Missouri executes man for killing 19-year-old
JIM SUHR, Associated Press

BONNE TERRE, Missouri (AP) — A Missouri man who sexually attacked a 19-year-old woman before tying her to a cemetery tree and killing her was executed Tuesday after the U.S. Supreme Court and the governor declined to intervene.

David Zink, 55, was put to death at a state prison near Bonne Terre, south of St. Louis, hours after the nation's high court rebuffed his last appeals and Gov. Jay Nixon rejected his clemency request. Corrections Department spokesman Mike O'Connell said the lethal injection began at 7:33 p.m. and Zink was pronounced dead at 7:41 p.m.

Zink began breathing haltingly shortly after the injection began. His right hand twitched several times before Zink eventually became motionless.

In a final written statement, Zink said he hoped his execution would bring peace to the family of the woman he killed, Amanda Morton. "I offer my sincerest apology to Amanda Morton's family and friends for my actions."

He added a message to other inmates on death row.

"For those who remain on death row, understand that everyone is going to die. Statistically speaking, we have a much easier death than most. So I encourage you to embrace it and celebrate our true liberation before society figures it out and condemns us to life without parole and we too will die a lingering death."

Authorities said Zink abducted Morton in 2001 after hitting her car from behind on a highway exit ramp a mile (1.6 kilometers) from her Strafford home. Morton was driving home after visiting a friend.

Just months before the slaying, Zink had been released from a Texas prison after serving 20 years on rape, abduction and escape charges. Fearing that his drunken fender-bender with Morton could violate his parole and send him back to prison, Zink abducted Morton, taking her to a motel.

"If I think that you're going to pose a threat to my freedom, it is set in my mind I want to eliminate you," Zink said in his videotaped confession.

The motel's manager later saw a televised news report about Morton's disappearance, recognized her as the woman who had checked in with Zink, and gave investigators Zink's name and license plate number from motel registration.

Zink, after being arrested at his parents' home, led authorities to Morton's buried body in a cemetery, confessing matter-of-factly and at times laughing on videotape that he had tied her to a tree there and told her to look up. When the bewildered Morton begrudgingly glanced skyward, Zink said, he snapped her neck, choked her with his hands and a rope, and stuffed her mouth with mud and leaves.

Worried that Morton might regain consciousness, Zink admitted, he used a knife to sever her spinal cord at the neck.

An autopsy showed Morton had eight broken ribs and 50 to 100 blunt-force injuries. She also had been sexually assaulted.

Zink had appealed to stop his execution. A three-judge panel of the 8th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals on Tuesday declined, without comment, his claims that the death penalty was unconstitutional. On Monday, the St. Louis-based court had rejected his challenge of the drug process used during lethal injections.

His appellate attorneys did not accept requests by The Associated Press for interviews this week.

Messages left Monday with Morton's mother and sister were not returned.

Zink became the fifth man executed this year in Missouri and the 17th since November 2013. Only Texas has executed more inmates over that span.


-- (c) Associated Press 2015-07-15

This doesn't make US news but makes Thai Visa news, why?

Such Depravity, Good Riddance.

Good job USA.

This doesn't make US news but makes Thai Visa news, why?

Look up, this is under World News by Associated Press. You'll find plenty of US articles, Fox, ABC, NBC, CBS, Yahoo, etc regarding this.

This doesn't make US news but makes Thai Visa news, why?

Everything that made the success of the gutter press: sex & rape, distress, stupidity, murder and finally death penalty which is still debate.

Edited July 15, 201510 yr by happy Joe

This doesn't make US news but makes Thai Visa news, why?

Everything that made the success of the gutter press: sex & rape, distress, stupidity, murder and finally death penalty which is still debate.

When I was asked to do the News Editor's job in a tv station when the Editor in Chief went on holidays, it made me the youngest ever in my country by a long way. I already knew the formula. News is not news. Its entertainment, and also not rocket science.

Like you, this story got me, for obvious reasons. . . . Don't look away, this is what we're capable of. Good story. Hard to believe. That's us.

Not hearing a lot of love for this mongrel. RIH

Zink was pronounced dead at 7:41 p.m.

And the world became a slightly better place.

Well done Missouri - One creep gone, hope he suffered a lot ...

Only problem is it took 14 years to execute this piece of garbage. Once found guilty, they should have drug him outside and strung him up at the nearest tree.

Edited July 16, 201510 yr by metisdead
Oversize font reset to normal.

This doesn't make US news but makes Thai Visa news, why?

It did make the news here... I read about his appeals a couple of days ago, and remember thinking "Yeah, that'll happen!".

something is telling me if, for example, a woman would kill a man under the same circumstances - there would no death penalty. a woman can always say: "he intimidated me, he threatened to rape me. I am a woman, I can't do anything evil unless man forces me!" she can even walk away free with this kind of ranting.

equality before the law...

haha

Edited July 16, 201510 yr by TimmyT

something is telling me if, for example, a woman would kill a man under the same circumstances - there would no death penalty. a woman can always say: "he intimidated me, he threatened to rape me. I am a woman, I can't do anything evil unless man forces me!" she can even walk away free with this kind of ranting.

equality before the law...

haha

Would you like to provide details of cases that illustrate your point of view?

something is telling me if, for example, a woman would kill a man under the same circumstances - there would no death penalty. a woman can always say: "he intimidated me, he threatened to rape me. I am a woman, I can't do anything evil unless man forces me!" she can even walk away free with this kind of ranting.

equality before the law...

haha

Would you like to provide details of cases that illustrate your point of view?

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/comment/personal-view/3588370/Women-should-not-be-allowed-to-get-away-with-murder.html

Men Sentenced To Longer Prison Terms Than Women For Same Crimes, Study Says

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2012/09/11/men-women-prison-sentence-length-gender-gap_n_1874742.html

Edited July 16, 201510 yr by TimmyT

He is right. His death was less agonizing than most posters will experience including me.