From my cold, dead, sticky fingers...
Posted on 09/12/2004 4:58:23 AM PDT by billorites
JARRATT, Va. (AP) — A man who killed an elderly woman with a metal can and a pair of scissors in a drunken attack eight years ago was executed Thursday by injection.
James Edward Reid, 58, was pronounced dead at Greensville Correctional Center at 9:12 p.m.
The intravenous line carrying the lethal dose of drugs was placed in Reid's upper groin because veins in his arms, where IV lines are usually placed, apparently had deteriorated from years of drinking.
It took medical technicians 12 minutes, three times longer than usual, to place the IV lines.
"I forgive you for what you are doing, but I don't forgive you for what you think or what you feel or what you say or what you do," Reid said when asked if he had a final statement. "I forgive you because God has forgiven me."
Reid killed Annie Lester, 87, in her home on Oct. 12, 1996. She was stabbed 22 times with the scissors and struck in the head with a can of condensed milk, according to court documents.
Reid, an alcoholic, was seen leaving the area of Lester's home with blood on his jacket. A witness said he smelled like a "brewery." He was convicted in 1997 of capital murder, attempted rape and attempted robbery.
Earlier Thursday, the Supreme Court rejected Reid's final appeal.
Over the years, his lawyers argued that the state's execution method was unconstitutionally cruel and unusual because it was possible Reid would still be conscious when the last of three drugs was administered, and would suffer pain before he died.
The final appeal objected to the state's plan, if necessary, to place the IV line in Reid's groin. Only Justice John Paul Stevens said he would have voted to hear the appeal, a court spokesman said.
The execution was the 94th in Virginia since the Supreme Court allowed executions to resume in 1976. Only Texas, with 325 executions, has put more people to death since then.
From my cold, dead, sticky fingers...
"The execution was the 94th in Virginia since the Supreme Court allowed executions to resume in 1976. Only Texas, with 325 executions, has put more people to death since then."
Virginia, we Love Ya', but what's the holdup?
Thank you, Old Dominion. Virginia is for lovers -- but not for killers. The world is just a little better place this morning with this beast out of it.
And the same moonbats who support abortion say that this man deserved to live.
WOOHOO! No more tax dollars spent on that joker.
The only benefit I can see from lethal injection is that it creates less of a mess, than say, a firing squad.
I could really care less that these murderers feel pain. Seems pretty inconsistent to me, to think, "I am going to kill you, but I don't want to hurt you."
Also not really concerned if they find "Christ" or plant flowers in the prison yard. They are being executed for what they did to an innocent person X years in the past.
........uh........okay....thanks. Buh bye.
Really.
Kill him for the run-on sentence alone.
This guy was drunk and killed this lady with a can of milk?
Have you ever seen the size of a can of milk. Not very big. And stabbed her 22 times with scissors??? This guy was more than drunk, he was a psycho.
G-Bye!
I aaalwasy felt the stampede to lethal injection was a mistake. First, because it violates years of tradition. Second, because what's another needle in the arm (or the groin) to a druggie? My tagline says it all.
I suppose the lawyers now want a fourth method of execution to be introduced? Wasn't it activists and lawyers who screamed for an alternative to the electric chair and the gas chamber because they considered those cruel and unusual? So the states authorized lethal injection and inmates got their choice of demise. Now, what's the problem?
I say we should execute people with the same method that they used for murder. In this case, he should have been bashed in the head with a can and then stabbed to death with a pair of scissors. Yes, it would take forever ... but it would be horribly painful and SLOW.
If a death row prisoner truly found Christ, he would be confronted of his own sin to the extent that he would not duck his sentence.
Right to carry and executions. Proud to be from Virginia.
BINGO!!!
Ok, Mr. Grammarian, give us a word that rhymes with orange and we let you live. Can't think of one? Ok, bye.
Here's another example of "Great thoughts from the criminal mind".
This statement is from 21-year-old Nahum Stallings. Stallings and fellow "homeboy" Marvin L. Hatcher, were convicted of beating and robbing a handicapped man. Stallings had sodomized two children earlier on in his life of crime and yet still had the nerve to utter this garbage at his sentencing.
“I apologize to you with all my heart, even though just saying that will never heal the pain I have caused you,” Stallings said. “I realize I will be in jail with criminals, but I am no criminal. I have grown as a person to know that partying and acting with the wrong people is not who I am and not who I want to be.”
You can read more about Stallings & Hatcher here.
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