March 28, 2001
(SANTA FE, N.M.) – A man who has been on death row in New Mexico for more than a decade says he wants to end his appeals.
Terry Clark, 44, made his request in a handwritten letter asking for execution because he does not want his own family and the victim’s “to be put through any more.” Clark was convicted in 1987 of the rape and murder of Dena Lynn Gore, 9, who was found shot to death in a shallow grave near her home in Artesia.
Clark, if he gets his wish, would be the first person put to death in New Mexico since 1960. In 1999, he ended his appeals but then changed his mind a few months later.
Clark’s original death sentence was thrown out by the state Supreme Court in 1996, but a jury decided on the same penalty after a new proceeding.