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PIERRE, South Dakota (AP) -- The first execution of a South Dakota prison inmate in 59 years was abruptly stopped after the governor said the law concerning lethal injection protocols was outdated.
Gov. Mike Rounds issued a reprieve Tuesday for 24-year-old Elijah Page hours before Page was scheduled to be put to death. The move now puts the question about the statute before state legislators.
Rounds and Attorney General Larry Long said that a 1984 law requires the state to use two drugs to kill a condemned person -- but prison officials planned to use the standard three-drug combination used by other states that administer lethal injections.
"I will not have the individuals responsible for carrying out this execution to be placed in a position to where they would be or could be in violation of a state statute in the carrying out of an execution," Rounds said.
Also Tuesday, Oklahoma inmate Eric Allen Patton was executed at Oklahoma State Penitentiary for the 1994 murder of 56-year-old Charlene Kauer.
The South Dakota reprieve lasts until July 1, 2007. That would give lawmakers time during the next legislative session to review the law and bring it into line.
Rounds said he learned of the legal problem last week after reading an August 14 transcript of a competency hearing for Page. Another death row inmate also raised the issue in June as part of his appeal.
Rounds said he asked for a review by state Attorney General Larry Long, who didn't report back until Tuesday afternoon -- about five hours before the planned execution.
Page, who murdered Chester Allan Poage of Spearfish in 2000, had given up his appeals and volunteered to be executed.
Page and two other young men killed Poage in the Black Hills so that there would be no witness to the theft of a Chevy Blazer, stereo, television, coin collection, video game and other items from the victim's home.
As Poage begged for his life, the three men made him take off most of his clothes and forced him into an icy creek. They stabbed him repeatedly, kicked him in the head 30 to 40 times, tearing his ears off, and then bashed him with large rocks. He was also forced to drink a combination of drain cleaner and beer. The torture lasted at least two hours.
Page and Briley Piper, 25, pleaded guilty, and a judge sentenced them to die. The third man, Darrell Hoadley, 26, was convicted and sentenced to life in prison with no parole.
Page's case was unusual because a judge, not a jury, imposed the death sentence, he had asked to die, and because of his age. Death penalty groups said only seven people younger than 25 had been executed in the United States since the U.S. Supreme Court allowed capital punishment to resume in 1976. The last execution in South Dakota was in 1947.
In Oklahoma, Patton had sued to stop the execution, arguing that inmates may be subjected to pain during lethal injections. A federal judge rejected that argument, but the state Department of Corrections revised its procedure to deliver a larger dose of anesthesia before the fatal drugs were administered.
Kauer's husband found her dead in the kitchen when he arrived to pick her up for some Christmas shopping. A barbecue fork and a pair of scissors were left protruding from her chest.
Patton was pronounced dead at 6:10 p.m. (7:10 p.m. ET)
"I've had a good life here on earth," Patton said. "It's been a blessing. It's been a blast."
| Gov. abruptly halts state's first execution in 59 years | Log-in or register a new user account | 0 Comments |
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