South Dakota’s First Execution in 60 Years Involves Young ​“Volunteer”

On July 11, South Dakota car­ried out its first exe­cu­tion in 60 years, mark­ing only the 15^th time the state has car­ried out a death sen­tence since 1877. The state exe­cut­ed 25-year-old Elijah Page after he dropped all appeals and vol­un­teered to die by lethal injec­tion. Page was only 18 at the time of his crime and had a long his­to­ry of being abused. During his tri­al, the pre­sid­ing judge not­ed, ​“Most par­ents treat­ed their pets bet­ter than your par­ents treat­ed you.” Page’s deci­sion to drop his appeals meant that his exe­cu­tion was car­ried out under new lethal injec­tion pro­to­cols that have not been exam­ined by the courts.

Since U.S. exe­cu­tions resumed in 1977, 127 inmates have been exe­cut­ed after drop­ping their appeals. South Dakota is one of ten states with the death penal­ty that have car­ried out only 1 or no exe­cu­tions since rein­stat­ing cap­i­tal pun­ish­ment.

(Source: DPIC, var­i­ous sources; post­ed July 12, 2007). See Time on Death Row and Lethal Injection.