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Nobunaga Oda
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US murderer executed on camera
A man convicted of killing his parents and sister was executed after the courts allowed what experts say is the nation's first video-recorded execution in almost two decades.
Andrew DeYoung Photo: AP
8:00AM BST 22 Jul 2011
Andrew DeYoung, 37, received a lethal injection on Thursday night at the state prison in Jackson after courts turned down his appeals.
A videographer with a camera on a tripod stood about 5 feet away from the gurney inside the execution chamber.
When asked to make a final statement, DeYoung said he was "sorry to everyone I hurt."
He declined the offer of a final prayer. Department of Corrections officials said he took a sedative pill offered to him beforehand.
When the three-drug injection began, DeYoung blinked his eyes and swallowed for about two minutes, then his eyes closed and he became still. He was pronounced dead at 8:04 pm.
The execution was set for Wednesday but was pushed back a day as the state tried to block the video recording.
Lawyers for death row inmate Gregory Walker argued that recording DeYoung's execution would provide critical evidence in his appeal about the effects of pentobarbital, which is the sedative now being used as the first step in Georgia's injection procedure.
Walker's lawyers want to show that pentobarbital does not adequately sedate the inmate and could cause pain and suffering.
In court filings, state prosecutors argued that having a videographer in the execution chamber would jeopardise security. They also said creating a video came with the risk of it being distributed.
Fulton County Superior Court Judge Bensonetta Tipton Lane allowed the recording to take place, and that decision was allowed to stand by the Georgia Supreme Court. The video will be kept under seal by the court.
Georgia Gov. Nathan Deal said it was up to the courts to decide the matter, though he told reporters following a news conference Thursday he had "grave reservations" about videotaping executions.
Defence lawyers countered that the state corrections department has long allowed cameras to film parts of the prison, although they acknowledged the state has never before allowed an execution to be recorded.
"It is simply disingenuous to assert that video recording of Mr. DeYoung's execution constitutes a fundamental threat to the security of the institution," attorneys wrote in the filing.
The use of pentobarbital became an issue in Georgia after Roy Blankenship's June 23 execution.
Blankenship was the first Georgia prisoner put to death using the sedative pentobarbital as the lead-off drug in the state's lethal three-drug combination.
An Associated Press reporter witnessed Blankenship jerking his head several times during the procedure, looking at the injection sites in his arms and muttering after the pentobarbital was injected into his veins.
Death penalty critics said Blankenship's unusual movements were proof that Georgia shouldn't have used pentobarbital to sedate him before injecting pancuronium bromide to paralyze him and then potassium chloride to stop his heart.
In seeking a stay, DeYoung's attorneys argued that using pentobarbital could cause DeYoung to suffer. But those arguments were rejected by the courts.
