FLORENCE, Ariz., June 3 -- A man who admitted killing 17 people in California and Arizona in 1973 apologized to the families of his victims moments before he was executed by lethal injection at a Florence, Ariz., prison. Just before his execution this afternoon, 47-year-old Douglas Gretzler said, 'From the bottom of my soul, I am so deeply sorry and have been for years for murdering Patricia and Michael Sandberg.
Though I am being executed for that crime, I apologize to all 17 victims and their families.' His last meal, served to him at 7 a.m., included six over-easy eggs, four slices of bacon, two slices of toast, a cup of coffee and two Cokes. Gretzler's sister and four members of the victims' families were among about three-dozen witnesses to the 3:11 p.m. execution. In a statement, the family of Lodi, Calif., murder victim Walter Parkin said, 'Hopefully this will bring some closure to a very sad chapter in our lives.' The execution was delayed about five minutes when the Attorney General's Office notified prison officials that the U.S. Supreme Court was deciding on Gretzler's fate. The high court quickly denied an application to stay the execution. It was the first execution ever scheduled for daytime hours in Arizona. Inmates are typically executed shortly after midnight. Gretzler's victims were shot to death, with most bound and gagged before they were killed. Gretzler received a life prison sentence for the killings in California because California didn't have the death penalty at the time, and was extradited then to Arizona where he was sentenced to death. His co-defendant, Willie Steelman, died while on death row. Gretzler's execution was the fourth in Arizona this year. ---
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