Alan J. Bannister became the sixth person to be executed in Missouri this year when he was pronounced dead at 12.05 a.m. (6.05 a.m. Irish time) yesterday. He had been on death row since 1983, longer than any of the 88 condemned prisoners in Missouri jails.
A spokesman for the prison at Potosi where the execution by lethal injection took place read a last statement from Bannister. "The state of Missouri is committing as premeditated a murder as possible, far more heinous than my crime," he said.
The US Supreme Court had refused to intervene to stop the execution. In December 1994 the court had intervened two hours before Bannister was due to be executed but has since rejected all his appeals.
Bannister had been convicted for shooting Darrell Ruestman outside his mobile home on August 21st, 1982. The prosecution had claimed that Bannister was a "hit man" for an Illinois businessman whose wife was living with Mr Ruestman. But Bannister, who admitted killing Mr Ruestman, said it was during a struggle over drugs and he should only have been charged with second-degree murder which is not punishable by death.
Bannister's English wife, Lindsay, was outside the jail with a group of about 60 protesters before the execution took place. She told reporters: "I am going to be a widow in a few hours." Pointing to the prison she said: "That is the most hideous, cruel and barbaric system behind those walls. When I was with him I was not allowed to touch him. I was not allowed to kiss him."
Mrs Bannister later witnessed the execution of her husband accompanied by the British filmmaker, Stephen Trombley. It was after watching his film Execution Protocol that she began to write to Alan Bannister and later came to the US to marry him and live near the prison.
Mr Trombley told The Irish Times that Bannister was "conscious for less than a minute after the drugs hit him". But "he could mouth messages to us and we could understand them". His last message began "Tell Mom . . ." and then it was cut off.
Mr Trombley said that when Bannister was wheeled into the execution chamber which is glassed off from the witnesses, he looked for his wife and she held up her finger on which she was wearing the ring which he had given her earlier in the day.
They would have been married four years on October 29th.
Mr Trombley said he had spoken with Bannister on the telephone two hours before the execution and he was very calm. He was aware of support from Irish people and talked about the interview he had given to RTE the day before which had been "very significant" for him.
Mr Trombley will make a new film about Bannister and his execution. He will attend his funeral next week before returning to Britain.
Bannister was told earlier in the day that the Governor of Missouri, Mr Mel Carnahan, had refused to reprieve him. The condemned man ordered a rib-eye steak and baked potato for his last meal. He planned his funeral arrangements with the Rev Larry Rice.
The governor said in a statement that he had examined those issues that the various courts had determined were banned from judicial review and "I have decided they are without merit and therefore do not serve as a basis for overturning the jury verdict and previous court decisions. It is my firm belief that Alan J. Bannister is guilty of first-degree murder in the death of Darrell Ruestman."
The Bannister case aroused widespread interest abroad as well as in the US where Hollywood celebrities such as Sean Penn, Gregory Peck, Harry Belafonte and Ed Asner made appeals for clemency.
His supporters argued that he had inadequate legal representation at his trial. He had only about one hour of discussions with his court-appointed attorney before the trial. The attorney asked if he would plead guilty in exchange for a 50-year sentence, but Bannister believed the jury would see that he was not guilty of premeditated murder and rejected the plea bargain.
The evidence of Sheriff Joe Abramovitz who testified that Bannister had confessed to him and told him he was a contract murderer was rejected by his supporters. No written or taped version of this alleged confession was produced.