johnsmith
05-23-2007, 12:24 PM
http://www.denverpost.com/broncos/ci_5962046
Infamous last words: "Go Raiders"
Arizona killer executed by injection for 1987 crime spree
By Amanda Lee Myers
The Associated Press
Article Last Updated: 05/22/2007 08:19:49 PM MDT
Florence, Ariz. - A condemned killer who fought to drop his appeals, saying he owed it to his victims, was executed Tuesday by injection.
Robert Charles Comer, 50, was the first inmate put to death in Arizona since 2000. He had been convicted for a 1987 crime spree in which he killed a camper east of Phoenix and raped a woman in front of her boyfriend.
Comer was mostly quiet as he lay strapped to a gurney before his execution. He looked around at the more than 20 witnesses. When the warden asked whether he had any last words, the California native replied: "Yes, go Raiders."
He was pronounced dead about five minutes after the lethal drugs were administered.
At a 2002 competency hearing, Comer admitted killing Larry Pritchard after eating a campfire dinner with the man. He said then that it was about time he paid for the crime.
"I killed Larry Pritchard. Stuck a gun in his ear and pulled the trigger, he's dead," Comer said, according to transcripts from the hearing. "An eye for an eye. I mean, I ended a whole bunch of innocent people's lives and changed their lives forever. Even though they're still alive, their lives are destroyed. I owe that to them. I owe it to myself, man. I was totally wrong."
"I don't know what everybody's so scared about," he added then. "Death is not that damn bad."
Comer fought for seven years to be executed. He spent much of that time just proving he was competent to make the decision.
At his sentencing, he had been brought into a courtroom strapped to a wheelchair, bloodied, barely conscious and naked except for a towel on his lap after struggling with guards.
In prison, he was cited 43 times between 1988 and 2001 for infractions including making knives and shanks, fighting with prisoners and guards and setting fires in his cell.
About a dozen people demonstrated against the death penalty about a mile away from the prison entrance Tuesday. A lone death penalty proponent stood in another area, carrying a sign that read: "Comer will never murder or rape again!"
With Comer's execution, Arizona has executed 87 people, 23 of them since resuming the death penalty in 1992. More than 110 inmates, including two women, are awaiting their executions in Arizona prisons.
Infamous last words: "Go Raiders"
Arizona killer executed by injection for 1987 crime spree
By Amanda Lee Myers
The Associated Press
Article Last Updated: 05/22/2007 08:19:49 PM MDT
Florence, Ariz. - A condemned killer who fought to drop his appeals, saying he owed it to his victims, was executed Tuesday by injection.
Robert Charles Comer, 50, was the first inmate put to death in Arizona since 2000. He had been convicted for a 1987 crime spree in which he killed a camper east of Phoenix and raped a woman in front of her boyfriend.
Comer was mostly quiet as he lay strapped to a gurney before his execution. He looked around at the more than 20 witnesses. When the warden asked whether he had any last words, the California native replied: "Yes, go Raiders."
He was pronounced dead about five minutes after the lethal drugs were administered.
At a 2002 competency hearing, Comer admitted killing Larry Pritchard after eating a campfire dinner with the man. He said then that it was about time he paid for the crime.
"I killed Larry Pritchard. Stuck a gun in his ear and pulled the trigger, he's dead," Comer said, according to transcripts from the hearing. "An eye for an eye. I mean, I ended a whole bunch of innocent people's lives and changed their lives forever. Even though they're still alive, their lives are destroyed. I owe that to them. I owe it to myself, man. I was totally wrong."
"I don't know what everybody's so scared about," he added then. "Death is not that damn bad."
Comer fought for seven years to be executed. He spent much of that time just proving he was competent to make the decision.
At his sentencing, he had been brought into a courtroom strapped to a wheelchair, bloodied, barely conscious and naked except for a towel on his lap after struggling with guards.
In prison, he was cited 43 times between 1988 and 2001 for infractions including making knives and shanks, fighting with prisoners and guards and setting fires in his cell.
About a dozen people demonstrated against the death penalty about a mile away from the prison entrance Tuesday. A lone death penalty proponent stood in another area, carrying a sign that read: "Comer will never murder or rape again!"
With Comer's execution, Arizona has executed 87 people, 23 of them since resuming the death penalty in 1992. More than 110 inmates, including two women, are awaiting their executions in Arizona prisons.