Sept. 9
VIRGINIA----execution
Virginia Executes Man for Killing Elderly Woman
An alcoholic, brain-damaged man who stabbed an elderly woman to death with
a pair of scissors in 1996 was executed in Virginia on Thursday night.
James Edward Reid, 58, was executed by injection at the Greensville
Correctional Center and pronounced dead at 9:12 p.m., said Larry Traylor,
spokesman for the Virginia Department of Corrections.
He was sentenced to death for the Oct. 12, 1996, murder of Annie Lester, a
Christiansburg resident who was believed to be in her late 80s, during an
attempted robbery or attempted rape. Lester was stabbed 22 times and
beaten in the head with a can of condensed milk.
Reid's appeals in recent months alleged the use of lethal injection could
violate his constitutional protection against cruel and unusual
punishment.
His execution was stayed by the U.S. Supreme Court last December. However,
the justices lifted the stay in August and on Thursday they rejected
Reid's most recent request for an injunction.
According to court records, Reid was in an automobile accident in 1968 and
suffered a serious head injury. He was in a coma for at least 5 days.
Afterward he suffered from a seizure disorder.
In addition to the brain injury and seizures, Reid was also affected by
alcoholism, noted an opinion from the 4th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals.
Reid was a spree drinker who drank to excess once a month when he received
his disability check.
Shortly after the slaying, witnesses saw a drunken Reid, his clothes
covered with blood, in the vicinity of the victim's home where he had been
doing chores earlier in the day. A DNA test showed it was her blood on his
clothes and he left bloody fingerprints on her telephone.
In a final statement, he said: "I forgive you for what you are doing but I
don't forgive you for what you think, or for what you feel, or what you
say, or what you do. I forgive you because God has forgiven me."
Reid becomes the 5th condemned inmate to be put to death this year in
Virginia and the 94th overall since the state resumed capital punishment
in 1982. Virginia trails only Texas (325) in the number of executions
carried out since the death penalty was re-legalized in America on July 2,
1976.
Reid becomes the 43rd condemned inmate to be put to death this year in the
USA and the 928th overall since America resumed executions on January 17,
1977.
(sources: Reuters & Rick Halperin)
