Richard Strong was executed by the State of Missouri for a double murder. According to court documents Richard Strong would stab to death Eva Washington and her daughter, Zandrea Thomas. When police were investigating a 911 call where a neighbor heard Eva screaming Richard Strong would be arrested at the scene and admitted to the murders. Richard Strong would be convicted and sentenced to death. Richard Strong would be executed by lethal injection on June 10, 2015
Richard Strong More News
A Missouri man who killed his girlfriend and her two-year-old daughter with a butcher knife has been put to death.
Richard Strong, 47, was executed at the state prison in Bonne Terre for the deaths of Eva Washington and her daughter, Zandrea Thomas, more than 14 years ago. He was the fourth man to die by injection in Missouri this year and the 16th since November 2013. Only Texas has executed more inmates over that span.
The bodies of Washington and her daughter were found in October 2000 in Washington’s apartment in the St Louis suburb of St Ann. A large butcher knife was found on a bed next to a pool of blood. Strong and Washington’s daughter together, three-month-old Alyshia Strong, was also on the bed but wasn’t harmed.
St Ann police received an emergency call from Washington’s apartment on 23 October 2000, during which a scream was heard. Officers headed to the apartment, where Strong met them outside. He initially told them Washington was sleeping, then said she had gone to work.
Officers saw blood stains on his hand, at which point Strong tried to run. When they caught him, he admitted to the killings. Inside, police found the bodies and the unharmed three-month-old.
Strong’s attorney, Jennifer Herndon, said Strong and Washington both had a history of mental illness and frequently argued.
“He just snapped,” Herndon said. “It was just sort of a powder keg waiting to explode. It wasn’t a healthy relationship.”
Alyshia Strong was taken in by Strong’s mother. Despite the killings, she grew close to her father, frequently visiting him in prison. A clemency request to governor Jay Nixon relied heavily on Alyshia’s words describing the importance of her father in her life.
“l know some people probably wonder how I can have a relationship with my father given that he killed my mother, but we are very close,” Alyshia, now 14, wrote.
“I understand that my father needs to face consequences and to pay for what he did, but I do not think it is right for me to lose my father as part of the punishment,” she added.
On Monday, in an interview with the Associated Press, she said, “I’ve never been angry with my dad and I’ve learned to forgive.”
Strong’s fate was sealed when Nixon declined the clemency request and the US supreme court refused to intervene. The defence had asked the court to halt the execution because Strong was mentally ill, suffering from severe depression.
https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2015/jun/09/missouri-death-row-richard-strong
