Arizona Executed Child Killer

The 19th Execution of 2011

Donald Edward Beaty was executed this week by lethal injection at a state prison in Florence, Arizona. He was convicted of snatching Christy Ann Fornoff from her newspaper route in Tempe, Arizona, in May 1984. He sexually assaulted her, then killed her by suffocation, according to Reuters.

Court records said he kept the body inside his apartment for two days. She was later found wrapped in a sheet behind a dumpster there.

A jury deadlocked in Beaty's first trial. He was convicted of murder and sexual assault when a psychologist testified that he confessed to the killing in a group therapy session, reported Reuters.

Beaty's last-ditch appeals were dismissed hours before his scheduled execution. His final meal included a double cheeseburger, a shredded beef chimichanga and rocky road ice cream.

With his last words, Beaty apologized to the murder victim's parents. He told them "God will let you see her again," Barrett Marson, an Arizona Department of Corrections spokesman told Reuters. He said Marson added that Beaty was "very emotional" and difficult to understand.

Beaty was the first killer in Arizona executed with the drug pentobarbital. The state switched from sodium thiopental due to the drugs unavailability.

To read more: http://www.reuters.com/article/2011/05/26/us-execution-arizona-idUSTRE74O85J20110526