First US prisoners executed since botched injection months ago

Two prisoners in America have been executed months after a notoriously bungled lethal injection made international headlines in April.

17:33 18 June 2014

Two death row inmates have been executed in the United States by lethal injection – they represent the first since April when a convicted killer and rapist, Clayton Lockett, was seen writhing in agony after a lethal injection took 43 minutes to kick in 

 

59-year-old Marcus Wellons, who was convicted for the murder of his 15-year-old neighbour, was executed in Georgia on Tuesday night. The execution appeared to take longer than usual, as the lethal injection did not start until 40 minutes after he entered the chambers. 

 

A short while after, another death row prisoner, John Winfield was executed in Missouri for shooting his girlfriend, Carmelita Donald, the mother of his two children, leaving her blind. He also shot and killed two of Carmelita’s friends. He was executed by lethal injection at 12:01 and was pronounced dead 9 minutes after. Among the witnesses was Ms Donald. 

 

John Ruthel Henry, another convicted killer, is scheduled to die later in Florida. 

 

The execution of inmates on death row was delayed following Clayton Lockett's gruelling ordeal which drew criticism from both anti and pro-death sentence campaigners.