Paul Warner Powell was a convicted murderer who was executed by the Commonwealth of Virginia

Virginia

The Commonwealth of Virginia , is a U.S. state on the Atlantic Coast of the Southern United States. Virginia is nicknamed the "Old Dominion" and sometimes the "Mother of Presidents" after the eight U.S. presidents born there...

 via electric chair

Electric chair

Execution by electrocution, usually performed using an electric chair, is an execution method originating in the United States in which the condemned person is strapped to a specially built wooden chair and electrocuted through electrodes placed on the body...

. He is currently the last person executed in the United States

United States

The United States of America is a federal constitutional republic comprising fifty states and a federal district...

 using this method.

Murder

On January 29, 1999, Paul Warner Powell killed 16 year old Stacie Reed because he was angry that she had a black boyfriend. He attempted to rape her and stabbed her in the heart when she fought off his advances. Powell then waited for Stacie's 14 year old sister, Kristie Reed, to come home from school. When she did, Powell raped her, slashed her throat, stabbed her and left her for dead. Kristie survived the attack and was able to testify against Powell.

Trial

Powell was convicted of capital murder and sentenced to death but the verdict was thrown out on appeal when the court decided that there was insufficient evidence to prove that Powell attempted to rape Stacie and that there were no other aggravating factors that would warrant a death sentence. The conviction for the rape of Kristie Reed was upheld and Powell was given a lengthy sentence. Powell, believing that he no longer faced the death penalty, wrote an abusive letter to the prosecutor and admitted that he attempted to rape Stacie and boasted about his crimes in detail.

Using the letter that Powell wrote, prosecutors indicted Powell again for the rape and murder of Stacie Reed. Powell was once again convicted and sentenced to death.

Execution

Powell chose to be executed by electric chair in lieu of lethal injection

Lethal injection

Lethal injection is the practice of injecting a person with a fatal dose of drugs for the express purpose of causing the immediate death of the subject. The main application for this procedure is capital punishment, but the term may also be applied in a broad sense to euthanasia and suicide...

. He was executed on March 18, 2010 at the Greensville Correctional Center

Greensville Correctional Center

Greensville Correctional Center is a prison facility located in unincorporated Greensville County, Virginia, near Jarratt. It is operated by the Virginia Department of Corrections. Greensville houses the execution chamber used to carry out capital punishment by the Commonwealth of...

 in Jarratt, Virginia

Jarratt, Virginia

Jarratt is a town in Greensville and Sussex counties in the U.S. state of Virginia. The population was 589 at the 2000 census.-Geography:According to the United States Census Bureau, the town has a total area of 1.3 square miles , all land....

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