The 66-year-old inmate was executed in Arizona, United States. Photo: AP
The state of Arizona (USA) performed this Wednesday with a lethal injection in Frank Atwood66 years old, convicted of the 1984 murder of an 8-year-old girl whose remains were found in the desert.
The US Supreme Court gave the green light for the execution by dismissing Atwood’s attorneys’ final appeal, who was pronounced dead mid-morning, Arizona Attorney General Mark Brnovich said.
Atwood, Brnovich said, “had been sentenced and served a prison sentence for brutal assault on minors in California, and then when you look at the crime he committed here and what that family has endured, it’s a terrible thing.”
Classmates who went to school with the victim in 1984 hug each other after learning of the murderer’s execution. Photo: AP
Atwood is the second inmate executed in Arizona in less than a month.
On May 11, Arizona was sentenced to death Clarence Dixon thus putting an end to the suspension of executions attributed to the difficulty of obtaining the compounds of the lethal formula.
Debbie Carlson and a portrait of Lynne, her daughter kidnapped and killed in 1984.
The use of the death penalty in the southwestern state had been suspended following criticism of a 2014 execution in which, according to witnesses, the condemned man suffered from convulsions for more than 10 minutes before he died.
The DA’s office indicated that Atwood kidnapped the girl Lynne Hoskinson, the remains of which were found in a desert area northwest of Tucson about seven months later. Forensic experts were unable to determine the cause of death.
The parents of the murdered girl greet each other after the execution of the prisoner. Photo: AP
The girl had disappeared after leaving her home in Pyma County to leave a greeting card in a nearby mailbox.
“Today marks the last day of justice for our daughter Vicki,” said Debbie Carlson, the girl’s mother. “Vicki was a lively girl, with an infectious laugh and a smile that melted hearts.”
Debbie Carlson, the mother of the eight-year-old girl killed in 1984. Photo: AP
Frank Strada, director of the Arizona Department of Corrections, said Atwood thanked a priest in his closing statement “for being here today and for leading me to the faith.”
Source: Clarin
