California executes double-murderer

California executes double-murderer

SAN QUENTIN, California (AP): Double-murderer Robert Lee Massie was executed by injection early on Tuesday after spending 28 years as a condemned man, longer than any inmate now on death row in California.

Massie, who had spent 21 years seeking to overturn his convictions, formally dropped his appeals last year to protest what he called the snail's pace of the California death penalty system.

Massie, 59, pumped his fist to help his executioners find a vein, and told the warden he was ready to die. "Forgiveness: giving up all hope for a better past," were his last words.

Massie was sentenced to death for the 1979 murder of a San Francisco liquor store owner. He had been paroled a year earlier after serving 13 years in prison for the shooting death of a woman during a robbery in the Los Angeles area.