USA - Georgia. Emmanuel Hammond, 45, black, was executed

Emmanuel Hammond, 45, black, was executed at the Georgia Diagnostic and Classification Prison in Jackson. He did not make a final statement and was pronounced dead at 11:39 p.m. His execution came amid a nationwide shortage of sodium thiopental, a part of the three-drug cocktail used in Georgia's lethal injections. His attorneys had sought time to gather more information on how the state obtained the drug, claiming in court filings it came from a "fly-by-night supplier operating from the back of a driving school in England." U.S. Supreme Court Justice Clarence Thomas delayed the execution briefly Tuesday night until the full court could consider Hammond's appeal. The appeal was rejected late Tuesday night in a 1-page ruling. Hammond was sentenced to death in 1990 for the 1988 murder of 27-year old Julie Love. Hammond becomes the 1st condemned inmate to be put to death this year in Georgia and the 49th overall since the state resumed capital punishment in 1983. Hammond becomes the 4th condemned inmate to be put to death this year in the USA and the 1238th overall since the nation resumed executions on January 17, 1977.