White supremacist Joseph Paul Franklin has been granted a stay of execution by the State of Missouri. He was convicted in the killing deaths of African Americans and Jews., a photo by Pan-African News Wire File Photos on Flickr.
Serial killer Joseph Franklin executed after hours of delay
updated 8:42 AM EST, Wed November 20, 2013
STORY HIGHLIGHTS
- NEW: Joseph Paul Franklin is executed after the Supreme Court declines to step in
- Two judges granted stays Tuesday
- He shot Hustler magazine publisher Larry Flynt
- He was executed for a 1977 killing outside a St. Louis synagogue
(CNN) -- White supremacist serial killer Joseph Paul Franklin was executed Wednesday morning after the U.S. Supreme Court rejected his final requests for a stay, the Missouri Department of Public Safety said.
The execution, which had been scheduled for shortly after midnight Wednesday, was delayed for hours because of court appeals. Franklin was administered a lethal injection at 6:07 a.m. CT (7:07 a.m. ET). He died ten minutes later.
Franklin refused his final meal and gave no final statement.
He was on death row for the 1977 murder of Gerald Gordon outside a synagogue in St. Louis. He was blamed for 22 killings between 1977 and 1980 in a bid to start a race war.
Missouri Gov. Jay Nixon denied clemency for Franklin on Monday, saying he had committed "merciless acts of violence, fueled by hate."
In addition to the killings, Franklin admitted to the attempted assassinations of Hustler magazine publisher Larry Flynt in 1978 and civil rights leader Vernon Jordan in 1980. Flynt, who was paralyzed by Franklin's bullet, has called for clemency for Franklin, saying "the government has no business at all being in the business of killing people."
Battle over drugs used
One of Franklin's final legal maneuvers focused on the drug used for the lethal injection, pentobarbital. His attorneys argued that the injection would violate the Constitution's ban on cruel and unusual punishment.
On Tuesday, U.S. District Judge Nanette Laughrey granted a stay of execution, finding Franklin's lawyers showed the use of pentobarbital carried "a high risk of contamination and prolonged, unnecessary pain beyond that which is required to achieve death."
"Given the irreversible nature of the death penalty and plaintiffs' medical evidence and allegations, a stay is necessary to ensure that the defendants' last act against Franklin is not permanent, irremediable cruel and unusual punishment in violation of the Eighth Amendment," Laughrey wrote.
Another federal judge granted a second stay Tuesday, based on a separate defense petition contesting Franklin's competency.
"The Court concludes that a stay of execution is required to permit a meaningful review," U.S. District Judge Carol Jackson wrote.
The state appealed both stays to the 8th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals, which decided early Wednesday that Franklin's lawyers had not provided enough evidence to warrant a stay.
The U.S. Supreme Court denied Franklin's requests to step in and halt the execution.
Missouri had planned to use propofol, the surgical anesthetic made infamous by the death of pop star Michael Jackson. But Nixon reversed that decision after being warned that the European Union -- whose members forbid capital punishment -- might halt shipments of the drug, leading to shortages for medical purposes.
Missouri and other states that conduct executions have had to scramble for new drugs after European-based manufacturers banned American prisons from using their drugs in executions.
In October, the state announced it would use pentobarbital, which would be provided by an unnamed compounding pharmacy. Franklin's lawyers argued that would raise the risk of contamination and a painful death.
CNN's Dana Ford and Josh Levs contributed to this report.
Judge grants stay of execution to racist serial killer
Michael Winter, USA TODAY 8:27 p.m. EST November 19, 2013
Ruling states lawsuit over lethal-injection drug must be resolved before Joseph Paul Franklin is put to death
A federal judge in Missouri has halted the early Wednesday execution of racist serial killer Joseph Paul Franklin, declaring that a lawsuit over which drug the state uses to kill inmates must first be resolved.
Franklin, 63, was scheduled to die at 12:01 a.m. CT (1:01 a.m. ET) for the 1977 sniper murder of Gerald Gordon outside a synagogue near St. Louis. He would have been the first prisoner to be executed with pentobarbital, which is used to euthanize animals.
In her 14-page ruling late Tuesday afternoon, U.S. District Court Judge Nanette Laughrey criticized the timing of the state's changes to its lethal-injection procedures, stating that "details of the execution protocol have been illusive at best."
The Missouri Department of Corrections had planned to be the first state to use propofol, a common anesthetic. But after the medical profession objected, Gov. Jay Nixon halted the execution of another inmate last month and directed the department to use another drug. Corrections officials settled on pentobarbital, made by a compounding pharmacy, but released few details, citing privacy laws protecting execution teams.
"Franklin has been afforded no time to research the risk of pain associated with the Department's new protocol, the quality of the pentobarbital provided, and the record of the source of the pentobarbital," she wrote.
Attorney General Chris Koster did not immediately indicate whether the state would appeal. The Missouri State Supreme Court denied a stay of execution earlier Tuesday.
On Monday, Nixon, a death-penalty Democrat, denied Franklin clemency, calling his crime a "cowardly and calculated shooting." Nixon was attorney general in 1997 when Franklin was convicted and sentenced.
Franklin, who has been diagnosed as mentally ill, did not appear to understand the stay of execution, his attorney, Jennifer Herndon, told the Associated Press.
"He was happy," she said. "I'm not really convinced that he totally understands that he was going to die."
Targeting blacks and Jews, Franklin killed up to 20 people during a three-year, nationwide spree. Besides Gordon, he was convicted of seven other killings, and he admitted to wounding civil rights leader Vernon Jordan and Hustler magazine publisher Larry Flynt.
"I regret the fact that I murdered people," Franklin said in a telephone interview Monday with The Cincinnati Enquirer . "I don't really think that's the most important thing I've done in my live. I don't see it as some type of achievement."
Among his victims were two teenage cousins, the cousins shot twice with a .44-caliber deer rifle as they walked to a Cincinnati-area store in June 1980.
Contributing: The Associated Press
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