Raymond Dayle Rowsey

U.S. District Court Judge Terrence Boyle ordered a stay of execution on 7 January 2004 pending resolution of the case; the stay was upheld by a 2–1 decision of the 4th U.S. Circuit Court on the afternoon of 8 January 2004. Nevertheless, preparations for Rowsey's execution, previously scheduled for the morning of 9 January 2004 continued. He met with his attorneys and family, and was able to hold his 11-year-old daughter for the first time since entering prison. However, the state of North Carolina had immediately appealed the Circuit Court's decision to the U.S. Supreme Court, and, at 7:55 p.m. on 9 January, just six hours before the time of execution, the Supreme Court, in a 5–4 decision, lifted the stay and allowed the execution to continue. Shortly before midnight, North Carolina Governor Mike Easley refused to grant clemency in Rowsey's case, and the execution took place two hours later.

Rowsey's last meal prior to his execution was pizza, chicken wings, two packages of peanut M&M's, and a Pepsi. He gave no final statement. Rowsey was pronounced dead at North Carolina's Central Prison in Raleigh at 2:23 a.m. in the early morning of January 9, 2004. His execution was the 888th carried out in the United States since the death penalty was reinstated in 1976, and the 31st in North Carolina.

Rowsey was implicated in the murder of Howard Rue Sikorski, an Alamance County convenience store clerk. Sikorski's body was discovered in the early morning of 24 March 1992. Sikorski had suffered six gunshot wounds; cash totaling $57.54 and several adult magazines was taken from the store. Raymond Steele, Rowsey's half-brother, was arrested upon attempting to use a two-dollar bill tracked following the robbery by its serial number. During questioning, he implicated Rowsey in the murder and robbery, and Rowsey was arrested the following day.

Raymond Dayle Rowsey (April 11, 1971 – January 9, 2004) was an American murderer who was convicted of the 1992 murder of Howard Rue Sikorski. He was executed in 2004 at Central Prison in Raleigh, North Carolina by lethal injection.