George Quesinberry was executed by the State of Virginia for the murder of Anthony Haynes
According to court documents George Quesinberry and accomplices would break into an electrical supply store. The owner of the store Anthony Haynes would walk into the robbery where he would be fatally shot
George Quesinberry would be arrested, convicted and sentenced to death
George Quesinberry Photos
George Quesinberry Case
A man who killed an electrical supply company owner during a botched burglary was executed tonight after Gov. James S. Gilmore III (R) declined to grant clemency and the U.S. Supreme Court rejected a stay.
George A. Quesinberry Jr., 37, was put to death by injection at the Greensville Correctional Center. Asked for a final statement, Quesinberry said: “I just want my family to know I love them, and to the victim’s family, I am sorry for what I’ve done.”
The execution was Virginia’s third of the year, with six more scheduled before the end of April. Virginia executes more people than any state except Texas.
Quesinberry was convicted of the Sept. 25, 1989, murder of Thomas L. Haynes, who owned Tri-City Electrical Supply Co. in Chesterfield County near Richmond. Quesinberry and a friend broke into the company office about 6 a.m. and were rummaging through desks when Haynes arrived.
Haynes, 63, fled when he saw the intruders, but Quesinberry chased him, firing a .45-caliber semiautomatic handgun as he ran. One shot severed Haynes’s spinal cord, and another was fired with the muzzle pressed against his back. When Haynes tried to push himself up, Quesinberry struck him in the head with the handgun, fracturing his skull.
Quesinberry’s attorney, A. Peter Brodell, asked Gilmore for clemency because Quesinberry was abused as a child. When Quesinberry was 2, his mother shot herself to death in front of him, Brodell said. He also was raped by a relative and beaten, the lawyer said.
In denying clemency, Gilmore noted that Quesinberry admitted to the killing. “Upon a thorough review of the petition for clemency, the numerous court decisions regarding this case and the circumstances of this matter, I decline to intervene,” Gilmore said
Earlier today, the Supreme Court voted 7 to 2 to deny Quesinberry’s appeal and request for a stay.
Haynes’s relatives described him as a kind man who was always willing to help people who he felt hadn’t been given a chance.
“He was a fantastic person,” said his widow, June Haynes-Garrett. “He would have given those jerks probably a job or some money, you know, if they really needed it.”