03-30-2011, 03:58 PM
A murderer who killed two fathers more than 20 years ago waved goodbye today as he was executed - despite concerns over a state's lethal injection drugs.
Eric John King, 47, was executed in Florence, Arizona, following a 1989 robbery in Phoenix, and will be one of the last to have the three-drug lethal injection.
King smiled at around 30 witnesses as the death chamber’s curtains opened at the state prison, waving his hand underneath a sheet up to his neck.
He was convicted of fatally shooting security guard Richard Butts and clerk Ron Barman during a $72 robbery in 1989. Both men were married fathers.
King was the first person to be executed in Arizona since last October, although his lawyers were concerned over one of the lethal drugs and doubted his guilt.
He was declared dead 13 minutes after a medical staff member walked into the death chamber and stated he had been sedated, Corrections Director Charles Ryan said.
King’s lawyers literally fought until the death to get his sentence reversed or delayed.
Read more: http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-...z1I7D20yiR
Eric John King, 47, was executed in Florence, Arizona, following a 1989 robbery in Phoenix, and will be one of the last to have the three-drug lethal injection.
King smiled at around 30 witnesses as the death chamber’s curtains opened at the state prison, waving his hand underneath a sheet up to his neck.
He was convicted of fatally shooting security guard Richard Butts and clerk Ron Barman during a $72 robbery in 1989. Both men were married fathers.
King was the first person to be executed in Arizona since last October, although his lawyers were concerned over one of the lethal drugs and doubted his guilt.
He was declared dead 13 minutes after a medical staff member walked into the death chamber and stated he had been sedated, Corrections Director Charles Ryan said.
King’s lawyers literally fought until the death to get his sentence reversed or delayed.
Read more: http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-...z1I7D20yiR