Two Executed in North Carolina, Arizona
Nov. 9 -- Michael Earl Sexton went quietly to hisdeath early today as the state executed him for the 1990 rapeand murder of a hospital counselor.
Sexton, 34, made no last statement before he was injected withlethal drugs at Central Prison in Raleigh, N.C.
The family of victim Kimberly Crews, 29, also had no statement.
Her husband, Alan Crews of Raleigh; her parents, Clayton andCleone Futrelle, and her brother, Randy Futrelle, all of Richlands,watched intently through a window separating the death chamber fromthe witness room.
Before closing his eyes as a sleep-inducing drug flowed into hisveins, Sexton turned his head to look at the witnesses. He waspronounced dead at 2:34 a.m today.
‘More Dignified Death Than Life’
Hours earlier, the U.S. Supreme Court and Gov. Jim Hunt rejectedpleas to stop the execution.
“Michael went through this process with great dignity,” saidTracy Barley, one of his attorneys, after she watched him die.“Michael’s death was in some ways much more dignified than hislife.”
Sexton, who worked in the hospital laundry, claimed during his1991 trial in Wake County Superior Court that he and Crews agreedto have sex in a van. He said he killed the woman after sheprotested when he tried to leave.
Irving Joyner, an attorney for Sexton, said his client shouldhave been charged with non-capital murder because there was no rapeand he questioned the nearly all-white makeup of the jury in aracially sensitive case.
Joyner filed two petitions for a stay with the Supreme Court.Both were rejected about eight hours before the 2 a.m. execution.
Execution Proceeded Despite Study
The lawyer also criticized the state for carrying out theexecution while a legislative commission is studying the deathpenalty and whether it has a bias toward blacks. Death penaltyopponents are campaigning for a moratorium on executions until thestudy is complete.
“We would hope at some point North Carolina’s citizens wouldunderstand needless killing…is not going to bring victims ofhomicide back,” Joyner said.
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