This week in 2006

“Come on with it.”

— John Schmitt, convicted of murder, lethal injection, Virginia
Executed November 9, 2006

Laying on the gurney, Schmitt looked to see his execution witnesses.  They comprised of two news reporters, a fiction writer, the police officers who investigated his robberies of a NationsBank branch and the family of Sheldon Earl Dunning, the security guard Schmitt was convicted of murdering in his second robbery.  Outside the prison, a half-hour before his death, members of the Virginians for Alternatives to the Death Penalty held a candlelight vigil for Schmitt after his last minute appeal was rejected by the U.S. Supreme Court.