By BURTON SPEAKMAN
A nearly three-decade ordeal for the family of two homicide victims ended Wednesday with the death of the man convicted of killing them.
David Leroy Skaggs, 59, died just before 3 a.m. Wednesday from complications of cancer. Skaggs had been moved on Nov. 5 from death row in Eddyville to a care facility at the Kentucky State Reformatory in LaGrange.
Skaggs had been on death row since being convicted in 1982 of the May 6, 1981, murder of Herman and Mae Matthews at their Barren County residence.
Skaggs and Herman Matthews were passing acquaintances prior to the murder, said Karen Davis, commonwealth’s attorney for Barren County.
Matthews was someone who traded in scrap metal and parts and was known throughout the area for dealing in cash, Davis said. Skaggs had come to the Matthews’ residence looking for cash.
When Skaggs pulled into the driveway at the residence Herman Matthews was inside the shop beside the home. Herman Matthews was beaten by Skaggs with a ball peen hammer.
“Mae came outside veering toward the shop and saw what was going on midstream and at that point Skaggs turned on her,” Davis said.
“She lost a shoe running back toward her back door and was shot kneeling in front of the front door where a Bible happened to sit.”
Davis said she has been working to inform the Matthews family about Skaggs’ death.
“I contacted one of the family members and they were glad to be able to put this behind (them) and said that ‘he’s (Skaggs) facing a much tougher judge now than he ever did in court,’” Davis said.
The family member also stated that while they appreciated the updates about the appeals process, each time they were given an update they were forced to relive what happened, she said.
“Each prosecutor that has been involved with this case — Mr. Redford, Mr. Patton and myself — has always pledged to the family to do whatever it takes to see that the jury’s sentence of death was upheld and that their parents were not forgotten,” Davis said.
The system of having a death sentence carried out in Kentucky is flawed, she said.
The current system is very difficult for the victim’s families because the appeals process takes so long, Davis said.
“There is a way to ensure that the rights of the defendant are upheld without dragging the process out in the way it is,” she said.
In addition, death row inmates receive perks that other inmates don’t get, Davis said. They have a cell to themselves, can order McDonald’s once a week if they behave and can have magazine subscriptions such as Playboy in their cells.
“We learned a lot during the appeals process,” she said. “I understand the warden needs to have a carrot and stick, but it’s tough for the victims’ families to learn that he’s in jail eating Happy Meals and looking at Pent-house.”
Two of the children of the Matthews died while waiting for Skaggs’ sentence to be carried out, Davis said. The appeals process in this case lasted 27 years.
In fact the U.S. Sixth Circuit Court of Appeals in this case overturned the sentence in 2000 and a new sentencing phase was ordered. Davis undertook the sentencing phase and a Barren County jury recommended the death penalty for Skaggs a second time.
Before his death, Skaggs had the second-longest tenure on death row of any of the inmates in Kentucky. There are currently 35 inmates sitting on Kentucky’s death row, according to Kentucky Department of Corrections information. Of those, 12 have been on death row for more than 20 years. Karu Gene White, who has been on death row the longest, has been there since being convicted in March of 1980 for killing three men.
