Andrew Grant DeYoung

Andrew Grant DeYoung (May 12, 1974 – July 21, 2011) was an American who was convicted of and executed for the 1993 murder of his parents and sister in the state of Georgia. The state conducted the execution in H-5 of the Georgia Diagnostic and Classification State Prison (GDCP) in Jackson, Georgia.^[1] DeYoung was 19 when he committed the murders and 37 when he died.

Andrew Grant DeYoung
Born	(1974-05-12)May 12, 1974
Died	July 21, 2011(2011-07-21) (aged 37) Georgia Diagnostic and Classification State Prison, Jackson, Georgia, U.S
Cause of death	Execution by lethal injection
Known for	His execution was caught on videotape
Criminal status	Executed
Conviction	Murder (3 counts)
Criminal penalty	Death
Details
Victims	Gary DeYoung, Kathryn DeYoung, (his parents) Sarah DeYoung, 14
Date	June 14, 1993
Injured	Nathan DeYoung, 16

Georgia Diagnostic and Classification State Prison, where DeYoung was held on death row and where he was executed

He was notable for having his execution videotaped. His lawyers had gained judicial permission for this to gain evidence as to "whether lethal injection caused unnecessary suffering."^[2]

Murders and trial

On June 14, 1993 (32 years ago) (1993-06-14), the 19-year-old DeYoung repeatedly stabbed his mother, Kathryn, while she was sleeping. Awakened by her screams, his father Gary DeYoung struggled with Andrew before also being killed. Andrew DeYoung fatally stabbed his 14-year-old sister Sarah in the hallway outside their parents' bedroom. He had assigned an accomplice, David Michael Hagerty, to kill his 16-year-old brother Nathan, but the boy escaped through a bedroom window and ran to a neighbor's house for help.^[3]

On October 13, 1995, Andrew DeYoung was convicted by a jury of the first-degree murders of his parents, Gary and Kathryn DeYoung, and of his sister, Sarah. According to the prosecution, DeYoung killed his family in order to collect an inheritance from their estate, which he had estimated to be worth approximately US$480,000 (equivalent to $1,045,000 in 2024).^{[citation needed]}

Videotaping of execution

DeYoung was the first person in 19 years in the United States to have the execution videotaped and the first in which execution by lethal injection was recorded. The previous videotaped execution had been the gas chamber execution of Robert Alton Harris that took place in California on April 21, 1992. Other states are now considering videotaping executions.^[4] There is open discussion concerning whether or not making executions public would sway people to be more for or more against the death penalty.^[2]

See also

• Capital punishment in Georgia (U.S. state)
• Capital punishment in the United States
• List of people executed in Georgia (U.S. state)
• List of people executed in the United States in 2011