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| N.C. Executes Death Row Inmate |
| By AP |
| Published: 09/03/2001 |
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An inmate who said his attorney bungled his defense because he drank too much was executed early Friday for the 1993 stabbing death and robbery of his landlord. Ronald Wayne Frye, 42, was put to death by injection at the Central Prison after the governor denied his request for clemency. Behind the glass separating the execution chamber from the witness booth, Frye mouthed to the family of his victim, Ralph Childress: ``I'm sorry. Please forgive me.'' The 70-year-old landlord was found in his rural Catawba County home with scissors jammed into his heart and his throat cut. Frye had appealed his case to the U.S. Supreme Court, which denied his request for a stay. In Frye's petition, former defense lawyer Ted Cummings Jr. said he didn't pay attention to the trial and should have intervened to help the other lawyer, who admitted he drank heavily in the evenings after court. Cummings now admits he was ``negligent in not supervising what Tom Portwood was doing,'' said one of Frye's new attorneys, Marilyn Ozer. Frye had argued that had his attorneys done their jobs, the jury would have heard mitigating evidence that could help explain Frye's behavior and substance abuse. North Carolina Attorney General Roy Cooper told the Supreme Court there was no reason to halt Frye's execution, and said the defense contentions were fluff. |
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