Idaho executes Richard Leavitt

Richard Leavitt

BOISE, Idaho (AP) — Idaho prison officials on Tuesday executed a convicted killer for brutally stabbing a woman nearly three decades ago, marking the first time witnesses were allowed to watch the whole process of lethal injection in the state after a challenge by media organizations.

Richard Leavitt, 53, was pronounced dead at 10:25 a.m. at the Idaho Maximum Security Institution.

Tuesday's lethal injection was unprecedented in the state due to the expanded access granted to media and other state witnesses in the wake of a federal lawsuit.

The Associated Press and 16 other news groups sued last month, arguing that Idaho Department of Correction policy barring witnesses from viewing a lethal injection last November in its entirety violated the First Amendment and the public's right to know.

The 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals agreed, ordering Idaho prison officials to open the curtain immediately after Leavitt entered the execution chamber, enabling witnesses to oversee as executioners insert IV catheters into Leavitt's body.

The insertion of IV catheters, used to deliver lethal doses of sedatives and other chemicals, has come under fire in recent years. Death row inmates in Idaho and other states have challenged the procedure on grounds the insertion of the catheters can cause delays, excruciating pain or other complications.

Brent Reinke, Idaho's prison chief, said the agency and its execution team made adjustments to comply with the federal court order. He said execution team members will wear headgear and other garb designed to protect their identities. The team also held two rehearsals in recent days to adjust to policy changes sought by the news groups.

"We have taken what we believe are the necessary steps to protect the identity of our team, especially our medical team," Reinke told reporters early Tuesday. "But from the time we begin this process, the blinds will be open so the media will see everything that happens."

In the hours before the execution, Reinke described Leavitt as calm and resolved after meeting with lawyers and a few visitors. Leavitt, convicted in 1985 for stabbing and mutilating 31-year-old Danette Elg, did not ask to see a spiritual advisor.

Late Monday, the U.S. Supreme Court rejected Leavitt's last-minute request to stay the execution, clearing the way for Idaho to put to death its second inmate in 17 years. In November, Paul Ezra Rhoades was died by lethal injection for his role in the slaying of three people in eastern Idaho.

About 29 people gathered outside the prison south of Boise to protest the execution and the state's capital punishment law.

Leavitt was arrested after authorities discovered Elg's body in her bedroom several days after she'd been killed. Prosecutors said Leavitt stabbed her repeatedly with exceptional force, and then cut out her sexual organs.

At his sentencing, former 7th District Judge H. Reynold George noted that Leavitt came from a law-abiding family, was married and steadily employed before his arrest, but said those mitigating factors were only "feathers on the scale when balanced against the grossly inhumane act of murder that went beyond all decency."

Source: AP, June 12, 2012

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