Anderson
Luther Anderson was convicted of second-degree murder for one of those killings in January 1975 in Sequoyah County District Court, and was sentenced to not less than 10 years or more than life in prison. The phrasing of the sentence actually resulted in Anderson’s release years later.
Anderson, now jailed at the R.B. Dick Conner Correctional Center in Hominy, will be considered for parole by the Oklahoma Pardon and Parole Board. His name is on the board’s December agenda.
But a spokesman for the Oklahoma Pardon and Parole Board said Anderson may decline, or waive, a parole or parole hearing. The spokesman said Anderson has waived parole hearings, or “did not want to meet with the board,” yearly throughout the 1990s. After that, by state statue, the parole hearings went to every three years for violent offenders, and Anderson waived his hearings in 2004, in 2007. Based on past experience, is expected to waive the hearing in 2010. He may do so in October or November, before the board meets on Dec. 7 to 9.
District Attorney Jerry Moore said last week he will review the case and make a recommendation to the board.
“We just went down on one,“ he said, “that was a pretty heinous murder. We will voice our objection to their release, and report on how distraught the victims are. We want to help keep the public safe.”
Early Release
Anderson has already been released once, on a technicality. He was released in December 1989. The Oklahoma Court of Criminal Appeals had determined that the “to life” phrase was “too indeterminate,” or “too vague,” and cut to-life sentences by 10 or 15 years.
Anderson was subsequently released, and other prisoners sentenced to the same punishment also asked for their sentences to be reviewed.
Gerald Hunter, district attorney at the time, refiled charges for the other four slayings, but that course was interrupted when Anderson was charged with attempted kidnapping in Ottawa County. Anderson was accused of trying to abduct a woman from a store parking lot in Miami. Bond was set at $100,000 and Anderson was eventually found guilty of the kidnapping attempt and sentenced to 10 years by a judge in Ottawa County District Court. The sentence, begun on Jan. 2, 1991, resulted in Anderson being returned to state prison to serve the kidnapping sentence, and the second-degree murder sentence.
The State Court of Criminal Appeals reversed the decision on the length of sentence, and Anderson continues to serve time for second-degree murder.
Sallisaw attorney Dan George was Anderson’s attorney.
“He never said a word during the (first) trial,” George said. “When I got up for my final argument, he said, ‘Dan, tell them to let me go or kill me.’”
George said, “I still think something happened to set him off. I don’t think he killed all those people.”
The Victims
Anderson, now 61, was accused of the killing rampage in Muldrow on July 2, 1974, in which five people were killed. Anderson was also accused of the rape of two women. The dead were George Armstrong, 64; Edmond Frank Mitchell, 34; husband and wife, Robert Jackson Hewitt, 76, and Jessie Velma Hewitt, 67; and Clarence Eugene Duty, 50. According to reports at the time, Dovie Duty, 78, and Helen Duty, 43, were the attempted rape and rape victims. Dovie Duty was hospitalized and Helen Duty was treated and released.
According to court records, Anderson was initially charged only with first-degree murder in the death of Clarence Duty, and was found guilty of second-degree murder. He was sentenced to serve 10 years to life in January 1975.
At his trial Dovie Duty said she lived with her son, Clarence, in Muldrow when Anderson visited during the afternoon of July 2, 1974. At about 10:30 p.m. that night Anderson visited again, and told the woman, “I’m going to kill the G-d sob, and then I am agonna kill, I’m agonna rape you and eat your face all to pieces and kill you.”
An ax Clarence Duty had been sharpening when Anderson was present was found embedded in Clarence Duty’s head, and Dovie Duty also suffered injuries and was hospitalized for three weeks.
Her grandson Roger, 14 at the time, found his grandmother and uncle and told his mother, Helen Duty, who went to the Duty home. At 10:15 p.m. she found her mother and uncle, and she was also attacked by Anderson, who forced her outside and raped her. Helen Duty testified that Anderson told her he had killed Clarence and tried to have intercourse with “grandma.” Helen Duty testified she escaped and was later taken to the hospital.
At the trial, Dr. William Wilson, Sequoyah County Medical Examiner, testified Clarence Duty died due to “multiple, massive axe wounds to the head.”
Anderson was eventually found and arrested at the Muldrow Nursing Home, at 11:30 p.m. July 2, and jailed in Sallisaw.
The investigation revealed the other four victims were killed before Duty. At the Mitchell home George Armstrong was killed and Mitchell fatally injured. Both men were reported to have been beaten to death of an unknown object. According to reports the Hewitts were shot to death.
The investigation revealed that Anderson had checked himself into Eastern State Hospital in Vinita in April 1974, and left 13 days later. Hospital officials said no action was taken since Anderson had admitted himself. At the trial a psychiatrist testified that Anderson “had brain damage, a lower than normal intelligence, was illiterate, unskilled and an alcoholic.” He testified Anderson was subject to rage reactions after consuming alcohol. He also said Anderson knew right from wrong, and understood the judicial system, with one exception, on July 2, 1974. He testified than Anderson had a definite loss of memory on that night, and, in the doctor’s opinion, Anderson did not know right from wrong on that night.
However, according to court records, a doctor from Central State Hospital testified she had examined Anderson and found he did not suffer brain damage, was not psychotic and was able to determine right from wrong.
Anderson’s appeals on the second-degree murder charge were denied.
