COLUMBIA, S.C. (AP) -- Two killers who were half brothers were executed by injection Friday for killing a gas station owner during a robbery.
Larry Gilbert, 43, and J.D. Gleaton, 53, were put to death for the stabbing and shooting death of Ralph Stoudemire. Gilbert died first. The pair had spent more than two decades on death row."I thought when this day came that I wouldn't be sad, that I would be happy, but I am," said Stoudemire's widow, Betty Slusher. "Let's face it, we're taking two men's lives."
It was the first time since the Supreme Court reinstated the death penalty in 1976 that two brothers were executed on the same day, said Richard Dieter, executive director of the Death Penalty Information Center.
Their 21 years, one month and 27 days on death row is among the longest waits. An Arizona man, Jose Ceja, spent 23 years and a month on death row before he was executed, Dieter said.
Authorities said the pair, both high on drugs, entered Stoudemire's gas station July 12, 1977, to rob it. Gleaton stabbed the 44-year-old Stoudemire five times, including once in the heart. Gilbert shot him.
In 1979, the state Supreme Court ordered a new sentencing trial because of a prosecutor's remarks. They were resentenced to death.
In 1996, a federal judge said they deserved a new trial because of improper jury instructions, but an appeals court overturned that ruling.