At 12:11 a.m. on Wednesday, Missouri completed the first U.S. execution since the headline-grabbing two-hour lethal injection in Arizona. Michael Worthington, who was found guilty of raping and killing a college student in 1995, was pronounced dead 10 minutes after the process began. Worthington is the seventh inmate in Missouri to be executed this year. The U.S. Supreme Court as well as Governor Jay Nixon had declined to block the execution. The victim’s mother told reporters, “I feel I’m glad he’s dead." Worthington, however, did not offer any apologies in his final statement, and declared, “May God forgive those who call this justice.”
