Harper
MESSAGE BOARD: The Death Penalty

May 26, 1999
Web posted at: 7:57 a.m. EDT (1157 GMT)

EDDYVILLE, Kentucky (CNN) -- A man who murdered his parents became Kentucky's first death-row inmate put to death by lethal injection when he was executed Tuesday night.

Edward Lee Harper, 50, died at 8:15 p.m. EDT at Kentucky State Penitentiary, a prison spokesman said.

Harper wanted to be executed rather than face life in prison for the shooting deaths of his parents in 1982. He told a judge last month that he wanted to drop further appeals and fire his court-appointed lawyers.

Harper said he was "sorry for what I've done," just before he was injected with the lethal dose of drugs.

"I love you and I'll be waiting for you on the other side," he told his 27-year-old son.

Harper shot his adoptive parents, Alice and Edward Lee Harper Sr., to death with a .38 caliber handgun in the early morning hours of February 19, 1982.

Harper, who was an unemployed machinist, hoped to inherit $85,541 from his father's life insurance policy.

Kentucky's last execution was on July 1, 1997, when Harold McQueen was put to death in the electric chair.

The state amended its laws in 1998 to allow condemned prisoners to choose between the electric chair and lethal injection.

Those sentenced to death after March 31, 1998 face lethal injection.

The Associated Press and Reuters contributed to this report.

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