Duncan Peder McKenzie Jr. (October 5, 1951 – May 10, 1995) was convicted of the murder of a

Conrad, Montana Conrad is a city in and the county seat of Pondera County, Montana, United States. The population was 2,318 at the 2020 census. Each June, the Whoop Up Days, a town wide celebration that includes a parade and rodeo, takes place in Conrad. The ...

schoolteacher named Lana Harding on January 21, 1974. After his conviction in March 1975, he was on

death row Death row, also known as condemned row, is a place in a prison that houses inmates awaiting Capital punishment, execution after being convicted of a capital crime and sentenced to death. The term is also used figuratively to describe the state of ...

for twenty years, receiving eight stays of execution. His ninth stay of execution was denied by the

United States courts of appeals The United States courts of appeals are the intermediate appellate courts of the United States federal judiciary. The courts of appeals are divided into 11 numbered circuits that cover geographic areas of the United States and hear appeals fr ...

. McKenzie was executed on May 10, 1995. He was the first person executed in Montana since 1943, and also the first ever U.S. death row inmate to spend twenty years or more on death row and still eventually be executed. He is one of only three people to have been executed in Montana since the reinstatement of the death penalty. He was the only person of the three to be executed involuntarily.

Background

McKenzie was born on October 5, 1951, in

Chicago (''City in a Garden''); I Will , image_map = , map_caption = Interactive Map of Chicago , coordinates = , coordinates_footnotes = , subdivision_type = Country , subdivision_name ...

Illinois Illinois ( ) is a U.S. state, state in the Midwestern United States, Midwestern United States. Its largest metropolitan areas include the Chicago metropolitan area, and the Metro East section, of Greater St. Louis. Other smaller metropolita ...

. He married Shirley Marlene McKenzie (born July 1943). They had three children together, Richard, Michelle, and Jon and lived in Coeur d'Alene, Idaho at the time of his incarceration. Shirley passed May 2017 in Coeur d'Alene, Idah

Crime overview

He was convicted of the murder, rape, and death by

asphyxia Asphyxia or asphyxiation is a condition of deficient supply of oxygen to the body which arises from abnormal breathing. Asphyxia causes generalized hypoxia, which affects primarily the tissues and organs. There are many circumstances that can i ...

of Lana Harding. He was sentenced to death for aggravated kidnapping. The crime was committed on January 21, 1974, in the early morning. Harding was a schoolteacher in a small one-classroom schoolhouse and members of the community raised concerns of her well-being when she did not arrive at the school and her shoes were left in the driveway.

Suspicions

He was also suspected to have murdered Debra Prety, a teenager from Coeur d'Alene. However, at the date of his execution, McKenzie had never confessed to the murder of Prety or Harding. At the time of Prety's death he lived relatively close to the family home and was on parole for attacking another woman. Three months after the death of Prety, McKenzie committed the murder of Harding. Debra’s brother, Paul Jr., then 26, found the teen’s body in the backyard of the home across the street at 9:15 the next morning. An autopsy revealed she’d been raped and died by asphyxiation. The method used by the killer matched that of the brute who murdered the Montana teacher Jan. 21, 1974. The Coeur d’Alene Press described Coeur d'Alenes community reaction to Debra’s murder as “quiet rage.�

Updates November 2021, Coeur d’Alene Officer Jacob Rodgers confirmed that McKenzie killed Debra Prety (pronounced Pret-TEE). A DNA sample showed that the odds of the killer being someone other than McKenzie were 7.08 sextillion to one (or 7.08 times 10 with 21 more zeroes

Find a 19-minute documentary about Lana Hardy and Debra Prety on youtube. Duncan's children and grandchildren are in recent news

Death row

He waited on death row for twenty years from 1975 to 1995. He was one of the first three inmates to be sentenced with the reinstated death penalty in Montana. The other two sentenced were Bernard Fitzpatrick and Dewey Coleman, however, their appeals to the execution were successful and they avoided death.

Execution

McKenzie was executed on May 10, 1995, at

Montana State Prison The Montana State Prison is a men's correctional facility of the Montana Department of Corrections in unincorporated Powell County, Montana, about west of Deer Lodge. The current facility was constructed between 1974 and 1979 in response to the ...

, becoming the first person to be executed in Montana since 1943. His

last meal A condemned prisoner's last meal is a customary ritual preceding execution. In many countries, the prisoner may, within reason, select what the last meal will be. Contemporary restrictions in the United States In the United States, most states gi ...

was tenderloin steak, french fries, a tossed salad, orange sherbet and whole milk. Upon his request, he was allowed to listen to country music as he was put to death. McKenzie remains the first of only three people to be executed in Montana since the resumption of capital punishment. The others were Terry Allen Langford in 1998 and

David Thomas Dawson David Thomas Dawson (October 20, 1957 – August 11, 2006) was an American convicted murderer who was executed at Montana State Prison in Deer Lodge, Montana. Dawson was executed for the April 1986 murders of the Rodstein family in Billings, Monta ...

in 2006. McKenzie was the only one of the three to be executed involuntarily.

References