Virginia on Tuesday night executed Larry Bill Elliott, a Maryland man convicted in 2003 of killing a Northern Virginia couple to woo a former stripper.
Shortly after 9 p.m., Elliott, a former Army counterintelligence officer, became the first inmate in the nation to die by electric chair since 2008, and the first in Virginia since 2006. He had requested the method over lethal injection.
The execution was originally scheduled for Oct. 5, but was delayed while Gov. Tim Kaine reviewed Elliott’s petition for his sentence to be commuted to life in prison. The governor refused to intervene on Tuesday.
“I find no compelling reason to set aside the sentence that was recommended by the jury and then imposed and affirmed by the courts,” Kaine said in a statement.
The U.S. Supreme Court had refused to intervene a day before.
Two juries had found Elliott guilty in the 2001 killing of Robert Finch, 30, and Dana Thrall, 25, in their Woodbridge townhouse. Police found Finch’s body shot three times and Thrall gravely wounded and lying in a pool of blood. She was airlifted to a D.C. hospital where she died. Thrall’s two young sons were upstairs during the shootings.
The first guilty verdict was thrown out because a juror discussed the case outside the courtroom. Elliott was convicted a second time a year later. He has maintained his innocence.
Prosecutors said he murdered the couple to win over Rebecca Gragg, a former escort and stripper, who was mired in a custody battle with Finch.
The two had met online, with Gragg — looking to turn her life around — searching for a “sugar daddy.” Elliott agreed to pay Gragg’s bills, including private school tuition for her children and her mortgage. In all, prosecutors said Elliott paid $450,000 to support Gragg.
The execution comes a week after Virginia put to death John Allen Muhammad, who masterminded a 2002 D.C.-area shooting spree that left 10 dead. Muhammad died by lethal injection.
Elliott, 60, was Virginia’s oldest death row inmate.
The Associated Press contributed to this article
