Virginia death row inmate chooses electrocution

**Piggybank Cop** · 07-12-06, 01:52 PM

Virginia death row inmate chooses electrocution

By KRISTEN GELINEAU
ASSOCIATED PRESS

RICHMOND, Va., July 12 — A death row inmate set for execution next week for the rape and murder of a young mother has chosen to die in the electric chair, the Virginia Department of Corrections said Wednesday.

Barring intervention from the U.S. Supreme Court or Gov. Timothy M. Kaine, Brandon Hedrick, 27, would be the first person in the United States to die by electrocution in more than two years.
The federal government and most states that allow capital punishment use lethal injection rather than electrocution because it is considered more humane.
A 2005 study raised serious questions about whether a painkiller used in the executions can wear off before the prisoner dies. The U.S. Supreme Court last month also made it easier for death row inmates to contest lethal injections by allowing them to make special federal court claims that is cruel and unusual punishment.
Inmates on Virginia's death have the option of choosing to die by injection or electrocution. Earl Bramblett, convicted of murdering a Roanoke couple and their two young daughters, was the last Virginian to die in the electric chair, in 2003.
Hedrick is to be electrocuted July 20 for the 1997 slaying of Lisa Crider, 23, in Appomattox County.
He was sentenced to death in 1998 after being convicted of abducting, raping and shooting Crider in the face with a shotgun on a remote bank of the James River. A co-defendant, Trevor Jones, was sentenced to life in prison

One seat up front.
Hiya Sparky.