Preacher's killer put to death

A group of activists is arrested prior to Perrie Dyon Simpson's execution

After Gov. Mike Easley rejected Perrie Dyon Simpson's clemency request Thursday evening, the condemned killer was executed at 2 a.m. today.

The state and U.S. supreme courts had denied Simpson's appeals earlier Thursday.

Simpson, 43, was killed by lethal injection for the 1984 strangulation death and robbery of an elderly minister in Rockingham County.

The governor issued his decision shortly before 10 p.m., a few hours after the highest courts refused to stop the execution. Easley could have commuted Simpson's punishment to life in prison without parole.

Simpson was sentenced to death for killing the Rev. Jean Ernest Darter, 92, a retired Baptist preacher who lived in Reidsville.

Late Thursday, 14 protesters who tried to stop the execution were arrested in the crosswalk next to the Central Prison driveway. Most were among the group that made a similar attempt Dec. 1, the eve of the state's last execution.

Last time, protesters got about 15 feet down the prison driveway. This time, they were stopped by prison guards, metal barricades and State Capitol Police.

Last week, the Wake County District Attorney's Office dropped charges against those who protested in December. Officials said prosecuting 17 people who feel morally obligated to protest executions was a poor use of limited court resources.

For his last meal, Simpson requested a McRib sandwich from McDonald's, a double cheeseburger from Wendy's, macaroni and cheese, cheesecake and a Pepsi, officials said.

He also visited with relatives.

At the time of the murder in August 1984, Simpson, 21, was homeless, unemployed and had a 16-year-old pregnant girlfriend. The couple knocked on the door of Darter's home and asked for money. The preacher invited them inside, gave them beverages, sponge cake, peaches and $4 -- all the cash he had.

The next night, the couple returned for more money and forced their way inside.

Simpson strangled Darter with two belts, beat the preacher with a glass soft-drink bottle and used a double-edged razor blade to cut both of the man's arms from forearm to wrist.

Simpson spent half his life in the state's foster care system and the other half in the state's prison system.

Simpson's three attorneys have said that his unstable and emotionally deprived childhood was the result of social service agencies failing Simpson from the time he entered foster care at 10 days old until he left at 18.

Both of his parents went to prison for child abuse, and Simpson's attorneys have argued that the killing was a culmination of his years of child abuse and neglect as well as a brain disorder.

But Rockingham District Attorney Belinda J. Foster has noted that appellate courts twice refused to overturn Simpson's death sentence, meaning that three juries reviewed his case and were not swayed by his childhood.

Simpson's co-defendant, Stephanie Y. Eury, now 37, also was convicted of murder and is serving a life sentence.

Simpson was the second man executed in two months at Central Prison in Raleigh -- both for murders that happened in Rockingham County.

On Dec. 2, Kenneth Lee Boyd, 57, became the 1,000th person executed in the United States since capital punishment resumed in 1977.