Missouri
Executes Killer of Elderly Woman And Son
POTOSI,
Mo. - A Missouri man who murdered an elderly woman and her son
during a robbery at their home was put to death early Wednesday,
nine months after his partner in the crime was executed. Tomas
Ervin, 50, died at 12:04 a.m. CST after being injected with a
lethal combination of drugs at the Potosi Correctional Center in
Missouri. Ervin and accomplice Bert Hunter both were sentenced to
death for killing 75-year-old Mildred Hodges and her 49-year-old
son Richard Hodges in a home invasion and robbery attempt.
Missouri executed Hunter on June 28, 2000. Authorities said the
two men were on a cross-country robbery spree when they broke into
the Hodges' Jefferson City home December 15, 1988. Richard Hodges
pleaded with the men not to harm his mother, who was recovering
from heart surgery. But Ervin and Hunter bound the hands and feet
of the woman and her son and then suffocated them with plastic
bags placed over their heads, authorities said. Ervin protested
his innocence and sought to overturn his death sentence. After a
last meal of steak, shrimp, and corn, he made a final statement
attacking the system that put him to death: ``When the courts of
this nation refused to afford a condemned prisoner the opportunity
to prove that he is actually innocent of the crimes for which he
stands condemned, the capital punishment system is broken,'' Ervin
said. ``The courts refused me that opportunity and so tonight ...
the state of Missouri executes an innocent man.'' Ervin was the
second man executed this year in Missouri, and the 48th put to
death in Missouri since capital punishment was reinstated here in
1989. scheduled execution on March 6 of 26-year-old Antonio
Richardson was halted by a U.S. Supreme Court (news - web sites)
ruling. The high court ordered a stay of execution to evaluate
arguments about whether or not it is constitutional to apply the
death penalty to mentally retarded individuals.
|