A double murderer was given ribeye steak and shrimps as his final meal before he was executed by lethal injection in Missouri.
Carman Deck, 56, was given the dinner at 1pm before the execution at the state prison in Bonne Terre at 6pm local time.
His execution was shrouded in controversy after his death sentence for the murders of elderly couple James and Zelma Long in 1996 had been overturned three times.
He carried out the brutal killings when he burgled their rural home in De Soto, in the east of Missouri, in July 1996.
Deck was given a lethal injection at 6pm and he was pronounced dead at 6.10pm.
Ahead of the execution he was given a final meal at 1pm at the state prison.
He had ribeye steak, shrimp, asparagus, salad with Italian dressing, cottage cheese and V-8 juice, said Karen Pojmann, Missouri Department of Corrections director, reported oxygen.com.
Deck is the fifth person to be executed this year in the United States and his fate was sealed after Missouri Governor Mike Parson refused to offer him clemency.
“Mr Deck has received due process, and three separate juries of his peers have recommended sentences of death for the brutal murders he committed,” Mr Parson said in a statement.
“The State of Missouri will carry out Mr Deck's sentence according to the Court's order and deliver justice.”
The others executed in the US this year are Donald Anthony Grant and Gilbert Ray Postelle, in Oklahoma, Matthew Reeves in Alabama and Carl Wayne Byntio in Texas.
The 1998 death sentence was overturned by the Missouri Supreme Court when it was discovered Deck’s attorney had committed serious errors during the trial.
Then a second death penalty ruling was thrown out in 2005 when it was decided he had been prejudiced with the jury having seen him in shackles.
Finally a third decision to execute Deck in 2008 was annulled after a trial witness did not appear during sentencing.
But a three-judge panel of the 8th US Circuit Court of Appeals reinstated the death penalty in October, 2020, ruling Deck should have voiced his concerns in the state and not the federal court.
