John Clayton Smith, 42, was put to death by injection...

John Clayton Smith, 42, was put to death by injection at the Potosi Correctional Center in the July 5, 1997 fatal stabbings of his former girlfriend, Brandie Kearns, 22, and her stepfather, Wayne Hoewing, 51. Smith had waived his remaining appeals in 2001. He had told the judge who condemned him that he was "totally guilty," "very sorry," mentally fit to abandon his legal challenges and ready to die "once and for all." "The punishment of death is suitable," he wrote then. Smith becomes the 2nd condemned inmate to be put to death this year in Missouri and the 58th in the USA.