South Carolina convict is executed in electric chair

0 Comments | AFP, June, 2008

WASHINGTON (AFP) — A 49-year-old man on Friday was executed in the electric chair after being convicted of murdering his ex-girlfriend's parents in 1994, South Carolina corrections officials said.

James Earl Reed was declared dead at 11:27 pm at the state's Columbia penitentiary.

He chose to be put to death on the electric chair rather than by lethal injection, a controversial method used by most US states which the US Supreme Court in April ruled as constitutional and is less likely to cause pain.

Reed killed the parents of his estranged girlfriend at their home after they refused to tell him where she had gone.

During his 1996 trial, he fired his lawyers and took up his own defense, arguing there was no evidence linking him to the crime.

He...