Perrie Dyon Simpson in North Carolina.

Perrie Dyon Simpson in North Carolina

Perrie Dyon Simpson was executed by lethal injection at 2.00 a.m. on the morning Friday January 20th, 2006.  He received a lethal injection at Central Prison in Raleigh North Carolina and was pronounced dead at 2:17 a.m. 

In his final statement Simpson said "I want to say I am sorry for what I did, I'm sorry for the victim and the families. I'm sorry for my family. 

I'm sorry for everybody."

His last meal was a McRib sandwich from McDonald's, a double cheeseburger from Wendy's, macaroni and cheese, cheesecake, and a Pepsi, according to prison officials.

43 year old Simpson had been convicted of the 1984 murder of a retired minister in Reidsville, North Carolina.  His victim was 92 year old Jean E. Darter, who had been a Baptist preacher.  

On August 26th, 1984, Mr. Darter had given food and $4 in cash to Simpson and his girlfriend, Stephanie Eury and allowed Simpson to use his telephone.  

The couple returned the next night in search of money and goods and strangled Mr. Darter with a belt. When it broke, they used another one. 

Simpson then hit Mr. Darter three times with a soft drink bottle.  He had been beaten so severely with it that there was glass in his eye. Blood was pooled by the bed and Mr. Darter had been deeply cut from elbow to wrist on both arms with his own razor blades.

Simpson was 21 at the time and Stephanie Eury was 16. She also was convicted of the murder, and was given a life prison sentence.

Simpson had three trials, the first on August 27th 1984, a second in 1988 and the final one in December 1993.  When arrested, Simpson had confessed, and at trial pleaded guilty to first degree murder. All three juries gave him the death sentence, however the first two were reversed on appeal.

Simpson's lawyers appealed to Easley for mercy in part because of the conclusions of Wake Forest University neuropsychologist Frank Balch Wood, who wrote that Simpson's "memory and attentional control" were "severely abnormal and indicative of significant brain dysfunction."

Governor Mike Easley rejected Simpson's clemency request on Thursday evening (the 19th) and after the U.S. Supreme Court rejected his appeal.

The state Supreme Court also rejected Simpson’s arguments a day earlier were rebutted by a lower state court.

The clemency petition had asked Easley to change the death sentence to life in prison. But Easley, who has granted clemency only twice in his two terms as governor, said Simpson didn't deserve clemency.  

"Given the facts and circumstances of these crimes, I find no convincing reason to overturn the verdicts of the juries, affirmed by the state and federal courts," Easley said in a statement.