Monday, April 1, 1996 | 11:59 a.m.
CARSON CITY -- Richard Moran, put to death Saturday in the state prison, is likely to be the last inmate executed this year, although 77 killers are on Nevada's death row.
Moran was the first person to be executed since June 1990, and Chief Criminal Deputy Attorney General David Sarnowski says it doesn't appear there will be another one soon unless someone voluntarily gives up his appeal.
All the appeals by the inmates -- some of them who have been there since 1979 -- are weaving their way through the state or federal court system.
Glen Whorton, spokesman for the state prison, said, "Executions are a rare event here."
Sarnowski, who handles death penalty appeals for the state, singled out Gerald Gallego as possibly the closest to an execution date.
Gallego has been through the state system three times on appeals. His case is now in the 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals. But any decision there will be appealed to the U.S. Supreme Court.
And defense lawyers are able to file several appeals in the federal courts.
Gallego was convicted of the 1980 killing of two teenage girls he kidnapped from a shopping center in Sacramento, Calif., to serve as his sex slaves. He was convicted in Pershing County and he is also awaiting the death penalty in California for murders there.
Sarnowski noted that there is legislation in Congress to speed up the processing of appeals. "It's close to reality," he said.
The bill would shorten the time for filing the appeals and require federal courts to make decisions within a specific time limit.
But Sarnowski noted, "These guys do not stop fighting to the very last hour and minute."
The Moran execution was the first time a 1995 state law came into play, allowing victims' relatives to view the process. Bill and Charles Vandervoort, brothers-in-law to Moran, were in the front row, watching him die.
Moran killed his wife, Linda Vandervoort, but received life in prison for that crime. He was sentenced to death for the murders of Sandra Devere and Russell Rhodes in a Las Vegas bar in an $800 robbery in 1984. Devere's sister also attended the execution but she was not identified.
Several times as he was strapped to the table, Moran mouthed the words "I'm sorry," to the sister and the two brothers.
Charles Vandervoort called Moran a "violent dude" and said the execution is "the best closure I will get. But I'm still missing a sister."
It took one minute from the time the lethal drugs were administered until Moran was pronounced dead at 12:10 a.m. Saturday.
His last words to the prison staff and Director Bob Bayer were, "See you guys on the other side."
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