Thomas Treshawn Ivey executed

By Ian Silver - bio | email

COLUMBIA, SC (WCSC) - Sixteen years after killing a businessman and a police officer Thomas Ivey became the second man South Carolina has executed this year.

Ian Silver was one of three media witnesses to the execution Friday.

It was January, 1993 and 19-year-old Thomas Ivey and Columbia native Vincent Neuman escaped from a jail in Clayton, Alabama where Ivey was facing a murder charge. They stole a car and returned to Neuman's old stomping grounds.

On January 13th they kidnapped 30-year-old Robert Montgomery and drove him to the sound of North, South Carolina in his own car. Ivey led Montgomery into some woods where he shot him in the head and chest, and left him to die.

Two days later Ivey was with Neuman at the Prince of Orange Mall in Orangeburg where Neuman was trying to pass stolen checks.

When 38-year-old police sergeant Tommy Harrison was questioning Ivey the handgun he had in his jacket pocket went off, ricocheting off the ground and hitting Harrison in the leg. Ivey says he freaked out, pulled out the gun, and fired off five more rounds at Harrison from point-blank range.

Ivey was tried in 1995 for both crimes separately, and received a death sentence for both.

Neuman received a sentence of life in prison in exchange for testimony against Ivey.

In 1999Ivey and another convicted cop-killer tried to escape from the Lieber Correctional facility after stabbing a prison guard. The guard survived, and Ivey was moved to the super-max security prison for the next two years.

Then in 2007 Ivey cut another guard's throat with a hand-made shank, but was unable to even attempt an escape. That guard also survived.

Ivey was moved back to the super-max security prison where he remained until he was moved to the execution chambers on Friday.

Robert Montgomery's brother, David, spoke on behalf of his family after the execution. He said Ivey's death brings no closure for the family because they still don't have Robert back. But he says he hopes it will help them at least move on to the next chapter in their lives.

Ivey had none of his own family there to support him.

And he did not plan to go quietly. Ivey tried to kill himself earlier in the day Friday, hours before he was set to be executed. Officials say he slit his own throat with a disposable razor. Doctors stitched up the wound and kept him under constant watch until the execution.

Ivey became the forty-second person South Carolina has executed since capitol punishment was re-instated in 1976. That puts South Carolina at eighth on the list of states with the most executions.

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