Untitled Document

Lawsuits

Information on my legal case

My name is David Paul Hammer. I am originally from the state of Oklahoma. I'm currently incarcerated on the Federal Death Row Unit at the United States Penitentiary in Terre Haute, Indiana. I've been confined here since July 13, 1999 when the unit was first activated. I received a sentence of death on November 4, 1998. I pled guilty to having killed my cell mate. I've had four execution dates scheduled. In June of 2004 I came within four days of being executed. On June 4th, 2004 the United States Court of Appeals for the Third Circuit located in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania granted a stay and remanded my case back to the United States District Court for the Middle District of Pennsylvania.

Between July 2004 and September 2005 the District Court conducted various hearings in my case. After a lengthy evidentiary hearing in the summer of 2005 the Judge who presided over my original trial in 1998 and the 2005 evidentiary hearing took my case under advisement. In an Opinion totaling over 250 pages issued on December 27th, 2005 Senior United States District Court Judge Malcolm Muir vacated my sentence of death. He ruled that the U.S. Government prosecutors had failed to turn over FBI re-ports which were exculpatory in nature and that the jury had failed to consider un-contraverted mitigating evidence in violation of their instructions and duties. He ordered that I receive a new sentencing trial within 60 days or that he would sentence me to life in prison without the possibility of parole. The U.S. Government refused to agree to the LWOP sentence and advised the court that they would once again seek a death sentence. They then filed an appeal with the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Third Circuit. My attorneys also filed an appeal stating that I'm entitled to a new trial.

In the near future Judge Muir's Opinion will be available on this site. The appellate process continues and briefing is currently underway. Updates will be re-ported here and copies of the briefs will also be available once they are filed. It is my intent to provide as much information as possible so that the public can decide for themselves whether I deserve the sentence of death.

I have never denied that I did kill my cell mate Andrew Marti on April 13th, 1996. However, I did not intentionally kill him and I am actually innocent of first degree premeditated murder.

Many may wonder if I'm from Oklahoma how it is that my case is in Pennsylvania. I have been continuously incarcerated since January 18, 1978 with the exception of 10 days in 1981 and 60 days in 1983 when I was on escape status after having escaped from two separate prisons in Oklahoma. After years of various antics within the prisons operated by the Oklahoma Department of Corrections, on December 16, 1993 I was transferred into the Federal Prison System at the request of Oklahoma Prison Officials. This placement is allowed for under the Interstate Agreement Act which provides for participating states and the federal government to trade out prisoners.

I was incarcerated at the United States Penitentiary in White Deer, Pennsylvania at the time of Andrew Marti's death. Marti was incarcerated for armed bank robbery, and was a reputed gang member. At the time of his death he was twenty-seven years old, 6’4" tall and weighed 200 lbs., Andrew and I had shared a cell for only a short period of time.

At the time of my conviction and sentence of death in 1998 I was the first Federal Prisoner to have ever been sentenced to death for the murder of a fellow prisoner. Since that time two other Federal Inmates have been sentenced to death for the alleged murders of fellow prisoners.

If you have specific questions you can contact me by regular mail at my address listed on this site. E-mail can be sent but my e-mails are monitored by a friend and forwarded to me. It takes time for me to respond as I have no actual access to a computer for e-mail. Everything is by regular mail.