US executes man convicted for fatal beating

The two men disposed of the body, set his Jeep ablaze and then returned to drinking in the bar

WASHINGTON: The US state of Georgia on Thursday executed a man convicted of murder in a fatal beating as a teenager, despite last-ditch appeals to spare his life.

Joshua Bishop's execution was carried out at 9:27 pm (0127 GMT), according to a statement from the Georgia Department of Corrections.

The 41-year-old "accepted a final prayer and recorded a final statement," it said.



At the age of 19, during a night of drinking, Bishop and a friend, Mark Braxley, beat a man named Leverett Morrison to death after he refused to give them the keys to his Jeep.

After realising that Morrison had died, the two disposed of his body, set his Jeep ablaze and then returned to drink in the bar they had been to previously.

Bishop confessed to police and was subsequently put on trial and sentenced to death. Braxley was sentenced to life in prison.

Georgia's State Board of Pardons and Paroles denied his plea for clemency. The US Supreme Court refused to grant him a last-minute stay of execution.

The United States executed 28 people in 2015, the fewest since 1991, according to the Death Penalty Information Center.