State Executes Man Who Killed Co-Worker

Christopher S. Emmett was executed by lethal injection last night in Virginia's death chamber, seven years after he fatally bludgeoned a co-worker with a brass lamp.

Emmett, 36, was pronounced dead at 9:07 p.m. at the Greensville Correctional Center in Jarratt, according to Larry Traylor, a Department of Corrections spokesman. The execution was the fourth in Virginia this year.

According to Traylor, Emmett's last words were: "Tell my family and friends I love them. Tell the governor he just lost my vote. Y'all hurry this along; I'm dying to get out of here."

The U.S. Court of Appeals for the 4th Circuit, drawing on an April U.S. Supreme Court ruling that the three-drug protocol used in executions in Kentucky and most other states does not constitute cruel and unusual punishment, rejected Emmett's argument that Virginia's method of execution is unconstitutional. Emmett's attorneys had that prisoners might not be fully anesthetized before they are given drugs that can cause excruciating pain.

Virginia Gov. Timothy M. Kaine (D), who noted that Emmett's challenge to the state's lethal injection procedure was rejected by the courts, declined to intervene. "I find no compelling reason to set aside the sentence that was recommended by the jury, and then imposed and affirmed by the courts," Kaine said in a statement.

Emmett fatally beat his roofing company co-worker, John F. Langley, with a brass lamp in a Danville, Va., motel room in 2001. He then stole Langley's money to buy crack.

Langley's mother, Elizabeth Majors, 72, who lives in the Gasburg, Va., trailer she shared with her son, had no sympathy for Emmett's argument. She had planned to witness the execution.

"Too painful for him?" said Majors, who said she carries her son's high school photo in her purse. "He didn't think about that when he took that lamp off the table and hit my son with it. I know my son had pain."

In a lethal injection procedure similar to that used in most states, Virginia administers sodium thiopental, which induces unconsciousness, followed by a drug that paralyzes the muscles and another that causes cardiac arrest. The latter two drugs can cause excruciating pain if the first drug is not administered properly.

An appeals court panel found that Virginia's method is "substantially similar" to the one used in Kentucky and upheld by the Supreme Court. Virginia's method, the panel wrote in a majority opinion, does not create an "intolerable risk of severe pain."

In appeals, Emmett's attorneys said the decision marks the first time an appellate court has applied the U.S. Supreme Court's ruling to another state's execution protocol. They argued that Virginia's method differs from that used in Kentucky, noting that the state doesn't require a pause after the first drug is administered, or set out a process to ensure that an inmate is adequately sedated.

They contend that the lack of that safeguard can result in an "inhumane execution."

"Of course, we're disappointed in the ruling," Matthew S. Hellman, an attorney for Emmett, said yesterday, "but we hope that Virginia's procedures will someday be improved."

Yesterday morning, Emmett met with family members, Traylor said. He requested a particular last meal but asked that his choices be kept private.

Virginia has executed 102 people since the Supreme Court reinstated capital punishment in 1976, second only to Texas.

Staff researcher Meg Smith contributed to this report.