Free Republic

GREENSVILLE COUNTY, Va. -- Ricky Javon Gray was put to death by lethal ejection at 9.42 p.m. Wednesday at the Greensville Correctional Center in Greensville County. Gray’s last appeal was denied hours before his execution when the U.S. Supreme Court rejected Gray's request for a stay of execution. When officials asked Gray if he had any final words, he replied “nope,” according to CBS 6 reporter Jon Burkett, who observed the execution in the death chamber. Burkett reports Gray declined his final meal before the execution. Gray and his nephew Ray Dandridge shocked the Richmond community in January 2006 --...

A Virginia inmate asked a federal court Wednesday to block the state’s plans to execute him next month with lethal injection drugs from a secret compounding pharmacy, suggesting even a firing squad would be more humane. Attorneys for Ricky Gray said in a federal complaint that there is a serious risk that Virginia will “chemically torture” the man to death when it uses compounded drugs for his execution scheduled for Jan. 18. Although firing squads aren’t permitted under Virginia law, his attorneys argue even that method would be a more humane alternative. […] Gray’s attorneys plan to ask Gov. Terry...