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Esecuzione dopo 3 anni
Iniezione letale per assassino a San Quentino in California (ANSA)-SAN QUENTINO,19 GEN-La California ha eseguito oggi la prima condanna alla pena capitale da 3 anni, mettendo a morte con un'iniezione letale Donald Beardslee. L'uomo, condannato per l'uccisione di due giovani donne nel 1981, e' stato messo a morte nel carcere statale di San Quentino, a nord di San Francisco, poche ore dopo che il governatore della California Arnold Schwarzenegger gli aveva negato la grazia. Hanno assistito quattro parenti delle vittime ma nessun familiare di Beardslee, 61 anni.
WEB
Los Angeles, 10:51
PENA MORTE:SCHWARZENEGGER
NEGA GRAZIA,GIUSTIZIATO OMICIDA
Prima esecuzione
capitale in California, dove il boia era
inattivo da tre anni, da quando da quando
questo stato e' governato da Arnold
Schwarzenegger. Il divo hollywoodiano ha negato
in extremis la grazia al sessantunenne Donald
Beardslee, condannato a morte per i brutali
omicidi commessi nel 1981 di due ragazze, la
ventitreenne Patty Geddling e la diciannovenne
Stacey Benjamin.
Convicted Killer Executed in California
By DAVID KRAVETS,
SAN QUENTIN, Calif. - A man convicted of killing two women over a drug deal almost a quarter-century ago was executed early Wednesday, the first inmate put to death by California in three years.
Donald Beardslee, 61, was given a lethal injection at 12:20 a.m. at San Quentin State Prison, about 25 miles north of San Francisco. He was declared dead at 12:29 a.m. Thirty government officials, relatives of his victims and journalists were in the room, separated from Beardslee by a glass partition with curtains.
Outside the prison, an estimated 300 protesters stood vigil, decrying the execution as state-sanctioned murder.
Through one of his attorneys, Beardslee told the protesters "that he wanted known his appreciation for these people's presence," actor and anti-death penalty activist Mike Farrell said, adding that Beardslee "even sent his regards to the people who put the staples in the signs."
The execution came hours after Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger rejected a clemency petition seeking to commute the death sentence to life without parole, and the Supreme Court rejected two last-minute appeals.
Beardslee's lawyers claimed he suffered from brain maladies when he killed Stacey Benjamin, 19, and Patty Geddling, 23, to avenge a soured $185 drug deal.
His two appeals before the Supreme Court included claims that the lethal injection constitutes cruel-and-unusual punishment in violation of the Eighth Amendment, and that jurors were unfairly influenced when they rendered the death verdict.
The court denied his appeals without comment.
Beardslee chose not to have any of his family members witness the execution and hadn't had a family visit for at least the past month.
He spent the hours leading up to the scheduled 12:01 a.m. execution in a waiting room, where he was able to watch television, read and talk to his spiritual adviser. He turned down a last meal, only drinking some grapefruit juice.
Prosecutors have said Beardslee was not a passive, unwitting dupe when he committed the murders, as his lawyers claimed.
They claimed Beardslee helped with the murder plot and sent his roommate to get duct tape to bind the victims before they even arrived at his apartment.
"We are not dealing here with a man who is so generally affected by his impairment that he cannot tell the difference between right and wrong," Schwarzenegger said.
The governor also brushed aside a claim that Beardslee should be spared because he was the only one of the three people convicted in the murders who received a death sentence. The governor noted that Beardslee was the only one on parole at the time for another murder.
Beardslee, a machinist, served seven years in Missouri for murdering a woman whom he met at a St. Louis bar and killed the same evening.
The governor later rejected a request for a 120-day delay of the execution sought by defense lawyers who wanted the time to reopen the case before a federal court.
The last execution in California came on Jan. 29, 2002, when Stephen Wayne Anderson was put to death for shooting an 81-year-old woman in 1980. He was convicted of breaking into the woman's home, shooting her in the face and then fixing himself a dish of noodles in her kitchen.
