Wed Jan 12, 2011
Jeffery Matthews is the second person to have been killed by a drug typically used to put down animals in the US state of Oklahoma in 2011.
In the United States a death row inmate whose execution was postponed three times has finally been put to death with a drug normally used to euthanize animals.
Jeffrey Matthews was convicted of murdering a 77-year-old man named Otis Earl Short in a 1995 burglary.
During his time in prison, the 38-year-old had continuously fought for his freedom, claiming that he had no part in the crime.
His support committee had also unraveled documents referring to various points of evidence that is believed to support Matthews' claims of innocence.
They argued that no fingerprints, hair, nor DNA were found at the crime scene and that not even the wife of the victim saw Matthews face.
However, despite the lack of proper evidence, Matthews was put to death at 6:00 p.m. on Tuesday in the Oklahoma State Penitentiary.
In his final statement, Matthews told his family he was enjoying his last moments.
Matthews is the second person to have been killed using the sedative pentobarbital in the US state of Oklahoma this year.
On Thursday, Billy Dawn Alverson was executed for the killing of a convenience store worker in 1995.
A shortage of sodium thiopental -- an anesthetic usually used to make death row inmates unconscious just before their execution -- has forced Oklahoma to use pentobarbital.
Experts argue that the use of the new sedative, which is typically used to put down animals, is inhumane since inmates could be conscious but paralyzed when the other drugs were administered.
There are 3,261 death row inmates in the United States, as of January 2010, according to the NAACP Legal Defense and Educational Fund, a leading US civil rights organization.
FF/HRF
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