Mississippi Executes Killer Using Pentobarbital

The 15th Execution of 2011

The state of Mississippi has executed Benny Joe Stevens convicted of killing four people, including two children, in 1999, according to the Associated Press.

"What I did was terrible," he said just before a mix of pentobarbital, Pavulon and potassium chloride was pumped into his veins. "Ain't no forgiveness," reported the USA Today.

Officials at the state penitentiary at Parchman said Stevens was declared dead at 6:22 p.m. on May 10, 2011 after his execution using Pentobarbital in place of sodium thiopental in the three drug execution protocol. Mississippi joins a growing number of states using pentobarbital for lethal injection. Oklahoma, Ohio, Texas and South Carolina have used the drug without incident.

Stevens was sentenced to death for killing four people at a mobile home in Mississippi’s rural Marion County. Those killed were Stevens’ former wife, 38-year-old Glenda Lee Reid; her 38-year-old husband, Wesley Lee Reid; the Reids’ 11-year-old son, Dylan; and Dylan’s friend, 10-year-old Heath Pounds.

Corrections Commissioner Chris Epps said Stevens’ father and brother visited the inmate Tuesday. Stevens also wrote a letter to his daughter, Erica, who survived the attack, according to the Associated Press.

To read more: http://www.usatoday.com/news/nation/2011-05-10-mississippi-execution-drug_n.htm