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A man convicted of murdering a couple and their two children while high on PCP was executed Wednesday night in Virginia. Ricky Gray was pronounced dead at 9:42 p.m. Wednesday night from a three-drug combination administered at the Greensville Correctional Center in Jarratt after the U.S. Supreme Court declined to hear a request for a stay of execution.
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Gray was convicted in 2006 of murdering Bryan and Kathryn Harvey and their daughters, who were 4 and 9, with an accomplice, Ray Dandridge. Gray was sentenced to death for the deaths of the children, while Dandridge received life in prison for participating in the crime.
Gray's appeal to the Supreme Court was based on concerns centered around the drug cocktail used in the execution -- midazolam, rocuronium bromide and potassium chloride -- being obtained from a compounding pharmacy instead of a pharmaceutical company.
Virginia Gov. Terry McAuliffe also turned down an appeal to stay the execution because he judged Gray, who pleaded guilty in the trial, had received "a fair and impartial trial."
In previous appeals, Gray's lawyers also showed evidence he had been raped and abused during childhood, causing mental health issues linked to his use of drugs as a coping mechanism.
More than 50 mental health workers and child advocates also signed on to a letter saying that while Gray deserved to be punished -- he has been connected to at least eight murders -- but that execution was unfair because of his scarring childhood.
On Jan. 13, Gray also issued a public apology on YouTube for committing the crimes.
"Remorse is not a deep enough word for how I feel," he said in the apology. "I know my words can't bring anything back, but I continuously feel horrible for the circumstances I put them through. I robbed them of a lifelong supply of joy. I've stolen Christmases, birthdays and Easters, Thanksgivings, graduations, weddings, children. There's nothing I can do to make up for that."
