Eric Payne was executed by the State of Virginia for two murders committed in six days
According to court documents Eric Payne would murder Ruth Parham, 61, and Sally Fazio, 57, in the Richmond area in June 1997
Eric Payne would be arrested, convicted and sentenced to death
Eric Payne would be executed by lethal injection on April 28 1999
Eric Payne Photos
Eric Payne Case
Eric Payne, 26, was executed by injection tonight for murdering two women during a six-day rampage of hammer beatings.
Payne, who declined to appeal his sentence or ask Gov. James S. Gilmore III (R) for clemency, was pronounced dead at Greensville Correctional Center.
In a final statement, Payne said: “I love you Margie, and we’ll be together again.” Larry Traylor, a Department of Corrections spokesman, said the reference was to Payne’s ex-wife.
Since the death penalty was reinstated in Virginia in 1977, only one other condemned man — Andrew Chabrol, executed in 1993 — has declined to appeal.
After the execution, Carolyn Grady, Payne’s attorney, released a statement from him apologizing to the families of his victims. “He wished to say that he is deeply sorry for the tremendous pain that he caused each and every one of them and that he’s at peace,” Grady said
About half a dozen death penalty opponents had conducted a candlelight vigil outside the rural prison’s main gate as the execution hour approached.
Earlier today, Grady said Payne “doesn’t want to stay on death row any longer than necessary.”
The execution was the first of two scheduled on consecutive days in Virginia. Ronald Yeatts, 38, is scheduled to die Thursday night for the fatal stabbing of a 70-year-old widow in her kitchen during a 1989 robbery for drug money in Pittsylvania County.
The last time there were executions on consecutive days in Virginia was March 1-2, 1945, said David A. Bass, the state Department of Corrections’ expert on executions.
Payne killed Ruth Parham, 61, and Sally Fazio, 57, in the Richmond area in June 1997, five months after he finished serving a six-year prison term for possession of LSD. He also attacked Ridley Fleck and her 8-year-old son, Dean. Both suffered extensive head wounds but survived. Dean Fleck later testified against Payne in court
Payne’s attorneys said he experienced extreme violence and institutionalization almost from birth and never had a normal life. His father shot his mother to death in 1973, when Payne was 4 months old, then hanged himself with a belt from bars in his Roanoke jail cell.
Payne’s aunt adopted him but surrendered custody to the state when Payne was 6. Family members testified that Payne and his two brothers then were raised in a series of foster homes and institutions.
Payne’s attorneys said he never got the counseling he was supposed to receive in jail. They also said he was under extreme stress when he was released from jail after years in institutions