Arizona executed a man Thursday for molesting and fatally bludgeoning a 9-year-old girl in a case that spread fear through Flagstaff and the rest of the state.
Richard Lynn Bible, 49, received an injection at the state prison in Florence and died at 11:11 a.m. He was convicted of kidnapping, molesting and killing Jennifer Wilson of Yuma while she was on vacation with her family in Flagstaff in June 1988. She had spoken with her mother only moments before she disappeared.
Hikers found her naked, decomposing body three weeks after she went missing. Her hands were tied behind her back with her own shoelace, and her underwear was in a nearby tree.
Bible did not look at any of the approximately 50 people witnessing the execution, who included about 20 of Jennifer's family members. He appeared to be scared, taking several swallows and fidgeting before he was put to death.
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His last words were: "I'd like to thank my family, my lawyers - love 'em all, and everything's OK. That's it."
Jennifer's father, Rich, stared at Bible intently, and after he was declared dead, nodded his head once as tears formed.
"The system does work," he said when the family met with reporters afterward. "It's a slow system, cumbersome, frustrating at times, but it did work, and today needed to happen. And as a family, we start a new healing process now."
Bible became the 90th inmate executed in Arizona since 1910.
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