Family of Nicholas Sutton/Tennessee Department of CorrectionsA man who was given the death sentence for murdering a paedophile has died by electric chair.
Nicholas Todd Sutton murdered fellow inmate Carl Estep in 1985 by stabbing him to death.
Sutton was already serving a life sentence for three other murders at the time he stabbed Estep.
He had killed his grandmother by drowning when he was just 18 years old, and then murdered two other people in 1979.
Tennessee Department of Corrections58-year-old Sutton was given the choice between electric chair and lethal injection, to which he chose the electric chair.
For his final meal, he apparently chose fried pork chops, mashed potatoes with gravy, biscuits and peach pie with vanilla ice cream.
Sutton had been given the death sentence in 1986, the year after he killed paedophile Carl Estep. He then spent 34 years on death row.
According to USA Today, Sutton was the fifth person the state of Tennessee has used the electric chair method on since 2018.
As well as killing Carl Estep and his grandmother, Sutton murdered two of his supposed high school friends, John Large and Charles Almon.
USA Today explained how the then 18-year-old murdered his grandmother, who’d adopted the teenager following a rocky childhood.
Sutton reportedly knocked her unconscious with a piece of firewood, wrapped her in a blanket and bin bags and chained her to a cinder block. He then threw her into the a river.
PA ImagesIt wasn’t said how he killed Large, but Sutton reportedly shot Almon dead.
Sutton was sentenced to life in prison for the killings of his grandmother and the two men, and he was only put on death row following the stabbing of Carl Estep.
He was initially sentenced to be killed in 2015, but it was postponed due to legal delays.
Sutton’s family and lawyer had campaigned for him to be granted clemency, arguing ‘he is not the man he was when he committed his crimes’.
clemencyfornicksutton.comThe Clemency for Nick Sutton website reads:
Multiple members of Tennessee correction staff, members of his victims’ families, many of his jurors, and others believe Nick Sutton deserves to live and have taken the extraordinary step of humbly asking Governor Lee to spare his life. A life sentence meets the imperatives of justice and mercy.
Despite their efforts, the execution of Sutton went ahead and he was pronounced dead yesterday evening, February 20.
As per The Mirror, Sutton’s final words were:
I have made a lot of friends along the way and a lot of people have enriched my life.
They have reached out to me and pulled me up and I am grateful for that. I have had the privilege of being married to the finest woman, who is a great servant to God.
Without her, I would not have made the progress that I have made. I hope I do a much better job in the next life than I did in this one. If I could leave one thing with all of you, it is, don’t ever give up on the ability of Jesus Christ to fix someone or a problem.
He can fix anything. Don’t ever underestimate His ability. He has made my life meaningful and fruitful through my relationships with family and friends.
So, even in my death, I am coming out a winner. God has provided it all to me.
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Niamh Shackleton is a pint sized person and journalist at UNILAD. After studying Multimedia Journalism at the University of Salford, she did a year at Caters News Agency as a features writer in Birmingham before deciding that Manchester is (arguably) one of the best places in the world, and therefore moved back up north. She’s also UNILAD’s unofficial crazy animal lady.