Virginia executes 100th inmate since 1976 ruling

Source: Agencies  |   2008-6-26  |     ONLINE EDITION

VIRGINIA put a convicted murderer to death by lethal injection yesterday, the 100th person executed by the state since the US Supreme Court reinstated capital punishment in 1976.

Robert Stacy Yarbrough, 30, who was convicted and sentenced to death for the 1997 killing of a store owner during a robbery, was put to death shortly before 9:30 pm EDT (0130 GMT on Thursday) at the Greensville Correctional Center in Jarratt, Virginia.
With 100 executions since the 1976 ruling, Virginia ranks second in the nation behind Texas, which has 406, according to the Death Penalty Information Center, a group opposed to capital punishment. Oklahoma is third, with 86 executions.

The Supreme Court declared the death penalty unconstitutional in 1972, but then reinstated capital punishment laws four years later.

Yarbrough's execution occurred after Gov. Timothy Kaine, a Democrat, refused to grant him clemency and the US Supreme Court rejected his request for a stay of execution and turned down his appeal.

"Tell my kids I love them and let's get it over with. Make people happy, help celebrate the murder," Yarbrough said in a final statement issued by Virginia Corrections Department spokesman Larry Traylor.

Of the Supreme Court's nine members, only justices John Paul Stevens and Ruth Bader Ginsburg said they would grant the stay of execution.

Yarbrough's appeal argued that his lawyer should have challenged DNA evidence used to convict him, that the prosecutor unfairly removed black potential jurors and that his lawyer provided ineffective assistance by failing to present evidence that might have resulted in a lesser sentence.

Yarbrough was convicted and sentenced to death for the robbery and murder of Cyril Hamby, a 77-year-old Mecklenburg County store owner. Yarbrough nearly decapitated his victim, cutting Hamby's neck with a pocket knife during the May 8, 1997 robbery with his friend.