Just after midnight Friday morning a man who killed a woman with an ax during a botched home burglary became Delaware's first inmate to be executed since 2005.
Gov. Jack Markell said Robert Jackson III was put to death by lethal injection at the James T. Vaughn Correctional Center in Smyrna.
NBC Philadelphia's Rosemary Connors was chosen to witness the execution (see video).
Jackson was sentenced to death for the murder of 47-year-old Elizabeth Girardi. According to trial testimony, Girardi was killed after she returned to her home in Hockessin in April 1992 and found Jackson and an accomplice leaving her home with stolen jewelry and other items. While the accomplice ran, Jackson used an ax he found in a woodshed to strike Girardi repeatedly in the head.
Jackson was the 15th person put to death by Delaware since 1992.
Gov. Jack Markell reacted to the execution:
"The State of Delaware this morning carried out the penalty for Robert W. Jackson III for the brutal murder of Elizabeth Girardi. Mr. Jackson’s death sentence was recommended by a jury, imposed by a judge, and reviewed by state and federal appellate courts at all levels. It is my prayer that his victim rests in peace and her family finds some closure. May God have mercy on Mr. Jackson."
