[Deathpenalty] death penalty news----VIRGINIA

[Rick Halperin]

Oct. 1



VIRGINIA----execution

Prieto executed after rush of late appeals


Alfredo Prieto, convicted of 2 1988 Fairfax County murders after a DNA hit 
found him on California's death row, was executed by injection Thursday night 
at Greensville Correctional Center.

Prieto was pronounced dead at 9:17 p.m. His execution came after a rush of 
last-minute appeals, including one that contested the circumstances surrounding 
Virginia obtaining 1 of the injection drugs from Texas, and the potential 
quality of the substance.

His lawyers had also argued he was too intellectually disabled to be executed.

Wearing glasses, sandals and blue prison denim, Prieto was led into the 
execution area at 8:53 p.m. He looked around but displayed no emotion.

Fairfax County Commonwealth's Attorney Raymond F. Morrogh, who prosecuted 
Prieto, sat directly in front of him in the witness area. Also attending was 
Brian J. Moran, the state secretary of public safety.

Prieto was quickly strapped down on a gurney, and a curtain was drawn to block 
the view from the witness area as intravenous lines were inserted into each 
arm.

At 9:08 p.m., the curtain was opened, and Prieto was asked if he wished to make 
a last statement. The 1st of the 3 drugs was then administered, and Prieto 
appeared to take a couple of deep breaths.

After a few minutes, an execution team member removed Prieto's sandals and 
appeared to pinch his feet, testing to make sure he had been rendered 
unconscious so the next 2 drugs could be administered. Prieto showed no 
reaction.

Warden Eddie Pearson announced the death sentence had been carried out at 9:17 
p.m.

Prieto's spiritual adviser, the Rev. Richard Mooney, a Catholic priest, entered 
the execution room with the inmate. "He was very much at peace," Mooney said.

Prieto had these final words: "I would like to say thanks to all my lawyers, 
all my supporters and all my family members. Get this over with."

A U.S. district judge refused to block the execution earlier in the evening, 
but lawyers for Prieto filed a late appeal over the drug issue to the 4th U.S. 
Circuit Court of Appeals. The state's response was filed at 8:25 p.m., 
according to a spokesman for the attorney general's office, who then announced 
about 9 p.m. that the appeal had been denied.

Earlier, the U.S. Supreme Court and the Virginia Supreme Court also turned down 
bids from lawyers for Prieto.

"Tonight, the commonwealth executed a man without knowing whether he has 
intellectual disability or not, using drugs that are far beyond their approved 
date of use," said Robert Lee of the Virginia Capital Representation Center.

U.S. District Judge Henry E. Hudson ruled against Prieto in a 13-page opinion 
after a hearing in which lawyers for the condemned man pressed their case to 
stop the execution because of concerns over 1 of the lethal injection drugs, 
pentobarbital, which Virginia had obtained from Texas.

Hudson said the arguments failed to establish that the drug could be faulty or 
lead to Prieto suffering cruel and unusual punishment. Prieto had been 
convicted of or linked to a total of 4 murders in Virginia and 5 in California, 
and Hudson noted the scope of his crimes in his opinion.

"This is not an instance where there are any questions as to innocence or 
sufficiency of due process of an individual set to be executed," Hudson said. 
He added that Prieto could have raised questions earlier about the drugs but 
did not.

"At this point, the state and the victims of crime can expect the moral 
judgment of the state to be carried out without delay," Hudson's opinion said. 
"To unsettle these expectations is to inflict a profound injury to the powerful 
and legitimate interest in punishing the guilty, an interest shared by the 
state and the victims of the crime alike. These harms are magnified here by the 
appalling number of people that Prieto has killed, raped or otherwise injured."

In their appeal to the 4th Circuit, Prieto lawyers Lee and Elizabeth Peiffer 
argued that the Texas drug had been compounded rather than manufactured, and 
was too old to use safely.

"The risk of harm Prieto stands to suffer from the use of an adulterated or 
ineffective compounded anesthetic is grave," the lawyers said. "If the 
pentobarbital does not work, his execution would be undeniably cruel because he 
would be conscious, albeit paralyzed, while being slowly suffocated and 
injected with a caustic substance which will ultimately cause cardiac arrest."

The lawyers also said that Prieto only learned Sept. 22 that the compounded 
drug would be used, so his claim late in the process was legitimate.

The nation's high court turned down Prieto, 49, without comment in its orders.

In the Virginia Supreme Court case, the justices said that Prieto failed in his 
argument that he should be returned west because his prosecution here had 
ended.

"By waiving extradition, Prieto also waived any independent right he may have 
had to force his return to California," Virginia's high court said.

