USA - Oklahoma. Michael Hooper, 39, white, was executed

Michael Hooper, 39, white, was executed. Hooper was sentenced to death for the December 1993  shooting deaths of his former girlfriend killing 23-year-old Cynthia Lynn Jarman, and her 2 children, 5-year-old Tonya and 3-year-old Timmy. Hooper had sued the state last month in an effort to halt his execution, claiming that Oklahoma's three-drug lethal injection protocol was unconstitutional. The lawsuit sought to force the state to have an extra dose of pentobarbital, a sedative, on hand during his execution. But his request to stall the execution was rejected by a federal judge, then upheld by a federal appeals court. And the U.S. Supreme Court rejected Hooper's request without elaboration just hours before his execution. Hooper becomes the 4th inmate to be put to death this year in Oklahoma, the 100th overall since the state resumed capital punishment in 1990, the 27th this year in the USA this year and the 1304th overall since the nation resumed executions 1977. (See also December 19, 2002, July 10 and 11, 2012)