First Execution in 60 Years... About Time

http://www.cnn.com/2007/US/07/12/sd.execution.ap/index.html
http://www.rapidcityjournal.com/

Elijah Page executed
Mother of slain teen says Page got ultimate penalty for the ultimate crime
By Katie Brown, Journal staff
SIOUX FALLS -- Death-row inmate Elijah Page showed no remorse or emotion as he was put to death by lethal injection Wednesday shortly after 10 p.m. CDT, witnesses said.

Page made no last statement. When asked by state penitentiary warden Doug Weber if he had any last words, Page responded with a calm but direct, "No."

Weber asked again, "Do I understand you have no last words?"

Page responded, "Yes, no last words."

Witnesses said as the drugs began to flow, Page stayed calm, his mouth closed and his eyes open.

"I couldn't see any emotion at all," media witness Carson Walker of the Associated Press said.

Page, 25, of Athens, Texas, was pronounced dead at 10:11 p.m., just nine minutes after officials at the state penitentiary in Sioux Falls began administering the three drugs that would end his life.

Page was sentenced to death in 2001 in Lawrence County for the brutal murder of 19-year-old Chester Allan Poage in March 2000 in Higgins Gulch near Spearfish.

"Mr. Page has paid with his life for the crime he committed," Lawrence County State's Attorney John Fitzgerald said.

Fitzgerald prosecuted the case and witnessed Page's death.

"His debt to the state of South Dakota is now paid in full," Fitzgerald said.

Page pleaded guilty to the crime, and 4th Circuit Judge Warren Johnson sentenced him to death.

Briley Piper, 26, of Anchorage, Alaska, also pleaded guilty to Poage's murder and was also sentenced to death. Darrell Hoadley, 27, of Lead stood trial and was sentenced by a jury to life in prison.

Poage's mother, Dottie Poage, witnessed the execution and complimented Fitzgerald and Johnson for their work on the case.

This was the first execution in South Dakota in 60 years and the state's first by lethal injection. The last execution in the state was in April 1947, when George Sitts was executed in the electric chair for murdering a law-enforcement officer.

Page was originally scheduled to be executed last August, but Gov. Mike Rounds halted that execution just hours before it was to take place.

Rounds said he delayed the execution because Page was scheduled to be put to death with a three-drug cocktail although state law required the use of two drugs. A new law, allowing the use of three drugs, went into effect last week.

The three-drug cocktail is the more commonly accepted method of lethal injection in the United States because it is believed to be more humane.

That was the method used Wednesday night to end Page's life.

Walker and Rapid City Journal reporter Bill Harlan, who also witnessed the execution, said the procedure went smoothly and quickly.

They said that, for Page, the execution appeared to be over in a matter of seconds after the lethal injections were administered at 10:02 p.m.

After the drugs began flowing, Page closed his eyes, issued three small gasps and went silent. "It was very much like a snore," Harlan said. "And that was it."

Only 31 minutes elapsed from the time Page left his holding cell to the time he was pronounced dead.

Several demonstrators -- both for and against the death penalty -- were set up in a grassy area at the penitentiary for most of Wednesday. The day was sunny and other than members of the media and the demonstrators, the prison grounds were calm.

In the hour before the execution, as the sun went down and the sky got pink behind the razor wire of the penitentiary, the demonstrators and media members grew quiet for a few moments in anticipation.

Page ate his last meal about 6 p.m.

Nearly four hours later, he was taken from a holding cell and strapped to the procedure table where intravenous lines were inserted into each of his arms. Curtains to the witness rooms were opened exactly at 10 p.m.

Page's body was taken to Sanford Health, where an autopsy will be conducted Thursday.

Michael Winder, state Department of Corrections information manager, said that is standard procedure whenever a penitentiary inmate dies of natural causes or otherwise.

State law says an inmate's body is to be turned over to family members for funeral services they choose.

If family members decline, the body will be buried in the county where the execution took place.

A certificate of Page's death, signed by all witnesses to the execution, must be filed with the Lawrence County Clerk of Courts within 10 days.

 

hell, we execute someone everyday here in Texas

 

Indeed you do, at the WALL in Huntsville...

 

"The three-drug cocktail is the more commonly accepted method of lethal injection in the United States because it is believed to be more humane."


What humanity was shown to his victim?

Sorry, no pity for him.

 

I would much more have preferred the old hemp rope and slip knot method. Absolutely just as effective when done properly.

 

Preferably, do unto him what he did to his victim.
If a slow torture-- he should get the same.

He showed no pity, why should we.
However, with the ridiculous number of people who are being freed due to DNA evidence proving that they were wrongfully convicted, we do have to be very careful that he off the correct guy.

That said, we got him? Gut him.

 

Publicly Hung, Drawn, and Quartered...

 

whatever gets the job done...I dont look to lower society to the level of a muderer...if they go to sleep and never wake up...I am fine with that...

 

While I don't think capital punishment is unjust, I don't favor it.

 

The ultimate deterrent

 

There are executions daily in America - not surprsing in land of gun culture and "Dirty Harry". Congratulations America - in good company, countries like Iran, China, Libya.

 

You do know that Russia retains the death penalty right? although it hasnt been used in some time...its still an option there...109 countries still employ capital punishment (Including Russia)...88 have abolished it out right.

why do you hate america so much? Do you honestly think Russia is somehow superior? Is it because you lost the cold war? because you governmnet is mafia? Your military is lucky when it gets paid? bitter maybe? Do you resent our freedoms? why I ask...

 

Actually it's pretty well established that capital punishment doesn't deter crime at all.

 

Yeah.

 

Wait, I thought you were in favor of prohibition against hemp...

 

What! And put you ozark ridge-runners out of business?

 

We'll see who win Cold War, fat lady not sing yet.

I don't hate America, I love the country and people, just not so much like hypocrisy. See Russia not go around tell everybody how to run country(maybe in 1980's, but not now) I just hold America because of all good thing about it, above the rest of world. So see, nobody should have death penalty, not Russia - not America.

And want to compare governments, yes Russia ruled by oligarchs, but so is your country. Halliburton, Exxon, we know who control government. Halliburton is company used be run by Dick(less) Cheney, and they get many profitable contracts of Iraq.

I challenge you of question things of Russia, it okay, but know about America too. I know how it run in both places.

 

LMAO!!! That was actually a good one oldguy.