This week in 1999
May 9th, 2013 by admin
“I forgive all of you.”
— Manuel Pina Babbitt, convicted of rape and murder, lethal injection, California.
Executed May 4, 1999
Leah Schendel, age seventy-eight, did not die of the beating Babbitt gave her. What killed her was the heart attack she suffered from the ordeal. Babbitt, a paranoid schizophrenic and Vietnam War veteran, denied any recollection of what he had done. During his appeal, his lawyers said the post-traumatic stress syndrome he suffered in the wake of his two tours of duty in Vietnam caused him to black out during the murder.
Babbitt was awarded the Purple Heart while on death row.
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