Killer Expresses Remorse Before Execution; Crowd Hails His Death

COLUMBIA, S.C. — A murderer expressed remorse before he was executed early Friday. Outside, a cheer erupted from a waiting crowd as his body was borne from the death house.

Ronald (Rusty) Woomer, 35, was electrocuted at 1:05 a.m. and pronounced dead seven minutes later, said William D. Catoe, the Corrections Department’s deputy commissioner for operations.

“I’m sorry,” Woomer said in a low, shaky voice from the electric chair immediately before his death. “I claim Jesus Christ as my savior. I only wish everyone could feel the love I feel for him.”

The West Virginia native was put to death for the murder of Della Louise Sellers, a Pawleys Island convenience-store clerk.

A crowd of about 80 death penalty proponents cheered as the hearse bearing Woomer’s body left the death house. But his execution gave little immediate solace to Mrs. Sellers’ widower.

“It was too easy. It was too easy,” said Don Sellers, who was among the witnesses at Woomer’s execution.

Woomer’s death sentence was carried out after the U.S. Supreme Court denied requests for a stay. Gov. Carroll A. Campbell Jr. also turned down a plea for clemency Thursday.