ARKANSAS - A murderer whose death row conversion to Buddhism inspired international appeals to spare his life was executed by lethal injection yesterday. There were appeals by the Dalai Lama, Mother Theresa and actor Richard Gere but the man was put to death in a rural Arkansas prison after the state governor hastened his execution.
William Frank Parker, who took the name Si-Fu upon his embrace of Buddhism, shot dead the parents of his former wife and attempted to kill the couple's other daughter in 1984. He then kidnapped his former wife and drove her to a police station, where he shot her and an officer.