Arizona executes Thomas Paul West

Thomas West

PHOENIX — Arizona executed a convicted murderer on Tuesday for robbing and beating a man to death near Tucson in 1987.

Thomas Paul West, 52, was executed by lethal injection at the state prison in Florence, about 60 miles southeast of Phoenix, at 11:10 local time, an Arizona Department of Corrections spokesman said.

West, the fourth inmate executed this year in Arizona, had been convicted of breaking into victim Don Bortle's trailer home 24 years ago, tying him up and pummeling his head repeatedly before leaving him to bleed to death.

When a curtain was pulled to reveal the execution chamber Tuesday, West lay strapped down to a table. He looked directly at his lawyers, nodded purposefully twice, then pointed to an area below his waist and then back toward himself again. He then held up two fingers.

Warden Carson McWilliams asked if West had any last words, and West ignored him, lying still on the table with his eyes closed. He breathed heavily when the sedative began and then appeared to fall asleep.

Prison officials said he declined to request a last meal.

Attempts to block the execution

Attorneys for West had argued his life should be spared because he was physically and sexually abused while growing up. Bishop Gerald Kicanas of the Diocese of Tucson also sought to block the execution.

In last minute appeals, West's attorneys maintained the state's lethal injection statute was unconstitutional and lacked needed "standards and procedural safeguards."

Authorities said West was a recent transplant from Illinois when he went to Bortle's home with friends in June 1987, looking to buy some merchandise up for sale.

West returned two weeks later, bursting into the home, binding Bortle's hands and feet with a vacuum cleaner cord and lamp wire and gagging him, according to court records. West beat Bortle and left with his car, electronic equipment and other items.

Bortle's decomposing body was found five days later by authorities after one of West's friends told them about the crime, authorities said.

West was arrested in Illinois after he was stopped for speeding, court records show. An officer discovered he was wanted for murder in Arizona and found several items believed to be stolen from his victim.

He was convicted of first-degree murder, second-degree burglary and theft by a jury during a week-long trial, and in August 1988 was sentenced to die.

Arizona has executed 28 people since the death penalty was reinstated in 1992. Last month, the state executed Richard Lynn Bible for the 1988 murder of a 9-year-old girl.

There are 127 people on the state's death row.

Twenty-seven people have been executed in the United States so far this year, according to the Death Penalty Information Center.

Source: Reuters, July 19, 2011

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