South Dakota Carries Out First Execution Since 1947
13.07.07
On Wednesday 11th July 25 year old Elijah Page became the first person to be executed in 60 years in South Dakota after he gave up his appeals and asked to die.
Page suffered terrible abuse from an early age; according to reports his mother allowed drug dealers to molest him in exchange for drugs from when he was just 2 years old. When he was 7 his mother lost custody of him and his siblings and the state placed him in the care of his stepfather. The abuse continued however and it was reported that his stepfather used him as a human shield in a drugs related shooting. Page was taken into state care again when he was 13 and by the time he was 14-15 years old he had lived in more than a dozen foster homes. Page’s case was never presented to a jury, before convicting him and sentencing him to death for the murder of Chester Poage, committed when Page was 18, the judge noted “Your early years must have been a living hell. Most parents treat their pets better than your parents treated their kids”.
Just hours before Page was scheduled to be executed in August of last year the execution was postponed over fears that prison officials risked facing legal proceedings if they administered the standard three-drug combination because South Dakota law required the use of a two-drug mixture. The law was amended in February of this year to allow prison officials to use whatever combination of chemicals they chose, allowing the execution to go ahead.
Elijah Page was the 30th person to be executed in the US this year and the 1087th since the death penalty was reinstated in 1976. The last execution carried out in South Dakota was in 1947 when George Sitts was electrocuted.
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