Appeals court clears way for Virginia execution

RICHMOND, Va. (AP) - A federal appeals court rejected a last-minute appeal to delay the execution a convicted serial killer in Virginia on Thursday night, the latest in a series of legal defeats for Alfredo Prieto shortly before he was scheduled to be put to death.

The 4th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals rejected a request from Prieto's lawyers to block the execution over safety concerns about one of the lethal injection drugs that the state intends to use.

Attorneys for Prieto, 49, wanted his execution delayed as they seek more information about the drugs, which were obtained from Texas' prison system.

Prieto's attorneys say the state has refused to provide important information about the quality of the drugs and they fear that they will cause a cruel and painful death.

After a hearing Thursday, U.S. District Court Judge Henry E. Hudson lifted an order blocking Prieto's execution, which was scheduled for 9 p.m. Hudson said Prieto's lawyers had not adequately shown that the drugs are unsafe and said it was in the public interest for the execution to proceed as planned.

The judge said an unwarranted delay of the execution would be harmful for those victimized by Prieto's crimes, a harm "magnified here by the appalling number of people that Prieto has killed, raped, or otherwise injured."

Prieto's lawyers immediately appealed Hudson's rulings, but were turned down by the appeals court.

A native of El Salvador, Prieto was on death row in California for raping and murdering a 15-year-old girl when DNA evidence linked him to the rape and murder of Rachael Raver and the slaying of her boyfriend, Warren Fulton III. Authorities have linked Prieto to several other killings in California and Virginia but he was never prosecuted because he had already been sentenced to death.

Prieto had also asked the U.S. Supreme Court to intervene, saying he's intellectually disabled, and therefore ineligible for the death penalty. But the high court declined to grant his requests to stay the execution on Thursday shortly before Hudson's ruling was issued.

Prieto's attorneys argued the state should reconsider whether he is intellectually disabled because the measure used during his 2008 trial was unconstitutional. The Supreme Court ruled last year that Florida can't use rigid cutoffs on IQ test scores to determine whether someone is intellectually disabled. Virginia had a nearly identical law.

Separately, at a hearing Thursday in Richmond, Prieto's attorneys asked the court to delay the execution until Virginia officials disclose more information about the supply of pentobarbital they received from Texas, saying they're concerned about the quality of the drugs and whether they would bring Prieto unnecessary pain.

Virginia obtained pentobarbital from Texas to replace its supply of another sedative, midazolam, which expired Wednesday.

Margaret O'Shea, a lawyer from Attorney General Mark Herring's office, urged the judge to dismiss those arguments, noting that Texas has used the same drugs without any problems in 24 executions over the past two years.

"It is time for this to end," she said, adding that Prieto murdered Raver and Fulton 27 years ago. "It is time for the carousel to end."

___

Associated Press writer Alan Suderman in Richmond, Virginia, contributed to this report.

___

Follow Alanna Durkin at http://www.twitter.com/aedurkin .