Virginia to execute murderer

The man raped and murdered a 23-year-old mother.
RICHMOND, Va. (AP) -- Weeping as one of her captors bound her with duct tape, the young woman made a final desperate plea for her life, telling the two men she was a mother.
Unmoved, Brandon Hedrick and Trevor Jones forced Lisa Crider to a remote bank of the James River.
"Do what you gotta do," Jones told his friend. Hedrick squeezed the trigger, firing a shotgun blast into Crider's face.
Crider's body was discovered that evening -- on Mother's Day.
"The sum of Lisa was roses and doves -- she was peace loving, no gossip, no maliciousness," said her mother, Dale Alexander, 55, of Altavista. "She would try to protect anybody around her."
Barring intervention from the U.S. Supreme Court or Gov. Timothy M. Kaine, Hedrick will be executed Thursday for the rape and murder of 23-year-old Crider. Hedrick chose the electric chair instead of lethal injection, and would be the first person in the United States to be executed by electrocution in more than two years.
Hedrick and Jones, then 18, spent the night of May 10, 1997, drinking, smoking marijuana and crack cocaine, and employing the services of several prostitutes, according to court documents. While cruising around Lynchburg, they spotted Crider walking along a road. Jones knew who Crider was and believed her boyfriend sold crack, and they decided to rob her because they thought she might have drugs. They forced her at gunpoint into Jones' truck, where prosecutors say Hedrick raped and sodomized her.
Later that night, they stopped at the James River and Crider was murdered.
Punishment
Hedrick and Jones were apprehended in Nebraska. Hedrick was sentenced to death in 1998; Jones was sentenced to life in prison.
The state argues that Hedrick deserves to die for his crimes.
"Brandon Hedrick brutally tortured Lisa Crider and murdered her execution-style," said J. Tucker Martin, spokesman for Attorney General Bob McDonnell. "A jury decided he deserved the death penalty, and justice will be carried out on July 20."
Crider's son Tracy, now 14, also wants Hedrick's life to end, but he was deemed too young to witness the execution, Alexander said.
Copyright 2006 Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed.