Double murderer Kenneth Lee Boyd became the 1,000th prisoner executed in the United States since the reinstatement of capital punishment when he was put to death by lethal injection on Friday.
The execution drew global attention because of its symbolism since the U.S. Supreme Court allowed the death penalty to be brought back in 1976 after a nine-year unofficial moratorium.
It helped spur renewed debate over U.S. capital punishment, and came on a day that executions in Singapore and Saudi Arabia also sparked international concerns.
"God bless everybody in here," Boyd said in his last words to witnesses from the death chamber at Central Prison in North Carolina's state capital, Raleigh.
Boyd, who was 57, was a Vietnam War veteran with a history of alcohol abuse. He was executed for killing his wife and father-in-law in 1988, in front of two of his children.
"This 1,000th execution is a milestone, a milestone we should all be ashamed of," his lawyer Thomas Maher said.
With polls showing that a declining majority of the American public backs the death penalty, the White House reiterated U.S. President George W. Bush's support.
"The president strongly supports the death penalty because he believes ultimately it helps save innocent lives," White House spokesman Scott McClellan told reporters.
Bush is a former governor of Texas, which has accounted for 355 of the 1,000 executions -- more than three times as many as any other state.
Boyd was wheeled into the death chamber, strapped to a gurney and injected with a fatal mix of three drugs.
He seemed "sort of resigned," said witness Elyse Ashburn.
No comments:
Post a Comment