Mississippi executes 77-year-old killer Dec 15, 2005, 16:32 GMT
PARCHMAN, MS, United States (UPI) -- Mississippi executed a 77-year-old convicted killer whose last words implicated his son and another man in a 1985 contract killing.
John B. Nixon Sr. was put to death by lethal injection at the Mississippi State Penitentiary in Parchman at 6:25 p.m. Wednesday.
He was convicted of accepting $1,000 to kill Virginia Tucker by her former husband. But while strapped to a gurney, he said his 20 years on death row had been a mistake.
'I did not kill Virginia Tucker. I know within my heart who did, and it hurts me in my heart to acknowledge it was a son of mine and a Spanish friend of his and another person in Jackson,' he said.
Nixon became the oldest person executed in the United States since the death penalty was reinstated in 1976, and was the seventh person executed in Mississippi since 1976, the Jackson Clarion Ledger said.
http://www.news24.com/News24/World/News/0,,2-10-1462_1851205,00.html
US executes 77-year-old 15/12/2005 08:43 - (SA)
Mississippi - A convicted murderer from Mississippi has become the oldest person in the United States to be executed since capital punishment was reinstated almost three decades ago.
The 77-year-old John B Nixon sen, a hitman in the 1985 execution-style murder of a Mississippi woman, was put to death by lethal injection on Thursday.
Nixon has been on death row since March 1986.
The US Supreme Court on Wednesday declined to stay the execution. Earlier this week, Gov Haley Barbour rejected clemency for Nixon, who had told the governor in a letter that he wanted "a fair shake" and had turned his life around.
Authorities said Thomas and Virginia Tucker tried to bargain for their lives after Nixon and his companions burst into their Brandon, Mississippi, home on January 2, 1985. But Nixon dismissed their pleas, put a pistol to Virginia Tucker's head, and pulled the trigger.
Tucker's ex-husband, Elester Joseph Ponthieux of Raymond, Mississippi, is serving a life sentence for hiring Nixon.
Serving sentences for helping Nixon are his two sons and another man.
Nixon spent the final hours before his execution visiting relatives, and appeared calm, prison officials said.
After a breakfast of eggs, sausage, toast, and coffee, he declined to eat lunch, saving room for his last meal, Corrections Commissioner Christopher Epps said.
Amnesty International USA, which issued a statement on Monday condemning Barbour's denial of clemency, said Nixon would be the oldest person executed in the United States in more than a century.
"While we believe that the death penalty is always unjust, John Nixon's case is a particularly cruel example of the unfairness of this broken system," Dr William F Schulz, AIUSA's executive director, said.