USA - Georgia. Andrew DeYoung, 37, white, was executed, and his lethal injection was filmed in compliance with a court order

Andrew DeYoung, 37, white, was executed, and his lethal injection was filmed in compliance with a court order prompted by concerns about one of the drugs used. DeYoung was sentenced to death for killing his 41-year-old parents and 14-year-old sister in the family's home in 1993. He was 19 at the time. DeYoung went on the killing spree apparently thinking it would enable him to receive $480,000 in inheritance. DeYoung was declared dead at 8:04 p.m., fewer than 15 minutes after the process began. For the 1st time in Georgia, a videographer was present in the execution chamber, documenting DeYoung's death and his reaction to a new 3-drug lethal injection that anti-death penalty activists said caused unnecessary pain and suffering. The videographer, accompanied by a woman taking notes, stood off to the side and was barely visible to witnesses. DeYoung, however, only blinked his eyes and swallowed repeatedly, and showed no violent signs in death. He was checked by a nurse for consciousness shortly into the execution, a new procedure put in place. It is believed this was the first execution involving lethal injection that was videotaped in the nation. In 1992, a California execution was recorded on video, but the gas chamber was in use. The June 11, 2001 execution of Timothy McVeigh, the Oklahoma City bomber, was shown live over a closed-circuit broadcast from an Indiana prison to 330 victims or family members of the deceased watching in Oklahoma City. DeYoung was scheduled for die by lethal injection on Wednesday night, but his execution was delayed 24 hours by the Department of Corrections in an attempt to further litigate the videotaping issue. More than three hours past the original appointed time, the Department of Corrections and Attorney General Sam Olens decided to postpone the execution. Olens said the state needed more time to address the videotaping because it was a situation new to Georgia. Hours before Thursday's execution, Fulton County Superior Court Judge Bensonetta Tipton Lane rejected the state's attempt to have the Georgia Supreme Court review her ruling that allowed the execution videotaping. Lane, overseeing the appeal of death-row inmate Gregory Walker, had ordered the recording of DeYoung’s execution after hearing claims the state’s lethal injection process caused unnecessary pain and suffering. DeYoung’s was the second execution for Georgia in which pentobarbital was part of the lethal 3-drug cocktail. Witnesses reported that Blankenship jerked his head several times early in the procedure though his movement and breathing slowed within minutes. Prison officials said those movements came before the anestietic had taken place. Walker's attorneys asked the Fulton County judge to order DeYoung’s execution videotaped. Lane agreed but said the tape had to be immediately placed under court seal. The state Supreme Court supported that decision. DeYoung becomes the 3rd condemned inmate to be put to death this year in Georgia and the 51st overall since the state resumed capital punishment in 1983. DeYoung becomes the 29th condemned inmate to be put to death this year in the USA and the 1263rd overall since the nation resumed executions on January 17, 1977.