JARRATT, Va. -- Five-time killer Syvasky Poyner was put to death in the Virginia electric chair Thursday night after failing to persuade the U.S. Supreme Court the electric chair is cruel and unusual.
Poyner, 36, killed five women during an 11-day robbery spree in 1984. When he confessed, he told investigators he thought he'd be needing money because his wife was pregnant. She was not.
Poyner died from two jolts of electricity after being strapped into the oak chair. A prison doctor pronounced him dead at 11:13 p.m. EST.
The Supreme Court voted 7-2 hours earlier to deny Poyner a stay of execution. The dissenting votes came from Justices Harry Blackmun and John Paul Stevens, long-time opponents of the death penalty.
Poyner issued his last words -- a prayer of forgiveness -- in a statement through his lawyers Thursday afternoon. He expressed remorse: 'I am sorry for all the hurt and pain and sorrows and suffering that I caused.'
His attorneys wanted a stay to continue his challenge to the electric chair. He had filed a class-action lawsuit on behalf of all Virginia death row inmates which says new medical evidence can show the electric chair is unconstitutionally painful.
In January, his attorneys sought the right to videotape an execution as evidence, only to be denied on appeal. In February, they asked for a medical expert to attend a post-execution autopsy and lost on appeal.
In his final statement Poyner said he followed the Biblical teaching to confess his wrongs. 'I have done that. I am forgiven. I am going home to be with Jesus,' he said.
Poyner shot to death his five victims during robberies on the Virginia Peninsula. The death warrant for the execution was issued for murdering two employees of a Williamsburg motel. In his confession, he said he shot people because he did not want witnesses.
Poyner's lawyers contend no court has considered whether electrocution is humane since early this century. But staying the execution would be improper, Virginia prosecutors argued in briefs to the Supreme Court.
'The constitution ... does not require an execution that causes instantaneous death,' Assistant Attorney General Katherine Toone wrote. 'The Constitution only requires that the state refrain from the unnecessary and wanton infliction of pain.'
