Gerald Smith was executed by the State of Missouri for the murder of Karen Roberts
According to court documents Gerald Smith blamed Karen Roberts for a sexually transmitted disease so he would go to the woman’s home and beat the woman to death with an iron bar
Gerald Smith would be arrested, convicted and sentenced to death
Gerald Smith once on Missouri death row would murder a fellow inmate and receive yet another death penalty
Gerald Smith would be executed by lethal injection on January 18 1990
Gerald Smith Case
A man who was convicted of killing his girlfriend was executed by injection early today, becoming the the 121st nationwide since 1976, when the Supreme Court allowed states to restore the death penalty.
The prisoner, Gerald Smith, 31- years old, had asked that his death sentence be carried out. He was pronounced dead at 12:09 A.M., said Dick Moore, director of the state Department of Corrections.
It was Missouri’s second execution since 1965.
Mr. Smith had no last words and refused an opportunity to write a last statement, a prison spokesman, Dale Riley, said.
Mr. Smith said in a letter to a newspaper that he chased and killed the victim, Karen Roberts because she gave him a venereal disease. ”I wanted her to feel some pain so I beat her little lousy head in,” he said. ”If she were living now I would do it all over to her again.”
He signed the letter: ”Gerald Smith, the cold blooded killer.”
Opponents of the death penalty made a last-ditch effort to save Mr. Smith’s life by filing a motion Wednesday afternoon with the Supreme Court, but the court voted 7-2 to reject the appeal.
Gov. John Ashcroft also declined a reprieve to block the execution, his spokesman said.
Mr. Smith met Wednesday evening with his court-appointed lawyer, C. John Pleban, Mr. Riley said. Mr. Pleban had conceded earlier that few, if any, legal angles remained to spare his client, who has wavered in the past on his claim that he wanted to die.
A Second Death Sentence
Mr. Smith was also sentenced to death for the slaying in 1985 of a fellow death-row inmate.
He Smith had been sentenced to die a week ago, but Mr. Pleban won a stay from Associate Justice Harry A. Blackmun until the Court could review more arguments. The Court lifted the stay by a 6-to-3 vote Tuesday, and the Missouri Supreme Court moved quickly to set the new execution date.
