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This is an archive article published on December 3, 2005
US hits execution 145;milestone146;
Double murderer Kenneth Lee Boyd became the 1,000th prisoner executed in the US since the reinstatement of capital punishment when he was pu...
Written by ANDY SULLIVAN
Raleigh | December 3, 2005 12:00 AM IST
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2 min read
Double murderer Kenneth Lee Boyd became the 1,000th prisoner executed in the US since the reinstatement of capital punishment when he was put to death by lethal injection on Friday.
Boyd, who was 57, died at 2:15 a.m. at Central Prison in North Carolina8217;s state capital, Raleigh, spokeswoman Pamela Walker of the Department of Corrections said.
Boyd, a Vietnam war veteran with a history of alcohol abuse, was sentenced to death for the murder in 1988 of his wife and father-in-law committed in front of two of his children. His execution drew world attention because of its symbolism since the US Supreme Court allowed the death penalty to be brought back in 1976 after a nine-year unofficial moratorium.
Boyd8217;s lawyer Thomas Maher told reporters the execution had not made the world better or safer. 8220;This 1,000th execution is a milestone, a milestone we should all be ashamed of,8221; Maher said.
The first convict to be executed after the death penalty returned to the United States, Gary Gilmore, died in front a firing squad in Utah on Jan. 17, 1977, after ordering his lawyers to drop all appeals.
A novel about his case, The Executioner8217;s Song, won writer Norman Mailer a Pulitzer Prize. Gilmore donated his eyes for transplant, inspiring a British punk rock song.
Thirty-eight of the 50 US states and the federal government permit capital punishment and only China, Iran and Vietnam held more executions in 2004 than the United States, according to rights group Amnesty International. 8212;Reuters
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