“DO NOT PROTEST MY EXECUTION!” UTAH’S FORGOTTEN INMATE: THE RAINBOW WARRIOR - JOSEPH MITCHELL PARSONS (JULY 22, 1964 TO OCTOBER 15, 1996)

On this date, October 15, 1999, The Rainbow Warrior A.K.A Joseph Mitchell Parsons was executed by lethal injection in Utah. He was convicted of murdering Richard Lynn Ernest on August 31, 1987. Let us hear from the Victim’s family members.

Mug shot of Joseph Mitchell Parsons (Utah State Prison mug shot)

CASE: On August 30, 1987, Parsons was hitchhiking along the Interstate 15 near Barstow, California. He was picked up by 30-year-old Richard Lynn Ernest, a concrete laborer from Loma Linda, California on his way to a construction job in Denver, Colorado. Ernest did not know that Parsons was a fugitive. At about 3 a.m. on August 31, Ernest was too tired to drive and stopped at the Lunt Park rest area near Cedar City, Utah to get some sleep. Parsons stabbed Ernest to death and drove off in his blue Dodge Omni. At about 5 a.m., Parsons stopped at a Texaco service station 23 miles to the north. He was wearing Ernest's clothes and had assumed his identity. Parsons told the station attendant he needed to hose out red construction paint from the car's interior and offered to give him Ernest's construction tools. The attendant said that he observed Parsons throwing away clothing, books, posters and carpentry tools into a dumpster. Parsons asked the attendant about the distance to Denver and spoke of Ernest's 9-year-old son as his own. He purchased cigarettes and food with Ernest's MasterCharge credit card before leaving. At 7:23 a.m., Parsons used the credit card to check into a Quality Inn at Richfield, Utah. He used the card again at about 10 a.m. to purchase seat covers and floor mats from Kmart to cover up the blood stains in the car. A clerk called the Richfield Police Department after Parsons attempted to purchase $300 worth of items at 12:34 p.m. and the credit card was found to be over its limit. The attendant back at the Texaco station called the Beaver County Sheriff's Office after discovering bloody items in the dumpster. Deputy Raymond Goodwin found Ernest's bank statement and Parsons' bloody clothes in the dumpster. After calling Ernest's wife Beverley, the officers concluded that the person who visited the service station was not Richard Ernest. At about 4:25 p.m. on August 31, a Utah Highway Patrol officer found Parsons sleeping in Ernest's car at the Red Creek rest area on the Interstate 70, west of Salina, Utah. When Parsons was brought into the Richfield police station where the bloody clothes were gathered, he continued to insist that he was Ernest. When officers asked for his street address, Parsons asked for a lawyer. Sheriff Kenneth Yardley recalled that Parsons asked if he could keep his book to read. On September 1, 1987, Ernest's body was discovered underneath a sleeping bag dumped on the east side of the Interstate 15, about a mile north of the rest area where he had been killed. He had been stabbed nine times, including in the heart and throat.

QUOTE 1: Salais, who continues to live in San Antonio where her brother was from, said she plans to watch Parsons die.

"I think my brother would have been there if it had been me," Salais said. "With his death, his family will know how I have felt. I feel empathy for them, but it is still justice. There is a large part of me that will celebrate his passing because it is justice after all this time."

QUOTE 2: Salais, who spoke through her tears, said she is not excited at the coming execution but resolved that it will bring closure and bring peace to her brother.

"It is something I have to do. Once he is executed, I will know it is over. My brother can be at peace, and I can get on with my life."

QUOTE 3: Parsons became the fourth man in Utah to die by lethal injection since the U.S. Supreme Court's ban on executions was lifted in 1976.

His death came quickly, not only as he lay strapped to a tan gurney in front of about 25 witnesses but because he cut short his appeals, telling a U.S. magistrate this summer he wanted to die.

Today he got his death wish, and Beverley Ernest says she believes she will be able to close this ugly chapter in her life.

"I think our life as a family is solidifying," she said afterward. "I think this brings a sense of feeling it is over, of not having to worry about Parsons anymore."

AUTHOR: Family members of Richard Lynn Ernest – He was murdered by Joseph Mitchell Parsons on August 31, 1987. Joseph Mitchell Parsons was executed by lethal injection in Utah on October 15, 1999.