This week in 2005

“I go forward now on wings built by the love and support of my family and friends. I go with a peace of mind that comes from never having taken a human life. I forgive those who have hardened their hearts to the truth and I pray they ask forgiveness for they know not what they do. This is not a death, it is a lynching.”

— Marlin Gray, convicted of murder, lethal injection, Missouri.
Executed October 26, 2005

Gray and three companions raped two girls, then shoved them off the Chain of Rocks Bridge in St. Louis in 1991. The girls’ cousin was told to jump or be pushed off the bridge; he survived the jump and testified against the killers. Gray was executed first out of the group; another accomplice was also sentenced to death; a third received life without parole; and the fourth was sentenced to thirty years. Gray appeared to mouth the words “I love you” to witnesses shortly before the needle was injected into his arm.