Prieto's lawyers filed their complaint Wednesday in U.S. District Court, asking 
the execution be blocked until it could be determined if the pentobarbital 
could properly and adequately render the condemned man unconscious before the 
2nd drug, which stops breathing, and the 3rd drug, which stops the heart, are 
administered.

Because of a national shortage of execution drugs, Virginia in August obtained 
3 vials of pentobarbital that was compounded at a pharmacy in April rather than 
made by a manufacturer. A certificate of analysis from Texas rated its potency 
at 94.6 percent in April. His lawyers, however, said the drug was beyond an 
accepted use date of 45 days.

In its response, the attorney general's office said, "Prieto has failed to 
demonstrate that he is entitled to the extraordinary equitable relief he 
seeks." The state contended that the drug is good for 6 months past the 
scheduled date of the execution, and that the "fulcrum of Prieto's claim" was 
that the compounded drug the state wished to use "might not be good enough."

Hudson held a 2-hour, 10-minute hearing over the pentobarbital complaint. 
Peiffer told Hudson there was concern the pentobarbital obtained from Texas was 
not potent enough or otherwise capable of properly sedating Prieto, leading to 
pain or suffering that could violate his right against cruel and unusual 
punishment.

"If the 1st drug does not work, the lethal injection procedure in Virginia will 
be unconstitutional," she argued.

The Virginia Attorney General's Office said Texas has used compounded 
pentobarbital in 24 executions over the past 2 years. Texas uses only a lethal 
dose of pentobarbital in its procedure instead of other drugs.

State officials also said that after the pentobarbital is administered, it 
tests the inmates to make sure they are unconscious before proceeding with the 
other chemicals.

Margaret Hoel O'Shea of the attorney general's office told Hudson that it has 
been 27 years since the bodies of Rachael A. Raver and Warren H. Fulton III 
"were found in that cold field in Fairfax County. ... It's time for this to 
end."

Prieto was on death row at California's San Quentin State Prison in 2005 for 
the 1990 rape and murder of a 15-year-old girl when DNA linked him to the Raver 
and Fulton slayings. Raver was raped, and both victims were shot. Their bodies 
were found about 100 feet apart in a field south of the Dulles Toll Road on 
Dec. 6, 1988.

As the time for the scheduled execution drew near, several people were 
stationed near the correctional center on the rainy evening.

Robert Sweeting of Yorktown Heights, N.Y., was among 3 men who went to the 
correctional center in support of the families of Raver and Fulton, who both 
were 22.

Sweeting, who was Raver's friend and had attended the hearing before Hudson, 
said it's not up to him to judge what would happen to Prieto in the afterlife, 
but added that it was time for him to face God's judgment.

"Let justice be served," Sweeting said. "Let him cry and whimper for his life 
like he made all his victims. ... I hope he's crying in his cell right now."

Jonathan Shapiro, who had served as 1 of Prieto's defense attorneys in Fairfax, 
sat in his car nearby.

"I just felt the need to be here," Shapiro said. "It's hard to explain. Even 
though I'm not in there with him, I just felt that he needed companionship 
here. It's, to me, horrendous that the state does this ritualized killing."

Sweeting said of Prieto, "I don't think he ever asked Rachael Raver or his 
other victims if they were suffering before he killed them."

In a prepared statement, DeDe Raver, a sister of Rachael, wrote: "Today ends a 
long and painful ordeal for my family that has haunted us for over 26 years. I 
speak on behalf of my sister, Rachael Angelica, who will have the last word 
after all.

"Prieto terrorized Rachael and her companion during their last moments on 
Earth. His selfish and hateful crimes against Rachael and others left a trail 
of unimaginable destruction and pain to last a lifetime. To this day, Prieto 
has not shown any regret or remorse for being a serial killer, because Prieto 
is a sociopath who will continue to harm others for the rest of his life," 
Raver said.

Raver, who lives in New York and attended the execution along with other 
members of Rachael Raver's family, said: "As we never gave up hope, as the 
detectives never quit trying to match DNA evidence and the prosecutors sought 
justice, we remember and we do not forget."

Prieto becomes the 1st condemned inmate to be put to death this year in 
Virginia and the 111th overall since the state resumed capital punishment in 
1982; only Texas (528) and Oklahoma (112) have executed more inmates since the 
death penalty was re-legalized on July 2, 1976.

Prieto becomes the 22nd condemned inmate to be put to death this year in the 
USA and the 1416th overall since the nation resumed executions on January 17, 
1977. Last year at this time, there had been 30 executions across the country. 
There are currently 8 more executions scheduled in the USA this month,, 
including 3 next week; 5more are set for November and 2 currently set for 
December.

(sources: Richmond Times-Dispatch & Rick Halperin)