Starke, Sept 4:
Florida carried out its 14th execution of the year on Tuesday when Harold Gene Lucas, 74, was put to death for the 1976 killing of a teenage girl who had rejected his romantic advances.
Lucas was pronounced dead at 6.18 pm following a three-drug lethal injection at Florida State Prison near Starke.
He had been sentenced to death for shooting 17-year-old Jill Piper and wounding two of her friends, Richard Byrd Jr. and Terri Rice, in the 1976 attack.
The execution began shortly after 6 pm. When asked by the prison warden if he had a final statement, Lucas replied that he had none.
The lethal drugs were then administered. Lucas was reported to have experienced heavy breathing and gasping for about a minute before becoming motionless.
A medic was later called to check him and he was declared dead.
Lucas was the 14th prisoner executed in Florida this year, with the state having scheduled three executions during September.