Credit: PA Department of Corrections
A man found guilty of killing two workers at the Bristol Borough job he was fired from months earlier had his execution warrant signed this week.
Gov. Tom Corbett announced warrants for Robert Diamond, 38, and four other men were signed this week. The warrant signatures come in the waning moments of Corbett’s one term as governor.
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The execution by lethal injection is scheduled to take place on March 11.
Diamond admitted to killing Angel Guadalupe, 46, of Falls, and Reginald Woodson, 52, of Willingboro, N.J. at the Simon and Schuster warehouse on Radcliff Street in the borough on August 1, 2008. Diamond was found guilty of both men’s murders and sentenced twice to the death penalty during a no-jury trial. His two death sentences were upheld by the Pennsylvania Supreme Court in 2013.
Diamond has previously sought to get a new trial. His legal team stated he suffered from mental incompetence. A doctor testified previously that Diamond was a “delusional and psychotic with a history of failed relationships, sporadic employment, and difficulty with finances and family,” according to a 2012 Bucks County Courier Times article.
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The legal team has also stated a troubled childhood and drug abuse may have caused Diamond to have the problems that led to him shooting up his former workplace.
“Appellant’s troubled life history did not serve to mitigate the murders, as there was no connection between Appellant’s upbringing and his criminal acts on the day of the fatal shootings,” a state supreme court judge wrote in a 2013 legal document.
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The 2008 workplace shooting was racially motivated, with Diamond telling police he killed the two men, one who was Hispanic and one who was black, because he “lumped them all together.” He also said he was “no racist” and added that he hoped his actions “save hundreds of innocent whites from tyranny.”
Diamond told investigators after the shooting he was seeking revenge against Simon and Schuster employees who mistreated him. He was fired in April 2008 for not showing up for work and was running low on money at the time of the murders.
When borough police and officers from surrounding towns arrived, Diamond surrendered. He later told them he was planning to shoot himself but officers arrived to the shooting scene too quickly.
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According to media reports, Guadalupe was a father of four and had just started working at the warehouse to pay off his mortgage. Woodson was a attempting to get back in the warehouse after he learned Guadalupe had been shot as he was leaving work.
Appeals and stays of execution are common in capital cases.
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Corbett signed the execution warrants in the days before Governor-elect Tom Wolf takes office. Wolf has said he doesn’t plan to sign execution warrants.
The last execution in the state was in 1999. In total, the state has a nearly 200-person Pennsylvania death penalty list.
