Convicted murderer Gary Graham, whose case sparked a national debate on the death penalty and put presidential hopeful and Texas Governor George W. Bush on the spot, was executed early today (Irish time) after spending 19 years on death row.
The 36-year-old Graham's lastminute flurry of appeals ended when two courts, including the US Supreme Court, refused his final bids for a stay of execution. He was put to death by lethal injection at the state prison in Huntsville with some of his key supporters including the Rev Jesse Jackson acting as witnesses, Texas prison officials said.
Graham's case drew national attention because he was convicted largely on the testimony of one eyewitness. He became the 135th person executed in Texas since Mr Bush became governor five years ago and the 23rd person to be executed in the state this year.
The US Supreme Court, by a 54 vote, turned down Graham's request for a stay of execution and a federal judge in Austin, Texas, later rejected his defence lawyers' attempts to file a case on the grounds that his civil rights had been violated by the Texas system of seeking reprieves. At that point, Graham's lawyers gave up their legal fight.
The justices acted after the Texas Board of Pardons and Paroles refused to give Graham a reprieve. Mr Bush, whose Republican presidential campaign has been dogged by questions about the Graham case, has said Texas law did not allow him to intervene unless the parole board recommended a stay or pardon.
Black Panthers and Black Muslims paraded outside the Walls prison while Graham was waiting to die. Pro-death penalty groups included members of the KU Klux Klan. A number of demonstrators were arrested when they broke through police lines.
Graham had vowed "to fight like hell" on his trip to the execution chamber. He had refused a last meal.
Among the witnesses of the execution were to be the Rev Jesse Jackson and Bianca Jagger who have been denouncing the death sentence. Graham had asked Rev Jackson to be present.Officials said that Graham had "resisted" being moved from the death row prison to Huntsville on Wednesday and had to be put in the prison van by force. But he was not hurt, officials said.
Graham's case has aroused widespread concern because he was convicted on the testimony of one witness and he has always insisted he is innocent but he did confess to a string of violent robberies around that time. He was convicted when he was 17 of the shooting dead of Mr Bobby Lambert in May 1981 in the carpark of a shopping centre in Houston, Texas.
His case has been through numerous appeals in the past 19 years but the death sentence was always upheld. Graham has been five times on the verge of execution and had ordered last meals when a stay of execution was announced.
Rev Jackson who visited Graham yesterday said later that Graham was "amazingly upbeat". He said that "no tears were shed" and that Graham believed he was an agent of change "to expose the system".
Ms Jagger said that "the death penalty is being applied in the United States as a fatal lottery".