Maryland man who killed N.Va. couple set to die tonight

The U.S. Supreme Court yesterday refused to block the execution of a Maryland man who was convicted of gunning down a Northern Virginia couple to win the love of a former stripper.

Larry Bill Elliott, 60, is scheduled to be executed by electrocution at 9 tonight for the January 2001 shooting deaths of 25-year-old Dana Thrall and 30-year-old Robert Finch. The former Army counterintelligence worker would become the first Virginia inmate to die by electrocution since 2006 and the first nationwide since last year.

Elliott's execution comes one week after Virginia executed sniper mastermind John Allen Muhammad by injection. Elliott made the rare choice of electrocution, an option taken by only four of the 80 inmates executed since they were given a choice in 1995.

The U.S. Supreme Court justices offered no comment in refusing to stop the execution. Justices Ruth Bader Ginsburg, Sonia Sotomayor and John Paul Stevens voted to stop the execution.

That left Gov. Timothy M. Kaine as Elliott's last hope. Kaine refuses to comment on pending clemency petitions.

Elliott, of Hanover, Md., claims he is innocent. He was set to be executed Oct. 5, but Kaine pushed it back, saying he needed more time to consider the case.

Prosecutors said Elliott killed the couple to win the love of Rebecca Gragg, a former stripper and adult escort who was involved in a bitter child-custody battle with Finch.

Finch was shot three times, and Thrall was beaten before being shot several times in the face and chest while her two boys, ages 4 and 6, were upstairs in the couple's Woodbridge town home. Gragg's children were not at the house at the time.

Two separate juries convicted Elliott of the killings. A 2002 verdict was set aside because a juror discussed the case outside of the court. Elliott was convicted again a year later.

Elliott claims his trial lawyers were improperly restricted in questioning Gragg, who testified for the prosecution.

Gragg denied any involvement until five months after the killings. After police told her she failed a polygraph test, Gragg implicated Elliott and said she hadn't come forward before because she was afraid of him. Elliott's lawyers were not allowed to ask her about the failed polygraph test, which they claim in his appeal would have showed her "bias and motivation to lie." She was never charged in the case.

Elliott's attorneys did not return telephone messages and e-mails seeking comment.

If Elliott's execution goes as scheduled, he would be the 105th person put to death in Virginia since the U.S. Supreme Court reinstated capital punishment in 1976.