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Indiana executes inmate for 1981 slayings
 Marvin Bieghler speaks to the parole board at a January 20, 2006, clemency hearing. 
YOUR E-MAIL ALERTSMICHIGAN CITY, Indiana (AP) -- An admitted drug dealer was put to death early Friday for the 1981 slayings of a man and his pregnant wife inside their home, about an hour after the U.S. Supreme Court cleared the way for his execution. Marvin Bieghler, 58, was pronounced dead at 2:17 a.m. after a lethal injection, state Department of Correction spokeswoman Java Ahmed said. Bieghler's final words were "Let's get it over with," she said. The U.S. Supreme Court announced a 6-3 decision to overturn a federal appeals court ruling late Thursday, causing the execution to be delayed about 30 minutes. The appeals court had granted Bieghler a stay of execution to challenge the legality of lethal injection as a method of execution, even though the high court rejected a similar appeal just hours earlier. Governor Mitch Daniels turned down a clemency request Thursday. Bieghler was convicted in the deaths of Tommy Miller, 20, and Kimberly Jane Miller, 19, whose bodies were found December 11, 1981, in their mobile home near the Howard County town of Russiaville, about 10 miles west of Kokomo. Tommy Miller had been shot six times and his wife, who was four weeks pregnant, was shot three times. Bieghler, 58, told the parole board last week that he did not kill the couple and wanted Daniels to commute his death sentence to time served. Bieghler, a Marine Corps veteran who saw significant combat during the Vietnam War, did not mention the killings for which he was executed in a final written statement released by the prison. The brief statement concluded: "I believe in God, country, corps. Death before dishonor. To my son, grandkids and stepkids, you will always have a piece of my heart. Semper fi, Marv." Tommy Miller's mother, Priscilla Hodges of Kokomo, traveled to the prison but was not allowed under state law to witness the execution. She said afterward she felt some sense of relief but that the execution did not bring her any closure. "I hope he was right with the Lord," she said of Bieghler. "I hope he is with the Lord right now." Bieghler, like Florida inmate Clarence Hill, challenged lethal injection as unconstitutional. Hill contends the three chemicals used in Florida's method of execution -- the same as those used in Indiana -- cause pain, making his execution cruel and unusual punishment. The Supreme Court said Wednesday it would hear arguments in Hill's case, with the justices to decide whether a federal appeals court was wrong to prevent Hill from challenging the lethal injection method. Bieghler's case differed from Hill's because he had been allowed to contest the Indiana execution method -- and lost. The state attorney general's office argued that Bieghler's appeal was a delay tactic and that Indiana's chemical injection method of execution, used since 1996, was constitutional. The state argued that the Constitution does not guarantee a pain-free execution. "Indeed, electrocution is a constitutionally permissible form of execution which is undoubtedly more painful than lethal injection," the brief said. Copyright 2006 The Associated Press. All rights reserved.This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed. 
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