Missouri put a convicted rapist and killer Michael Shane Worthington to death Wednesday, making him the seventh inmate in the state to be executed this year.
Worthington, 43, pled guilty in 1995 to the rape and murder of 24-year-old Melina 'Mindy' Griffin in a burglary attempt at her Lake St Louis condominium. He was given a lethal dose of pentobarbital at the state prison in Bonne Terre and was declared dead 10 minutes later at 12:11 a.m., said Mike O'Connell, spokesman for Missouri Department of Corrections.
While making a final statement Worthington did not apologise for the crimes. "Thank you, I will finally get to live in peace with my true Father. I'll no longer have to suffer. It's really my beloved friends and family that will suffer. May God forgive those who call this justice. When in truth, it's truly about politics and revenge. Amen and peace to unto you all," he said, reports OzarksFirst.com.
He is the 77th death row inmate to be executed in Missouri since 1976.
The U.S. Supreme Court denied two separate applications filed by Worthington's lawyers seeking a stay on his death. The attorneys requested the high court to stop Missouri from executing him following the Arizona case where death row inmate Joseph Rudolph Wood III died nearly two hours after the lethal drugs administration.
Missouri Gov. Jay Nixon denied the mercy petition saying the crime committed by Worthington was "horrific" and that "there is no question about the brutality of this crime - or doubt of Michael Worthington's guilt."
In an interview with the Associated Press Tuesday, Worthington insisted that he could not remember the details of the killing as he mostly blacked out due to alcohol and cocaine. However, he said that life imprisonment would have been more appropriate punishment for him. Worthington also said that he accepted his fate and anticipated that he would not be spared. "I'm just accepting of whatever's going to happen because I have no choice. The courts don't seem to care about what's right or wrong anymore," he said.
The Missouri execution comes within a month of the execution of Wood in Arizona that raised more questions over the secrecy of the lethal drugs. Wood, 55, gasped and snorted throughout the time after the lethal dose combination of midazolam and hydromorphone was administered to him.
Officials said that Wood was not in pain during the execution and that he was comatose.
