WASHINGTON: A 53-year-old man convicted of the 2001 rape and murder of a teenage girl was executed by lethal injection in the US state of Indiana on Friday.
Roy Lee Ward received a death sentence in 2002 for murdering 15-year-old Stacy Payne at her home in the town of Dale.
Payne suffered multiple stab wounds and died from her injuries several hours after the brutal attack.
Authorities arrested Ward at the crime scene while he still held a knife.
The Indiana Department of Correction confirmed the execution occurred shortly after midnight at a state prison in Michigan City.
This execution marked Indiana’s third since resuming capital punishment last year following a 15-year hiatus due to lethal drug shortages.
Ward’s final meal consisted of a hamburger, a steak melt, fries, shrimp and breadsticks.
The United States has now conducted 35 executions this year, matching the total from 2014.
Florida leads all states with 13 executions, followed by Texas with five and both South Carolina and Alabama with four.
Lethal injection accounted for 28 of this year’s executions, while two used firing squads and four employed nitrogen hypoxia.
United Nations experts have condemned nitrogen gas executions as cruel and inhumane punishment.
Twenty-three US states have abolished capital punishment, while California, Oregon and Pennsylvania maintain moratoriums.
President Donald Trump supports expanding capital punishment for what he describes as the vilest crimes. – AFP
