Kevin Green was put to death on Tuesday night, a decade after he robbed and murdered a convenience store owner in southern Virginia, in the state’s first execution since the U.S. Supreme Court reaffirmed lethal injection last month.
Green, 31, saw his last-ditch appeals for clemency denied by the high court and then Virginia Gov. Kaine, who dismissed the assertion that Green was mentally retarded and unfit for the death penalty. Green is the fifth person executed in Virginia since Kaine took office in 2006.
Two justices, John Paul Stevens and Ruth Bader Ginsburg, had argued in favor of a stay, saying to proceed might mean Green’s arguments against execution were given “less thorough consideration” than those of other defendants. But the balance of the court upheld the death sentence.
Green’s attorney had requested clemency based on Green’s low IQ, which was measured at below the mental retardation standard of 70. The Supreme Court was also asked to review a lower federal court decision to bar Green from claiming he had ineffective counsel.
“Kevin Green is mentally retarded by any scientific measure, and his execution is unconstitutional,” said Sarah Wilson, a lawyer with D.C.-based Covington & Burling LLP who worked on seeking clemency for Green.
Kaine dismissed the argument on WTOP’s “Ask the Governor” program Tuesday morning.
“Mr. Green has litigated the issue of ‘is he mentally retarded’ before numerous state and federal courts, and the federal and state courts have considered the claim and found he’s not mentally retarded,” Kaine said.
The governor stayed all pending executions in early April while the Supreme Court mulled the constitutionality of using lethal injection in executions. The court ruled later that month that lethal injection did not constitute “cruel and unusual” punishment, under the Eighth Amendment.
Green’s last best hope was that the Supreme Court might have reversed a lower court ruling that he had waited too long to raise the argument of ineffective counsel.
But the high court did not address that argument in denying a stay Tuesday.
Green was executed around 9 p.m. at the Greensville Correctional Center in Jarratt. Virginia is second in the nation only to Texas in executions. Green is the 99th person put to death in the commonwealth since the Supreme Court reinstated capital punishment three decades ago.
