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.