[Deathpenalty] death penalty news----VIRGINIA

[Rick Halperin]

Oct. 1




VIRGINIA----impending execution

Federal judge clears way for Virginia execution


A federal judge has cleared the way for Virginia to execute a convicted serial 
killer on Thursday night, saying an unwarranted delay would be harmful for 
those victimized.

U.S. District Court Judge Henry E. Hudson on Thursday lifted an order blocking 
Alfredo Prieto's execution, which is scheduled for 9 p.m. His lawyers vowed to 
appeal.

Attorneys for Prieto, 49, wanted his execution delayed as they seek more 
information about the drugs, which were obtained from Texas' prison system, to 
ensure they won't bring about a painful death.

Hudson said Prieto's lawyers had not adequately shown that the drugs are unsafe 
and said it was in the public interest for the execution to proceed as planned.

The judge said an unwarranted delay of the execution would be harmful for those 
victimized by Prieto's crimes, a harm "magnified here by the appalling number 
of people that Prieto has killed, raped, or otherwise injured."

A native of El Salvador, Prieto was on death row in California for raping and 
murdering a 15-year-old girl when DNA evidence linked him to the rape and 
murder of Rachael Raver and the slaying of her boyfriend, Warren Fulton III. 
Authorities have linked Prieto to several other killings in California and 
Virginia but he was never prosecuted because he had already been sentenced to 
death.

Prieto had also asked the U.S. Supreme Court to intervene, saying he's 
intellectually disabled, and therefore ineligible for the death penalty. But 
the high court declined to grant his requests to stay the execution on Thursday 
shortly before Hudson's ruling was issued.

Prieto's attorneys argued the state should reconsider whether he is 
intellectually disabled because the measure used during his 2008 trial was 
unconstitutional. The Supreme Court ruled last year that Florida can't use 
rigid cutoffs on IQ test scores to determine whether someone is intellectually 
disabled. Virginia had a nearly identical law.

Separately, at a hearing Thursday in Richmond, Prieto's attorneys asked the 
court to delay the execution until Virginia officials disclose more information 
about the supply of pentobarbital they received from Texas, saying they're 
concerned about the quality of the drugs and whether they would bring Prieto 
unnecessary pain.

Virginia obtained pentobarbital from Texas to replace its supply of another 
sedative, midazolam, which expired Wednesday.

Margaret O'Shea, a lawyer from Attorney General Mark Herring's office, urged 
the judge to dismiss those arguments, noting that Texas has used the same drugs 
without any problems in 24 executions over the past two years.

"It is time for this to end," she said, adding that Prieto murdered Raver and 
Fulton 27 years ago. "It is time for the carousel to end."

(source: Bristol Herald)