Arizona man who killed 9-year-old executed today

Richard Lynn Bible, 49, received a lethal injection at the state prison in Florence and died at 11:11 a.m. He always maintained his innocence during his more than two decades on death row, but investigators said evidence in the case was overwhelming.

Bible 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 been riding her bike and spoke 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. After investigators collected evidence and cleared the scene, her hysterical father insisted on carrying her in a body bag to a waiting helicopter.

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.

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 parents, her older sister, and her two younger brothers held each other as they watched the execution. Her father, Rich Wilson, 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."

Jennifer's mother, Nancy Wilson, said the anguish she felt when Jennifer was killed went beyond the family. "It touched the Flagstaff community and the Yuma community and throughout Arizona," she said.

"We want to thank everybody for the loving support and prayers that you offered us over the past 23 years," she said. "We felt them today and very much appreciate it, and we know God is with us."

None of Bible's family attended the execution, although prison officials said some members have visited him. Bible's attorney, Dale Baich, was not immediately available for comment after the execution.

Bible was executed after failing to win any of his appeals, most recently motions in an appeals court and the U.S. Supreme Court that sought a delay for DNA testing on hairs used as evidence in his trial. Arizona's clemency board also denied a reprieve or commutation Monday after one board member called him "the worst of the worst."

Bible became the 90th inmate executed by Arizona since 1910, and the 25th to die by injection since the state changed its execution method in 1992. Before then, 28 inmates had been hanged and 37 were killed with lethal gas.

His last meal was four over-easy eggs topped with cheese, six biscuits with sausage gravy, hash browns, a side of peanut butter and jelly, and a big glass of chocolate milk.

Bible had said that he can't prove himself innocent because he didn't get a fair trial.

Prosecutors were "looking for an overkill and they had no one else to blame this crime on," he told a probation officer in 1990. "I didn't kill her. The real killer is still out there."

Bible was born in Flagstaff in January 1962 and was the second oldest of four children. His father worked at a natural gas company, his mother was a homemaker, and Bible said he was not abused.

Before Jennifer's murder, Bible had an extensive criminal history, including serving six years in prison for raping his 17-year-old cousin in 1981. That crime occurred in the same area where Jennifer was killed.

Bible said that after he was released from prison in 1987, he wanted to settle down, get married and stay out of trouble. He dated a woman with a 9-month-old son, and the two had plans for Bible to become the boy's adoptive father. But the relationship ended after the son was taken away by the state Child Protective Services, and Bible turned to drugs and heavy drinking.

Bible's other attorney, Daniel Maynard, told the clemency board Monday that the execution shouldn't move forward until hairs found on Jennifer's T-shirt are tested.

He also insinuated that items including vodka bottles and cigars found with Jennifer's body, which matched items in Bible's car, could have been planted by police. Hundreds of people searching for the girl over a three-week period likely would have seen them if they had been there the whole time, Maynard said.

Gerry Blair of the Coconino County sheriff's office, who investigated Jennifer's killing, told the clemency board that when Bible was arrested on the day of Jennifer's disappearance, blood on his shirt matched the girl's. The blood was in a pattern that indicated it was caused by a bludgeoning, Blair said.

Additionally, hair found at the crime scene matched hair on Bible's jacket, and in his wallet and vehicle. Blair said it was pulled and cut from Jennifer's scalp in a unique way that a forensic analyst could not duplicate until he used a pocket knife that Bible had when he was arrested.

Investigators at the time didn't think DNA testing of the hair would further the case, Blair said.

"There's just so many pieces of this puzzle, and the only story they tell is that indeed Richard Bible killed Jennifer Wilson," Blair said.

Many people in Arizona still remember where they were the day Jennifer was found dead, said Blair, who witnessed Bible's execution.

"It did have a big impact on the state and also a big impact on Flagstaff and a big impact on Yuma," he said Wednesday. "It caused a lot of people in Flagstaff to rethink how safe their children were."

Blair attended the execution, his first, to support Jennifer's family, and for a small sense of closure for himself.

"This case was that thing of being in the wrong place at the wrong time, and through no fault of the child and no fault of the parents, this horrific thing happened to her," he said. "This is the case I wanted to see to its finality."