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By Dena Potter
JARRATT
A man who killed a store owner by sawing at his neck with a pocketknife during a 1997 robbery became the 100th person executed in Virginia since capital punishment was reinstated three decades ago.
Robert Stacy Yarbrough was pronounced dead at 9:28 p.m. Wednesday at Greensville Correctional Center in Jarratt. The 30-year-old was put to death by injection for the 1997 slaying of 77-year-old Cyril Hugh Hamby.
"Tell my kids I love them, and let's get it over with. Make people happy. Help celebrate the murder," Yarbrough said in his final words.
The U.S. Supreme Court and Gov. Timothy M. Kaine refused to block the execution earlier Wednesday.
Virginia ranks second to Texas, which has 406, in the number of executions since the U.S. Supreme Court reinstated capital punishment in 1976. Virginia restarted its capital punishment program in 1982.
Corrections officials needed 17 minutes to insert the intravenous line. It took approximately 10 minutes for him to die.
"Everything proceeded normally, other than the delay siting the line," Corrections Department spokesman Larry Traylor said.
Yarbrough was convicted and sentenced to death in June 1998. He met with family members and his attorneys Wednesday, Traylor said. He did not request a spiritual adviser.
Yarbrough's last meal was fried chicken tenders and cheese pizza.
Hamby's family members attended the execution but did not want to comment.
Five executions were scheduled over two months in Virginia after a moratorium was lifted in April following the Supreme Court's finding that the method of lethal injection used in dozens of states is constitutional.
Kevin Green was executed in May. Kaine commuted triple killer Percy Walton's sentence days before his scheduled June 10 execution because of Walton's deteriorated mental state. Two other men - Kent Jermaine Jackson and Christopher Scott Emmett - are scheduled to be executed in July.
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10 years too long!
Mark is exactly right. It should not be a 10 year process. It took four years to find him guilty and then six to carry out the sentence. That needs to be fixed.
And to answer Ms. Anders...Yarborough and his accomplice had premeditation. They entered the store with a shotgun both knowing murder was a possibility. Yarborough sawed on the victims neck.
In the Navy Seal trainee case, Brown attacked the woman without planning it. The friend committed a crime by not telling police and trying to cover it up. Thats a huge difference.
Capital punishment is not a deterrant for children. It is a deterrant for bad people. It is the parents responsibility to raise their children to be good people. They failed miserably in this case.
DEATH PENALTY IS A VERY EFFECTIVE DETERRENT
Robert Stacy Yarbrough will not kill again. Now that's a deterrent.
Where are all the
"Kaine is a liberal" posters? What say you know that VA administered it's second death penalty in as many months...
Next!!!
Whos gonna be 101? Bring him on....the sooner we get rid of them the better!
next!
only 306 more to catch up with Texas....
kate43483
It may surprise you to know that I am not a Christian, at best I am a Deist.
I post those Bible verses for the consumption of those who keep saying that capital punishment is anti-Christian. I like to remind them that the holy book that they hold so dear calls for the death penalty.
Oh, The Irony and Idiocy!
Will you "christians" who like to spew biblical passages as a mandate for life's decisions, please start thinking for yourselves. Using a book written thousands of years ago and taking it literally is beyond scary.
If I was a criminal
I would rather be put to death then to live the rest of my in confenment. Reliving every day of what he had done to get him in jail to begin with is a slow painful death.
IRONIC LAST WORDS
Yarborough's last words were: "....let's get it over with. Make people happy. Help celebrate the murder."
So, according to him, the execution was a "murder"? What was his crime, a high-spirited prank?
What Yarborough committed was murder. What the state did was carry out a legal, morally and Biblically-justified execution.
sorrow
i am sorry for the victim,his family and friends he has long since gone.i feel sorry for this criminals mother,you can lay blame anywhere you want to.as a parent i taught my children to work hard and respect what belongs to others.this guy got his just punishment,and i don't celebrate in his death.i pray that he ask forgiveness to god for his crime.we are supposed to follow gods laws,and god empowered us to make mans law to abide by.keeping someone on death row for 10 years seldom helps the criminal,only the greedy prosper from it.it is very hard to forgive a crime like this especially for the loved ones,i would hate to be a grandson,brother,or wife of this poor man.justice has been finally done.