XPost: sac.politics, alt.politics.homosexuality, soc.retirement   
   From: w3nu@roadrunner.com   
      
   On 2/25/2014 1354, Bill Steele wrote:   
   > On 2/24/14, 10:59 PM, F. Packers wrote:   
   >> Arizona on Wednesday executed the oldest person on its death   
   >> row, nearly 35 years after he was charged with murdering a   
   >> Bisbee man during a robbery.   
   >>   
   >> The execution of 71-year-old Edward Harold Schad Jr. came about   
   >> two hours after the U.S. Supreme Court denied his final appeals.   
   >>   
   >> At about 10 a.m., the warden at the state prison in Florence   
   >> read Schad's execution warrant and asked him if he had anything   
   >> to say.   
   >>   
   >> Schad responded: "Well, after 34 years, I'm free to fly away   
   >> home. Thank you, warden. Those are my last words."   
   >>   
   >> He then lay quietly and looked at the ceiling as he was given a   
   >> lethal dose of pentobarbital through IV needles in both arms. He   
   >> was pronounced dead at 10:12 a.m.   
   >>   
   >> Schad's pastor, the Rev. Ronald Koplitz, said the statement   
   >> likely was a reference to "I'll Fly Away," a Gospel song he gave   
   >> Schad a couple of weeks ago.   
   >>   
   >> Koplitz met Schad when the Lutheran minister first arrived at   
   >> the Florence prison in 1981 and served as the prison Chaplin.   
   >> Koplitz said he kept in touch with him after that, and gave him   
   >> last rites just before the execution and served as a witness.   
   >> "He was not your typical inmate," Koplitz said.   
   >>   
   >> "He was a good guy. Whether he did the murder or not, I don't   
   >> know," Koplitz said afterward. "He always told me he didn't,   
   >> like he told everybody else."   
   >>   
   >> Schad was sentenced to death for killing Lorimer "Leroy" Grove,   
   >> whose body was found Aug. 9, 1978, in underbrush off the   
   >> shoulder of U.S. 89 south of Prescott. A sash-like cord used to   
   >> strangle Grove was still knotted around his neck.   
   >>   
   >> Schad was arrested several weeks later in Utah while driving   
   >> Grove's Cadillac. Authorities say he had driven the car across   
   >> the country, used Grove's credit cards and forged a check from   
   >> Grove's bank account.   
   >>   
   >> At the time, Schad was on parole for second-degree murder in the   
   >> 1968 accidental strangulation death of a male sex partner in   
   >> Utah.   
   >>   
   >> Schad was convicted in Grove's death in 1979 and again in 1985   
   >> after the previous conviction was thrown out. The conviction was   
   >> upheld by the state Supreme Court in 1989 but later became tied   
   >> up in a series of federal court appeals.   
   >>   
   >> The U.S. Supreme Court in June lifted a stay put in place by an   
   >> appeals court, ordering the court to issue the execution   
   >> authorization.   
   >>   
   >> Although Schad acknowledged driving Grove's stolen car and using   
   >> his credit cards, he always maintained he didn't kill Grove.   
   >> Regardless, he told the state's clemency board at a hearing last   
   >> week that he had accepted his fate.   
   >>   
   >> A top Yavapai County prosecutor told the Arizona Board of   
   >> Executive Clemency that despite Schad's denial, he was twice   
   >> convicted by juries that rejected his assertion of innocence.   
   >>   
   >> "He doesn't take any responsibility for what he did," chief   
   >> deputy Dennis McGrane told the board. "Accidents two times, died   
   >> of strangulation? I don't think so."   
   >>   
   >> http://abcnews.go.com/US/wireStory/execution-slated-oldest-ariz-   
   >> death-row-inmate-20517464   
   >>   
   >>   
   >>   
   >   
   > Didn't he also have red hair?  We've gotta do something about these   
   > red-headed people!   
      
   His red hair, if he had it, had nothing to do with his crimes, but his   
   previous killing was of a male sex partner. I want to know more about   
   the killing he was executed for.   
      
   --- SoupGate-Win32 v1.05   
    * Origin: you cannot sedate... all the things you hate (1:229/2)