The US state of Georgia executed a 72-year-old man, the state's oldest death-row inmate, early on Wednesday for the killing of a convenience store manager during a robbery decades ago.
Brandon Astor Jones was pronounced dead at 12.46am (5:46 GMT) on Wednesday after an injection of barbiturate pentobarbital at the state prison in Jackson. He was convicted in the 1979 shooting death of suburban Atlanta store manager Roger Tackett.
Jones declined to make a final statement in front of witnesses, but agreed to have a prayer read.
Georgia doesn't announce exactly when lethal injections begin, and the injection isn't visible to observers. But the warden left the execution chamber at 12.30am (5:30 GMT), and records from past executions show the lethal drug generally begins to flow within a minute or two of the warden's departure.
Jones was initially still with his eyes closed and then swallowed a couple of times and moved his head slightly. He opened his eyes at 12.36am (5:36 GMT) and turned his head to his left, appearing to look toward a clock hanging on the wall. Then he closed his eyes again and took a few deep breaths before falling still.
The execution had initially been scheduled for 7pm (00:00 GMT) on Tuesday and was delayed while the US supreme court considered appeals from Jones' attorneys. They asked the justices to block the execution for either of two reasons: because Jones was challenging Georgia's lethal injection secrecy law or because he said his death sentence was disproportionate to his crime.
Around 11pm (4:00 GMT) on Tuesday, the court denied the requests for a stay.
The challenge to Georgia's strict execution secrecy law sharply divided the 11th US circuit court of appeals on Tuesday. The law classifies the identifying information of any person or entity who participates in an execution as a "confidential state secret".
Jones' lawyers argued the state's execution method carries "a substantial risk of significant harm", violating his constitutional right against cruel and unusual punishment. But because of the secrecy law, they argued, they don't have enough information to make that claim, which violates his constitutional right to due process.