USA - Missouri. David Zink, 55, White, was executed.

David Zink, 55, White, has been executed. His death sentence was carried out with a dose of Pentobarbital at 7:33 p.m. at the Eastern Reception, Diagnostic and Correctional Center in Bonne Terre, and he was pronounced dead at 7:41 p.m.. Zink was convicted in 2004 of 1st-degree murder, kidnapping and rape in the July 12, 2001 death of Amanda Morton, 19. Morton gave 2 videotaped confessions in which he described how he killed Morton; he said that his motive for the killing was to avoid returning to prison. Zink had been released by authorities in Texas after serving 20 years of a 33-year sentence for kidnapping and raping a woman there. Zink also described killing Morton in a videotaped interview that aired recently on Fox affiliate KTVI in St. Louis. Zink becomes the 5th inmate to be put to death this year in Missouri, the 85th overall since the state resumed executions in 1989, the 18th to be put to death this year in the USA and the 1412th overall since the nation resumed executions on January 17, 1977. (See also July 30, 2004).