Donald Beardslee, 61, was executed

Donald Beardslee, 61, was executed, 24 years after he confessed to the slayings of 2 women.
In an extraordinarily detailed statement Tuesday, Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger said: "Nothing in his petition or the record of his case convinces me that he did not understand the gravity of his actions or that these heinous murders were wrong."
Shortly after the governor's rejection, the U.S. Supreme Court without comment denied Beardslee's application for a stay. The decisions cleared the way for Beardslee's execution at 12:01 this morning, the state's 11th execution since voters reinstated the death penalty in 1978 and the 1st under the Schwarzenegger administration.
Beardslee admitted killing Patty Geddling, 23, and Stacey Benjamin, 19, on April 24, 1981, after a dispute over a $185 drug deal.
At a state clemency hearing in Sacramento on Friday, defense attorneys asked Schwarzenegger for mercy in the case, saying that Beardslee suffered from previously undetected brain damage that caused him to commit the two 1981 murders as well as the fatal stabbing of a Missouri woman in 1969 for which he served 7 years in prison.
Since taking office in November 2003, Schwarzenegger has granted three pardons and issued the 1st commutation of a prison term by a California governor since Jerry Brown.
Because of the complicated appeals process, condemned California prisoners wait an average of more than 20 years between the date of sentencing and execution. In fact, most inmates on the state's death row die of natural causes.