American Indian facing execution allowed `sweat lodge' rite
Story-Date: 08:22 a.m. PST Tuesday  , February 2, 1999

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American Indian facing execution allowed `sweat lodge' rite



FLORENCE, Ariz. (AP) -- For the first time since restoration of the
death penalty, an American Indian awaiting execution for murder has been
allowed to undergo a traditional sweat lodge purification ritual in prison.

Darrick Gerlaugh, scheduled to die Wednesday by injection, will be the
sixth American Indian to be executed in the United States since 1976, when
the death penalty was restored, according to the Death Penalty
Information Center in Washington.

Of the six, he is the first allowed to undergo the traditional purification
ceremony, which was conducted Saturday, said Lenny Foster, Gerlaugh's
spiritual adviser and a coordinator for the National Native American
Prisoners' Rights Advocacy Coalition.

Foster said the other five asked for the ceremony but were denied on
security grounds.

"It establishes a precedent throughout the United States," Foster said. "It
allows Darrick Gerlaugh to make some peace with himself and allows us to
demonstrate to Arizona and prison officials across the country that there
were no problems."

State Department of Corrections Director Terry L. Stewart said officials
were able to grant Gerlaugh's request without endangering anyone. He didn't
elaborate.

"If he were a Catholic, we could in essence bring the religious practice to
him if he wanted to participate in any of the sacraments," Stewart said.

Gerlaugh, 38, whose mother was a Pima Indian, refused requests for an
interview, but Foster was with him in the sweat lodge for the prayer and
singing ritual.

"The sweat lodge ceremony provided him one last opportunity to cleanse his
mind and body and purify, to make things right with his Creator," Foster
said.

Gerlaugh has withdrawn his request for a clemency board hearing, and his
lawyer said there was almost no chance of a stay of execution.

He was sentenced to death for the 1980 killing of a man who gave a ride to
him and two friends. The victim, 22-year-old Scott Schwartz, was stabbed 30
to 40 times with a screwdriver. Gerlaugh's two codefendants were sentenced
to life in prison.



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