Governor Tom Corbett signed execution warrants on Tuesday for two Pennsylvania men convicted of murder.
Laquaille Bryant, 32, of Philadelphia was convicted of shooting two women to death back in 2008. Robert Gene Rega, 47, of Jefferson County, was convicted of shooting and killing a night watchman execution-style during a robbery in 2000.
Bryant pleaded guilty to two counts of first-degree murder in the shooting deaths of Chante Wright and Octavia Green.
Wright was a witness in an unrelated Philadelphia homicide and was set to testify in May of 2008. She was living in Florida through the witness protection program but left and returned to Philadelphia on January 18, 2008, to visit her ailing great-grandmother.
When she returned, Wright repeatedly contacted Bryant. She and a friend, Octavia Green, picked Bryant up in their rental car and drove around the city. On January 19, 2008, around 2 a.m., Bryant, who was sitting in the back seat of the car, pulled out a gun and shot each woman three times, killing both of them.
Bryant later told a friend he thought he was going to get paid for killing Wright due to her role as a witness in the other homicide.
Bryant was arrested and sentenced to death twice in May of 2010.
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Back in 2000, Rega, who wanted money to buy Christmas presents for his children, recruited several friends to go to a motel, hold the night watchman, 50-year-old Christopher Lauth, hostage and force the owner to give them money from the ATM and safe.
The robbers confronted Lauth at the motel but could not find the owner. Rega then stayed with Lauth while his accomplices loaded the safe into their car.
While he was alone with Lauth, Rega shot him four times in the back and head, killing him. Investigators say Lauth was on his knees and his arms were raised during the shooting.
Lauth was arrested and sentenced to death in June of 2002.
Both men are currently incarcerated at the State Correctional Institution at Greene. Rega is scheduled to be executed on January 28, 2014. Bryant is scheduled to be executed on January 29, 2014.
Executions in Pennsylvania are carried out by lethal injection.
