Va. Man Set to Die Thursday

AP
Published: July 20, 2008

    A Virginia inmate who unsuccessfully
challenged the state’s method of executing prisoners by lethal
injection is scheduled to die Thursday for beating a co-worker to
death with a brass lamp and stealing his money to buy crack
cocaine.
    Earlier this month, the 4th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals
rejected Christopher Scott Emmett’s argument that Virginia’s use of
lethal injection amounts to cruel and unusual punishment because of
the possibility that paralyzing and heart-stopping drugs could be
administered before a drug that renders them unconscious takes
effect.
    The U.S. Supreme Court ruled in April that the three-drug
cocktail used in Kentucky and most other states was constitutional
despite a similar claim. The 4th Circuit found July 10 that
Virginia’s protocol is similar enough to Kentucky’s that it would
not cause inmates excruciating pain.
    Unlike Kentucky, Virginia does not allow for a second dose of
sodium thiopental, which results in a deep, coma-like
unconsciousness, even when a second round of the other drugs is
required. Virginia also administers the three drugs more quickly
than Kentucky corrections officials.
    In 10 of the 70 lethal injections performed in Virginia before
this year, a second dose of the last two drugs was given because
the inmate did not die within a few minutes after the
heart-stopping drug was administered, according to court papers.
    Although most inmates are pronounced dead within five minutes
after the first drug is administered, the last two inmates executed
in Virginia took approximately 10 minutes and 15 minutes to die,
respectively. Department of Corrections officials will not confirm
whether a second dose of drugs was given to those men.
    “We certainly do think that there’s been substantial
variability in the times it has taken prisoners to die, and we
think those warrant further investigation by the courts,“ said
Matthew S. Hellman, one of Emmett’s attorneys.
    Gov. Timothy M. Kaine stopped Emmett’s execution June 2007 so
the U.S. Supreme Court would have time to consider his appeal,
which it later rejected. Then in October, Emmett’s execution was
one of dozens halted by the Supreme Court while it considered the
Kentucky lethal injection challenge.
    Emmett’s attorneys have not asked the U.S. Supreme Court again
to block the execution, but a petition for clemency is before
Kaine.
    In 2001, Emmett beat 43-year-old John Fenton Langley to death
with the base of a brass lamp in a motel room they shared while in
Danville working as part of an out-of town roofing crew.
    Gene Langley said too much consideration has been given to
whether his brother’s killer will suffer.
    “He did not have any respect for my brother when my brother
suffered,“ said Gene Langley, 48, of Rocky Mount, N.C. “It was
proven in court that my brother suffered pain, so what’s the
difference between him and my brother?“
    On the night of the murder, Langley bought food and grilled for
Emmett and other co-workers, then they played cards at their motel.
As Langley slept, Emmett took the light bulb out of the lamp so he
wouldn’t cut himself and beat Langley to death so he could steal
his wallet.
    “No person should do that to anybody and be able to go out of
this world and not feel something of what they did to their
victim,“ Gene Langley said.
    Emmett, 36, had spent time in a maximum-security juvenile
detention facility, where he participated in an escape in which the
guard was locked into a closet. Later, he was convicted of
involuntary manslaughter for killing a motorcycle driver in an
accident in which Emmett was drunk.
    Gene Langley and six other family members, including John’s
adult daughter and son, have prepared to witness Emmett’s execution
twice before only to see it postponed. He said he is confident it
will happen this time.
    To celebrate, and to remember the goodhearted, quiet race fan
who loved Dale Earnhardt, the family will gather for a cookout at
his mother’s house on Lake Gaston Sunday - John’s birthday.