California executes murderer after governor denies appeals

Published: 2005-01-20

SAN QUENTIN, Calif. (CNS) -- California carried out its first execution in three years Jan. 19, as Donald Jay Beardslee was killed by lethal injection at San Quentin prison after Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger rejected his last appeals. Los Angeles Cardinal Roger M. Mahony was among those who had urged Schwarzenegger to grant clemency to Beardslee. San Francisco Archbishop William J. Levada issued a statement afterward asking people to reach out with compassion "to those whose lives have been torn apart by violence, while at the same time offering the hope of forgiveness to those who have harmed others." Outside the state prison hundreds of death penalty opponents carried signs while many took a turn at the podium. Scattered among them were a few people who supported the execution. Beardslee, 61, was sentenced to death for murdering two women in 1981 over a drug deal. At the time of those murders, he was on parole for another killing.

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