COLUMBIA, S.C. -- Since capital
punishment resumed in 1977, 500 people have been put to death across the
country.
Time and repetition haven't lessened the opposition: The 500th
execution drew 60 protesters, some of whom were arrested outside the
prison where Andrew Lavern Smith died by injection for killing elderly
cousins who refused to let him borrow their car.
''All the people opposed to the death penalty seem to be coming
together and working together,'' Steven Bates, head of the state chapter
of the American Civil Liberties Union, said Friday. ''Tonight we see the
level of debate and the level of opposition being raised.''
Smith, 38, stabbed Christy Johnson 27 times and Johnson's wife, Corrie,
17 times in 1983. Smith rented a house from Johnson, 86, and his wife, 82,
who were Smith's cousins.
Before the curtain was drawn on the death chamber, witnesses could hear
Smith, his lawyer and two chaplains singing ''Amazing Grace'' as they
walked through the corridor. Smith had no final public words.
''I was with him for about three hours beforehand, and he was very
well-prepared,'' Chaplain Carolyn Metzler told the Anderson
Independent-Mail. ''We worshiped together, joked and shared a final meal.
He was concerned with his mother.''
Nine death penalty opponents were arrested outside Broad River
Correctional Institution shortly before the execution. They sat on the
prison's entrance road and refused to move.
Demonstrators led by the South Carolina Coalition Against The Death
Penalty lit candles for the 500 inmates executed nationally.
State Attorney General Charlie Condon criticized the protests.
''I prefer to think of this as an occasion to remember the victims --
the men, women and children slaughtered by 500 cold-blooded killers,''
Condon said. ''So 500 is an inadequate figure. Many of these murderers
killed more than one person.''
In 1972, the U.S. Supreme Court ruled execution was unconstitutionally
''cruel and unusual'' because states used it in arbitrary and capricious
ways. The court ended a four-year nationwide ban on capital punishment in
1976 and executions resumed the next year.
Thirty-eight states have a death penalty, and about 3,500 people are
awaiting execution nationwide.
Although polls show most Americans support capital punishment,
opponents argue that its use is unfair and is affected too often by race,
the location of a crime and whether the defendant can afford a good
lawyer.
Most executions have come in six states: Texas, Virginia, Florida,
Missouri, Louisiana and Georgia. By far the leader is Texas, which has
executed 164 prisoners since 1977.
The pace of executions was slow at first. Gary Gilmore was the only one
in 1977, going before a firing squad in Utah. No one was executed in 1978.
Altogether, 11 were put to death in the first seven years after capital
punishment was restored.
The numbers peaked at 74 executions last year. So far this year, there
have been 68, including Smith's.
Among the most notorious killers were Ted Bundy, who admitted killing
20 women, and John Wayne Gacy, who murdered 33 boys and young men. Three
women have been put to death.
In Smith's case, defense attorney John Blume said his client had a
psychotic reaction to penicillin and does not recall the stabbings. He
also said Smith had ''woefully inadequate'' legal representation in lower
courts.
Smith was also a suspect in other killings that were never brought to
trial, including the shooting death of David Craig in 1981. Craig's
nephew, Stephen Carroll, witnessed the execution, saying ''someone should
be there to represent my family.''
