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By Andy Sullivan
RALEIGH, N.C., Dec 1 (Reuters) - Death penalty opponents marched by candlelight to a North Carolina prison on Thursday as the state prepared to execute the 1,000th prisoner in the United States since capital punishment was reinstated nearly 30 years ago.
Less than four hours before Kenneth Lee Boyd, 57, was scheduled to die by lethal injection for shooting his wife and father-in-law in 1988 in front of two of his children, state Gov. Mike Easley announced he was denying clemency. The U.S. Supreme Court had rejected a final appeal earlier on Thursday.
"Having carefully reviewed the facts and circumstances of these crimes and convictions, I find no compelling reason to grant clemency and overturn the unanimous jury verdict affirmed by the state and federal courts," Easley said in a statement.
Clemency from the governor had been Boyd's last chance to avoid execution. He will be strapped to a gurney at 2 a.m. on Friday and given an opportunity to make a last statement.
He will then be injected with three drugs -- sodium pentothal to put him to sleep, pancuronium bromide to paralyze him, and potassium chloride to stop his heart. Five minutes after his heart stops, he will officially be declared dead.
Boyd's lawyer Thomas Maher, who spoke to his client earlier in the day, said he was calm as he prepared to die.
"His concern is that who he is will get lost in a bizarre coincidence that he's number 1,000," Maher told Reuters. "He said it best: 'I'm a person, not a statistic.'"
SYSTEM QUESTIONED
Outside Raleigh's Central Prison, opponents of capital punishment gathered after an interfaith prayer service to protest against the pending execution.
"What we are doing in the name of our government is in all of our names, and we do not want our names to be attached to this injustice," Rabbi Lucy Dinner said at the service, attended by about 100 people.
The Supreme Court allowed the death penalty to resume in 1976, and 38 of the 50 American states and the federal government now permit capital punishment.
Only China, Iran and Vietnam held more executions in 2004 than the United States, according to rights group Amnesty International.
Alan Gell, who sat on death row with Boyd before he was retried and acquitted in 2004, said his case had showed the state's justice system was flawed.
"I think that it's a bad thing that this state has to be the one to set the milestone when it's a state that's riddled with flaws in its justice system," he said after attending the service.
Gell was retried and acquitted after a judge ruled prosecutors had withheld evidence in his first trial.
North Carolina Department of Corrections spokeswoman Pamela Walker said Boyd was spending his final hours with his family.
About 5 p.m., he received his requested final meal of New York strip steak, a baked potato with sour cream, salad with ranch dressing and cola, no dessert.
Boyd, a Vietnam veteran with a history of alcohol abuse, worked in a cotton mill and as a truck driver before he went to prison. Maher said he did not have a violent record before he committed the double murder.
Rockingham County District Attorney Belinda Foster, who won his conviction, said Boyd carried out the murders in a deliberate manner, returning to his truck to reload at one point and calling emergency workers to report the crime as he was still shooting.
Although the death penalty remains favored by a clear majority of Americans, the number of executions has fallen sharply in recent years.
Neighboring South Carolina is scheduled next to execute Shawn Paul Humphries at 6 p.m. (2300 GMT) on Friday, also by lethal injection, for the killing of a convenience store owner in a robbery.
(c) Reuters 2005.