Georgiaexecuted a prisoner by lethal injection early Friday, the first US execution in more than two months, ending a pause that reflects a decline in capital punishment.
John Conner, 60, died at 00:29 (0429 GMT) in Jackson -- 50 miles (80 kilometers) southeast of Atlanta -- the state's prison authorities said. He had been imprisoned for 34 years.
He was sentenced for fatally beating a friend who had asked to sleep with Conner's girlfriend on a night of drinking and drug use in May 1982.
A federal court rejected a last appeal from Conner's lawyers Thursday afternoon after the State Board of Pardons and Paroles denied clemency on Wednesday. The Supreme Court denied requests for a stay of execution on Thursday night.
Conner's death ended a period of 65 days without an execution in the United States following a death by lethal injection in Missouri in May.
The last time the country saw no executions for more than two months came 24 years ago, according to The Marshall Project, a site that tracks the criminal justice system.
The Supreme Court considered the constitutionality of lethal injections in September 2007, ruling six months later that they did not constitute cruel and unusual punishment.
However, some lethal-injection executions carried out since 2014 have been widely criticized after they made prisoners die slowly in agony, gasping, groaning and wracked by convulsions.
The latest pause reflects a combination of factors including a shortage of drugs used in lethal injections, a decline in capital punishment sentences and an increase in defense appeals that have made capital punishment cases more costly.
The United States executed 28 people last year, the fewest in 24 years and a sharp decline from the peak of 98 in 1999.
The pace this year is similar to 2015, with 15 executions having taken place so far.
Georgiaexecuted a prisoner by lethal injection early Friday, the first US execution in more than two months, ending a pause that reflects a decline in capital punishment.
John Conner, 60, died at 00:29 (0429 GMT) in Jackson — 50 miles (80 kilometers) southeast of Atlanta — the state’s prison authorities said. He had been imprisoned for 34 years.
He was sentenced for fatally beating a friend who had asked to sleep with Conner’s girlfriend on a night of drinking and drug use in May 1982.
A federal court rejected a last appeal from Conner’s lawyers Thursday afternoon after the State Board of Pardons and Paroles denied clemency on Wednesday. The Supreme Court denied requests for a stay of execution on Thursday night.
Conner’s death ended a period of 65 days without an execution in the United States following a death by lethal injection in Missouri in May.
The last time the country saw no executions for more than two months came 24 years ago, according to The Marshall Project, a site that tracks the criminal justice system.
The Supreme Court considered the constitutionality of lethal injections in September 2007, ruling six months later that they did not constitute cruel and unusual punishment.
However, some lethal-injection executions carried out since 2014 have been widely criticized after they made prisoners die slowly in agony, gasping, groaning and wracked by convulsions.
The latest pause reflects a combination of factors including a shortage of drugs used in lethal injections, a decline in capital punishment sentences and an increase in defense appeals that have made capital punishment cases more costly.
The United States executed 28 people last year, the fewest in 24 years and a sharp decline from the peak of 98 in 1999.
The pace this year is similar to 2015, with 15 executions having taken place so far.
