Virginia executes Yarbrough

JARRETT, Va., June 26 (UPI) -- Robert Stacy Yarbrough, convicted in the near-decapitation murder of a store owner, was put to death Wednesday night in Virginia, authorities said.

Yarbrough, who was killed by lethal injection at 9:28 p.m., was the 100th inmate executed in Virginia since the U.S. Supreme Court reinstated the capital punishment in 1976, WSET-TV in Lynchburg, Va., reported.

The nation's highest court and Virginia Gov. Timothy M. Kaine refused to stop his execution, the TV station said.

Yarbrough had been sentenced to death for killing a Mecklenburg County store owner during a robbery in 1997.

Virginia ranks second only to Texas, which has 406, in the number of executions since capital punishment was authorized 32 years ago.