Arizona Inmate Executed for Murdering 2 Girls

Put to death two decades after conviction

An inmate was executed Wednesday after being convicted of murdering two 13-year-old girls in a ghost town where they were raped, strangled and stabbed before being dumped in a partly flooded mine shaft.

Richard Dale Stokley, 60, was put to death at a prison in Florence two decades after he and another man were convicted of murdering Mandy Meyers and Mary Snyder in 1991 in rural Cochise County.

Stokley had no formal last words but earlier expressed regret while speaking with members of the execution team during the lengthy setup time.