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After two decades on death row, Donald Moeller is preparing to die for killing a nine-year-old Sioux Falls girl. Moeller is scheduled to die by lethal injection Tuesday at 10 p.m. at the South Dakota State Penitentiary.
The execution comes 22 years after he kidnapped Becky O'Connell from a convenience store just down the street from the Penitentiary.
Moeller's execution was scheduled in July when he reached the end of the appeals process. He's been appealing the case since he was sentenced to die after being convicted of raping and killing O'Connell in 1992.
He's been in solitary confinement since 1992 awaiting his death sentence. If it hasn't happened already, he will be transferred to a holding cell at the prison before the execution. It is about a dozen steps away from the death chamber.
Around 9:30 p.m., Moeller will take his last steps to the death chamber, get strapped down to a table and await his lethal injection.
His IVs will then be inserted and the witnesses will be ushered into the viewing rooms at the death chamber around 9:45. When the Warden is satisfied that everything is ready to go, he will open the curtains and the witnesses will watch the execution.
We know Becky O'Connell's mother, Tina Curl, has traveled from her home state of New York to witness the execution and investigators who worked diligently on the case will also be in attendance.
Our team coverage of the execution continues with live reports from the Penitentiary on KELOLAND News at Five and Six and an extended edition of KELOLAND News at Ten.
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