ST. LOUIS — A Georgia inmate was executed on Tuesday night in the first capital punishment in the US since a botched execution in April raised new concerns about lethal injection and intensified the debate over the death penalty. Marcus Wellons, 59, received a lethal injection late Tuesday in Jackson, Georgia, after last-minute appeals to the US Supreme Court were denied. A corrections official said he was pronounced dead at 11:56 p.m. Eastern time. The execution seemed to go smoothly with no noticeable complications. Wellons' execution came about an hour before that of inmate John Winfield in Missouri, and a third execution is scheduled for Wednesday night in Florida. Winfield was executed by lethal injection at 12:01 a.m. and was pronounced dead at 12:10 a.m. Central time, a spokesman for the state Department of Public Safety said. The US Supreme Court had also refused late Tuesday to halt his execution, and Missouri Gov. Jay Nixon denied clemency. All three states refuse to say where they get their drugs, or if they are tested. Lawyers for Wellons and Winfield challenged the secretive process used by some states to obtain lethal injection drugs from unidentified, loosely regulated compounding pharmacies. Several states have turned to US sources for execution drugs since European companies opposed to capital punishment cut off supplies of certain drugs used in executions. Nine executions nationwide have been stayed or postponed since late April, when Oklahoma prison officials halted the execution of Clayton Lockett after noting that the lethal injection drugs weren't being administered into his vein properly. Lockett's punishment was halted and he died of a heart attack several minutes later. “I think after Clayton Lockett's execution everyone is going to be watching very closely,” Fordham University School of Law professor Deborah Denno, a death penalty expert, said of this week's executions. “The scrutiny is going to be even closer.” John Ruthell Henry's execution is scheduled Wednesday night in Florida. Georgia and Missouri both use the single drug pentobarbital, a sedative. Florida uses a three-drug combination of midazolam hydrochloride, vecuronium bromide and potassium chloride. Despite concerns about the drugs and how they are obtained, death penalty supporters say all three convicted killers are getting what they deserve. Wellons was convicted in the 1989 rape and murder of India Roberts, his 15-year-old neighbor in suburban Atlanta. Soon after the girl left for school, another neighbor heard muffled screams from the apartment where Wellons was living. Later that day, a witness told police he saw a man carrying what appeared to be a body in a sheet. Police found the girl's body in a wooded area. She had been strangled and raped. In Missouri, Winfield had been dating Carmelita Donald on and off for several years and fathered two of her children. Donald began dating another man. One night in 1996, in a jealous rage, Winfield showed up outside Donald's apartment in St. Louis County and confronted her, along with two friends of hers. Winfield shot all three women in the head. Arthea Sanders and Shawnee Murphy died. Donald survived but was blinded. In Florida, the state is moving ahead with the execution despite claims that Henry is mentally ill and intellectually disabled. The state claims anyone with an IQ of at least 70 is not mentally disabled; testing has shown Henry's IQ at 78, though his lawyers say it should be re-evaluated. Henry stabbed his estranged wife, Suzanne Henry, to death a few days before Christmas in 1985. Hours later, he killed her 5-year-old son from a previous relationship. Henry had previously pleaded no contest to second-degree murder for fatally stabbing his common-law wife, Patricia Roddy, in 1976, and was on parole when Suzanne Henry and the boy were killed. Asked Tuesday if he had discussed with the Department of Corrections what happened in Oklahoma and if any changes were needed in Florida, Gov. Rick Scott said, “I focus on making sure that we do things the right way here.” Florida and Missouri trail only Texas as the most active death penalty states. Texas has carried out seven executions this year. Florida has executed five men, and Missouri has executed five. Wellons was the first Georgia inmate executed since February 2013 and just the second since 2011. — AP
