Charles Rhines who stabbed doughnut shop co-worker to death in 1992 executed at South Dakota prison by lethal injection
A man who had stabbed a doughnut shop co-worker to death has been executed via lethal injection.
Charles Rhines, 63, who hails from South Dakota, US, was convicted after the 1992 murder. Rhines had been sentenced to death for killing 22-year-old Donnivan Schaeffer while he was robbing the doughnut shop he worked in. The US Supreme Court has denied three 11th hour petitions.
Rhines passed away at the South Dakota State Penitentiary at 7.39 pm local time last night. The killer strongly believed that he was targeted by an anti-gay bias as the testimony revealed that some of the jury thought it would be better for him to die than to cohabit with another man.
Juror Harry Keeney spoke to Rhine's legal team and said, "We also knew that he was a homosexual and thought that he shouldn't be able to spend life with men in prison." In his last words, Rhines told the parents of his victim that he "forgave" them for their "anger" and "hatred" towards him.
As reported by Mirror, Rhines spoke before his execution and said, "Ed and Peggy Schaeffer, I forgive you for your anger and hatred toward me. I pray to God that he forgives you for your anger and hatred toward me. Thanks to my team. I love you all, goodbye. Let's go. That's all I have to say. Goodbye."
Last night, Peggy Schaeffer spoke at a press conference and shared, "Today do something kind for someone in honor (of Donnivan)... he is loved and missed and will never be forgotten. We will miss him, and have missed him for so long." She went on to describe her son as the 'boy with a goofy, contagious laugh'. She added that he would have been a great asset to society as well.
Rhines' last meal request included fried chicken, cantaloupe or musk melon, Norwegian flatbread lefsa, yogurt, butter, black licorice, cookies and cream ice cream, root beer and coffee with cream and sugar.