North Carolina man executed for 1990 murder of wife

A North Carolina man was executed early today for the 1990 stabbing death of his wife despite the pleas of his four children, who sought clemency for their father.

Elias Syriani, 67, was pronounced dead at 2.12am (7.12am Irish time), said Pam Walker, a spokeswoman for the state Correction Department.

Late yesterday, Governor Mike Easley denied clemency, the only avenue Syriani’s attorney pursued to stop the execution by injection.

The children – three daughters and a son who witnessed the attack on his mother – began visiting with their father yesterday morning at the prison. The daughters were sobbing when they left him shortly before 9pm (2am Irish time).

“This is a day of overwhelming sadness. Tonight we punished four innocent children already scarred by family violence,” said Henderson Hill, Syriani’s attorney.

“Before his life was taken, Elias Syriani hugged and cuddled and comforted his four children. He sought as best he could to protect them from heartbreak. ... Tonight’s execution of Elias Syriani provided closure to no one. Instead, a new wound was inflicted.”

In a last statement, Syriani thanked his children and the people who befriended him since his imprisonment.

Syriani’s children had asked the governor and prosecutors to spare their father’s life so they could forge a relationship with him and restore family memories that were severed by the killing.

They had not seen their father on death row until two years ago and have since said they have forgiven him. Part of their forgiveness stems from learning about his traumatic upbringing as an Assyrian Christian in Jerusalem.

Russ Sizemore, an attorney for the children, described Easley’s refusal to grant clemency as inexplicable. He said he gave the governor research showing that clemency would help the family heal from the domestic violence.

Easley said in a statement that he found “no convincing reason to grant clemency and overturn the unanimous jury verdict affirmed by the state and federal courts”.

Syriani was convicted in the death of his wife, Teresa, 40, who was stabbed 28 times with a screwdriver in Charlotte. She died 26 days later from the attack that started when she told her husband as they drove home that she wanted a divorce. The couple was separated and she had a restraining order against him.

The Syriani children – Rose, Janet and John Syriani and Sarah Barbari – said they asked the governor and prosecutors to spare their father’s life so they could forge a relationship with him and restore family memories that were severed by the killing.

Easley has granted clemency twice since taking office in 2001, but has not spared the life of any death row inmate since January 2002. North Carolina governors have granted clemency only three other times since the state resumed executions in 1984 after a hiatus while the US Supreme Court determined its constitutionality.

Nationally, clemency was granted 186 times – including 167 commutations by the Illinois governor in 2003 – between 2001 and 2005, according to the Death Penalty Information Centre.