Posted on 10/08/2004 5:03:28 AM PDT by Michael Goldsberry
RALEIGH, N.C. - A death row inmate was executed early Friday for the 1992 rape and slaying of a 7-year-old girl.
Sammy Crystal Perkins, 51, died after the Supreme Court issued two orders Thursday to clear the way. By a 5-4 vote, justices turned down a defense request to leave a stay in place so Perkins could contest the state's lethal injection execution method. The decision was unanimous to reject a defense request to reverse state court rulings against Perkins on the issue of whether improper evidence was allowed during his trial.
Perkins' lawyers also asked Gov. Mike Easley to spare their client's life, arguing his trial was marred by jury discussions of the case before formal deliberations began. They also said Perkins' mental illness wasn't fully presented to the jury because of poor testimony by a defense expert.
Perkins was convicted for the rape and killing of Lashenna "Jo Jo" Moore, his girlfriend's granddaughter in Pitt County.
Perkins' execution was in doubt after U.S. District Court Judge Terrence Boyle issued an order last week allowing Perkins to pursue a lawsuit that challenged the method of execution by injection.
A physician said in an affidavit filed with Boyle's court that an autopsy of an executed inmate showed low amounts of an anesthetic in his blood and that he may have felt pain before he was pronounced dead.
That stay was later upheld by a federal appeals court, before Thursday's Supreme Court ruling.
Perkins' execution was the first by the state since January. Attorney General Roy Cooper effectively put executions on hold last spring while the Supreme Court decided an Alabama case challenging a form of lethal injection sometimes used by the state as cruel and unusual punishment.
The high court cleared the way for the Alabama execution in late May, after which a spokeswoman for Cooper said the state would resume efforts to carry out lethal injections.
The state Department of Correction says it has changed its protocol for executions since the last execution to give more of the anesthetic. But Central Prison Warden Marvin Polk said he has never seen signs of suffering in 19 executions he has attended.
He felt alot less pain then the little girl he murdered.
Ofcourse, he is feeling alot more pain now.
The only thing that disappoints me here is that they didn't use the "hung by nuts until dead" execution method.
Hey, where's the obligatory story about what he had for his last meal and what a sensitive, loving Christian he had become as a result of this unfortunate incident? Aren't they required to mention the guy who was executed in 1994 who might not actually have done those 4 muders and how he never did finish high school? What, have they got some new, untrained lefties at this paper?
I am a strong proponent of public execution as a deterrent to crime.
March them out of the courthouse, up the steps, put the rope around the neck, and drop the floor out from under them.
Televise it on the local news and let all the potential criminals see what can happen to them if they get caught.
I feel we are coddling criminals too much...they live better in prison than they can afford to live on the outside. Prison is supposed to be punishment, not a resort.
Nice job, NC! Made my weekend. Good riddance, scumbag.
Amen!
Imagine crying about lethal injection as being cruel and unusual punishment when all you do is fall asleep.
It shows the real agenda is ending the death penalty.
Ditto
Twelve years is way too long to wait. I think that ALL the reasons for an appeal should be filed within 6 months of conviction.
100% with you on that.
Well DONE NC!
Burn in HELL for eternity you scumbag! WE are BETTER off WITHOUT you breathing our air.
Good -- he's dead. I could most certainly find it in my heart and actions to push the needle on each and every adult who abuses, harms, tortures, seduces, molests, hurts, murders any child. No quibbling whatsoever in my conscience on this.
Where in the Constitution, US, or North Carolina does it say that the executed are not supposed to feel pain?
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