Oldest US death row inmate dies aged 94
2009-02-14 BBC
The oldest death row inmate in the US has died of natural causes aged 94.
The Arizona Department of Corrections said Viva Leroy Nash died late on Friday at the state prison in Florence.
Nash had a criminal record dating back to the 1930s, and was deaf, mostly blind, mentally ill and had dementia, his lawyer said.
He was sentenced to death in 1983, for shooting a salesman after escaping from jail. But he managed to stave off his execution with a series of appeals.
At the time of his death, state prosecutors were appealing to the Supreme Court against a federal appeals court ruling that Nash might not be mentally competent to assist in his defence.
Nash's lawyer, Thomas Phalen, told the Associated Press his client was born in 1915 and had grown up in southern Utah. He was first imprisoned for armed robbery at the age of 15 in Kansas, he said.
He spent 25 years in prison for shooting a Connecticut police officer in 1947.
Then in 1977, Nash was sentenced to two consecutive life sentences for robbery and murder in Salt Lake City, but escaped from a prison work crew in 1982.
That November, he went into a coin shop in Phoenix and shot an employee. He was arrested as he fled the scene, and was later sentenced to death for first-degree murder.
Oldest Death Row Inmate in US Dies at 94
2009-02-15 Aol News
The oldest inmate on death row in the U.S. has died of natural causes at the age of 94.
Viva Leroy Nash was said to be deaf, nearly blind and suffering from dementia when he died Friday at a state prison in Arizona. He spent most of his life behind bars for murdering two people, robbery and assorted other crimes.
Nash grew up in southern Utah at a time when it was "the wild, wild West," according to his lawyer, Thomas Phalen, and had been jailed almost continuously since he was 15.
"Think about it – he had 15 years of life in southern Utah," went to prison for an armed robbery in 1930, and "remained in prison for the next 80 years, more or less," Phalen told the Associated Press. Despite his lifetime of crime, Phalen saw Nash as an "old cowboy," the news agency said, a man who still used words like "bushwhacked."
Nash, who was confined to a wheelchair, suffered a series of heart attacks, and, according to Phalen, had been moved to the prison's medical facility because he was mentally unfit. But a spokesman for the Arizona Department of Corrections told the AP on Sunday that he did not know if Nash was in his death row cell or the medical center at the time of his death.
Nash was jailed for 15 years in Leavenworth, Kan., for an offense committed when he was 30, Phalen said.
He got out but was then imprisoned for 25 years for twice shooting a Connecticut police officer in 1947. The officer survived. In 1977, Nash received two life sentences for a robbery and murder in Salt Lake City.
But he escaped prison in 1982 and three weeks later, on Nov. 3, 1982, demanded money from Greggory West, an employee at a coin shop in Phoenix. West died after Nash shot him three times.
As Nash tried to escape, a nearby shop owner tried to stop him by pointing a gun at him. While Nash tried to wrestle the gun away, he was arrested by a police officer, and later convicted of first-degree murder, armed robbery, aggravated assault and theft.
Nash managed to stave off his execution through a series of appeals. At the time of his death state prosecutors were appealing to the U.S. Supreme Court a lower court ruling in September that Nash was entitled to a hearing to determine if he was competent to assist in his defense.