Missouri executes man for rape, murder

A Missouri inmate has been put to death for raping and killing a woman in 1995, the nation's first execution since the one in Arizona that left an inmate gasping more than 600 times as he took nearly two hours to die on July 23.

The Missouri Department of Corrections said early on Wednesday that Michael Worthington was pronounced dead shortly after midnight. He is the seventh Missouri inmate executed this year.

Missouri Gov. Jay Nixon denied a request for clemency on Tuesday night.

In denying the request, Nixon called Worthington's crime "horrific" noting that "there is no question about the brutality of this crime — or doubt of Michael Worthington's guilt."

Worthington was sentenced to death in 1998 after pleading guilty to the death of 24-year-old Melinda "Mindy" Griffin, confessing that he cut open a window screen to break in to the college finance major's condominium just west of St. Louis. Worthington admitted he choked Griffin into submission and raped her before strangling her when she regained consciousness. He stole her car keys and jewelry, along with credit cards he used to buy drugs.

The execution took place amid increased scrutiny over the administering of lethal injections in the United States after several controversial incidents in which new combinations of drugs have resulted in prolonged or botched executions.

The American Civil Liberties Union on Monday called for a national suspension of executions due to what it has called a string of "botched" executions. States need to provide more transparency and accountability before executions resume, the ACLU said.

"Every state contemplating a future execution by lethal injection ought to be scrutinizing their process," said Brian Stull, an ACLU attorney.

Missouri said on Tuesday there is no need to suspend executions. The state uses pentobarbital, not the two-chemical combination used in Arizona, and its execution procedure is proper, according to the Missouri Attorney General's Office.

In January, an Ohio inmate snorted and gasped for 26 minutes before dying. A few months later in Oklahoma, an inmate died of an apparent heart attack 43 minutes after his execution began. Most lethal injections take effect in a fraction of that time, often within 10 or 15 minutes.

Ohio, Oklahoma and Arizona all use midazolam, a drug more commonly given to help patients relax before surgery. In executions, it is part of a two- or three-drug lethal injection.

Texas and Missouri administer a single large dose of pentobarbital — often used to treat convulsions and seizures and to euthanize animals. 

Missouri and Texas, like most states, refuse to name their drug suppliers, creating a shroud of secrecy that has prompted lawsuits. Worthington was one of more than a dozen inmates who are challenging Missouri's lethal injection protocols in a federal lawsuit.

A hearing in that case is set for Sept. 9 in the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Eighth Circuit in St. Louis.

Wire services