Convicted killer executed in Montana

DEER LODGE, Mont. – The Friday morning execution of convicted killer David Dawson went exactly as planned, with prison officials saying they kept to within 30 seconds of their schedule.

In his final hours, Dawson listened to music through ear plugs and ate a meal that included two cheeseburgers, two orders of fries and a half-gallon of ice cream. Even at the end, with extended family members of the victims he killed watching, Dawson showed no remorse.

Asked by Warden Mike Mahoney if he wished to make a final statement, Dawson quickly responded, “No.”

The sole survivor of the attack on the Rodstein family 20 years ago, a daughter named Amy who lives in Los Angeles, declined to attend the execution. Through a statement she said, “Instead of dwelling on the horrible events that transpired, I concentrate on moving forward.”

The uncle who raised her, William Rust, said he was making good on a promise made two decades ago to watch Dawson die.

“What will I tell Amy?” he told reporters after the execution. “At 12:06 a.m. he was gone.”

Prison officials stuck to a rigid schedule that had Dawson injected with lethal drugs promptly at 12:01 a.m. Friday. Within minutes, after one noticeable deep breath, his breathing quickly stopped completely. A coroner then pronounced him dead after checking for a pulse and other life signs.

It was the first execution in Montana since 1998.

“I can’t say enough for the staff today,” Mahoney said. “The schedule clicked off like we had planned for years.”

Mahoney said Dawson never showed any emotion or expressed remorse for the crime in all the years he dealt with him.

Ann Sheridan, who said she knew Dawson before the murders and formed a close friendship with him after his incarceration, told said Friday that he never confessed to the killings.

“It’s possible that he did do it and doesn’t remember,” she said, adding there were stretches of time Dawson said he couldn’t recall. “Knowing him, I just can’t imagine that. And, I think, deep down, I think there was a part of him that was really terrified he did do it, but you know, I just don’t think (he did).”

Dawson’s execution capped a busy final 24 hours as civil liberties groups fought in the courts to delay his death. They contend mounting evidence shows lethal injection can be painful. The case got little traction in the courts since Dawson has fought for two years to fire his attorneys, end his appeals and have his sentence carried out.

Roughly two dozen protesters held a vigil outside the prison.

Sheridan said Dawson was frustrated by efforts to delay his execution.

“He just did not want to spend the rest of his life in prison,” she said. It took him a long time to reach his decision, but, she said, “he made a very clear choice. I admire him. It was not out of depression or anger or anything.”

In addition to media representatives, witnesses to the execution included two family members of the victims, the original investigator and prosecutor in the case and other officials.

Dawson was sentenced to death in 1987 for taking captive David and Monica Rodstein and their two children for days in a motel room in Billings. David and Monica and their 11-year-old son, Andrew, were murdered one by one. A daughter, Amy, was rescued by police who had launched a search for the missing family.