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Virginia has first execution in nearly two years

JARRATT—Lawrence Vaughan didn’t get to see his wife’s funeral. But after nearly 10 years, he was able to see her killer take his last breaths.

Vaughan and his family watched last week as Kevin Green, 31, was executed by lethal injection for killing Patricia Vaughan in August of 1998 when he robbed the store she and her husband owned in rural Brunswick County. Green was pronounced dead at 10:05 p.m. at Greensville Correctional Center.

It was Virginia’s first execution in nearly two years and the third in the U.S. since the Supreme Court upheld the constitutionality of lethal injections in April. Georgia became the first to execute an inmate May 6, ending a seven-month halt on capital punishment nationwide.

The U.S. Supreme Court, a federal judge and Gov. Timothy M. Kaine each refused Tuesday to halt the execution.
Green declined to give a final statement, telling a prison official, “No, I don’t got nothing to say.’’

Green shot Patricia and Lawrence Vaughan and stole $9,000 from their convenience store in rural Dolphin, more than 50 miles south of Richmond. Patricia Vaughan, 53, was shot four times and died at the scene. Lawrence Vaughan was shot twice but survived. He was in a Richmond hospital when they buried his wife.

Police say Green confessed, telling them he and his nephew took a bus to Northern Virginia and blew all but $170 of the $9,000 they stole on prostitutes, marijuana and clothes.

His nephew, 16 at the time, pleaded guilty and was sentenced to 23 years in prison.

Green was the 99th person executed in Virginia since the U.S. Supreme Court reinstated capital punishment in 1976. Virginia ranks second only to Texas, which has executed 405.

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