ST. LOUIS (USA), 10 APR - Un uomo di 36 anni condannato per omicidio, e' stato messo a morte oggi con un'iniezione letale nella prigione di Potosi: lo ha annunciato l'amministrazione carceraria dello stato americano del Missouri.

   L'uomo, Paul Kreutzer, era stato condannato a morte per l'omicidio - avvenuto nel 1992 - di una vicina di casa.

Missouri man executed by injection for a 1992 rape and murder

Apr 10 2002

By JOE STANGE,

 POTOSI, Missouri - A man convicted of raping and murdering a woman 10 years ago was executed by injection early Wednesday after losing a round of last-minute appeals.

 Paul Kreutzer was the fourth inmate put to death by Missouri this year and the 55th since the state's death penalty was reinstated in 1989.

 His fate was sealed after the U.S. Supreme Court (news - web sites) rejected his application for a stay of execution and Missouri Gov. Bob Holden declined to grant executive clemency.

 Kreutzer was convicted of raping and murdering Louise Ann Hemphill at her northeast Missouri home on Sept. 2, 1992.

 The autopsy showed that Hemphill's skull had been shattered with a baseball bat, her throat had been cut and she had been strangled with a belt. Her body was discovered by her daughters, Janie and Jessica, when they got home from school.

 Witnesses saw Kreutzer's car near the Hemphill home. Possessions belonging to Louise Hemphill were found in his car when he was arrested that night.

 Kreutzer, 30, had said he could not have killed Hemphill because he was across the Mississippi River committing two burglaries in rural Illinois at the time of the killing. The alibi is a recent change from the 10-year-old defense put forth by his lawyers: that he is guilty but should not be executed because of mental defects caused by a childhood of horrific abuse.

 Among the abuse allegations made against his adopted parents: that he was physically abused; that he was forced to drink his own urine after wetting his bed; that he was told to have sexual relations with a cow as punishment for a sexual fixation on his younger sister; and that he was chained to his bed as punishment for having sex with the animal.