CALIFORNIA CARRIES OUT FIRST EXECUTION IN A YEAR

Robert Lee Massie had spent 21 years as a condemned man, longer than any inmate now on death row in California. He formally dropped his appeals in 2000 to protest what he called the snail´s pace of the California death penalty system.Massie, 59, pumped his fist to help his executioners find a vein, and told the warden he was ready to die. ``Forgiveness: giving up all hope for a better past,´´ were his last words.Massie was sentenced to death for the 1979 murder of a San Francisco liquor store owner. He had been paroled a year earlier after serving 13 years in prison for the shooting death of a woman during a robbery in the Los Angeles area.In a ruling concerning the public’s right to view an execution, a federal judge said that the state must show the entire process. Prison officials wanted to open the death chamber´s curtain only after Massie had been strapped to a gurney and had the needles inserted into his arms. Warden Jeanne Woodford said protecting the executioners´ identity was a security measure. The five prison staffers who strapped Massie down and inserted the needles removed their identification badges, but made no other efforts to conceal themselves.Massie´s death was the first fully viewed execution at San Quentin since 1996. He was only the ninth inmate to be executed since California voters overwhelmingly voted to reinstate the death penalty in 1978.Hundreds of others still haven´t been provided an attorney for their mandatory first appeal to the California Supreme Court, the initial stop in a maze of state and federal appeals.``I don´t see any use in continuing this charade,´´ Massie had said in a recent interview.At one point, Massie came so close to execution he had ordered his last meal. But in 1972 -- the same year the U.S. Supreme Court abolished the death penalty -- his sentence was commuted to life.Massie killed Mildred Weiss on January 7, 1965, during a Los Angeles-area crime spree. He was paroled in 1978, and on January 3, 1979, killed liquor store owner Bob Naumoff during a robbery.``This event was supposed to happen in April of 1965,´´ Ron Weiss, Mildred Weiss´ son, said after the execution. ``If that had happened the Naumoff family would not have had to go through this.´´