Robert Lee, an attorney for Prieto, said in a statement after the execution, “Tonight the Commonwealth executed a man without knowing whether he has intellectual disability or not, using drugs that are far beyond their approved date of use”.
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Attorneys for a death row inmate in Virginia are seeking to halt his execution by challenging the state’s use of lethal injection drugs obtained from Texas. The manufacturer of one of the drugs that Virginia officials plan to use to execute a death row inmate this week says it demanded that the state return the drugs when it learned of their intended use.
Prison officials said in a statement that Prieto, who was put to death by lethal injection, was pronounced dead at 9.17pm on Thursday.
While his appeals churned through the federal courts, Virginia prosecutors asked to have Prieto sent to Fairfax County to stand trial for the rape and double murder near Dulles airport. California officials extradited him to Virginia.
Attorneys for a convicted serial killer in Virginia are pushing to spare his life as the 49-year-old’s scheduled execution draws near.
A Virginia jury convicted Prieto of the crimes, and a judge imposed a death sentence.
Prieto’s lawyers had also argued he should not be executed because he was intellectually disabled. But the high court declined to grant his requests to stay the execution Thursday.
More than 800 people have been executed in the United States in the past 15 years, according to the US Death Penalty Information Center non-profit organization. Prieto’s attorneys also want tests confirming the drug’s sterility and potency and documents showing that the drugs were properly handled, transported and stored.
The 4th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals upheld without comment a ruling earlier on Thursday by federal District Judge Henry Hudson that lifted a temporary order halting the execution.
The El Salvador native was sentenced to death in Virginia in 2010 for the murder of a young couple more than two decades earlier.
U.S. District Judge Anthony Trenga of Alexandria temporarily enjoined Prieto’s execution, scheduled for today, in this order (PDF). His decision came after Prieto’s lawyers failed to adequately show that the drugs were unsafe.
Protesters gathered outside of the Charlottesville City Courthouse to demonstrate against the execution of convicted serial killer Alfredo Prieto. Before Prieto’s execution late Thursday, the most recent had been in the first minutes of Wednesday morning in the state of Georgia.
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The execution appeal hearing has not been scheduled because the case was transferred to a new court in Richmond. Hudson could rule on the matter without holding a hearing or throw out the case and lift the order.
