By Dena Potter
JARRATT
A former Army counterintelligence worker was executed by electric chair Tuesday for killing a Virginia couple, becoming the first U.S. inmate to die by electrocution in more than a year.
Larry Bill Elliott, 60, of Hanover, Md., was pronounced dead at 9:08 p.m. at Greensville Correctional Center. He was convicted of the January 2001 shooting deaths of 25-year-old Dana Thrall and 30-year-old Robert Finch.
Prosecutors said Elliott killed the couple to win the love of former stripper and escort Rebecca Gragg, who was involved in a bitter custody dispute with Finch.
Elliott said in the death chamber that he had prepared a final statement for his attorneys to read after the execution. In the three-page typed statement, Elliott maintained his innocence, saying he hoped groups that oppose the death penalty would use his case "as a launching pad for the elimination of the death penalty."
"The very system that I spent a lifetime defending has failed me," the statement said.
When Elliott was brought into the death chamber at 8:55 p.m., he glanced at the oak chair several times before he was turned around and backed up to it and seated. Elliott looked forward or watched members of the execution team as they strapped him tightly into the chair and attached metal clamps with sea sponge soaked in a brine solution to his right calf and head, both of which had been shaved.
The team attached electric cables from the floor to the metal clamps and placed a brown strap across much of Elliott's face that was tied to the back of the chair to support his head.
When the operator in a room off to the side pushed the "execute" button, Elliott's body tensed as he received several bursts of electricity. Several minutes later, a doctor checked for a heartbeat and pronounced him dead.
Earlier in the day, Virginia Gov. Timothy M. Kaine declined to stop the execution, and the U.S. Supreme Court refused to intervene on Monday.
Two separate juries convicted Elliott of the killings. A 2002 verdict was set aside because a juror discussed the case outside of the court. He was convicted again a year later.
Elliott, who was married with three adult children and a teenager, met Gragg online when she posted an ad looking for a "sugar daddy." She told Elliott she wanted to turn her life around and that she needed financial support to help start a business designing and selling stripper costumes.
Prosecutors said that over 18 months Elliott spent about $450,000 supplying Gragg a home, private school for her two children, a car, breast enhancement surgery, and a credit card.
Prosecutors said Elliott was obsessed with Gragg and killed Finch to win her love. A court hearing in their custody case was scheduled for the week that Finch was killed.
Finch was shot three times, and Thrall was beaten before being shot several times in the face and chest while her two boys, ages 4 and 6, were upstairs in the couple's Woodbridge townhome.
At 60, Elliott was Virginia's oldest death row inmate. He was the fifth Virginia inmate to die by electrocution since lethal injection became an option for inmates to choose in 1995.
Of the 35 death-penalty states, seven Southern states still offer electrocution. Two others allow it only if lethal injection is deemed unconstitutional.
The last person executed by electrocution in the United States was James Earl Reed, who put to death in South Carolina in June 2008 for killing his ex-girlfriend's parents.
The last Virginia inmate to choose electrocution was 27-year-old Brandon Hedrick, who died in 2006 for raping and killing a young mother. Kaine gave him up until the last minute to opt for lethal injection, but he went forward with electrocution.
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Do some research...
It's a well documented fact that life imprisonment is far less costly than the execution process.
The reason why
The only reason it is more costly is the extended and ridiculous appeals process. Research clearly proves that too.
What is needed
What we need are electric bleachers to clear all the death rows of all those sentenced to death. If it's been proven beyond a shadow of a doubt they are guilty, enough with all the appeals! Get the job done!
3.5 cents
Actually it should be an eye for an eye. Feel the terror the victim/s experienced by dying the same way they killed the victims. Three shots to the face.
three cents
I categorically have no problem with the death penalty whatsoever other than I consider lethal injection no pealty at all. I believe electric chair, hangning, and firing squad should be the way.
As far as this poor kook, $450k etc?!! Are you kidding me! He should've been given fifty lashes in addition to and before the execution with an extra conviction for being a MORON. Bet that skanky stripper is laughing all the way to the bank with another "Sugar Daddy".
Two cents
I have no problem with capital punishment. I truly believe there are some crimes that are simply so heinous that capital punishment is warranted....but as "justice" not "revenge".
"Justice" should reflect the dignity of our justice system...we are civilized people; I think it's good for us as a people to remember that and speak/act accordingly.
Hey anon4242
It's not only cruel to make them wait, it costs us more money as taxpayers the longer we make them wait. If they are to die anyway, isn't that why they are on death row? After judge sentences the animal(I'm being kind) he should be fried or get his injection the next morning at dawn. The state wants to cut costs right? Save paperwork, appeals process etc. and start executing your executions in a more timely fashion. Maybe if they(criminals) see that there is no waiting period, perhaps they will tone down on crime or just commit suicide instead.
