Alabama executes man for 1980 beating death

By Peggy Gargis

BIRMINGHAM, Alabama (Reuters) - Alabama executed longtime death-row inmate Darrell Grayson by lethal injection on Thursday for killing an 86-year-old woman in 1980.

It was the state's second execution of the year and its 37th since capital punishment was reinstated in 1976.

Grayson, 46, was pronounced dead at 6:16 p.m. CDT (2316 GMT) at Atmore prison, said Alabama Department of Corrections spokesman Brian Corbett.

He asked for a last meal of a cheese omelette and fresh sliced tomatoes, said the word "peace" and flashed a peace sign shortly before he died, Corbett said.

Grayson was convicted in 1981 of burgling the home of Annie Laura Orr of Montevallo, Alabama, on Christmas Eve the previous year and beating her to death.

Grayson and accomplice Victor Kennedy, who was convicted of beating and raping Orr and executed in 1999, gave details of the crime in confessions and at trial.

Grayson said later he was too drunk to remember what happened that night and had passed out.

Lee Rawlings Binion, Orr's granddaughter, witnessed the execution on behalf of the victim's family, Corbett said.

"The family of Annie Laura Orr has seen the final chapter of this lengthy 27-year struggle come to an end. We are grateful that justice has finally been served," said Binion.

Anti-death penalty groups appealed to Alabama Gov. Bob Riley for a stay of execution until DNA testing could be done. They said the state only provided Grayson's original lawyer, Richard Bell, with $500 to hire experts and conduct the defense.

But Riley rejected a plea for DNA testing and said in a statement on Wednesday that "no new evidence has come to light that would warrant either a reprieve or a commutation."

"DNA testing would not exonerate him even if there is no DNA evidence that he raped Mrs. Orr. Non-DNA evidence of the convicted murderer's guilt ... is abundant," Riley said.

"The killer's own numerous confessions, his own trial testimony where he himself admitted guilt and the overwhelming physical evidence, left a jury no doubt he perpetrated a cruel and monstrous crime upon a helpless elderly woman," he said.