Edward Schad was executed by the State of Arizona for the murder of an elderly man in 1978. According to court documents Edward Schad would murder the man before stealing her vehicle and wallet. Edward Schad would be arrested a month later still in possession of the man’s vehicle. Edward Schad would be arrested, convicted and sentenced to death. Edward Schad would be executed by lethal injection on October 8 2013
Edward Schad More News
The oldest man on Arizona’s death row was executed Wednesday morning after 35 years in custody.
Edward Harold Schad Jr., 71, was given a lethal dose of the pentobarbital and was pronounced dead at 10:12 a.m. Wednesday at the state prison in Florence, Ariz.
Schad was sentenced to death for the 1978 murder of Lorimer Grove, 74, who was found dead in underbrush by the side of a road south of Prescott, Ariz. A month later, Schad was arrested in Salt Lake City; he had Grove’s Cadillac and his credit cards.
Schad met with his attorney, assistant federal defender Kelley Henry, Tuesday night and expressed his gratitude for kindness of the correctional officers who guarded him during the last 35 days of his life, a period called “death watch,” when the condemned prisoners are separated from the other inmates on death row
Wednesday morning, Schad met with his longtime spiritual adviser, a Lutheran pastor who administered last rites. The pastor told Henry that Schad was “doing well,” and had not yet heard that the U.S. Supreme Court had denied the final requests for a reprieve.
Schad was convicted twice of killing 74-year-old Lorimer “Leroy” Grove.
Grove was last seen leaving town pulling a trailer with his new Cadillac on the way to visit his sister in Washington state. He was found dead with a rope knotted around his neck on Aug. 9, 1978, south of Prescott.
Schad’s execution was Arizona’s 35th since 1992. His death leaves 121 people on the death row in the state, including two women.
Schad says he ended up on death row only because of a misunderstanding. He was a car thief and a forger, not a murderer, he told the clemency board.
His earlier second-degree murder conviction had been a case of mistaken identity, as well, he said.
The clemency board did not believe him; neither did the three juries that convicted him, nor a host of judges and justices right up to the U.S. Supreme Court over 34 years of appeals.
https://www.usatoday.com/story/news/nation/2013/10/09/arizona-death-penalty-execution/2953055/
