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| Supreme Court Halts North Carolina Execution |
| By Reuters |
| Published: 03/05/2001 |
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The U.S. Supreme Court halted the execution of a convicted murderer in North Carolina on Thursday, hours before he was scheduled to die for killing a 71-year-old restaurant manager in 1987, a prison spokeswoman said. The stay was handed down after North Carolina Gov. Mike Easley rejected a clemency petition, and the condemned inmate, Ernest Paul McCarver, had eaten what was to be his last meal in the death watch area of the state's Central Prison in Raleigh. The high court said in a brief statement it granted a stay pending a decision on whether it would take up the case. McCarver, 40, was sentenced to die for stabbing to death Woodrow Hartley, his former boss at a cafeteria in Concord, northeast of Charlotte, in January 1987. Prosecutors said McCarver blamed the victim for having his probation revoked on an earlier felony larceny and forgery conviction. Defense attorneys had lobbied Easley to commute the sentence to life in prison, arguing a psychologist recently confirmed earlier tests showing McCarver was mentally retarded. But prosecutors said a test conducted before his trial determined McCarver was not mentally retarded, and he was able to plan and carry out the robbery with an accomplice. The North Carolina General Assembly last year sought a halt on executions in the state while legislators weighed proposals to ban executions of mentally retarded or mentally ill inmates. A state court earlier this week stayed McCarver's execution, citing the proposed legislation, but the state's highest court quickly reversed that ruling because it was not based on existing state law. When the Supreme Court order was handed down, halting an execution set for 2 a.m. EST on Friday, McCarver had already finished a last meal of flounder, French fries, coleslaw, hush puppies, Mountain Dew and vanilla pudding. He was to be moved out of a cell in the death watch area and back to death row on Friday, the prison spokeswoman said. |
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