S.D. Holds First Execution in Decades

[Ghost in the Machine]

S.D. Holds First Execution in Decades
Published: 7/12/07, 3:05 AM EDT
By CARSON WALKER

SIOUX FALLS, S.D. (AP) - A 25-year-old man was executed by lethal injection Wednesday for the torture and slaying of a teenager who was forced to drink hydrochloric acid in a robbery. It was the state's first execution in 60 years.

Elijah Page gave up his appeals and asked to die for the 2000 murder of Chester Allan Poage, 19, who was also stabbed, kicked and bashed with large rocks in a torture session at a gulch in the Black Hills that lasted two to three hours.

Page, of Athens, Texas, died at 10:11 p.m. from a lethal injection administered at the South Dakota State Penitentiary.

He had no last words, warden Doug Weber said.

Gov. Mike Rounds postponed Page's execution last year over concerns that a 1984 state law requiring the use of a two-drug mixture could put prison officials at legal risk if they instead administered a three-drug combination that is now the standard.

http://home.bellsouth.net/s/editorial.dll?bfromind=7434&eeid=5299252&_sitecat=1522&dcatid=0&eetype=article&render=y&ac=0&ck=&ch=ne

[Double T]

1. A state barbaric act does not right a heinous barbaric act.

[NaturalHigh]

2. Regardless of the flaws in the capital punishment process...

it's hard to fell much sympathy for this piece of crap. He died in a far more humane way than his victim.

[Tulum_Moon]

3. No tears here.

I ran over a squirrel last week and shed more tears that this guy deserves.

[Donald Ian Rankin]

4. *If* he was guilty as charged.

There are, I think, some people for whom death is not a disproportionate punishment.

I do not trust the state or anyone else to determine who those people are.

If this guy did what he was convicted of, he may well have been one of them.

Given that he'd pleaded guilty, I think that the chance that he wasn't is absolutely miniscule, but it's still not small enough to justify murdering him.

[Ghost in the Machine]

5. He should have been forced to drink a bottle of hydrocloric acid

just like his victim. An eye for an eye, ya know...

I have no pity for a monster like this and fully support the death penalty because of people like this. They aren't fit for society and aren't worth the money it costs to keep them locked up for the next 50 years.

[uppityperson]

6. Sometimes it is hard to stick with my beliefs.

But I still don't believe in the death penalty.

[Parche]

7. Good

Serves him right
No sympathy for that kind of behavior