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Darrell Edward PAYNE

 
 
 
 
 

 

 

 

 
 
 
Classification: Murderer
Characteristics: Kidnapping - Rape - Robbery
Number of victims: 1
Date of murder: July 6, 2000
Date of birth: April 6, 1966
Victim profile: Samantha Maher, 22 (Boise State student)
Method of murder: Shooting
Location: Ada County, Idaho, USA
Status: Sentenced to death in May 2002
 
 
 
 
 
 
July 2000 murder of Boise State University student

Darrell Edward Payne, 36, of Nampa. Convicted of the July 6, 2000, abduction, robbery, rape and murder of Samantha Maher.

 
 

Condemned killer Darrell Payne must be resentenced

Idaho justices rule on Darrell Payne, who was convicted of the kidnapping, rape and murder of a BSU student

By Patrick Orr - IdahoStatesman.com

June 19, 2008

Convicted killer Darrell Payne's death sentence is now in question after the Idaho Supreme Court sent the case back to District Court Wednesday for a new sentencing hearing.

Payne has been on Idaho's Death Row since 2002, when 4th District Judge Thomas Neville sentenced him to death for the kidnapping, rape, and murder of Boise State student Samantha Maher, who was abducted off the Greenbelt on her way to class in July 2000.

Payne, who terrorized Boise that summer when he sexually assaulted two 14-year-old girls in Barber Park and raped a Boise woman in the weeks before he murdered Maher, filed several appeals to his death sentence.

While most of those appeals were dismissed, the Supreme Court did determine that the victim impact statements made by Maher's family and friends to Neville in the sentencing phase of Payne's original trial were unconstitutional because those witnesses commented on Payne's personal characteristics and made specific sentencing recommendations, according to a 39-page opinion issued by the Supreme Court Wednesday.

The court also said the victim impact statements should have been limited to Maher's immediate family.

Paul Blomberg, Samantha Maher's father, said Wednesday he and his family had not had time to read and digest the entire opinion so he wasn't sure how they felt about the new sentencing hearing.

Blomberg said the family will put their confidence in the court and do what they need to do in the second sentencing hearing, no matter how painful it will be.

"We want to move on with our lives, and we can't do that until this is over," Blomberg said Wednesday. "We are not looking forward to going back through it. The (death) sentence was a fair sentence. But if we have to go forward, we will go forward. Darrell Payne must pay for what he did."

The court appeared to side with the Idaho attorney general's office on a key point - that the way the death sentence was handed down was valid. It is unclear whether the resentencing will occur in front of a new jury or before a judge.

A U.S. Supreme Court ruling in 2002 required juries, not judges, to find the aggravating evidence needed to sentence someone to death. Idaho's law reflects that now, but at the time of Payne's sentencing, Idaho's death penalty law left the decision to judges.

The Idaho Supreme Court seems to agree with Deputy Attorney General LaMont Anderson's argument that while Neville may have sentenced Payne to death in 2002, the jury in the case also found the same aggravating circumstance needed for the death penalty when they determined that Payne killed Maher while committing rape and kidnapping.

That might not satisfy Idaho's current death penalty law, but it meets the U.S. Supreme Court standard set in 2002, Anderson said.

Even if the Idaho Supreme Court thinks it would be constitutionally permissible for Payne to be resentenced by a judge, that would be unprecedented under the new law, Anderson said Wednesday.

Anderson said he believes a new jury will have be called if, as is expected, Ada County prosecutors want the death penalty reinstated for Payne.

The AG's office has 14 days to ask the Idaho Supreme Court for a reconsideration or a clarification of its opinion.

 
 

Darrell Payne trial set to begin this week

September 24, 2001

Jury selection began last week at the Ada County Courthouse, in the trial of Darrell Payne, 34, of Nampa.

Roger Bourne, deputy Ada County prosecutor expected jury selection to continue through last week, with opening statements coming today or Tuesday.

Payne is charged with the kidnapping, rape and murder of Boise State student Samantha Maher on July 6, 2000.

Maher was walking to class through Julia Davis Park. Her body was later discovered at Payne’s residence in Canyon County, according to a Sheriff’s Department document.

Payne lived in California until 1994, where he was implicated in one case of window peeping, and convicted of another.

When he moved to Boise in 1995, Payne worked as a chimney sweep.

In 1996, Payne was cited for window peeping after being observed looking in on a female and her fianc?.

Payne was sentenced to 30 days in jail, which was suspended, and placed on probation for 24 months.

Payne is also a suspect in the rape of two 14-year-old girls at Barber Park in June of 2000, though no charges have been filed against him in that case.

"Payne is being prosecuted for first-degree murder and first degree rape, both sentences carry the death penalty in Idaho," said Bourne.

Prosecutors must convince the jury before they can recommend sentencing to Fourth District Judge Thomas Neville.

"The judge decides the sentence after conviction," Bourne said.

Prior to jury selection, several pre-trial hearings were conducted regarding admission of evidence.

"We talked about general category evidence and some that concerned husband-wife privilege," said Bourne.

Payne was arrested in Eugene, Ore., after he called his wife and discussed a possible murder from his motel room, say Sheriff’s Department documents.

These discussions and a note found in the room were the subjects of the hearings although Bourne said there was a ruling prohibiting the use of some evidence.

 
 

Fantasies, Dark Secrets and Rape

What men would rather women didn't know

July 13, 2000

I first learned about Samantha Maher on Friday from a sign posted in the entrance of a grocery store. She was 22 and pretty. She left work to go to classes at the local university, but never made it to the school. Her husband and family were worried, since it was "out of character" for her to be out of contact.

On Saturday, a local man named Darrell Payne called his wife from a motel room in an adjoining state. He told her he had killed a woman and where to find the body. It had been left in a "waste pit" behind a dairy barn near their home.

Payne had abducted Ms Maher in a park adjoining the campus, handcuffed her, snuffed out her life with a gunshot to her head, then dumped her in the shit hole. Apparently panicked, he had driven her car hundreds of miles to the motel.

Autopsy results aren't back yet, so it isn't yet clear whether Payne also raped Samantha Maher, but that was undoubtedly his intent. Besides the murder, he has reportedly confessed to being the culprit in the sexual assault and rape of two 14-year-old girls in another park less than a month ago, as well as another rape.

During the past four days, I have overheard or participated in several discussions with other guys about this rape and what we would do to Payne, each conversation seemingly more graphic than the last. There is an instinct built into us -- a combination of protectiveness, loathing and unfettered brutality -- which makes us wish we could spend even just a few minutes with a rapist, unattended and not be held responsible once we had "taken care of the problem."

I never met Ms Maher. To me, she was just a picture of an attractive young woman on a poster. Nevertheless, I cried when I heard the news on Saturday. I would pay good money to take out my rage on the person of Darrell Edward Payne. In the movie that runs in my head, I would be armed with nothing more than my own fists and my waterpump pliers. However, (my civilized self tells me) that wouldn't be justice, would it?

There are days when I think it would be.

UnquietMind.com

 
 


Samantha Maher, the victim.

 
 


Darrel Edward Payne

 

 

 
 
 
 
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