America witnessed two executions of convicted murderers, one in Georgia and the other in Missouri, within three months of the Oklahoma botched execution.
Georgia inmate Marcus Wellons, 59, was the first to be put to death late Tuesday night. He was administered lethal injection. He was pronounced dead at 11:56 p.m. No complications were reported during his execution, reports the Associated Press.
State corrections spokeswoman Gwendolyn Hogan said Wellons apologised for the crime and recited a short prayer before his execution at a prison intake facility in Jackson, Georgia.
Wellons was convicted and sentenced to death in 1993 for murdering his 15-year-old neighbor, India Roberts, in 1989. She was a high school sophomore from the Atlanta suburbs. He is the first inmate to be put to death after the failed execution of Clayton Lockett, an Oklahoma inmate.
Lockett, a rape and murder convict, was administered three untested combinations of lethal drugs April 29. He writhed and moaned in agony and eventually died of a massive heart attack 43 minutes later. The execution raise serious concerns over the lethal drugs.
Barely an hour later, Missouri state prison in Bonne Terre put John Winfield to death. He was 46. He was convicted for killing two women and leaving his ex-girlfriend blind and disfigured in 1996.
Winfield denied to give any final statement and did not eat his last meal. He was given lethal dose and was pronounced dead at 12:10 a.m., Missouri Department of Public Safety spokesman Mike O'Connell said, reports Reuters.
Missouri Attorney General Chris Koster issued a statement following the execution. "Nearly two decades have passed since John Winfield's cowardly acts of rage and jealously changed the lives of three families forever... For his actions, a court lawfully sentenced him to death under Missouri law, and tonight that sentence has been carried out," he wrote in the statement.
John Ruthell Henry, another convicted murderer in Florida is scheduled to be executed Wednesday.
