WASHINGTON (AFP) — A seven-month hiatus on executions in the United States is due to end late Tuesday with the execution of William Lynd, sentenced to die in the southern state of Georgia for killing his girlfriend in 1988.
If the execution proceeds Lynd, 53, will become the 1,100th person to die since the death penalty was reestablished in the United States 1976. He will also be the first person executed in the United States since a death row inmate was put to death in Texas on September 25.
Executions across the United States were put on hold for months while the US Supreme Court considered a challenge from several death row inmates, led by a pair from Kentucky, urging a ruling on whether lethal injection -- the most commonly used form of execution across the United States -- is unconstitutional.
On April 16 the justices ruled 7-2 that the risk of suffering to those executed by lethal injection did not constitute "cruel and unusual punishment," which is barred under the US Constitution.
The seven justices however were split in their reasons for accepting lethal injection, all but ensuring that more legal challenges to the death penalty.
The death row inmates had argued that the three-part injection method caused needless suffering in some cases.
In death by lethal injection a first shot sedates the inmate, a second paralyzes the muscles, and a third stops the heart.
If the execution goes according to plan, the inmate quickly loses consciousness and dies within a few minutes. But if the anesthesia is not properly administered, the inmate can suffer immensely.
Lynd is scheduled to be executed at 2300 GMT Tuesday at the Jackson state prison in Georgia.
On December 23, 1988 Lynd shot his girlfriend, Ginger Moore, in the face after an argument. He shot her a second time when she regained conscience.
Lynd put Moore into the trunk of his car and drove off, but when he heard knocking sounds he pulled over and shot her a third time. He then buried the body near an isolated farm along a highway.
According to the Death Penalty Information Center, at least 10 death row inmates are expected to be executed by the end of July, four of them in Texas, the state responsible for more than a third of all inmates executed over the past 30 years.
Nearly two-thirds of all inmates put to death in 2007 were executed in Texas, according to the Information Center.
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