He says he’s ready; will he die tonight?

Monday, Oct. 15, 2007 | 7:21 a.m.

CARSON CITY - On Nevada's Death Row, Jimmy Neuschafer was the master of delays - and gastronomical gamesmanship.

Twice Neuschafer told authorities he was giving up his appeals and was ready to die. In 1987 he was placed in the "last night cell" and ordered steak and lobster as his final meal. He then called his attorney to get a stay of execution.

He used the same gambit in 1990, eating a final meal of fried chicken, chocolate chip ice cream and chocolate milkshakes - and then having his attorney launch a new appeal.

The warden vowed Neuschafer would not get a third last meal, but the condemned convict still managed to outmaneuver justice again - by dying in prison before he could be executed.

Now, the state is preparing for the execution tonight of Las Vegas killer William Castillo, who would be the 13th man put to death since Nevada reinstated capital punishment in 1977.

Castillo was convicted of the tire-iron slaying of 86-year old Isabelle Berndt in her Las Vegas home in November 1995. She was asleep when he entered the home, struck her with the tire iron, smothered her with a pillow and stole a VCR, money and silverware. Police later found the VCR and silverware at Castillo's apartment.

Like Neuschafer, Castillo has told officials that he is abandoning his appeals - and has the power to call off the execution at the last minute. Castillo's attorney, however, says that scenario is unlikely, even though the recent decision by the U.S. Supreme Court to decide whether lethal injection is cruel and unusual punishment would guarantee him a stay.

Late Friday, however, the American Civil Liberties Union of Nevada and the Nevada Coalition Against the Death Penalty filed a motion with the Nevada Supreme Court seeking an immediate hearing on the constitutionality of the state's use of lethal injection as its method of execution.

Although that request was filed on behalf of another inmate, Pedro Rodriguez, it could postpone Castillo's scheduled execution.

During the past three decades, all but one of the dozen men executed in Nevada decided to drop his appeals.

I witnessed 10 of those executions, as well as those of the last two men to die in the state's gas chamber. I will be sitting out tonight's execution. But if it proceeds, it likely will closely follow the script I've seen play out a dozen times, each admittedly with its own twists.

Some of the condemned are repentant and offer apologies to their victims' relatives in their final moments. Others are defiant to the end. One donated his brain to medical science. And although most wear their prison denims when wheeled into the death chamber for the lethal injection, one killer wore a double-breasted Pierre Cardin suit to his execution at the Nevada State Prison.

Jesse W. Bishop was the last person executed in the gas chamber, in October 1979, for the killing of a honeymooning man who tried to stop Bishop during his robbery of a Las Vegas casino. In a Death Row confession, he admitted he was the hired killer of as many as 18 people.

Bishop vowed not to crack. And he never uttered a sound. But when the gas filled the chamber, he squirmed, twitched and rolled his head and eyes during the 10-minute ordeal.

The first person executed by lethal injection in Nevada was Carroll E. Cole, who in interviews expressed concern about the possible pain. But he nonetheless wanted to proceed with his December 1985 execution.

When the death drugs hit, his lips quivered, his eyes closed slowly and his stomach convulsed. Five minutes later he was pronounced dead.

It was Cole who donated his brain to science. Shortly after the death, neurosurgeon Lonnie Hammargren, who later became Nevada's lieutenant governor, removed Cole's brain to check for lesions, holes, cuts or signs of disease that might help explain the killer's rage. But the brain was normal, Hammargren said.

During the past century and a half, Nevada has put 54 people to death.

State Archivist Guy Rocha said between 1861 when the Nevada Territory was organized and 1903, executions by hanging were carried out by counties. A 1901 law required all executions to occur at the state prison. The first and only execution by shooting was on May 14, 1913, of Andriza Mirovich for a killing in Tonopah .

In 1921 Nevada became the first state to move to execution by lethal gas. The 1983 Legislature changed the state's execution method to lethal injection.

Under the current system, the inmate is strapped on his back to a gurney in the death chamber on the prison's second floor. Medical technicians insert the tubes that will carry the deadly drugs to his body, and two prison staffers in another room use syringes to start the flow of drugs.

Castillo is to receive a double dose of drugs "to make sure the person doesn't suffer," said Howard Skolnik, director of the state Corrections Department.

The prisoner is given a sedative before the execution. If he refuses, Skolnik said that would be interpreted as a sign that he is having second thoughts, and the execution would be halted.

Once in the chamber, the inmate may stare at the ceiling, close his eyes or look through a large glass window at witnesses - victims' friends or relatives, his own relatives, public officials, prosecutors or reporters. Sometimes the prisoner nods at a witness he knows.

Double murderer Sean Flanagan, who became a born-again Christian on Death Row, raised his head and turned toward the eight witnesses, which included his prosecutor, Dan Seaton. He mouthed the words, "You are a just man." He lay back down but then turned again to Seaton and said, "I love you." He then closed his eyes and died in June 1989.

The April 2001 execution of Sebastian S. Bridges for shooting a man in Las Vegas was considerably less smooth and routine. He appeared calm at first when strapped into the gurney, but then he started crying and yelling, "You want to kill me like a dog."

But he declined to request a stay. One of his final acts was to raise his head, look at the father of the man he had shot and yell, "This is murder." The father, Walt Blatchford, did not respond and said later he felt little emotion over Bridges' last moments alive.

Eight official witnesses and news media representatives will be present at today's scheduled execution. Members of the victim's family may be present. Castillo's family was allowed a last visit Sunday and will have telephone contact with him on his final day.

As always, a federal public defender will be on hand. If Castillo changes his mind, the defender, using a telephone only feet from the death chamber, will ask a judge on call to issue a stay.

Over the years, the executions have been scheduled at various hours - 2 a.m., 6 a.m., 8 p.m. This one is set for 8:30 p.m.

At 4 p.m. Castillo will receive his final meal of a double cheeseburger, three root beers and ice cream. At the appointed hour, after Castillo is strapped to the gurney, Skolnik will ask Castillo one final time whether he wants to call off the execution.

If Castillo wants to proceed, he will receive sodium pentathol as a tranquilizer, followed by succinylcholine to paralyze him and potassium chloride, which will stop his heart.

Skolnik has rejected interviews for the 35-year-old Castillo, saying he wants to keep the emotional event as low key as possible, in part because of the strain executions place on prison staffers. "I don't want to turn this into a circus," he said.

Death penalty opponents, however, are determined that the most severe punishment that society can impose not be allowed to transpire without notice.

Outside the prison, several dozen people typically gather in a candlelight vigil, a scene that will be repeated tonight.

"People of any faith or nonfaith can gather and be a witness to the barbarity of this," said Nancy Hart, president of the Nevada Coalition Against the Death Penalty.

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