U.S. executes first inmate after moratorium

By Tami Chappell

JACKSON, Georgia (Reuters) - Georgia executed a convicted murderer on Tuesday, the first person to be put to death in the United States since the Supreme Court ended a de facto moratorium on capital punishment last month.

William Earl Lynd died by lethal injection at a prison in Jackson, central Georgia, at 7:51 p.m. Lynd, 53, was convicted of shooting his girlfriend to death in December 1988.

"Under the order of the court, the execution of William Earl Lynd has been carried out," said Paul Czachowski, public affairs manager at the Georgia Department of Corrections.

"The condemned declined to make a statement or offer a prayer," he said, adding the execution began at 7:34 p.m.

In the hours before Lynd died, the U.S. Supreme Court rejected a final request for a stay filed by his lawyers.

Lynd's execution is the first since the same court on April 16 rejected a challenge to the cocktail of three drugs used in most U.S. executions, which opponents had argued inflicted unnecessary pain.

A nationwide pause in executions had been in effect since shortly after the court said on September 25 it would hear an appeal by two death row inmates in Kentucky against the use of the lethal drugs.

Last year, 42 people were put to death in the United States, the lowest number since the 31 executions in 1994. But the 2007 number was artificially low because of the Supreme Court case.