USA, ESECUZIONE IN ALABAMA

WASHINGTON, - Un uomo, condannato a morte per avere assassinato quattro persone durante una rapina in un distributore di benzina nel 1984, e' stato messo a morte ad Altmore, in Alabama.

L'uomo, Jerry Fortenberry e' stato ucciso, nella notte tra giovedi' e venerdi', con una iniezione letale nel carcere Holman di Altmore.

Fortenberry aveva ucciso, nella rapina, il figlio del proprietario della stazione di servizio, un dipendente e due clienti.

ALABAMA: Fortenberry executed by lethal injection for murder of 4

Tommy Jerry Fortenberry died in silence Thursday evening for the murders almost 19 years ago of 4 people shot down during a robbery at an Attalla service station.

"No last words" Fortenberry said seconds before he was administered the first of three different drugs that comprised a lethal injection that took his life in the death chamber at Holman prison. Fortenberry, 39, was pronounced dead at 6:16 p.m.

As the execution began at 6 p.m., Fortenberry lay mostly still on a white gurney in the stark white execution chamber. He said nothing else, but motioned twice to his spiritual adviser, Ben Sherrod of Kairos Prison Ministry, and another witness, showing them the international hand sign for "I love you."

Fortenberry nodded several times to the witnesses, but mostly lay still as the color slowly drained from his face. After a few minutes, his eyes closed and his chin quivered several times. Finally, he was still. There were no sounds in the death chamber.

"Punishment is not in the dying. It's in the 19 years of hell he's lived through," Sherrod said quietly as the curtain on the window separating the witness room from the death chamber was pulled shut, indicating that Fortenberry was dead.

12 family members of the 4 victims of the Aug. 25, 1984 shootings at Guest Service Station in Attalla sat in another witness room during the execution.

Freda Andrews, whose 29-year-old sister, Nancy Payne, was shot as she tried to run for help after watching her husband and 2 others die, said she couldn't look at Fortenberry during the execution.

"I chose not to watch. This has been such a traumatic experience. The last 5 days I have just been sick," she said. "I feel that justice was completed today."

The execution was carried out after Fortenberry's appeals to the U.S. Supreme Court and the Alabama Supreme Court were rejected.

Fortenberry was convicted and sentenced to die for the deaths of the station owner's son, Mike Guest, 21, store clerk Wilbur Nelson, 51, and customers Bobby Payne, 43, and his wife, Nancy, 29, who had come to the station to buy soft drinks and cigarettes.

Bobby Payne's son, David, after watching the execcution, said he believed justice was done, but feels sorry for Fortenberry's mother, Betty Fortenberry.

"I know she's got sorrow. She knows what we've felt for the last 19 years," David Payne said.

One of Fortenberry's attorneys, Jim McGlaughn of Gadsden, said he felt Fortenberry lost his best chance to stop the execution when Gov. Bob Riley turned down a request for clemency. Riley declined to stop the execution a day after his legal adviser, Troy King, held a clemency hearing.

The appeal to the Supreme Court was based partly on the fact that Riley did not personally attend the clemency hearing.

Fortenberry had been on death row for 17 years and in recent years was housed at Donaldson prison in Jefferson County. He was transferred to Holman on July 3 and moved into a holding cell inside the concrete block building that houses the death chamber.

Department of Corrections spokesman Brian Corbett said Fortenberry declined to eat breakfast, then was moved to a visitation area at about 8:30 a.m. and spent the day meeting with family members, including his parents, Betty and Jerry Fortenberry.

Corbett said Fortenberry ate his last meal from vending machines while visiting with his family. Fortenberry had earlier said he wouldn't mind eating shrimp, but that it wasn't available from the prison cafeteria.

He spent the last hour or so of his life in the holding cell, talking with Sherrod.

"We had a very good visit," Sherrod said.

Fortenberry, 20 at the time of the murders, told police he needed money because of a gambling habit and was robbing Nelson at gunpoint when Guest tried to talk him into giving up his weapon and the Paynes drove up to the station, according to trial testimony and evidence at the clemency hearing.

Fortenberry told police he shot Guest and Payne outside the station, returned inside to shoot Nelson, and then fired what he called a "pot" shot at Nancy Payne, who was trying to run for help. Fortenberry later claimed he was at the station, but another man shot the 4 victims.

Fortenberry becomes the 3rd condemned inmate to be put to death this year in Alabama and the 28th overall since the state resumed capital punishement on April 22, 1983.

Fortenberry becomes the 51st condemned inmate to be put to death this year in the USA and the 871st overall since America resumed executions on January 17, 1977.