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Arizona death row inmate scheduled to be executed

Thomas Paul West, 52, is scheduled to be put to death by lethal injection at 11 a.m local time inside the state prison in Florence, southeast of Phoenix, an Arizona Department of Corrections spokesman said.

He would be the fourth inmate to be executed this year in Arizona.

West was convicted of breaking into victim Don Bortle's trailer home almost exactly 24 years ago, tying him up and pummeling his head repeatedly before leaving him to bleed to death.

Attorneys for West had argued his life should be spared because he was physically and sexually abused while growing up. Bishop Gerald Kicanas of the Diocese of Tucson also sought to block the execution.

In last minute appeals, West's attorneys maintained the state's lethal injection statute was unconstitutional and lacks needed "standards and procedural safeguards."  More    PrisonerPal.com   True Crime Today  Magazine Subscriptions for Prisoners since 1975