deaf, blind, crippled, mentally ill, dementia death row inmate dead at 94 [View All]

[Liberal_in_LA]

Oldest U.S. death row inmate dead at 94

FLORENCE, Ariz. (AP) — The oldest death row inmate in the United States, who spent most of his life behind bars, has died of natural causes at age 94.
Viva Leroy Nash died late Friday at the state's prison complex in Florence, said an Arizona Department of Corrections spokesman.

Nash was still on death row, but spokesman Barrett Marson said Sunday he did not know if Nash died in his cell or in a medical facility at the prison.

Nash had been imprisoned almost continuously since he was 15 and was deaf, mostly blind, crippled, mentally ill and had dementia, said his attorney, Thomas Phalen. State prosecutors were appealing a federal ruling that Nash might not be competent to the U.S. Supreme Court at the time of his death, Phalen said.

Nash was born in 1915 and had a criminal record dating to the 1930s. Phalen said his research shows that Nash grew up in southern Utah and was sent to the federal prison in Leavenworth, Kan., in 1930 for an armed robbery.

He spent 25 years in prison for shooting a Connecticut police officer in 1947. In 1977, Nash was sentenced to two consecutive life sentences for a robbery and murder in Salt Lake City but escaped from a prison work crew in October 1982.

Three weeks later, on Nov. 3, 1982, Nash went into a coin shop in Phoenix and demanded money from an employee, Greggory West.

Nash shot West three times, killing him. Another employee was in the line of fire but was not hit, according to the corrections department. As Nash ran away, a nearby shop owner pointed a gun at him and told him to stop. Nash grabbed the weapon and the two men struggled over it until police arrived and arrested him.

http://www.usatoday.com/news/nation/2010-02-14-oldest-death-row-inmate_N.htm?csp=24&RM_Exclude=Juno