ATLANTA, Georgia (CNN) -- A Georgia man convicted of kidnapping and killing his girlfriend was executed Tuesday.
William Earl Lynd was the first inmate to die by lethal injection since September when the U.S. Supreme Court upheld the constitutionality of lethal injections. The method was challenged as being cruel and unusual for causing undue pain and suffering to an inmate.
The 53-year-old was pronounced dead at 7:51 p.m. ET, according to The Associated Press.
The U.S. Supreme Court had hours earlier Tuesday refused to stay the execution. "The application for stay of execution of sentence of death presented to Justice (Clarence) Thomas and by him referred to the court is denied," the court said.
Georgia became the first state to resume executions since the U.S. Supreme Court last month validated the lethal injection process with a ruling in a Kentucky case.
All but one of the 36 states with capital punishment use a three-drug mixture: an anesthetic, a muscle paralyzer and a heart-stopping substance. Death penalty opponents have argued if inmates are not given enough anesthetic, they could be conscious enough to suffer excruciating pain without being able to express it because of the paralyzer.
The court's decision in the Kentucky case prompted about a dozen states to announce they would resume executions.
On Monday, Texas officials said they plan to execute Mexican-born Jose Medellin in August for the gang rape and murder of two teenage girls 15 years ago in Houston.
In Mississippi, authorities had hoped to execute Earl Wesley Berry on Monday, but the state Supreme Court set the date for May 21.
Berry was convicted of kidnapping a woman from a church parking lot in 1987, beating her to death and then dumping her body in a wooded area.
In the Georgia case, Lynd was convicted of fatally shooting his girlfriend, Virginia "Ginger" Moore, in Berrien County in 1988.
During the trial, prosecutors painted Moore's death as especially agonizing and lengthy.
According to trial testimony, Lynd shot Moore in the face, and she fell unconscious onto a bed. He then went outside to smoke a cigarette. Moore regained consciousness and staggered outside, where she was shot a second time and put into the trunk of her car.
After driving and parking at a nearby farmhouse, Lynd said he heard Moore kicking inside the trunk, according to testimony. He opened the trunk and shot her a third time, this time fatally.
Death penalty opponents were planning vigils Tuesday across Georgia, including outside the prison in Jackson, just south of Atlanta, where the execution is set to take place.
"It's a shame and it's very sad Georgia is leading the way in the new resumption of executions in the United States," said Laura Moye, chairwoman of Georgians for Alternatives to the Death Penalty. "They're trying to send a message they're tough on crime, but they're acting irresponsibly."
Human rights groups also raised the possibility an innocent person could be put to death. They pointed to Friday's release in North Carolina of Levan "Bo" Jones, an African-American inmate who spent 14 years on death row before a judge said the evidence was faulty and overturned his murder conviction. The charges have now been dropped.
Georgia prosecutors, however, maintain the death penalty is carried out fairly in their state.
"There's been no evidence in this state -- and I'm not aware of any in the country -- that any demonstrably innocent person has been put to death," said Tommy Floyd, chairman of the Prosecuting Attorneys' Council of Georgia.
"No prosecutor I know wants to execute an innocent person."
There have been 40 executions in the state since the U.S. Supreme Court reinstated the death penalty in 1976, ruling in a Georgia case. Lynd was the 17th inmate executed by lethal injection in the state.
In Virginia, a May 27 execution date has been set for death row inmate Kevin Green, and the state is proceeding on schedule, said David Clementson of the Virginia attorney general's office. Four executions are set in Texas for June and July; in Louisiana, former New Orleans police officer Antoinette Frank is set to die in July. If she is executed, she would be the first woman put to death in three years.
South Dakota, which has sent one inmate to death in three decades, has scheduled a lethal injection in October. Florida, Alabama, Arkansas, Illinois and Oklahoma have said they will resume capital punishment as soon as possible.
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Nebraska is the only state that does not use lethal injection, but its use of the electric chair was ruled unconstitutional in February.
Texas and Mississippi are among the states that use 2 grams of sodium thiopental, the anesthetic used to render condemned inmates unconscious. Kentucky and other states use 3 grams, a standard that the Supreme Court judged to be constitutional.
Source: CNN.com
