{"id":82943,"date":"2026-05-21T06:48:54","date_gmt":"2026-05-21T10:48:54","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/spiritdaily.org\/blog\/?p=82943"},"modified":"2026-05-21T06:48:54","modified_gmt":"2026-05-21T10:48:54","slug":"an-inmates-haunting-last-words","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/spiritdaily.org\/blog\/an-inmates-haunting-last-words\/","title":{"rendered":"An Inmate&#8217;s Haunting Last Words"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><em>From Fox News:<\/em><\/p>\n<p class=\"speakable\" data-layout-index=\"5\">An Arizona man convicted of killing another man by throwing gasoline on him and setting him on fire was executed Wednesday, marking the\u00a0<span style=\"color: #000000;\"><a style=\"color: #000000;\" href=\"https:\/\/www.foxnews.com\/us\/florida-man-wrestled-cops-gun-killed-him-executed-final-appeals-rejected\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\" data-omtr-intcmp=\"fnc_us_article_main-content_article-body_6_1\">first of three executions scheduled<\/a>\u00a0<\/span>this week in the U.S.\u00a0The Associated Press reported that 53-year-old Leroy Dean McGill was pronounced dead at 10:26 a.m. PDT after <span style=\"color: #000000;\"><a style=\"color: #000000;\" href=\"https:\/\/www.foxnews.com\/politics\/idaho-becomes-first-state-prefer-death-firing-squad-executions\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\" data-omtr-intcmp=\"fnc_us_article_main-content_article-body_6_2\">receiving a lethal injection<\/a>\u00a0<\/span>at the Arizona State Prison Complex in Florence.<\/p>\n<p data-layout-index=\"5\">McGill was convicted of murdering James Perez in a 2002 attack at an apartment in north Phoenix. Prosecutors said McGill, who had been using methamphetamine and had gone days without sleep, doused Perez and Perez\u2019s girlfriend, Nova Banta, with gasoline while they sat on a couch before igniting them.<\/p>\n<p>\u00a0Witnesses said McGill appeared calm and did not resist during the execution. Before the procedure began, McGill looked toward witnesses, smiled and nodded, and at one point said, &#8220;I\u2019m going home soon,&#8221; according to The AP.<\/p>\n<div class=\"gsp_post_data\" \r\n\t            data-post_type=\"post\" \r\n\t            data-cat=\"news\" \r\n\t            data-modified=\"120\"\r\n\t            data-created=\"1779346134\"\r\n\t            data-title=\"An Inmate&#8217;s Haunting Last Words\" \r\n\t            data-home=\"https:\/\/spiritdaily.org\/blog\"><\/div>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>From Fox News: An Arizona man convicted of killing another man by throwing gasoline on him and setting him on.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"_genesis_hide_title":false,"_genesis_hide_breadcrumbs":false,"_genesis_hide_singular_image":false,"_genesis_hide_footer_widgets":false,"_genesis_custom_body_class":"","_genesis_custom_post_class":"","_genesis_layout":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[32],"tags":[],"class_list":{"0":"post-82943","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","6":"category-news","7":"entry"},"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/spiritdaily.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/82943","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/spiritdaily.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/spiritdaily.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/spiritdaily.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/spiritdaily.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=82943"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/spiritdaily.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/82943\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":82944,"href":"https:\/\/spiritdaily.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/82943\/revisions\/82944"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/spiritdaily.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=82943"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/spiritdaily.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=82943"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/spiritdaily.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=82943"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}