Georgia Executes Convicted Triple Murderer

ATLANTA (Reuters) - Georgia executed a triple murderer by lethal injection on Monday despite pleas from his lawyers for a delay on the grounds of mental incompetence after he tried to commit suicide last week.

Brandon Rhode, 31, was convicted in 2000 of killing a father and his two young children during a burglary in Georgia's Jones County, state authorities said.

He was declared dead at 10:16 p.m. after an execution witnessed by family members of the condemned, a member of the clergy and a paralegal, said state prison authorities.

He made no special request for a last meal and was given a chili hot dog, fruit cocktail, round potatoes, coleslaw, carrots and a slice of cake, the authorities said.

The execution at Georgia Diagnostic and Classification prison near Jackson, central Georgia, was delayed from 7 p.m. while the Supreme Court considered a final request for a stay, said Sara Totonchi, director of the Southern Center for Human Rights.

Earlier, the state supreme court rejected an appeal for a stay. That court had granted a stay last week after Rhode was discovered in his cell having slashed his throat in a suicide attempt and was hospitalized.

"This is a particularly grizzly case. They rushed him to the hospital to revive him only to reschedule his execution," said Laura Moye, spokeswoman for Amnesty International, USA.

"He is not an innocent man but he is a human being and it is outrageous for the state of Georgia to execute him without determining his competency," Moye said in an interview.

Rhodes is the 25th inmate executed by lethal injection in the state. The drug sodium thiopental was used in the execution as part of the lethal cocktail.
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