John Hightower was executed by lethal injection.

John Hightower was executed by lethal injection. He was pronounced dead at 7:59 p.m.. Hightower, 63, black, was convicted in 1988 for killing his wife and 2 stepdaughters. The 7 p.m. execution was delayed until about 7:40 as nurses struggled to find a vein in which to administer the lethal injection, prison officials said. Hightower was first injected with 2 grams of sodium pentathol, a sedative. Then he was injected with 50 milligrams of pavulon, a chemical that paralyzes. Then Hightower was given a dosage of potassium chloride, which stops the heart. A jury convicted Hightower in 1988 and sentenced him to die for murdering his wife, Dorothy Hightower, 41, and her 2 daughters, Evelyn, 19, and Sandra Reaves, 22, in 1987. Hightower becomes the 1st condemned inmate to be put to death this year in Georgia, the 29th in the USA and the 1086th overall since the nation resumed executions on Janaury 17, 1977.