PUBLIC AI Index: AMR 51/083/2008

24 July 2008

Further information on UA 203/08 (AMR 51/080/2008, 17 July 2008) – Death penalty/Legal concern

USA (Mississippi) Dale Leo Bishop (m), white, aged 34

Dale Bishop was executed in Mississippi shortly after 6pm on 23 July. He had been sentenced to death in February 2000 for the murder of Marcus Gentry in December 1998. The man who actually killed Marcus Gentry is serving a life sentence.

The courts rejected Bishop’s final appeals, including challenges to the state’s lethal injection procedures. Governor Barbour denied clemency. The governor’s policy advisor and the Commissioner of Corrections visited Bishop on the afternoon of 23 July. They said Bishop regretted his role in the killing of his friend Marcus Gentry. The Commissioner was quoted as saying that Bishop "wants to live, at least that’s what he indicated to us." At his trial, Bishop had refused to allow mitigating evidence to be presented on his behalf and asked the judge to sentence him to death. Once on death row, he was diagnosed with bipolar disorder (manic depressive illness).

Members of Marcus Gentry’s family witnessed the execution. Their written statement quoted in the Mississippi media read: "We had to relive all the memories and emotions from that December. The pain and loss that this man helped put on us will never be forgotten. We lost Mark not by chance but by the choice of two ungodly men."

Dale Bishop’s last words were: "God bless America. It has been great living here. That’s all." He became the second person to be executed in Mississippi this year and the 10^th since executions resumed in the USA in 1977.

Fourteen people have been executed in the USA this year, and 1,113 in total since 1977.

Many thanks to all who sent appeals. No further action by the UA Network is requested.