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| Calif. Death Row Inmate Is Executed |
| By Associated Press |
| Published: 04/09/2001 |
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Double-murderer Robert Lee Massie was executed by injection March 27 after spending 28 years as a condemned man, longer than any inmate now on death row in California. Massie, who had spent 21 years seeking to overturn his convictions, formally dropped his appeals last year to protest what he called the snail's pace of the California death penalty system. Massie was sentenced to death for the 1979 murder of a San Francisco liquor store owner. He had been paroled a year earlier after serving 13 years in prison for the shooting death of a woman during a robbery in the Los Angeles area. The U.S. Supreme Court affirmed that Massie was competent to drop his appeals the night before the execution. It also let stand a federal judge's order requiring the state to allow witnesses to see more of the execution, resolving a case brought by The Associated Press and other media organizations that asserted the public's right to know such details. Prison officials wanted to open the death chamber's curtain only after Massie had been strapped to a gurney and had the needles inserted into his arms. Warden Jeanne Woodford said protecting the executioners' identity was a security measure. A federal judge ruled otherwise, saying the state must show the entire process. The five prison staffers who strapped Massie down and inserted the needles removed their identification badges, but made no other efforts to conceal themselves. Massie's death was the first fully viewed execution at San Quentin since 1996. He was only the ninth inmate to be executed since California voters overwhelmingly voted to reinstate the death penalty in 1978. |
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