The use of lethal injections in U.S. executions has come under fire recently due to a botched execution in Arizona, but not even this could stop Missouri murderer Michael Worthington from being executed early Wednesday after the Supreme Court refused to impede the execution rites.

Like Us on Facebook

The 43-year-old Missouri man was convicted of raping and murdering a college student in 1995. His execution went on as scheduled beginning at 12:01 a.m. despite last-minute efforts to delay his inevitable death.

He was declared dead at 12:11 a.m. on Wednesday at the Diagnostic and Correctional Center in Bonne Terre.

Worthington's requested clemency had been denied by Gov. Jay Nixon a little later after his appeal for stay was denied by the Supreme Court.

The murder convict pleaded guilty in 1999 for sexually assaulting and killing 24-year-old Mindy Griffin who was in her last year of studies at the University of Missouri-St. Louis.

Meanwhile, a recent interview with Worthington revealed that he had accepted his fate after the Supreme Court denied his request for stay.

"I'm just accepting of whatever's going to happen because I have no choice. The courts don't seem to care about what's right or wrong anymore," he told the Associated Press during a phone interview on Tuesday.

His lawyer had requested the Supreme Court to block the execution, citing recent lethal injection procedures which had gone awry in Arizona, Ohio, and Oklahoma.

Worthington is the first to die from lethal injection after the widely criticized Arizona execution of double-murderer Joseph Wood who appeared to have suffered for more than an hour before finally succumbing to death.

In the three states mentioned in Worthington's request for stay, a drug named midazolam is used together with one or two other drugs.

Missouri and Texas executioners, however, use a single large dose of pentobarbital, a drug most commonly used to euthanize animals.

So far, Missouri has already executed eight death penalty convicts without any problems using pentobarbital.

Tagsjoseph wood, arizona botched execution, lethal injection, missouri execution, michael worthington, mindy griffin, lethal injection debate, botched lethal injection, botched us execution