Miss. death row inmate say’s he’s at peace | The Clarion-Ledger | clarionledger.com

PARCHMAN, MISS. — A former butcher convicted of dismembering a man told prison officials just hours before his scheduled execution Wednesday that he has made peace with God and is remorseful for his crimes.Gary Carl Simmons Jr. was to be executed at 6 p.m. CDT for the August 1996 killing of Jeffery Wolfe, whose body was found in pieces in a Jackson County bayou. Simmons also was convicted of kidnapping and raping Wolfe’s friend and sentenced to life on those charges.Corrections Commissioner Chris Epps said during a news conference at the Mississippi State Penitentiary at Parchman that Simmons was somber and not talkative.”He said he made peace with God and that he was remorseful,” Epps said.

via Miss. death row inmate say’s he’s at peace | The Clarion-Ledger | clarionledger.com.

Bishop put to death

Rogelio Solis/The Associated Press

Flanked by Kathy Gentry (from left), mother of Marcus Gentry; C. Daryl Neely, corrections policy adviser for the governor; Corrections Commissioner Chris Epps and Gerald Gentry (right), an uncle of Marcus Gentry, Melinda Box reads a statement from Gentry’s family.

PARCHMAN — Before he died Wednesday evening, death row inmate Dale Leo Bishop apologized to his victim’s family, thanked America and urged people to vote for Democratic presidential candidate Barack Obama.

or those who oppose the death penalty and want to see it end, our best bet is to vote for Barack Obama because his supporters have been working behind the scenes to end this practice,” Bishop said.

Bishop, 34, was pronounced dead by lethal injection at 6:14 p.m. – the second inmate put to death in Mississippi in two months. Earl Wesley Berry, 49, was executed May 21.

The execution culminated a flurry of last-minute appeals that began late last month seeking to save Bishop’s life.

A Lee County jury convicted Bishop in 2000 of participating in the murder of Marcus Gentry, who was beaten to death in December 1998 with a claw hammer. His body was found along a logging road near Saltillo.  Continue Reading.