Execution delayed

Press, 7 April 1979, Page 8

Execution delayed

NZPA Atmore (Alabama) i John Louis Evans 111, who had said he wanted to die at once rather than spend_ his life in jail, has been spared from death in the electric chair by a United States Supreme "Court Justice, William Rehnquist, who stayed the sentence for one week on an appeal by Evans’s mother. Evans was spared only hours before he was due to die. Evans burst into tears when he heard Justice Rehnquist’s decision and appeared readv to fight for bis life, said the Rev. Kevin Duignan, a local Roman Catholic priest. Father Duignan quoted Evans as saying, “Father. I don’t think they should mess with me. TU have to go . through this again.” [ Father Duignan, _ w.ho

jwas with Evans when he heard that the electrocution was postponed, said he felt Evans would take the stay as “a message from God” and would co-operate fully in appealing his death sentence for the murder of a Mobile, Alabama, pawnshop owner. He shot the shopowner in front of the man’s . two young daughters. ( Evans had eaten the traditional last meal — steak, ■ fried potatoes.- and cherry pie, washed down by beer —I and made tape-recorded fare-! wells to his family before I receiving word of JusticeRehnquist’s action. Evans, who is 29, had ■ asked for. death to end “a hell on earth in prison.” He i was to have been elec-, trocuted at ‘ 12.01 a.m. at! i Holman Prison. 2. ' '