Arkansas has carried out its first execution in 12 years,
according to local news media reports.
The southeastern US state executed Ledell Lee on Thursday at
its Cummins Unit in Grady, which houses the state's death chamber.
Lee was pronounced dead four minutes before his death
warrant was due to expire at midnight.
The US Supreme Court had cleared the way earlier in the day
for Arkansas to conduct the execution by removing holds on the lethal
injection, just 30 minutes before the state's death warrant expired.
Lawyers for Lee, 51, who had maintained his innocence for
years, had launched last-minute appeals to halt the execution with federal
courts and the Supreme Court.
The US Court of Appeals for the 8th Circuit in St Louis
considered a last-minute request from Lee for DNA testing, and had issued a
stay until 9:15pm on Thursday (01:15 GMT Friday).
Lee was convicted and sentenced to death for beating Debra
Reese to death with a tyre iron in 1993.
Reese's relatives were at the Cummins Unit prison and told
local reporters that Lee deserves to die for a crime that upended their lives.
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