Kevin Green Executed For Patricia Vaughan Murder

Kevin Green was executed by the State of Virginia for the murder of Patricia Vaughan

According to court documents Kevin Green and his nephew would enter a store and shoot the two owners with Patricia Vaughan dying from her injuries

Kevin Green would be arrested, convicted and sentenced to death

Kevin Green would be executed on May 27 2008

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When Was Kevin Green Executed

Kevin Green was executed on May 27 2008

Kevin Green Case

After a last-minute legal delay, Kevin Green was executed by injection last night for killing the owner of a store during a robbery in rural Brunswick County a decade ago. Green, 31, of Brodnax was pronounced dead at 10:05 p.m. at the Greensville Correctional Center. Asked if he had any last words, Green said, “No, I don’t got nothing to say.”

The execution took place about an hour later than scheduled. According to prison officials, after the U.S. Supreme Court denied Green a stay of execution, his lawyers took a new motion before a federal judge in Richmond. Rob Lee, one of Green’s lawyers, said it was his understanding that other lawyers involved in the case sought a temporary restraining order related to the case of Virginia deathrow inmate Christopher Scott Emmett. Emmett is challenging the lethal-injection procedures used in Virginia in the 4th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals. Earlier, Gov. Timothy M. Kaine declined to intervene in the execution.

Green was led into the execution chamber about 9:50 p.m., wearing blue jeans, a light blue shirt and slippers. He was strapped onto the gurney by execution team members. A curtain was pulled, blocking the view of witnesses while IVs were inserted in his arms. The curtain was opened again, and the execution appeared to start around 10 p.m.

It was the first execution in Virginia since 2006, the 99th in the state since executions were allowed to resume in 1976, and the third lethal injection in the country since the Supreme Court upheld the procedure last month.

Patricia L. Vaughan, 53, was shot four times during the Aug. 21, 1998, robbery of Lawrence’s Grocery, a business she and her husband, Lawrence T. Vaughan, started in 1981 in the small community of Dolphin where the two grew up. Lawrence Vaughan, 68, of South Hill, was shot twice during the robbery. He still has a bullet in his neck and one in his elbow, but survived and testified against Green. The business never reopened. Remarried in recent years, Vaughan said yesterday afternoon that he and his current wife, along with his and Patricia Vaughan’s two daughters, would attend the execution. Reached by telephone after the execution, Vaughan said, “I think justice has been done . . . he got what the 12 jurors said he should get.”

Green’s lawyers argued to Kaine that Green — who had no prior record — was mentally retarded. The courts, however, disagreed. A federal magistrate judge conducted a hearing on whether Green was mentally retarded. While he found last year that Green’s IQ was below 70, he also found that Green functioned well enough in daily life to not be considered mentally retarded.

Among other things, Green’s lawyers argued to the Supreme Court that Green’s trial lawyers did not perform up to constitutionally acceptable standards. His trial lawyers got Green’s capital-murder conviction reversed by the Virginia Supreme Court in 2001, but they neglected to appeal his noncapital convictions. As a result, during his retrial in 2001, which the Virginia Supreme Court had ordered, the jury heard Green already was serving a life sentence for the store robbery.

Green entered the store shortly before 2 p.m. with his nephew, David Green, then 16. Kevin Green shot the two Vaughans and then stood watch while David Green stole a bank bag with $9,000 in cash and Lawrence Vaughan’s handgun from under a counter. Green shot Patricia Vaughan again before he ran out of ammunition and left. The two fled to Washington. They returned several days later, were arrested and admitted to the crime. David Green was sentenced to 23 years.

When Kevin Green was sentenced to death on Jan. 24, 2002, the judge asked him if he had anything to say. “Not really. No,” responded Green. “Do I have any remorse? No, I don’t. I’m ready to die.” Last night after the execution, Vaughan, widower of the woman Green murdered, said, “He got his wish.”

Department of Corrections spokesman Larry Traylor said that Green met with at least one of his lawyers yesterday but did not meet with any family members. Traylor also said Green did not have a spiritual adviser yesterday.

http://www.inrich.com/cva/ric/search.apx.-content-articles-RTD-2008-05-28-0141.html

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