Three Executed on Same Day; Fourth Granted Indefinite Stay

Three convicted killers went quietly to their deaths Friday while a fourth received a last-minute stay on the busiest day for the death penalty since the Supreme Court allowed states to resume executions in 1976, officials said.

Wayne Eugene Ritter, 33, convicted in the murder of a pawnbroker, died in Alabama’s electric chair.

Pierre Dale Selby, 34, convicted in the “hi-fi” torture-murders of three people and the maiming of two others, was executed by lethal injection in Utah.

Stood Guard at Robbery

Beauford White, 41, who stood guard while six people were shot to death in a robbery at a suburban Miami home, was electrocuted at Florida State Prison near Starke.

The last time three people were executed on the same day in the United States was Aug. 8, 1962, when three people died in California’s gas chamber, said Watt Espy, a researcher from Headland, Ala., who keeps records on capital punishment.

Serial killer Gerald Eugene Stano, 35, who has claimed responsibility for killing 41 women, had been scheduled for execution Friday in Florida but he received an indefinite stay from a circuit court panel.

At Point of the Mountain, Utah, about 150 death penalty opponents held lighted candles in silent protest as Selby was executed. Nearby, 50 supporters of capital punishment sang mock dirges.

Selby, condemned to die for the torture murders of three people during a 1974 robbery at the Ogden Hi-Fi Shop, spent Thursday fasting, praying, singing hymns and reading the Bible, a Utah State Prison spokesman said.

Joked With Guards

Ritter reportedly went to the electric chair in Alabama with a smile and thumbs up, joking with guards but having no final words.

The murder for which Ritter was condemned came at the end of a seven-state crime spree in 1977. The fatal shot was fired by his companion, John Louis Evans III, who was executed in Alabama in 1983.

Like Ritter, White was not accused of actually shooting anyone. He had stood guard while Marvin Francois, who was executed in 1985, and John Ferguson killed six people. Ferguson is on Florida’s Death Row.

Asked if he had any last words, White reportedly shook his head and said: “No, sir.”