MISSISSIPPI - execution

Before he was executed by the state, death row inmate Dale Leo Bishop apologized to the family of his victim.

"He said it was a senseless act," state corrections Commissioner Chris Epps said.

Bishop was pronounced dead by lethal injection at 6:14 p.m. He was convicted in 2000 of participating in the murder of Marcus Gentry. Gentry was beaten to death in December 1998 with a claw hammer, and his body was found along a logging road near Saltillo.

Bishop's last words were: "God bless America. It has been great living here. That's all."

Many of Gentry's family members came to Parchman today. His mother Kathy Gentry and uncle Gerald Gentry witnessed the execution.

They did not speak to the media, but a victim's advocate read a written statement from them.

"We had to relive all the memories and emotions from that December," part of the statement said. "The pain and loss that this man helped put on us will never be forgotten. We lost Mark not by chance but by the choice of 2 ungodly men."

The other man convicted of Gentry's murder, Jessie Johnson, is serving a life sentence.

Bishop showed regret for the murder he participated in and for asking for a death sentence today, officials said.

"He wants to live, as least that's what he indicated to us," Epps said this afternoon. "He said when he asked to be sentenced to death he was at a low point in his life. He was getting separated and his wife was taking their 3 kids."

A request for clemency from Gov. Haley Barbour and last-ditch appeals to
the U.S. Supreme Court were all denied today.

Daryl Neely, policy adviser for Gov. Haley Barbour, said Bishop was writing in his cell this afternoon when he and Epps visited.

"One of the things he wrote was, 'A man who takes no action has no regret,'" Neely said. "I asked him what that meant, and he admitted there are some things in his life he regrets."

Helping kill 22-year-old Gentry was one of them.

"He said it was a fight that went too far, that Marcus Gentry was his friend," Neely said.

Testimony from that night indicated Johnson, Gentry, Bishop and Ricky Myhand were riding around and drinking beer on the evening of the killing and an argument began after Johnson accused Gentry of getting Johnson's brother in trouble with the law.

According to testimony, the 2 exchanged words and then Johnson hit Gentry over the head with a hammer. When Gentry jumped from the car and fled, Bishop ran after him and took him back to the car, where he was hit and kicked numerous times.

Myhand reported the killing to police and led investigators to the body.He was not charged.

Johnson was the only one who hit Gentry with the hammer, according to testimony. In a Dec. 13, 1998, statement, Bishop acknowledged holding Gentry while Johnson struck him. Johnson, who was tried separately, is serving life in prison.

At trial, forensic pathologist Steven Hayne testified there were 23 injuries to the head, neck and hand produced by a blunt object, such as a hammer.

Bishops mother, Brenda Bishop had this week asked people to pray for her son. She and other family members were with him today.

About 15 anti-death penalty protesters gathered near the Parchman visitor center this evening. Many of them are college students from across the country and England who are part of an activist group.

"I'm very much against the death penalty because I think it is unjust, cruel and fundamentally wrong," said 21-year-old Rizwana Mahood, a law student from London's Bournemouth University. "There are so many flaws in the system to have a perfect punishment."

Regular anti-death penalty protester Father Greg Plata from St. Francis in Greenwood was also among the group. He also protested Wesley Earl Berry's execution in May.

"This decision of the governor's not granting pardon from the death penalty just continues to make Mississippi look bad," Plata said.

Bishop becomes the 2nd condemned inmate to be put to death this year in Mississippi and the 10th overall since the state resumed capital punishment in 1983.

Bishop becomes the 13th condemned inmate to be put to death this year in the USA and the 1112th overall since the nation resumed executions on
January 17, 1977.

Source: Clarion-Ledger & Rick Halperin