Roanoke Times
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: FRIDAY, December 17, 1993 TAG: 9312170264
SECTION: VIRGINIA PAGE: B-4 EDITION: METRO
SOURCE: Associated Press
DATELINE: JARRATT LENGTH: Medium
Pruett, 44, was pronounced dead at 11:11 p.m. at the Greensville Correctional Center, said Wayne Brown, the prison's operations officer.
"He had his eyes down when they brought him in and strapped on his face mask. He didn't look at anybody," said Deborah Thomas-Lamb, one of eight witnesses.
Pruett elected against making any final statement, she said.
The execution came less than six hours after the U.S. Supreme Court, without comment, unanimously rejected Pruett's final appeal.
Pruett was visited about eight hours before his execution by his wife, Paula, said David Bass, an operations manager for the state Department of Corrections. Bass said the two had been married recently, but he was unsure of the exact date.
Pruett was convicted in 1986 of raping and stabbing Wilma Harvey, 35, in her home on Feb. 12, 1985, while her husband Richard - who had given Pruett a job as a cook at the restaurant he managed - was away on business. Harvey's nude body with multiple stab wounds was found on her bed with her hands tied behind her back.
Before the execution, there were no protesters gathered outside the prison. A small crowd included only a group of high school students working on a psychology project and five of Harvey's relatives, including her mother, Margaret Lanham of Summersville, W.Va.
Lanham had asked corrections officials if she could be one of the witnesses to the execution. Her request was denied.
"Pruett should be treated like my daughter," Lanham said. "If I could get to him, I would do it to him like he did it to my daughter. The punishment should fit the crime."
William Lanham, the victim's father, had some advice for the high school students who interviewed him. "It's a beautiful world," he told the students. "You children need to get out and enjoy it. Don't let grudges bother you."
In a petition filed with Gov. Douglas Wilder, one of Pruett's lawyers, Donald Lee, argued that the death sentence should be commuted to life in prison. Because of past convictions, Pruett would not be eligible for parole.
Lee said the jurors who sentenced Pruett to die never heard about his severe emotional and psychological problems.
When Wilder was asked to explain why he rejected clemency, he pulled out a photo of Harvey with her throat slashed and said, "That's why."
by CNB