Virginia Prepares for First Execution Since 2006

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Green had put in a request for a stay of execution but the U.S. Supreme Court turned down that request. Virginia Gov. Timothy M. Kaine (D) denied a petition for clemency and he said that he reviewed the case but decided that there was no good reason to set aside the sentence that the jury recommended.

State officials said that Green will be given three drugs and will be strapped to a gurney and than he will be pronounced dead at the Greensville Correctional Center in Jarratt.

Green killed a southern Virginia convenience store owner back in 1998 and Green's execution will signal the resumption of capital punishment in the state after it was put on hold last fall.

Back in 1976 the U.S. Supreme Court reinstated capital punishment and since than the state of Virgina has executed 98 people, which is second only to Texas, which has executed 405. The last person to be executed in Virgina was John Yancey Schmitt and he died by lethal injection back in November 2006.

The Supreme Court declined to review Green's case, on top of denying Green's request that it stay his execution. Justice John Paul Stevens, joined by Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg, said that he would have granted the request and he said that Virgina was rushing the execution.

Green's attorneys argued to Kaine that he could not be constitutionally put to death because Green is mentally retarded because he has an IQ of 65. Back in 2002 the Supreme Court outlawed the execution of mentally disabled people. Several courts say that Green is not retarded.

Patricia L. Vaughan and her husband owned a small grocery store in the Brunswick County and Green was convicted in the killing of Patricia L. Vaughan. Her husband was shot in the attack but survived while Patricia was shot four times during the robbery.

Green was convicted by a jury and he was sentenced to death back in 2000 but the Virgina Supreme Court ordered a new trial in 2001 because of errors in jury selection. Later that year Green was convicted and sentenced to death again.

Green's execution will be witnessed by six Virgina citizens and Vaughan's family. Green has also requested a last meal before his execution but did not want it disclosed, according to Larry Traylor, a spokesman for the Virginia Department of Corrections.

Over the next two months three executions are scheduled to take place and one of the men who are to be executed is Percy L. Walton, who pleaded guilty in 1997 to killing an elderly Danville couple. Kaine delayed Walton's execution twice so his condition and competence could be evaluated and he is scheduled to be executed on June 10.