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Carter Executed After Easley Denies Clemency

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RALEIGH, N.C. — A man who brutally stabbed his elderly neighbor over a few dollars for drugs died peacefully Tuesday in the state's execution chamber after last-minute appeals failed.

Desmond Keith Carter, 35, was executed hours after the U.S. Supreme Court twice declined to stop his execution. Gov. Mike Easley also declined to change the death sentence to life in prison without parole.

Carter was the 23rd person executed in North Carolina since thedeath penalty was reinstated in 1977. The last execution wasFriday, when Ernest Basden was put to death for the 1992murder-for-hire of a Kinston insurance agent.

Carter's father, William Conway, and defense lawyer Bill Osteensat sandwiched between two detectives on the front row of theexecution witness room.

Two relatives of Carter victim Helen Purdy, 71, of Rockingham County, watched intently from the second row, where they sat between a detective and a prosecutor.

Lawyers have said Carter was intoxicated on alcohol, crackcocaine and tranquilizers when he stabbed Purdy 13 times with abutcher knife and took $15.

"I love you, pop," Carter mouthed to his father as a drug puthim to sleep before a powerful muscle relaxer stopped hisbreathing.

In a last statement recorded by warden R.C. Lee of CentralPrison, home of the state's death row, Carter said:

"The only thing I would like to say is that I apologize to thevictim's family of Ms. Purdy, and I would like to apologize to myfamily for the disappointment and pain I have caused themthroughout my life."

No one from the Purdy or Carter families spoke to reportersafter the execution.

Carter's half brother, Tryone Wallace, stoodwith death penalty protesters outside the prison.

Carter's last meal consisted of two cheeseburgers, a steak suband two Cokes from the prison canteen.

He declined to ask for aspecial last meal and paid $4.20 from his prison account for thefood, said Pam Walker, a Corrections Department spokeswoman.

Defense lawyers' appeal to the nation's highest court challengeda state Supreme Court rejection of a stay that was issued last weekby a lower court judge. The Supreme Court turned down the requestwithout comment.

Spokesman Ed Turner said the U.S. Supreme Court also denied asecond appeal filed late Monday on the grounds that some jurorsused a Bible during deliberations.

In the first high-court appeal, the defense asked for review ofCarter's case on three issues: racial bias in the death penalty,lack of prosecutorial discretion to seek a life in prison sentencefor first-degree murder and the state's indictment form thatdoesn't list all factors against a defendant.

Carter's lawyers said the death sentence was flawed by racialbias because his victim was white and he is black. Prosecutors havein recent years had the option of seeking a life sentence since theLegislature changed the law.

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