(Houston) An American man sentenced to death for the murder of a runner in 1997 was executed by lethal injection in Texas on Wednesday, while another execution is scheduled for the evening in Utah.
Arthur Lee Burton, 54, was pronounced dead at 6:47 p.m. (7:47 p.m. Eastern Time) after receiving a lethal injection at Huntsville State Penitentiary, prison officials said.
He was sentenced to death for the July 1997 murder of Nancy Adleman, a mother of three who was attacked while jogging near her Houston home. She was strangled with her shoelaces.
Mr Burton’s lawyers had appealed to the Supreme Court for a stay, arguing that he should be exempted from his sentence because he was mentally disabled. The court rejected their request on Wednesday, without providing comment.
This is the third execution carried out in Texas since January and the eleventh nationwide so far this year.
Another execution is scheduled for Wednesday in Utah, the first in 14 years in the western US state.
Taberon Honie, 48, is scheduled to be executed in Salt Lake City, also by injection, for the 1998 sexual assault and murder of his former girlfriend’s mother.
Utah has not carried out an execution since 2010. The most recent was carried out by firing squad.
The death penalty has been abolished in 23 of the 50 US states. Six others (Arizona, California, Ohio, Oregon, Pennsylvania and Tennessee) observe a moratorium on executions.