Mississippi: Convicted killer executed

Convicted killer Earl Wesley Berry was executed at 6 p.m. in Unit 17 of Parchman.

A lethal cocktail of drugs was injected into Berry's arm while his victim's daughter and granddaughter, corrections officials and members of the media watched. No one from his family was present.

Berry was pronounced dead at 6:15 p.m.

Just hours before his execution, Mississippi Department of Corrections Commissioner Chris Epps described Berry as somber and serious, realizing his death was imminent and giving up hope that the U.S. Supreme Court was going to grant either of his last-minute appeals.

"I used to be his case manager. So, I've been knowing him for a while," Epps said. "He's pretty serious now. He's not grinning like he was in October."

The U.S. Supreme Court denied both Berry's appeals of his execution earlier this afternoon.

Berry, 49, was convicted in 1988 of beating 56-year-old Mary Bounds to death and leaving her body in a wooded area of Chickasaw County in 1987.

Epps said he stood in front Berry's cell this afternoon and said, "Inmate Berry do you have any remorse for what you did to Mrs. Bounds?

"He said he had no remorse and felt that after 21 years he had paid for it," Epps continued. "He understood the question and that was the answer he gave."

Berry finished his last meal about 4:35 p.m. and was given a sedative. He elected not to take his last shower and has not made any phone calls today. However, his mother, brother, sister-in-law and two friends visited him earlier today.

In October, when Berry originally was scheduled to die by lethal injection, his execution was halted at the last minute.

Berry said today "he is 99.9 percent sure he will be executed," Epps said.

Berry's attorneys have argued that Berry should have been spared because he is mentally retarded and because Mississippi's lethal injection process is cruel.

Earlier today, Daryl Neely, policy adviser for Gov. Haley Barbour, read Berry the governor's letter denying a stay of execution.

"I find no justification to grant your clemency," a portion of the letter said. Berry "visibly shook" and was close to tears, Neely said.

Berry had said he did not want any of his family members to witness his execution, but he later changed his mind, Epps said.

His brothers, William Wallace Berry and Daniel Ross Berry, were approved to view the death, though they declined to do so.

"It appears there will not be anybody there from the inmate's family," Epps said.

Roughly 40 members of Bounds' family also will be at Parchman, though only two were to witness the execution: Bounds' daughter and granddaughter.

Following Berry's execution, his body was to be released to Wise Funeral Home in Eupora.

Half a dozen anti-death penalty and one pro-death penalty activist were at Parchman today.

Tom O'Flaherty, a former defense attorney from Iowa City, Iowa, said he came out to speak against state-ordered executions partly because he doubts the judicial system's infallibility.

"People are represented by lawyers, and they make mistakes. Judges and juries make mistakes," he said. "None of us can know for sure if a person deserves that penalty."

Several yards away, Ann Pace of Jackson stood alone with a sign bearing pictures of her daughter who was killed by a man named Derrick Todd Lee in 2002. Charlotte Murray Pace was 22.

Her mother described her four years, so far, of waiting for Lee's execution as "hideous." While she said Lee's death may not bring closure, she thinks it may bring peace.

"I have this constant awareness of him breathing air, visiting with his family, doing all those things that he denied so many people, that he denied my daughter," Pace said. "(Once he is dead), he will not be at my table. He will not be in my head. Then, it will be all about Murray and not about him."

Source: Clarionledger.com