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NORTH CAROLINA - Execution - John H. Rose put to death

The state executed John Hardy Rose, 43, early today for the 1991 murder of a young woman who was his neighbor in the Graham County seat of Robbinsville. Gov. Mike Easley refused to grant clemency despite an appeal last week from Pope John Paul II.

 Rose died at 2:18 a.m. from a lethal injection administered in the death chamber at Central Prison. Among the witnesses were his mother and 2 sisters plus the mother, 2 aunts and sister of Rose's victim, Patricia Stewart.

 Rose's court appeals were exhausted 2 months ago, and he directed his lawyer not to pursue clemency.

 Rose's family, from Robbinsville and Bryson City, spent Thursday with him at the prison.

 As regularly occurs on evenings of executions, a group of people opposed to capital punishment marched from a local church to the gates of the massive prison on Western Boulevard for a peaceful candlelit protest.

 Rose received the death penalty for killing Stewart, 24, on Jan. 3, 1991, in her Robbinsville apartment, which was directly below the one in which Rose was living. This week, Stewart's family said she was rebuilding her life after a divorce and "wanted to prove to the world that she could live by herself," said her aunt, Lee Vonda Riddle.

 Upon his mother's urging that he confess, Rose led police to Stewart's body, which he had set on fire before he buried it in a shallow grave on a mountain.

 Stewart's family, also in Robbinsville, drove to Raleigh on Monday to speak with Easley at Rose's clemency hearing Tuesday. They said they considered the death penalty a just punishment for Rose, but they expressed compassion for his family.

 Eloise Pace visited her son this week for the 3rd time since he was sent to death row, and she said he was at peace with his fate. In his 10 years at Central Prison, she said, her son repeatedly had tried to write to Stewart's family of his remorse, but he could not put his feelings on paper.

 "Then he finally prayed about it, and the words just come to him," Pace said.

 Pace and Rose's sisters, Ulayla Odom and Betty Rose, said they were appreciative of the pope's appeal and for writers to local editorial pages who asked for Rose's life to be spared.

 "I'm not trying to make what he did right, because it was horrible," Pace said. "But I don't see how this will help [Stewart's family]."

 Pope John Paul II made his appeal to Easley, a Roman Catholic, last week. It was the 1st time the pontiff had spoken up in a North Carolina case, although he has asked for mercy for death-row inmates elsewhere.

 Rose's upbringing was poverty-stricken and brutal. His alcoholic father beat his mother routinely and forced an 11-year-old Rose to have sex with his mistresses. As an adult, Rose married and had 3 sons, but he took up a drug and alcohol habit and served a prison sentence in Mississippi for attempted rape.

 In his court appeals, Rose argued that he had been badly defended at his trial. One lawyer was fresh out of law school, and the other had been retired for several years after a career in the district attorney's office. Neither learned that a doctor had diagnosed Rose with severe mental illness while he was imprisoned in Mississippi.

 Rose's lawyer, Michael Minsker of Charlotte, said Rose's 3 sons had wanted to come from their homes in Oklahoma to be with their father this week, but Rose had forbidden it.

 Rose becomes the 5th condemned inmate to be put to death in North Carolina this year and the 21st overall since the state resumed capital punishment in 1984.

 Rose becomes the 62nd condemned inmate to be put to death this year in the USA and the 745th overall since America resumed executions on January 17, 1977. 

Governor decides against clemency for condemned man

 Gov. Mike Easley on Thursday decided not to grant clemency for a convicted murderer, even after a plea from Pope John Paul II to spare the man's life.

 John Hardy Rose, 43, was scheduled to die by injection at 2 a.m. Friday in the Central Prison death chamber.

 He was convicted of 1st-degree murder in the 1991 death of Patricia Stewart, who lived below him in his Robbinsville apartment building. Rose told investigators she was a girlfriend who threatened to file rape charges if he left her, but Stewart's family and prosecutors said Rose was a stalker.

 Rose visited his mother and other relatives Thursday as he waited for his execution after refusing to ask the governor for clemency. He also had a last meal.

 Rose's legal appeals are exhausted and he told his lawyer not to ask Easley for clemency. But the case took a turn when Pope John Paul II asked Easley -- who is Catholic -- to spare Rose's life via a letter written by the Vatican ambassador to the United States.

 On Thursday night, the governor said he saw no convincing reason to grant clemency for Rose.