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| Gary Simmons Jr. |
PARCHMAN, Miss. (AP) — Mississippi has executed a former grocery store butcher who dismembered a man during a 1996 attack in which he raped the man's female friend and locked her in a metal box.
Gary Carl Simmons Jr., 49, was pronounced dead at 6:16 p.m. CDT after an injection Wednesday at the Mississippi State Penitentiary at Parchman. He was condemned for the Aug. 12, 1996, shooting death and dismemberment of Jeffery Wolfe, whose body parts were found in a south Mississippi bayou.
"I've been blessed to be loved by some good people, by some amazing people. I thank them for their support. Let's get it on so these people can go home. That's it," Simmons said as he lay strapped on a gurney in the execution chamber moments before the procedure was carried out.
Once the drugs began flowing, Simmons took a few deep breaths and yawned before going motionless.
In the hours before the execution, Simmons' lawyers filed a motion attempting to stop it with the U.S. Supreme Court. The Mississippi Supreme Court and the state's governor declined efforts to block the execution during the day.
Simmons becomes the 6th condemned inmate to be put to death this year in Mississippi and the 21st overall since Mississippi resumed capital punishment in 1983.
Simmons becomes the 22nd condemned inmate to be put to death this year in the USA and the 1299th overall since the nation resumed executions on January 17, 1977.
Samuel Lopez, in Arizona, is the last person scheduled to be put to death this month, next Wednesday, June 27.
Source: Houston Chronicle, Rick Halperin, June 20, 2012
Mississippi Executes Its Sixth Death Row Inmate Of 2012
Mississippi has executed the 6th death row inmate of the year. M-P-B's Jeffrey Hess reports Gary Carl Simmons was executed by lethal injection at the state penitentiary in Parchman last night.
Simmons was convicted of the 1996 murder of Jeffrey Wolfe as well as the kidnapping and rape Wolfe's female friend.
Simmons worked as a butcher and allegedly used those skills, and knives from work, to dismember Wolfe and scatter his body parts in an alligator infested Jackson County bayou.
After the execution, Wolfe's step-mother Linda Wolfe says Simmons never apologized even with his last words.
"Did he tell us, 'I am sorry. I wish I could take it back'? No, He didn't take nothing back. Like he said, 'Let's get it over with. Let's get done so these people can go home'. Well that is where we are going. We are going back to Houston, Texas and our hearts are proud. And we are proud of y'all. And thank y'all for every prayer, every thought and everything you have done the last 16 years," Wolfe said.
Wolfe's father Paskiel Wolfe reacted emotionally to the execution.
"Do you think God is going to forgive you for doing such a good deed? No. You are going to go to Hell. And that is where you are gonna be. And I hope you burn in Hell. When you take your last breath I will be leaving to go and have a cold beer," Wolfe said.
Two dozen protestors sing and light candles in honor of Wolfe and Simmons in protest to the execution.
Carrying a sign reading, killing won't solve killing, James Bowley says he will continue to oppose the death penalty despite the state putting more people to death this year than at any time in the last 60 years.
"It is obviously not going to stop any this year but it might make a person or two or three or ten who drive by think about it. And that is what education is all about is getting people to stop and think. Obviously it won't stop and it won't step the next ones but maybe next or in two years or in ten years," Bowley said.
There is the potential for additional executions later this year, if the Supreme Court rejects any more appeals before its session which finishes at the end of the month.
Source: Jeffrey Hess, Mississippi Public Broadcasting, 20 Jun 2012
