Donald Beardslee, A man who killed two women over a $185 drug deal, was finally executed in California. Beardslee had been wasting taxpayers money on death row, for nearly 25 years. In 1981 Beardslee slashed the throat of 19-year-old Stacey Benjamin and killed 23-year-old Patty Geddling with a shotgun over a drug deal he claimed went sour.
The killings occurred while Beardslee was out on parole from a previous murder conviction.
San Francisco Chronicle
A native of St. Louis, he had no violent crimes on his record until he killed Laura Griffin, 54, in her apartment in December 1969, the same night the two met at a St. Louis-area bar. She was stabbed, choked and drowned in a bathtub. Beardslee, who described the killing to authorities as senseless and without motive, pleaded guilty to second-degree murder and was sentenced to 18 years in prison.
He was paroled in 1977 to the Bay Area, where his mother lived, and settled in Redwood City.
Then in 1981 he once again killed.
He spent his last hours with his legal team and spiritual advisor, a luxury he didn't give those he murdered.
Anti-death penalty Asshats picketed the execution lead by actor Mike Farrel of MASH fame.
T. Tom Amundsen, Stacey Benjamin's brother, and two of her cousins, Mark and Bobby Brooke, were present for Beardslee's death.
After the execution, Amundsen said, "I saw what I wanted to see. I'm glad.
"If you have any daughters, sisters or moms, you go home and give them a big hug and hope they never have to meet a guy like that," he said.
...
Beardslee's fate was sealed Tuesday afternoon when Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger denied clemency and the U.S. Supreme Court denied review of his last two appeals -- one challenging the jury instructions at Beardslee's trial, the other claiming flaws in California's procedures for lethal injection.
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