Henry Lee Hunt, 58, was pronounced dead at 2:17 a

Henry Lee Hunt, 58, was pronounced dead at 2:17 a.m. at Central Prison in Raleigh. The execution went forward after the state Supreme Court sided with prosecutors Thursday afternoon and vacated a stay issued on Tuesday by a Robeson County judge who said execution procedures should be reviewed. Defense lawyers had asked the courts to review whether the state should use two drugs, not the three it now uses, for lethal injections. Justices said the Legislature didn't intend to limit the drugs or chemicals that can be used when it included the word "only" in the statute enacted in 1998. The intent was to outlaw lethal gas and use only injection, the court said. Hunt's lawyer argued that state law requires the use of two types of drugs - a fast-acting barbiturate and a paralytic agent. Attorney Steven Holley said the state illegally added potassium chloride, which stops the heart, to the mixture. Jurors convicted Hunt in the death of Jackie Ransom, whose wife paid to have him killed to make her 2nd marriage legal. He also was convicted of killing Larry Jones, a police informant prosecutors said knew about Ransom's killing. Hunt becomes the 2nd condemned inmate to be put to death this year in North Carolina, and the 55th in the USA.