Sioux Falls, S.D. – A 25-year-old man awaited a lethal injection late Wednesday for the torture and slaying of a teenager who was forced to drink hydrochloric acid during a robbery of his home. It was to be the state’s first execution in 60 years.
Elijah Page, 25, gave up his appeals and asked to die for the 2000 murder of Chester Allan Poage, who was also stabbed, kicked and bashed with large rocks in a torture session that lasted two to three hours.
Page was scheduled to be put to death at 10 p.m.
Gov. Mike Rounds postponed Page’s execution last year over a 1984 state law on which drugs may be used in executions.
State lawmakers amended the law to allow prison officials to use whatever lethal-injection mixture they choose, clearing the way for the executions of Page and the state’s three other death-row inmates to proceed.
Page would be among just a handful of people his age or younger put to death since capital punishment was reinstated in 1979.
Page, who is entitled to appeals that could last many more years, still has the legal right to resume those petitions even moments before the execution.
Mike Butler, Page’s attorney, said he has the phone numbers of the governor, Supreme Court chief justice and attorney general in case Page wants to exercise that right, although it’s unlikely.
Page, of Athens, Texas, and another death-row inmate, Briley Piper, 25, of Anchorage, Alaska, pleaded guilty to killing Poage in the Black Hills on March 13, 2000.
A third man, Darrell Hoadley, 26, of Lead, was convicted and sentenced to life in prison without parole.
According to testimony, the three killed Poage so there would be no witness to the robbery of Poage’s home in Spearfish, where they stole a truck and other items.
