State Carries Out 1st Execution in 35 Years

A man who killed a convenience store clerk during a robbery in 1981 that netted him $1,500 was executed in the electric chair in Eddyville, becoming the first inmate executed in Kentucky in 35 years. Gov. Paul E. Patton rejected Harold McQueen’s request for clemency and the U.S. Supreme Court refused his requests for a stay of execution. McQueen, 44, who, acquaintances said, had become a devout Catholic, had said in a televised interview that entering the death chamber would be “kind of like the gateway to heaven.” McQueen was convicted of murdering Rebecca O’Hearn, 22, a convenience store clerk.