Killer Executed; Pope Had Sought Leniency
A man whose death sentence prompted a call for mercy from Pope John Paul II was executed for killing his neighbor and burying her body on his grandmother’s farm.
John Hardy Rose, 43, had confessed to killing Patricia Stewart on Jan. 3, 1991. Rose told investigators that Stewart, who lived below him in his Robbinsville apartment, was a girlfriend and had threatened to file rape charges if he left her. The woman’s family and prosecutors called Rose a stalker.
He refused to ask Gov. Mike Easley for clemency, but the pope and church leaders asked that his death sentence be changed to life in prison.
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