I bid thee farewell.
__________
e(xecution)Bay
An inmate on death row unsuccessfully tried to sell five seats for his execution on the Internet auction site eBay.
Inmate Tries to Sell
Death Row Seats
in Online Auction
The Associated Press
F O R T W O R T H, Texas, May 25 — An inmate on death row for killing three people in Lake Worth unsuccessfully tried to sell five seats for his execution on Internet auction site eBay on Wednesday.
Michael Toney, whose conviction for killing three people in 1985 is on appeal, put the seats up for bid — starting at $100 — Wednesday afternoon, eBay officials said.
The posting was removed a few hours later. No one had bid on the seats in the four hours after the auction was posted.
A friend who refused to be identified told the Fort Worth Star-Telegram that Toney asked her to set up the site because it would help prove his innocence.
Call Him ‘Cowboy’
“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,” the Web site stated.
Condemned inmates in Texas are allowed five witnesses at their execution. Toney, 34, said he would give money from the auction to his estranged children, then waive further appeals on his case.
Prosecutors were not eligible to bid, the Web site stated.
Toney was sentenced to death last year for a briefcase bombing that killed 15-year-old Angela Blount, her father, Joe and her cousin, Michael Columbus.
A spokesman for the Texas Department of Criminal Justice said bidders would not have been allowed to attend the execution, but was unsure selling the seats violated any written procedure.
abcnews.go.com |
