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Harvey, Baskerville family killer Ricky Gray to be executed in January

Posted at 10:46 AM, Nov 21, 2016
and last updated 2016-11-21 21:52:36-05

RICHMOND, Va. — The man who killed the Harvey family will be executed in January.

Ricky Gray’s execution date of January 18, 2017, was set Monday morning in Richmond.

Gray has spent a decade on death row after he was convicted of murdering Bryan and Kathryn Harvey, and their daughters Stella and Ruby.

On New Year’s Day 2006, the Harvey’s were found bound, beaten, and stabbed inside the basement of their Woodland Heights home. The home was also set on fire.

Legal Analyst Todd Stone told CBS6 it’s normal for death penalty cases to take a long time.

“In the justice system we have so many rules in place to govern the appellate process to make sure everyone gets due process. Here, yes it’s been a long time, but they’ve been running the course of the appeals. If you incarcerate an innocent person, you can release them, but if you put someone to death and later find out that they’re innocent, then you can’t fix the mistake.”

Gray was also involved, though not convicted, in the murders of Ashley Baskerville, 21; her mother, Mary Tucker, 47; and stepdad, Percyell Tucker, 55.

Gray’s accomplice, Ray Dandridge, was convicted in the Tucker-Baskerville murders and is serving a life-prison sentence.

Earlier this month, the U.S. Supreme Court denied Gray’s petition to hear his case. Gray claimed an appeal was warranted because he didn’t get a fair trial.

He said his lawyers failed to tell jurors that he was high on PCP at the time of the killings.

He admitted to investigators that he and Dandridge “binged” on PCP in the days before the Harvey murders.

Gray’s new defense team argued his trial lawyers never brought in experts to fully explain how PCP affected the brain and memory, which could have discredited his testimony to investigators.

This is a developing story. Watch CBS 6 News at Noon for a live update from court.

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