PENA MORTE: USA; NORD CAROLINA, ESEGUITA CONDANNA KILLER

 WASHINGTON, 06 DIC - Un killer prezzolato e' stato messo a morte all'alba di oggi, nella Nord Carolina, poco dopo che il governatore dello Stato aveva respinto la sua richiesta

di grazia.

Ernest Basden ha ricevuto un'iniezione letale: nel 1992, aveva ucciso su commessione e aveva poi confessato il suo delitto.

L'assassino, con precedenti per droga e alcool, era diventato in prigione un detenuto modello, aveva sviluppato un sentimento religioso cristiano e aveva recentemente detto che sperava nella grazia per potere aiutare altre persone.

In una dichiarazione, prima di essere a morte, Basden s'e' detto pentito per il suo delitto e ha chiesto perdono. 

Nelle prossime ore, e' prevista, in Florida, l'esecuzione di un'altra sentenza capitale: Linroy Bottoson, che sequestro' e uccise un dipendente postale nel 1979, sara' messo a morte con un'iniezione letale.

06-DIC 2002

North Carolina man executed for murder of insurance agent

 In Raleigh, a man who killed a North Carolina insurance agent a decade ago as part of a murder-for-hire scheme was executed by injection early Friday.

 Ernest Basden, 49, was put to death hours after Gov. Mike Easley denied his request for clemency, despite pleas from relatives and defense lawyers to spare his life. Basden was convicted of shooting Billy White to death in 1992.

 In an interview Tuesday, Basden said he was sorry for what he had done. He said he had become a Christian after being locked up, was a leader in prison services and believed he could help other prisoners if his life was spared.

 "I'm very sorry for their loss," Basden said of White's family. "If there was any way at all I could undo it I surely would."

 Authorities said White's wife paid to have her husband murdered. The insurance agent was killed when his wife, Basden and Basden's nephew lured him to a deserted Jones County logging road, authorities say. Basden shot White twice with a shotgun.

 Basden becomes the 1st condemned inmate to be put to death this year in North Carolina and the 22nd overall since the state resumed capital punishment in 1984.

 Basden becomes the 63rd condemned inmate to be put to death this year in the USA and the 812th overall since America resumed executions on January 17, 1977.