USA, ESECUZIONE CONDANNATO PER ASSASSINIO 15ENNE

22/A ESECUZIONE DEL 2002 IN TEXAS, LO STATO DI GEORGE W. BUSH

NEW YORK,  - Un uomo condannato per lo stupro e l'uccisione di una ragazza di 15 anni ha ricevuto l'iniezione letale nel penitenziario di Huntsville, nello Stato del Texas.

Gary Etheridge e' stato la 22/a persona messa a morte in Texas dall'inizio dell'anno.

Etheridge era stato riconosciuto colpevole dell'assassinio di Christi Chauviere nel 1990, una ragazzina di 15 anni uccisa sotto gli occhi della madre. L'uomo avrebbe dovuto morire in giugno ma l'esecuzione era stata rinviata perche' i suoi legali si erano lamentati che il giudice che aveva firmato la sentenza di morte lo aveva chiamato ''un pezzo di spazzatura''.

Il caso era stato quindi trasferito a un altro giudice che aveva firmato l'ordine di esecuzione. 

TEXAS - Killer of Brazoria County girl executed

 Convicted killer Gary Wayne Etheridge was executed in the Texas death chamber this evening for the fatal stabbing of a 15-year-old Brazoria County girl more than a dozen years ago while the then-paroled burglar said he was high on drugs.

 Etheridge, 38, acknowledged knifing the girl's mother, who hired him as a maintenance worker despite knowing his criminal past, but said he wasn't responsible for killing Christie Chauviere at her Brazoria County home.

 "I've been a criminal all my life," Etheridge said from death row. "I was there. I done wrong and I feel responsible but I did not kill the girl."

 The U.S. Supreme Court, without comment, refused today to stop the punishment. His appeals attorneys had argued in appeals that earlier lawyers did not provide him competent help.

 It was the second time in recent months the former maintenance man prepared for death.

 A day before Etheridge was scheduled to die in June, the Texas Court of Criminal Appeals halted the punishment after his attorneys complained the judge who signed his death warrant once called him "a piece of trash" and was biased against Etheridge.

 A new judge was assigned to his case and reset the execution date for Tuesday.

 Etheridge, with a history of theft and burglary convictions, was on parole for about 6 weeks after serving part of a 10-year term for burglary when he showed up at the home of Gail Chauviere.

 Chauviere had given him a job at a condominium she managed near Surfside, about 60 miles south of Houston. Etheridge said he demanded money "to fill a hole for drugs" and he knew the woman carried in a bag some cash received from tenants.

 When Chauviere resisted, she was stabbed. Her daughter, Christie, also was assaulted and fatally stabbed with a knife.

 "I never intended to hurt everyone," Etheridge said. "I cut and stabbed Gail with a little bitty pocket knife."

 Etheridge, who started using cocaine at age 17, said he probably was high on drugs at the time and she fought as he tried to put the woman in a closet.

 "She kicked me and it hurt," he said.

Etheridge drove off in the woman's car. A neighbor found Chauviere, seriously wounded with at least 30 stab sounds, and her daughter. The girl had been bound with a telephone cord and fatally stabbed several times in the chest. The high school freshman also had been sexually abused with an object.

 Five days later, after wrecking the car in Mobile, Ala., Etheridge was arrested while hitchhiking south of Houston. He told police he was heading back to Brazoria County to turn himself in, apologized to the arresting officer for killing the girl and gave a written statement that he committed the murder.

 In a death row interview, Etheridge blamed the slaying on a companion.

 "I was not alone," he said. "I'm not an innocent person by any means, but I did not kill Christie."

 At his trial, however, Gail Chauviere identified him as the lone attacker.

 "We were very fortunate to have a surviving eyewitness," said Jim Mapel, who prosecuted Etheridge. "This little girl's mother was cut to ribbons."

 Authorities said Etheridge discovered where the woman lived because a week before the attack, Chauviere and her daughter called him over to give him a puppy. Chauviere died years later of a liver disease believed related to injuries suffered in the assault.

 Another execution is set for next week. A Dallas man, Toronto Patterson, was scheduled to die Aug. 28 for killing a 3-year-old Dallas girl in a shooting rampage that also claimed the lives of the girl's mother and a 6-year-old sister. Patterson was 17 at the time of the crime.

 Etheridge becomes the 22nd condemned inmate to be put to death this year in Texas, the 4th this month, and the 278th overall since the state resumed capital punishment on December 7, 1982. Texas, which executed a record 40 condemned individuals in 2000, already has 11 more execution dates set between now and the end of the year.

 Etheridge becomes the 44th condemned in mate to be put to death this year in the USA and the 793rd overall since America resumed executions on January 17, 1977.