ROANOKE TIMES
Copyright (c) 1997, Roanoke Times
DATE: Friday, February 7, 1997 TAG: 9702070079
SECTION: VIRGINIA PAGE: B-3 EDITION: METRO
DATELINE: JARRATT
SOURCE: Associated Press
Michael Carl George was executed Thursday night for killing a 15-year-old boy who was handcuffed to a tree, sexually tortured and shot in the head.
George was put to death by lethal injection at the Greensville Correctional Center for the June 1990 slaying of Alexander Eugene Sztanko. The inmate was pronounced dead at 9:18 p.m.
George made no final statement but told prison Warden David Garraghty that he gave a written statement to his minister, who read a Psalm to the inmate while he waited on the gurney. The minister left the prison without releasing it.
George's mother, father and three brothers were his last visitors.
Earlier Thursday, the U.S. Supreme Court voted 7-2 to deny a stay of execution.
George, 39, abducted Sztanko as the boy rode a motorcycle along a dirt power line trail in Woodbridge. After handcuffing Sztanko to a tree, George sodomized him, used a stun gun to shock the boy's genitals and then shot him with a 9mm handgun.
His attorney, Stephen Northrup, said Wednesday that George had written a letter to Sztanko's parents that will be delivered by a clergyman. He did not know the content.
George previously pleaded guilty to involuntary manslaughter and abduction in the May 1979 disappearance of 8-year-old Larry Perry, who lived near the same power line where Sztanko was killed.
George originally was charged with murdering Perry, but authorities agreed to the manslaughter plea because the victim's body was never found. George was released in 1986 on mandatory parole after serving two years of a five-year sentence.
LENGTH: Short : 43 lines ILLUSTRATION: PHOTO: (headshot) George KEYWORDS: EXECUTIONby CNB