Before his execution, convicted murderer David Zink had some unusual advice for other inmates facing the death sentence: appreciate the fate that awaits you.
“For those who remain on death row, understand that everyone is going to die,” Zink said in his final statement ahead of his death by lethal injection in Missouri on Tuesday night.
Execution, he suggested, is preferable to spending the rest of your life in prison.
“Statistically speaking, we have a much easier death than most, so I encourage you to embrace it and celebrate our true liberation before society figures it out and condemns us to life without parole and we too will die a lingering death,” his statement says.
Zink, 55, was executed for the abduction, sexual assault and murder of 19-year-old Amanda Morton in 2001, a killing described by authorities as “an unspeakable act of violence.”
He had confessed to tying Morton to a tree in a cemetery, breaking her neck and then slicing her spinal cord to ensure she wouldn’t live, according to CNN affiliate KY3.
Failed bid to avoid execution
Despite his words about embracing the death penalty, Zink had mounted an unsuccessful legal challenge to avoid execution, arguing the death penalty was unconstitutional.
The Missouri governor also rejected a petition by Zink for clemency.
The murderer said in his final statement that he had sought to be spared execution for the benefit of his family and friends, who he said “had the unfortunate circumstance of developing emotions, which will now cause them pain and suffering.”
He apologized to Morton’s family, saying he hoped his execution “brings them the peace and satisfaction they seek.”
A young life ‘brutally taken away’
Zink was pronounced dead at 7:41 p.m. Tuesday after receiving the lethal injection at the Eastern Reception, Diagnostic and Correctional Center in Bonne Terre, Missouri, authorities said.
“Fourteen years ago this week, a promising young life was suddenly and brutally taken away through an unspeakable act of violence,” Missouri Gov. Jay Nixon said in a statement. “Tonight, as the sentence of David Zink has now been carried out, I ask the people of Missouri to remember Amanda Morton, and to keep her loved ones in their thoughts and prayers.”
Zink abducted Morton after rear-ending her truck in the town of Strafford, according to KY3. He had been released from prison in Texas a few months earlier after serving 20 years of a 30-year sentence for raping and kidnapping a woman.
He buried Morton’s body in the rural cemetery where he killed her.
