White supremacist serial killer Joseph Paul Franklin was executed early this morning in Missouri. He was executed hours later than planned because of last-minute attempts to delay his execution. However, the U.S. Supreme Court rejected his latest appeal.
Missouri Department of Public Safety had initially scheduled the execution for just after midnight. However, the lethal injection was not administered until 6:07 a.m. and he died ten minutes later, reports CNN. He did not have a final meal or make any statement.
Franklin was sentenced to be executed for the 1977 murder of Gerald Gordon outside a St. Louis synagoge. He had targeted blacks and Jews between 1977 and 1980. He is linked to 22 murders.
USA Today notes that he also admitted to killing civil rights leader Vernon Jordan. He also shot Hustler publisher Larry Flynt, resulting in his paralysis from the waist down. Flynt wrote last month that he didn’t support the death penalty, even in Franklin’s case.
As CNN reports, Franklin had tried several legal maneuvers to get the execution delayed. In his last attempt, his lawyers said that the drug pentobarbital would violate the Constitutional ban on cruel and unusual punishment. Two judges did grant stays on Tuesday, with one suggesting that the drug needed to be reviewed. However, the 8th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals ruled that his lawyers didn’t have enough evidence. Then, the U.S. Supreme court denied the request for a stay, sealing his fate.