High court upholds stay for convicted killer
The U.S. Supreme Court agreed Thursday to postpone the execution of a man who
beat, strangled and fatally stabbed an elderly woman in her bedroom in 1996,
giving James Edward Reid a reprieve less than 3 hours before he was scheduled
to die.
The high court declined a request by the state to overturn a stay of execution granted by the 4th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals to the 57-year-old Reid on Wednesday.
Reid was sentenced to die for the murder, attempted rape and attempted robbery of 87-year-old Annie Mae Lester in 1996.
The Supreme Court agreed with the appeals court that the execution should not take place until the high court resolves the case of an Alabama inmate whose vascular system is so damaged that prison officials say they must give him the lethal injection in an unconventional way that involves cutting tissue. His lawyers argued that the method is cruel and unusual punishment.
Reid's attorneys said Virginia prison officials have not been able to access a vein in Reid's arm and planned to give the injection in a similarly unusual manner.
Virginia Attorney General Jerry Kilgore's office opposed the delay and had asked the high court to overturn the appeals court's ruling.
Kilgore spokesman Tim Murtaugh said Thursday night that he was disappointed in the delay. The Alabama case likely won't be decided until June, lawyers said.
"As always, our first thoughts are for Annie Lester--Reid's innocent victim, and for her family and friends," Murtaugh said. "We continue to believe that the punishment imposed by the court fits the horrible crime Reid committed and to which he pleaded guilty."
Also on Thursday, the high court denied Reid's lawyers' request to hear the case. The Virginia Supreme Court also denied an appeal, which argued that Reid had incompetent representation during his 1997 trial.
Defense attorney James Turk Jr. said he was pleased the stay had been granted and upheld, but disappointed that the other appeals were rejected. He said Reid was relieved at the decision, but has accepted that the matter is out of his hands.
Still, Turk said, "He doesn't feel like he should be executed because he does not feel he received justice."
Lester, an active church member and volunteer with Legal Aid, was found in her home stabbed 22 times on Oct. 12, 1996. Her body was in her ransacked bedroom, with a bottle of wine sitting near the bed and a trail of blood leading to the kitchen.
Investigators determined she was hit on the head with a can of condensed milk, then dragged to the bedroom from the kitchen, stabbed with scissors and strangled with the cord of a heating pad.
After the killing, a drunk and blood-soaked Reid was seen walking from the direction of Lester's house. He had periodically done odd jobs for her and had received a ride to her house the day she was killed.
Blood on his clothes matched Lester's DNA, his fingerprints and saliva were found in her room and his handwriting was found on a card that said "I've gotta kill you," according to a 4th Circuit ruling.
Reid said he did not remember the killing.
2 mental health consultants testified during sentencing that a brain injury from a car accident in 1968 combined with Reid's alcohol abuse impaired his judgment.
The stay means that overall for 2003, America carried out 65 executions, bringing the national total to 885 since the death penalty was re-legalized on July 2, 1976. The breakdown of state executions for this year is as follows: Texas 24, Oklahoma 14, North Carolina 7, Alabama, Florida, Georgia and Ohio 3 apiece, Indiana, Missouri and Virginia 2 apiece, and Arkansas and the US government 1 each.
Overall, Texas remains the national leader in executions with 313, followed by Virginia (89), Oklahoma (69), Missouri (61), and Florida (57) to round out the top 5.
There are 8 executions scheduled thus for January in the USA, including 3 in Texas, 2 in Arkansas (both on January 6), and 1 each in North Carolina, Ohio and Oklahoma.
(sources: Associated Press & Rick Halperin)