Rediff.com« Back to articlePrint this article

US carries out 1,000th execution

December 02, 2005 14:39 IST

When Kenneth Boyd was given a lethal injection at a North Carolina jail in United States on Friday, he was the 1,000th person to be executed since capital punishment was reintroduced in 1976.

North Carolina Department of Correction said the 57-year-old, who was sentenced to death in 1994 for murdering his estranged wife and father-in-law, was pronounced dead at 2:15 am (1245 IST).

Boyd's last minute appeals for clemency were rejected by US courts and North Carolina's governor.

The Supreme Court allowed the reintroduction of the death penalty in 1976 following a 10-year moratorium.     

Since then, 832 death row inmates have been killed by lethal injection, 152 through electrocution, 11 in a gas chamber, three by hanging and two were shot by a firing squad.

Death penalty is legal in 38 of the 50 US states.