Greensville Correctional Center is on a roll!
The Beltway Sniper last week and now this guy!
Why do they only do one a week? For that matter why can't they do one in the morning and one in the afternoon? There are quite a few on death row and it's Cruel to make them wait.
An easy way…
…would be air tight chambers in which the condemned would spend their final days. At the designated time, carbon monoxide is silently released into the chamber ending in a permanent, restful sleep. Totally painless.
Clear the chamber with fresh air. Remove the cadaver, cremate and flush the remains down the nearest toilet. No fanfare.
I guess that wouldn’t be bad enough for the advocates of violent, deadly criminals to cry over.
Death Penalty
I witnessed two executions in 2008 at the Greenville Correctional Center. Both by lethal injection. For their crimes, their punishment was "too kind" for those two animals and what they did to their victims. State code allows inmates to select the chair or injection. If they refuse both, they get injection by default. May their victims rest in peace. Maybe death penalty opponents would like to have a cell built in their home so they can care for the inmate pay for their upkeep.
Now we are rolling......keep the line moving
Virginia should clean out Death Row. Operate just like a Barber shop, Who's next?
I totaly agree why do we
I totaly agree why do we spend so much money taking care of these criminals. Once we condemn them they should be taken right to the execution room at once
Death Penalty
WHY should Virginia offer criminals a choice of how the death penalty is carried out? They should ALL be electric chair deaths, if their crime warranted the death penalty. Their death should be as 'brutal' as the crime they committed. Ask any person who is opposed to the death penalty ..."if you happened to walk into a situation where your wife, your child, your parent, your sibling were being raped/murdered.....what would you do?"
MOST acknowledge they would attack/kill the predator. So if you are against the death penalty put it in perspective...... WHAT IF IT WERE YOUR WIFE, YOUR CHILD, YOUR PARENT/PARENTS, YOUR SIBLING/SIBLINGS?
Did I hear a few changing of the minds when it HITS home??
Not gonna change my mind.......
My sister was tragically killed by her twin son 3 years ago and he got 30 years for doing so. He could get out in 15 years on good behavior. That's the part I'm upset about. It happened in Indiana where the laws are not the same as Virginia laws. He stabbed her multiple times with a japanese samarai sword as she sat in a recliner. He was charged with involuntary manslaughter. How does that happen? To me murder is murder!!! I do not believe and never will believe in capital punishment. It has "hit close to home" and it hasn't changed my mind. I would have wanted my nephew to spend life with no parole in prison but Indiana says he can get out. This is how I think it should be:
1. Solitary confinement
2. One meal a day (ok how bout a meal every other day)
3. Hard labor all day/everyday
4. No letters
5. No phone calls
6. No visitors
7. One shower a week (or how out no shower at all...EVER)
8. No books
9. No tv
I think I'd rather die then have to go through all of that on a day to day basis. To me, Death is the easy way out.
Death Penalty
I cannot agree with you more!!! You have hit the nail on the head. I have never thought it was right that these criminals should get to choose how they die. Their victims didn't get the choice so why should they. I believe lethal injection is too humane. What I believe is the punishment should fit the crime and they should have to beg for their lives just like their victims did. No, these criminals dying won't bring the victims back but at least the families and friends of these victims can get some closure and feel that justice has been done.
Possibly
because it seems more civilized. But does it matter as long as justice is served? The end result is the same.
YES
Perhaps it is wrong for me to rejoice when a parasite is held accountable for his crime. I suppose one day I will find out. But until that time arrives, I will continue to support the death penalty, I will continue to support Virginia’s right to protect its citizens from potential harm, and I will continue to raise my drink at 9:00 PM every time someone is scheduled for a meal with satan..
Express line
We need to shorten the time that people are sentenced to death and when the sentence is carried out. The time needs to be shortened and death row cleared out, and kept cleared. You do not send a message to the criminal element by being wishy washy. Let's get er done!
In some cases
that would work, like with Tim McVeigh or this man, but what if, with science progressing as it is, we discover one of our quick executions actually killed someone not responsible? Wouldn't you rather be sure we did everything possible to prevent that, even if it takes 10 -20 yearsz? I understand the need for quick justice, but it needs to be just that, justice. Justice first, speed second.
Proof beyond a shadow of doubt
In cases where it is proven beyond a shadow of doubt, it shouldn't take even a year from conviction and sentencing to putting them to death. IF there is some doubt or only circumstantial evidence, then they should be held until a more thorough investigation is done to prove whether or not they really did or did not commit the crime.