Killer Executed After Court Rejects Claim

A killer whose appeals kept him living on Death Row for more than 15 years was executed by injection Thursday.

Willie Lloyd Turner died six hours after the U.S. Supreme Court rejected his claim that his Death Row years amounted to cruel and unusual punishment. Justice John Paul Stevens dissented.

Sentenced to die for murdering a jewelry store owner during a robbery, Turner, 49, was the longest serving of Virginia’s 56 Death Row inmates.