HOME PAGE
|
Monday, March 27, 2000
Copyright © Las Vegas Review-Journal
Driver who killed seven in Reno awaits fate on death row
CARSON CITY -- As legal proceedings are under way in Las Vegas against the motorist who drove the minivan that killed six members of a youth work crew, the case of another woman sentenced to death for running over more than two dozen pedestrians in Reno remains in limbo.
Priscilla Ford, 71, has an appeal of her case pending in U.S. District Court.
On Thanksgiving Day 1980, Ford intentionally drove her Lincoln Continental onto a crowded sidewalk, killing six immediately. A seventh victim died later. Twenty-two others were injured.
Ford was convicted in March 1982 of six counts of murder and 23 counts of attempted murder and was sentenced to death. Appeals and questions about her mental competency have delayed Ford's execution. She is the only woman on death row in Nevada.
Immediately after her arrest, Ford referred to herself as Christ and the people she ran down as beasts and pigs. At her original trial, she said she was the Holy Spirit and began life as Adam.
Ford is incarcerated at the Southern Nevada Women's Correctional Facility in North Las Vegas while her case proceeds through the federal court system.
Her case would appear to be substantially different than that of Jessica Williams, charged with killing six teen-agers picking up trash March 19 along Interstate 15 near Las Vegas Motor Speedway. On Thursday, the Clark County district attorney's office reported that lab tests on Williams revealed the presence of marijuana in her blood. But her former attorney, John Watkins, said his client likely fell asleep at the wheel, and the tragedy was an accident.
Ford was found guilty of intentionally driving on the sidewalk, although in a statement in 1987 she said the deaths were an accident.
The U.S. public defender's office in 1995 sought to reduce Ford's sentence to life without the chance of parole, but the state Supreme Court denied the request. Ford's attorney argued there were many constitutional problems in her case, caused mainly by inadequate legal counsel during her six-month trial.
The court found that Ford failed to prove she faced "an unreasonable rush to justice by the court system."
--Sean Whaley
Fund-raiser for center
Backers of a dream to bring Las Vegas its first 24-hour patient care center for medically fragile and terminally ill children hope that months of behind-the-scenes work will begin paying off April 15, when the Foundation for Positively Kids plans its first major fund-raiser.
The foundation's Great American Duck Derby is set for noon to 4 p.m. at the Monte Carlo. Magician Lance Burton will host the event, which will include the plucking of ducks from the hotel's Easy River for prize giveaways. Ducks may be purchased for $5 a piece at various Las Vegas locations.
The foundation's fund-raising goal for 2000 is $1.2 million, which would allow the group to open and staff a program that would get a quicker start if it were housed in an existing care center, said foundation President Fred Schultz.
Schultz said last week he would like to open a children's care center within six months but has been running into roadblocks from federal regulators opposed to opening a children's program within an already licensed skilled-care or hospice facility.
Without a specific children's program, Southern Nevada parents with medically fragile and terminally ill children are forced to send their children out of state or rely upon general-care facilities such as nursing homes if they are unable to care for their children at home.
The center that Positively Kids has in mind would cater to children and their families with specialized care and support programs. The program would handle other long-term medical needs and help families cope with their struggles.
"It would mean a 100 percent turnaround in the lives of these families," said Schultz, who ran a similar facility in Florida.
--Natalie Patton
Wondering how a local story turned out or what happened to someone in the news? Contact the City Desk at 383-0264 and we will try to answer your question in this column.
E-mail this story to a friend:
Give us your FEEDBACK on this or any story.
BEST OF LAS VEGAS
Fill out our Online Readers' Poll
|
Printable version of this story
Priscilla Ford, sentenced to death in 1982, is appealing the sentence.
Associated Press photo
|
