State executes Spivey for 1976 murder

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Posted 9:01PM on Thursday, January 24, 2002

JACKSON - The state carried out its fifth execution by injection Thursday, putting to death a 62-year-old man who killed an off-duty Columbus police officer in 1976. Ronald Keith Spivey was pronounced dead at 7:34 p.m. at the state prison in Jackson, south of Atlanta. In his final statement, Spivey apologized to the families of the victims and criticized the death penalty, saying he had become a different man in prison. ``If I had a million lifetimes, I could never say I'm sorry enough,'' he said. ``I've tried to be a decent and useful human being these last 25 years.'' Spivey was to die in the electric chair March 6, 2001. But the state Supreme Court halted the execution with four hours to go, saying it needed time to review whether the chair was cruel and unusual punishment. The court threw out the chair in October, shifting all Georgia executions to injection and clearing the way again for Spivey to be put to death. The execution took 10 minutes. Even after guards removed his microphone, Spivey continued talking, twice saying ``I love you'' to witnesses he had selected. He tried to sit up, then called out, ``Deliver me. Deliver me to the love'' before resting his head. Consuelo Beck-Sague, a witness for Spivey who described herself as a friend, also criticized the death penalty. ``What just went on there is far, far more brutal than any murder. It's cold-blooded.'' The execution came hours after a federal appeals court in Atlanta and the U.S. Supreme Court denied his plea for a stay of execution. Like three of the four men executed before him, he had argued that the state parole board is corrupt. Board member Gene Walker is named in a sexual harassment suit, and the state attorney general is looking into whether Walter Ray and Bobby Whitworth received payments from a company that does probation supervision. The board heard Spivey's case in March but, because the Supreme Court called off the execution, did not issue a ruling. On Thursday, without being prompted by Spivey's attorneys, the board finally denied him clemency. Spivey was sentenced to death for the murder of Columbus police officer Bill Watson on Dec. 28, 1976. Watson, working as a security guard, interrupted a robbery at a Columbus bar and was shot twice at close range. Minutes after the execution, an ambulance was sent to the prison grounds after Beverly Watson, the officer's widow, said she felt ill. She was examined as a precaution by emergency personnel. Hours before, Spivey had killed another man at a Macon hotel bar because the man refused to pay Spivey $20 he won in a pool game. Another man was wounded before Spivey fled. Spivey is the 28th man executed in Georgia since the death penalty was reinstated in 1973. There are 122 other inmates 121 men and a woman on the state's death row.