carolina for the 1994 death of his two-year-old step-daugh­ter, Britnie Hutton. On the day of Britnie’s death, Flippen made emer­gency 911 calls seek­ing med­ical atten­tion for her. There had been no his­to­ry of him pre­vi­ous­ly injur­ing Britnie. Defense attor­neys claim that Flippen’s actions pre­ced­ing Britnie’s death are strong evi­dence that he had no inten­tion of harm­ing his step-daugh­ter. The attor­neys are seek­ing clemen­cy from the gov­er­nor.

Before being sent to death row, Flippen had nev­er been charged or con­vict­ed of any crime. He was devot­ed to his school and church and was known as an upstand­ing and con­tribut­ing mem­ber of the com­mu­ni­ty. The state orig­i­nal­ly offered Flippen a plea bar­gain to sec­ond degree mur­der.

Britnie’s father is opposed to Flippen’s exe­cu­tion. During the tri­al, he got to know Flippen’s moth­er and father well. He says he knows how ter­ri­ble it is to lose a child and does not want Flippen’s par­ents to suf­fer in the same way. He has said that the State of North Carolina does not need to exe­cute Flippen for jus­tice to be served.

(Attorney Press Release, August 3, 2006). See also Clemency and Arbitrariness

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