Delaware Execution, First in Six Years

The 30th Execution of 2011

Delaware Governor Jack Markell announced that Robert W. Jackson III was put to death by lethal injection shortly after midnight this morning, according to Reuters.

State law requires executions to be done in the early morning to avoid disrupting operations at the James T. Vaughn Correctional Center north of Smyrna, Delaware, reported the Associated Press.

He was sentenced to death for killing Elizabeth Girardi with blows from an ax he wielded during a 1992 burglary attempt at her home in Hockessin, Delaware.

Governor Markell denied a last-minute request for a reprieve, noting that the U.S. Third Circuit Court of Appeals and the U.S. Supreme Court had already decided not to stay the execution, reported Reuters.

"Mr. Jackson's death sentence was recommended by a jury, imposed by a judge, and reviewed by state and federal appellate courts at all levels," the governor said in a statement issued at 12:12 a.m. local time, shortly after the death of Jackson, who was 18at the time of the murder.

"It is my prayer that his victim rests in peace and her family finds some closure, May God have mercy on Mr. Jackson," Markell told Reuters.

It was Delaware's first execution since 2005 and the first inmate executed in Delaware using pentobarbital, which a number of states have switched to after a shortage of another execution drug.

To read more: http://www.reuters.com/article/2011/07/29/us-execution-delaware-idUSTRE76S2Z320110729