After appeal is rejected, killer is put to death

BALTIMORE (AP) -- With his appeals exhausted and a request for clemency denied, a man convicted of the 1987 rape and murder of a newlywed during a killing spree was executed by injection.
Steven Oken was put to death at 9:18 p.m. Thursday, a Maryland prison spokeswoman said. Witnesses described the procedure, which lasted between seven and eight minutes, as peaceful.
Oken's lawyers had claimed the death penalty method was potentially painful and therefore unconstitutionally cruel.
Lower courts agreed to stay Oken's execution to determine whether a barbiturate used in the execution might not keep the inmate from feeling pain, but the U.S. Supreme Court reversed the decision Wednesday.
On Thursday, Oken's lawyers argued executioners might have to cut deeply into his flesh to administer the lethal drugs, but lower courts and the Supreme Court quickly rejected that appeal.
Gov. Robert Ehrlich declined to grant clemency Thursday.