The nation’s first executions since a bungled lethal injection in Oklahoma in April have been carried out in Georgia and Missouri after the U.S. Supreme Court denied last-minute appeals, the Wall Street Journal reports. Marcus Wellons, convicted of murder and rape, was executed last night in Georgia. John Winfield, convicted of the 1996 killing of two women, was executed early today in Missouri. There were no noticeable complications, said the Associated Press. An execution is scheduled today in Florida.
Wellons, 59, had been scheduled to die by lethal injection at 7 p.m., but the execution was delayed because of appeals by his lawyers citing the Oklahoma case. The Supreme Court shortly after 10:30 p.m. declined to block the execution. In the Oklahoma lethal injection in April, convicted murderer Clayton Lockett appeared to be in pain and didn’t die until 40 minutes later. That case and another in Ohio have heightened scrutiny of lethal-injection procedures over the past few months. Both those executions used the drug midazolam as part of the lethal-injection protocol, while Georgia and Missouri used a single drug, pentobarbital.