California has had 10 executions since the state reinstated the death penalty in 1977. More than 600 men are on the state's death row.
A year ago, 2 1/2 months after he took office, Schwarzenegger denied clemency to Kevin Cooper, convicted in the hacking deaths of four people in 1983. Cooper later won a stay of execution from a federal appeals court.
Beardslee Executed After Last Minute Appeals are Denied
After
exhausting every legal avenue in an attempt
to get a postponement, triple murderer
Donald Beardslee was executed by lethal
injection in the first minute of Wednesday
morning.
The 61-year-old Beardslee spent his final
hours talking with Rev. Margaret Harrell, a
spiritual adviser, before being taken into
the execution chamber. He was injected with
three separate drugs just after midnight
and declared dead at 12:29 a.m.
Beardslee declined to order the traditional
last meal and refused the standard prison
dinner, instead sipping grapefruit juice
for much of the day before his execution.
As the scheduled time for the execution
neared, more than 400 death penalty
protesters gathered outside the gates of
San Quentin State Prison. A number of
activists, including actor Mike Farrell,
spoke to the group, calling for an end to
the death penalty.
Attorneys for the 61-year-old Beardslee
(seen above in a Department of Corrections
photo) had petitioned Gov. Arnold
Schwarzenegger for clemency, citing brain
damage as an extenuating factor. On Tuesday
afternoon the governor refused to grant the
request, saying in a written statement that
nothing in Beardsleee's record convinced
him that he "did not understand the gravity
of his actions or that these heinous
murders were wrong."
Shortly after the governor rendered his
decision, a final legal appeal to the U.S.
Supreme Court was denied, essentially
sealing Beardslee's fate.
In the clemency plea, Beardslee's defense
attorneys and supporters claimed the former
machinist suffered brain damage at birth,
which was later aggravated by an automobile
accident and a separate incident in which a
tree fell on him.
The appeal before the U.S. Supreme Court
argued that lethal injection is by nature
cruel and unusual punishment. The defense
team also argued that legal errors during
the sentencing phase of Beardslee's trial
warranted a new trial.
Beardslee was convicted in the 1981 murders
of Patty Geddling, 23, and Stacy Benjamin,
19. He killed Geddling with a shotgun blast
to the face and several hours later slashed
Benjamin's throat. The murders were
conducted at the direction of another man,
Frank Rutherford, who was subsequently
given a life term in prison. Rutherford is
now deceased.
When arrested, Beardslee admitted
committing the two murders and led
investigators to Benjamin's body, which had
been dumped on a hillside in Lake County.
The murders were not the first Beardslee
had committed. In 1969 he stabbed, choked
and ultimately drowned 54-year-old Laura
Griffin in her St. Louis apartment.
Beardslee was arrested and admitted to the
killing. He later pleaded guilty to
second-degree murder and was sentenced to
18 years prison. However, he was paroled in
1977 after serving just eight years.
Beardslee is the 11th inmate executed in
the 27 years since California reinstated
capital punishment. The most recent
previous execution was that of Stephen
Wayne Anderson in January 2002. Anderson
was convicted in the 1980 shooting death of
an 81-year-old woman.
California executes convicted killer Donald Beardslee
SAN QUENTIN, Calif. California has carried out its first execution in three years.
Sixty-one-year-old Donald Beardslee was given a lethal injection early Wednesday at San Quentin State Prison. He was convicted in the 1981 murders of two women over a drug deal gone sour.
Prison officials say Beardslee was calm in his final hours, spending time with his spiritual adviser.
The U-S Supreme Court yesterday rejected a stay and California Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger denied an appeal for clemency.
Beardslee had asked his family to stay away. A prison spokesman says Beardslee he also refused a last meal, drinking some grapefruit juice instead.
About 300 death-penalty opponents gathered outside the prison gates, holding candles and signs. But one person had a sign reading "Bye Bye Beardslee."