The Nation - News from Aug. 31, 1989

A man convicted of the 1977 rape and murder of a 61-year-old woman was executed in Virginia’s electric chair in Richmond. Alton Waye, 34, was pronounced dead after receiving two jolts of electricity, said Department of Corrections spokesman Wayne J. Farrar. The U.S. Supreme Court had refused by a 7-2 vote to postpone the execution and to consider Waye’s case on appeal. The former textile worker also was denied clemency by Gov. Gerald L. Baliles. Amnesty International had protested the execution because Waye was borderline mentally retarded. He was the 117th person executed in the United States since the Supreme Court’s 1976 ruling allowing reinstatement of capital punishment.