Georgia carries out first US execution in seven months (Roundup)

May 7, 2008, 2:10 GMT

Washington - The south-eastern state of Georgia executed William Earl Lynd late Tuesday, the first use of the death penalty in the United States in more than seven months.

The execution came after the US Supreme Court last month upheld the right of states to use lethal injection, which opponents argued was unconstitutional and amounted to 'cruel and unusual punishment.'

A last-minute clemency request for the 53-year-old Lynd, convicted of killing his girlfriend and another woman in 1988, was denied Monday by Georgia's Board of Pardons and Paroles.

Lynd was declared dead at 7:51 pm (2351 GMT) Tuesday, 21 minutes after the lethal injection process began, the Atlanta Journal- Constitution reported on its website.

There had been a de facto nationwide moratorium on executions since September, when the Supreme Court chose to take up a lethal injection case, which centred on a three-drug concoction used to execute inmates in Kentucky.

The court last month ruled that Kentucky's lethal injection method - used by most states - did not violate the US constitution, but justices left the door open for future court action.

Since the Supreme Court decision, 14 inmates have been scheduled to be executed in the coming months, including the two inmates at the centre of the Kentucky case.