US to mark grim milestone with 1 000th execution

xRALEIGH, North Carolina – Kenneth Boyd, convicted in 1994 for the murder of his wife and father-in-law, will become the 1 000th prisoner executed in the United States since 1976, if he is put to death here as planned early this morning.

After eleven years on death row in this south-eastern state, Boyd, 57, suddenly became the focus of national attention for the grim milestone this week after the governor of Virginia commuted the sentence of another death row inmate just hours before his execution. A photograph of North Carolina prisoner 0040519 shows just another veteran inmate, a white man with a hollow face and fatigued eyes, framed by greying hair and a drooping moustache.But when Boyd is killed by lethal injection at 2am today, he will have the ignominious honour of being the 1 000th person put to death by the United States since capital punishment was reinstated by the Supreme Court in 1976.The court ruled that year that executions were allowable under the US constitution, which forbids cruel and unusual punishment.”The 1 000th execution is a significant event in the nation’s 30-year experiment with capital punishment, said Richard Dieter, director of the Washington-based Death Penalty Information Center.Scores of protesters against capital punishment, including a group from Amnesty International, were yesterday expected to descend on the Raleigh prison where Boyd will be killed.- Nampa-AFPA photograph of North Carolina prisoner 0040519 shows just another veteran inmate, a white man with a hollow face and fatigued eyes, framed by greying hair and a drooping moustache.But when Boyd is killed by lethal injection at 2am today, he will have the ignominious honour of being the 1 000th person put to death by the United States since capital punishment was reinstated by the Supreme Court in 1976.The court ruled that year that executions were allowable under the US constitution, which forbids cruel and unusual punishment.”The 1 000th execution is a significant event in the nation’s 30-year experiment with capital punishment, said Richard Dieter, director of the Washington-based Death Penalty Information Center.Scores of protesters against capital punishment, including a group from Amnesty International, were yesterday expected to descend on the Raleigh prison where Boyd will be killed.- Nampa-AFP