Ricky Ray Rector (January 12, 1950 – January 24, 1992) was executed for the 1981 murder of police officer Robert Martin in Conway, Arkansas.
After killing a man in a nightclub, he later first agreed to turn himself in, but instead shot in the back the police officer who negotiated his surrender. He then shot himself in the head in an apparent suicide attempt. The attempt effectively resulted in a lobotomy. Despite Rector's mental state, then Arkansas Governor Bill Clinton made a point of overseeing Rector's execution during the 1992 U.S. Presidential campaign.
Read more about Ricky Ray Rector: Murders and Trial, Execution
Famous quotes containing the words ray and/or rector:
“These facts have always suggested to man the sublime creed that the world is not the product of manifold power, but of one will, of one mind; and that one mind is everywhere active, in each ray of the star, in each wavelet of the pool; and whatever opposes that will is everywhere balked and baffled, because things are made so, and not otherwise.”
—Ralph Waldo Emerson (1803–1882)
“Under bare Ben Bulben’s head
In Drumcliff churchyard Yeats is laid.
An ancestor was rector there
Long years ago, a church stands near,
By the road an ancient cross.
No marble, no conventional phrase;
On limestone quarried near the spot
By his command these words are cut:
Cast a cold eye
On life, on death.
Horseman pass by!”
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