The Nation - News from April 14, 1988

Convicted murderer Leslie Lowenfield was executed in the Louisiana electric chair, still professing his innocence, as two relatives of his victims looked on. Lowenfield’s attorney had argued unsuccessfully in the last appeals that he was a paranoid schizophrenic who could not comprehend the possibility of execution. Four members of the U.S. Supreme Court indicated support for a stay of execution, but a majority of five turned the appeal down. Lowenfield, 34, was convicted of gunning down his estranged girlfriend, Sheila Thomas, and four members of her family, including a 4-year-old daughter, in 1982. Connie and Bryan Encalade, the sister and brother-in-law of Thomas, were in the front row of witnesses who watched Lowenfield die.