(AFP) – Jul 24, 2008

WASHINGTON (AFP) — A 40-year-old man sent to death row for the fatal stabbing and bludgeoning of a woman and her one-year-old son 17 years ago was executed Wednesday in the US state of Texas.

Derrick Sonnier was pronounced dead at 6:18 pm local time after he was administered a lethal injection, spokeswoman Michelle Lyons of the Texas Department of Criminal Justice told AFP.

Sonnier was convicted in 1993 of killing his neighbor Melody Flowers and her son Patrick in their apartment in Humble, Texas in September 1991.

After his petitions for appeal were rejected by Texas and federal appellate courts Sonnier took his appeal to the Supreme Court but that petition too was denied.

Also on Wednesday, a 34-year-old man, Dale Leo Bishop, was executed in the state of Mississippi for his role in a 1998 murder.

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