Only in America! The Washington Examiner published this article Wednesday evening, June 8th,. which is headlined, “Death row inmate executed after Supreme Court denies attempt to stay sentence“.
The state of Arizona executed Frank Atwood, 66, via lethal injection Wednesday morning for the first-degree murder of 8-year-old Vicki Lynne Hoskinson in 1984.
All attempts to appeal the ruling were denied. The U.S. Supreme Court denied Atwood’s final plea for a stay of execution early Wednesday morning about an hour before his death.
His lawyers had issued multiple challenges to the execution, arguing Arizona’s death penalty methods breach Atwood’s constitutional right against cruel and unusual punishment, citing his degenerative spinal disease.
The Constitution “does not require a pain-free execution,” Judge Michael Liburdi of the U.S. District Court for the District of Arizona said Sunday.
Atwood’s last meal was salami, mustard, peanut butter, jelly, wheat bread, and tortilla chips, according to a report.
The execution was carried out at 10:16 a.m local time and was viewed by approximately 40 people who described it as “calm” and “peaceful.”
He thanked a Greek Orthodox priest “for coming today and shepherding me into the faith” and said, “I pray the Lord will have mercy on all of us and that the Lord will have mercy on me,” according to witnesses.
“Our family has waited 37 years, 8 months, and 22 days for this day to come,” Hoskinson’s mother said.
The Knights Party of the Ku Klux Klan, centrally based in Harrison, Arkansas, National Director, Thomas Robb was quoted saying, “You don’t see these headlines like you once did, but my feelings remain the same on this topic. In America, if you unjustly murder someone, you deserve the death penalty. In this case, a little 8 year-old was murdered senselessly at the hands of this man. Whether or not he feels any pain during his execution shouldn’t bother anyone at all. What suffering did inflict on this little girl? Her family, that still suffers? Who cares if he had failing health problems? Maybe if our tax dollars didn’t feed this murderer for over 37 years behind bars, he would have been in better heath to face his punishment. Who knows, but certain people deserve the death penalty, and this certainly was one of them. In biblical times, they didn’t worry if someone who was sentenced to death suffered. God’s own laws, in certain situations called for the criminal to be taken to the edge of town and stoned to death! I can imagine the suffering during that long, slow process. So if you ask me, anyone that decries cruel and unusual punishment over any methods used in death sentences in today’s times, needs to think about what God’s laws called for. Getting stoned mean’t something way different in biblical times!”