Convicted killers executed in Mo., Texas

[May 20, 2009]  BONNE TERRE, Mo. (AP) -- Two death row inmates spent some of their last moments apologizing for their crimes before they were put to death six hours apart in Texas and Missouri, which executed its first convict in four years.

In a lengthy, written final statement, Dennis Skillicorn expressed sorrow for the 1994 murder of a Richard Drummond, who stopped to offer help after a car carrying Skillicorn and two other men stalled along Interstate 70.

"The last 15 years I've lived daily with the remorse of my actions," Skillicorn wrote. "And I am deeply sorry for all the Drummond family has been forced to endure."

Early Wednesday, Skillicorn mouthed words to his wife and two spiritual advisers as the first drug was administered to him. Soon, he appeared unconscious. He was pronounced dead at 12:34 a.m., 11 minutes after the procedure began.

His execution was the first in Missouri since Marlin Gray was put to death in October 2005.

Supporters wanted Skillicorn's sentence commuted to life in prison, calling him a role model for other inmates. Skillicorn chaired a prison hospice program, co-founded a program that teaches inmates to be better parents, and compiled a book aimed at persuading juvenile offenders to turn their lives around.

But in deciding against clemency, Gov. Jay Nixon noted Skillicorn was on parole for another murder at the time Drummond was kidnapped, robbed and killed. Nixon also noted that Skillicorn, 49, was convicted of two subsequent murders in Arizona.

"The jury that convicted Dennis Skillicorn determined that he deserved the most severe punishment under Missouri law, and my decision on clemency upholds the jury's action," Nixon said in a statement.

In Huntsville, Texas, meanwhile, Michael Lynn Riley apologized repeatedly in the moments before he received lethal injection Tuesday evening and became the 15th condemned prisoner executed in the nation's busiest death penalty state.

"I know I hurt you very bad," the 51-year-old told relatives of Wynona Harris, the woman stabbed and slashed in February 1986 at a store in Quitman as she was robbed of about $1,000. "I truly am sorry for the hurt and pain I caused you."

Brandy Oaks, who was 4 when her mother was killed, said she accepted Riley's apology and was pleased to hear it, although she had been prepared for the possibility Riley could wind up with a life prison term.

"This is a difficult day and there are no winners on either side," she said.

Marcus Taylor, the now-retired Wood County district attorney who prosecuted Riley and sought the death penalty, witnessed the execution.

"For those people that may think death penalty cases don't get proper examination, this is certainly evidence that's not true," Taylor said. Riley had been locked up longer than his 23-year-old murder victim lived.

While he didn't volunteer for execution, Riley had asked friends to not pray that he receive a reprieve, and he repeated that sentiment to friends who witnessed his death.

"I told you years ago that I was ready," he said.

Eight minutes later, after urging his fellow death row inmates to "stay strong" and that "Fleetwood is out of here," using his death row nickname, Riley was pronounced dead.

[Associated Press; By JIM SALTER]

Associated Press writer Michael Graczyk in Huntsville, Texas, contributed to this report.

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