Samuel Flippen Executed

Samuel Flippen Executed North Carolina executes Flippen for the death of his two-year-old stepdaughter in 1994.Raleigh, NC -- When the curtains opened, Samuel Flippen smiled at his parents through a thick glass window as he lay on a bed inside the death chamber. He mouthed the words "I love you" three times before closing his eyes. "He's at peace," said his father, Carl Flippen, as he hugged his wife. Minutes later, Flippen's face tightened and his chest convulsed before his body went limp under a blue sheet. He was pronounced dead at 2:11am Friday by Central Prison Warden Marvin Polk. After spending 12 years on death row for the beating death of his two-year-old stepdaughter, Flippen died as his parents and a dozen other people watched from a small room inside the maximum security prison in Raleigh. He made no final statement, and his parents left without commenting. The victim's mother, Tina Gibson, also witnessed her ex-husband's execution. She said in a written statement there was no such thing as closure but that she would try to move on. Hours earlier, a flurry of last-minute court fights ended when state judges and the U.S. Supreme Court rejected arguments to stop the execution. A lawsuit filed by 45 members of his family also was unsuccessful in stalling the case and Gov. Mike Easley declined to grant clemency. A former prosecutor and attorney general, Easley has granted clemency only twice during his two terms in office. "At some time, I think there will be a day when we'll all agree that the death penalty is not a proper form of punishment," defense attorney Richard Greene said shortly after the execution. "The death of a child is tragic," he added. "This tragedy has been compounded by the execution of Sam Flippen." Flippen was convicted of first-degree murder in the 1994 beating death of Britnie Nichole Hutton. Prosecutors said the toddler had extensive bruising and died after Flippen hit her in the abdomen. Flippen said the child fell from a chair. In its final refusal early Friday, the U.S. Supreme Court turned away a petition by Flippen's attorneys raising what they said was new evidence in the case. Defense lawyers wanted courts to review whether it was possible Gibson abused her children. They based their claims on an affidavit from a woman who baby-sat Gibson's son in 1999 and said the boy was severely bruised from a beating he blamed on his mother. Gibson said the allegations were false and aimed at shifting attention away from Flippen's actions. The high court also declined to stay the execution until courts could hear a separate lawsuit challenging lethal injection as cruel and unusual punishment. The execution brought out Flippen's family and friends, who stood on one side of the street outside Central Prison with death penalty opponents, and relatives of the victim who stood on the other side. The two groups did not exchange words. "We came tonight to make sure that everyone knows Britnie is the victim here. Sammy chose to do what he did," Ben Streett, the girl's uncle, said as he stood on a street corner blocked by about a dozen prison guards. "He took from our family a precious, precious child." Flippen's family and friends were among a group of about 50 people who took turns at a microphone, leading the crowd in prayer or song. "We're just trying to be here for our family members who aren't doing as well as others, just letting them know it's in God's hands now," Robin Dunlap, 39, a cousin, said before the legal appeals ended. Four death penalty opponents were arrested for crossing a police line onto prison property. They were handcuffed without struggle and placed in a police van. North Carolina has executed 43 people since the death penalty was reinstated in 1977, according to the Center for Death Penalty Litigation.