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| Billy Don Alverson |
A state Department of Corrections spokesman says Billy Don Alverson was pronounced dead at 6:10 p.m. Thursday at the Oklahoma State Penitentiary.
In his last statement, Alverson apologized for the crime.
"First, to the Yost family, I would like to say I'm sorry. Forgive me," he said. "And to my own family, I'm all right. God is good. Don't you cry. Uh-uh. Don't do it. I'm all right."
He told each of his family members witnessing the execution that he loved them and made a kissing motion toward them. His mother, father, brother, sister and grandmother were present.
Alverson was convicted of first-degree murder for the Feb. 26, 1995, killing of 30-year-old Richard Yost, who was the night manager of a convenience store in Tulsa. His body was found bound and beaten on the blood-soaked floor of the store's cooler.
Yost's widow, Angela Houser-Yost, released a statement after the execution.
She said she believes in the death penalty but wished she had not had to witness the execution.
"Understanding, this execution will not bring Richard back nor will it give me the closure that I am looking for. To be honest I do not know if I will ever have true closure," she wrote.
"There are no winners tonight, each of us from both sides of the family have lost. It is a loss that no one will understand unless they have be(en) in the same situation. I want to give my condole(nce)s to the Alverson family. In saying that I also hope the media will leave you alone w(h)ere you can grieve in peace."
Alverson is 1 of 4 men convicted in Yost's death.
The Washington-based Death Penalty Information Center says Alverson is the first person to be executed in the U.S. this year.
Alverson is the second person - after John David Matthews on Dec. 16 - to be executed in Oklahoma with a new drug as part of the lethal injection process.
The state ran out of the anaesthesia drug sodium thiopental in early 2010, and has replaced it with pentobarbital, which is used for animal euthanasia.
The execution was followed closely in death-penalty circles because it was the second performed with pentobarbital, the anesthetic Oklahoma is now using due to a shortage of thiopental sodium, the anesthetic long used in lethal-injection procedures.
Attorneys have objected to pentobarbital, contending that its relatively unproven track record in human executions creates unconstitutional risks. Oklahoma has defended the drug, citing its common use in animal euthanasia.
Pfizer, which makes pentobarbital through a subsidiary, said its makes the drug only for dogs and cats, according to company spokesman Rick Goulart, who noted that the company is not the only maker of the drug. “We sell exclusively to veterinarians and we want it to be known that its for veterinarian purposes alone,” he said.
Jerry Massie, a spokesman with the Oklahoma Department of Correction, said the state did not purchase its supply of pentobarbital from a veterinarian, but he would not identify the maker of the drug used by the state. He said the first execution to use pentobarbital, in December, took six minutes (the same as with thiopental) and “went exactly as the experts said it would.” Massie said last night’s execution also “went as expected” with no complications.
With two pentobarbital executions now in the books, it could become the drug of choice for some states.
Arizona is considering amending its lethal-injection procedures to allow the use of pentobarbital, should thiopental continue to be unavailable, said Kent Cattani, a lawyer with the Arizona Attorney General’s Office. And Ohio is closely studying Oklahoma’s use of the drug, according to a spokeswoman with the state’s department of corrections.
Alverson becomes the 1st condemned inmate to be put to death this year [2011] in Oklahoma and the 95th overall since the state resumed dapital punishment in 1990.
Alverson becomes the 1st condemned inmate to be put to death this year [2011] in the USA and the 1235th overall since the nation resumed executions on January 17, 1977.
The state ran out of the anaesthesia drug sodium thiopental in early 2010, and has replaced it with pentobarbital, which is used for animal euthanasia.
The execution was followed closely in death-penalty circles because it was the second performed with pentobarbital, the anesthetic Oklahoma is now using due to a shortage of thiopental sodium, the anesthetic long used in lethal-injection procedures.
Attorneys have objected to pentobarbital, contending that its relatively unproven track record in human executions creates unconstitutional risks. Oklahoma has defended the drug, citing its common use in animal euthanasia.
Pfizer, which makes pentobarbital through a subsidiary, said its makes the drug only for dogs and cats, according to company spokesman Rick Goulart, who noted that the company is not the only maker of the drug. “We sell exclusively to veterinarians and we want it to be known that its for veterinarian purposes alone,” he said.
Jerry Massie, a spokesman with the Oklahoma Department of Correction, said the state did not purchase its supply of pentobarbital from a veterinarian, but he would not identify the maker of the drug used by the state. He said the first execution to use pentobarbital, in December, took six minutes (the same as with thiopental) and “went exactly as the experts said it would.” Massie said last night’s execution also “went as expected” with no complications.
With two pentobarbital executions now in the books, it could become the drug of choice for some states.
Arizona is considering amending its lethal-injection procedures to allow the use of pentobarbital, should thiopental continue to be unavailable, said Kent Cattani, a lawyer with the Arizona Attorney General’s Office. And Ohio is closely studying Oklahoma’s use of the drug, according to a spokeswoman with the state’s department of corrections.
Alverson becomes the 1st condemned inmate to be put to death this year [2011] in Oklahoma and the 95th overall since the state resumed dapital punishment in 1990.
Alverson becomes the 1st condemned inmate to be put to death this year [2011] in the USA and the 1235th overall since the nation resumed executions on January 17, 1977.
Related article: "Oklahoma: Billy Don Alverson scheduled to become the first person executed in the U.S. this year", WinnipegFreePress, January 6, 2011
Sources: Associated Press, Tulsa World, Nathan Koppel, WSJ Blogs, Rick Halperin, January 6, 2011
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