James Earl Patterson, 35, died by injection at the...

James Earl Patterson, 35, died by injection at the Greensville Correctional Center at 9:10 p.m. He was found through a search of Virginia's vast DNA database. This is the nation's 1st execution based on a DNA "cold hit." He filed no last-minute appeals of his conviction for the Oct. 11, 1987 rape and fatal stabbing of Joyce S. Aldridge, 56. Patterson was imprisoned for nearly 14 years and would have been released in 2004 without the cold hit. He was implicated in the murder when the state compared DNA samples from the crime with DNA samples in its database of 175,000 felons. A "cold hit" matched the DNA of Patterson, who was in prison for another rape. After the 1999 match, Patterson confessed and pleaded guilty to sexually assaulting and killing Aldridge.Patterson becomes the 1st condemned inmate to be put to death in Virginia this year and the 16th in the USA.