Witnesses to Donald Moeller’s death by lethal injection say the execution followed state protocol. The lethal injections of pentobarbital began one minute after 10 p.m. Tuesday.
Steve Young with the Sioux Falls Argus Leader is one of two media witnesses who watched Moeller take seven or eight deep breaths as the lethal injection started. Moeller was pronounced dead at 10:24 p.m.
"But to be honest, within a minute or two, I heard no breathing. I didn’t see his chest move," Young says. "As far as I knew, at 10:03, he was gone."
Earlier this month, Donald Moeller gave up his final federal appeal. It was his last chance at delaying his execution.
Moeller was first convicted of the brutal rape and murder of nine-year-old Becky O’Connell in 1992, two years after her death. The conviction was overturned and he was found guilty at a second trial in 1997. The jury sentenced him to death.