Danville killer set to die Thursday for co-worker death

By DENA POTTER
Associated Press Writer

Published: July 20, 2008

A Virginia inmate who unsuccessfully challenged the state’s method of executing prisoners by lethal injection is scheduled to die Thursday for beating a co-worker to death with a brass lamp and stealing his money to buy crack cocaine.

Earlier this month, the 4th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals rejected Christopher Scott Emmett’s argument that Virginia’s use of lethal injection amounts to cruel and unusual punishment because of the possibility that paralyzing and heart-stopping drugs could be administered before a drug that renders them uncon-scious takes effect.

The U.S. Supreme Court ruled in April that the three-drug cocktail used in Kentucky and most other states was constitutional despite a similar claim. The 4th Circuit found July 10 that Virginia’s protocol is similar enough to Kentucky’s that it would not cause inmates excruciating pain.

Unlike Kentucky, Virginia does not allow for a second dose of sodium thiopen-tal, which results in a deep, coma-like unconsciousness, even when a second round of the other drugs is required. Virginia also administers the three drugs more quickly than Kentucky corrections officials.

In 10 of the 70 lethal injections performed in Virginia before this year, a sec-ond dose of the last two drugs was given because the inmate did not die within a few minutes after the heart-stopping drug was administered, according to court papers.

Although most inmates are pronounced dead within five minutes after the first drug is administered, the last two inmates executed in Virginia took approxi-mately 10 minutes and 15 minutes to die, respectively. Department of Correc-tions officials will not confirm whether a second dose of drugs was given to those men.

“We certainly do think that there’s been substantial variability in the times it has taken prisoners to die, and we think those warrant further investigation by the courts,” said Matthew S. Hellman, one of Emmett’s attorneys.

Gov. Timothy M. Kaine stopped Emmett’s execution June 2007 so the U.S. Su-preme Court would have time to consider his appeal, which it later rejected. Then in October, Emmett’s execution was one of dozens halted by the Supreme Court while it considered the Kentucky lethal injection challenge.

Emmett’s attorneys have not asked the U.S. Supreme Court again to block the execution, but a petition for clemency is before Kaine.

In 2001, Emmett beat 43-year-old John Fenton Langley to death with the base of a brass lamp in a motel room they shared while in Danville working as part of an out-of town roofing crew.

Gene Langley said too much consideration has been given to whether his brother’s killer will suffer.

“He did not have any respect for my brother when my brother suffered,” said Gene Langley, 48, of Rocky Mount, N.C. “It was proven in court that my brother suffered pain, so what’s the difference between him and my brother?”

On the night of the murder, Langley bought food and grilled for Emmett and other co-workers, then they played cards at their motel. As Langley slept, Em-mett took the light bulb out of the lamp so he wouldn’t cut himself and beat Lang-ley to death so he could steal his wallet.

“No person should do that to anybody and be able to go out of this world and not feel something of what they did to their victim,” Gene Langley said.

Emmett, 36, had spent time in a maximum-security juvenile detention facility, where he participated in an escape in which the guard was locked into a closet. Later, he was convicted of involuntary manslaughter for killing a motorcycle driver in an accident in which Emmett was drunk.

Gene Langley and six other family members, including John’s adult daughter and son, have prepared to witness Emmett’s execution twice before only to see it postponed. He said he is confident it will happen this time.

To celebrate, and to remember the goodhearted, quiet race fan who loved Dale Earnhardt, the family will gather for a cookout at his mother’s house on Lake Gaston Sunday — John’s birthday.