First execution of 2012: Okla. killer is put to death

[dbt]

Source: MSNBC

A convicted murderer who unsuccessfully tried to kill himself three weeks ago was put to death by lethal injection on Thursday, marking the nation's first execution of 2012.

Gary Roland Welch, sentenced to death for fatally stabbing 35-year-old Robert Hardcastle during a drug dispute in 1994, was declared dead at 6:10 p.m. local time at the state penitentiary in McAlester, Okla.

Minutes before the drugs were administered, other death row inmates could be heard banging on their cell walls, and Welch paid tribute to them during his final statement.

"I was just going to ask everybody if they could hear my brothers out there," he said. "I know it's kind of quiet now, but I want to acknowledge that my brothers are here with me to send me off on my journey. They are here on my behalf. They've already given me my little send off. So let's get it on because that's what we're here for."


Read more: http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/45897118/ns/us_news-crime_and_courts/#.TwbL-4HYCSo

[lbrtbell]

1. How's that for irony?

He tried to kill himself, but they rushed him to the hospital so that they could kill him three weeks later.

Seems to me they should have just let him die as he wished to, and saved the taxpayers some money.

*Insert facepalm here*