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Virginia executes 1st inmate in nearly 3 years

This undated photo provided by the Virginia Department of Corrections shows inmate Alfredo Prieto. Virginia is poised to execute Prieto, a serial killer, who claims he’s intellectually disabled using lethal injection drugs from Texas because the state’s supply of another controversial drug will expire the day before the execution is supposed to take place. (Virginia Department of Corrections via AP)
This undated photo provided by the Virginia Department of Corrections shows inmate Alfredo Prieto. Virginia is poised to execute Prieto, a serial killer, who claims he’s intellectually disabled using lethal injection drugs from Texas because the state’s supply of another controversial drug will expire the day before the execution is supposed to take place. (Virginia Department of Corrections via AP) This undated photo provided by the Virginia Department of Corrections shows inmate Alfredo Prieto. Virginia is poised to execute Prieto, a serial killer, who claims he’s intellectually disabled using lethal injection drugs from Texas because the state’s supply of another controversial drug will expire the day before the execution is supposed to take place. (Virginia Department of Corrections via AP)

By Associated Press 4 min read

JARRATT, Va. (AP) – A convicted serial killer who faced the death penalty in two states became the first inmate to be executed in nearly three years in Virginia.

Alfredo Prieto was pronounced dead at 9:17 p.m. Thursday at the Greensville Correctional Center in Jarratt. The 49-year-old was injected with a lethal three-drug combination, including the sedative pentobarbital, which Virginia received from the Texas prison system.

Virginia has long been among the most prolific death penalty states, but had not put an inmate to death since January 2013 before this week.

Prieto’s execution remained uncertain until hours before it was scheduled to take place as his lawyers made a flurry of last-minute attempts to spare his life. But attorneys for the state urged the courts to let the death sentence be carried out to help the family members of Prieto’s victims find justice.

“It is time for this to end,” Margaret O’Shea, a lawyer from Attorney General Mark Herring’s office, said Thursday. “It is time for the carousel to end.”