Arizona executes Donald Beaty

Donald Beaty

Convicted killer Donald Beaty was put to death by lethal injection Wednesday night after hours of legal delays in which his defense team fought to challenge a change in the drugs used to kill him.

Beaty, 56, was put to death at about 8 p.m. at Arizona State Prison Complex-Florence for the 1984 murder of 13-year-old Christy Ann Fornoff. Fornoff disappeared on the evening of May 9, 1984, while collecting money on her newspaper-delivery route at a Tempe apartment complex.

A string of last-minute state and federal appeals filed by Beaty's attorneys Wednesday focused on whether Arizona Department of Corrections officials could legally substitute the drug pentobarbital for sodium thiopental as part of the lethal 3-drug cocktail injected into Arizona's condemned prisoners, including Beaty.

8 hours of legal debate took place in 3 cities - Phoenix, Washington D.C. and San Francisco - before appeals were exhausted and final preparations were made for Beaty's execution.

In arguing for a stay, Beaty's attorneys said more time was needed to determine if the last-minute drug substitution - it was announced late Tuesday - would infringe on Beaty's constitutional rights or constitute cruel and unusual punishment.

They also suggested that corrections officials should have taken more time to train executioners in the use of pentobarbital, since it was not a part of the state's existing execution-drug protocol. One filing called the last-minute change "unconscionable."

The substitution was made at the request of federal authorities, who told state corrections officials Tuesday that the thiopental they proposed to use did not have the proper importation paperwork. It was then the corrections department disclosed that it had pentobarbital on hand as a substitute.

The defense first took its pleas for more time to the Arizona Supreme Court during oral arguments Wednesday morning. The state's high court rejected the arguments several hours later after meeting behind closed doors.

Rejections continued throughout the afternoon: first in U.S. District Court, then twice at the 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals. Meanwhile, the U.S. Supreme Court rejected 2 other legal arguments put forth to block the execution.

In the end, the courts recognized the state's right to substitute pentobarbital for thiopental. One judge noted during oral arguments that pentobarbital already had been reviewed by other courts and approved for executions.

Arizona Attorney General Tom Horne, meanwhile, called the daylong delay a "slap in the face" to the Fornoff family.

By 6 p.m., however, prison officials were cleared to proceed with the execution after the U.S. Supreme Court declined to consider further appeals.

On that May evening in 1984, Fornoff's mother let her out of her sight just long enough to chat with a neighbor, and within hours, police were combing the complex with canine units as Fornoff's parents and neighbors knocked on doors.

2 days later, Beaty, the complex's maintenance man, was seen standing over Fornoff's body, which had been wrapped in a sheet and laid next to a garbage bin. Beaty told the man who saw him that he had just found the body and had already called police.

But evidence linked Beaty to the crime. While his 1st trial ended in a hung jury, his 2nd included a psychiatrist's testimony that he had heard Beaty confess. The doctor said on the stand that Beaty had not intended to kill the girl, but had put his hand over her mouth to muffle her screams and she suffocated on her own vomit.

Beaty was found guilty and sentenced to death.

Beaty becomes the 2nd condemned inmate to be put to death this year in Arizona, and the 26th overall since the state resumed capital punishment in 1992.

Beaty becomes the 19th condemned inmate to be put to death this year in the USA and the 1253rd overall since the nation resumed executions on January 17, 1977. There are 7 scheduled executions in the USA in June, including 4 in Texas, and 1 each in Ohio, Alabama and Virginia.

Sources: Arizona Republic, Rick Halperin, May 25, 2011

Related article: "Arizona inmate Donald Beaty granted temporary stay of execution", AP, May 25, 2011

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