Mississippi executes condemned inmate Bishop -Associated Press

By HOLBROOK MOHR - July 23 PARCHMAN - Dale Leo Bishop has been executed at the Mississippi State Penitentiary for his role in the claw hammer killing of Marcus James Gentry of Fulton. Corrections spokeswoman Tara Booth says Bishop died by lethal injection at 6:14 p.m. Wednesday with members of Gentry's family in attendance. Bishop had hoped the U.S. Supreme Court or Mississippi's governor might spare him but both denied his requests as the hours of his execution approached. Bishop's attorneys said his life should have been spared because he did not swing the hammer that killed Gentry in 1998. Bishop acknowledged participating in the attack, but another man, Jessie Johnson, admitted striking the lethal blows. Johnson was tried separately and sentenced to life without parole. Corrections Commissioner Chris Epps said he... [read full story]