In a case which sparked international controversy, Texas executed Jose E. Medellin on Tuesday night in defiance of a ruling from the International Court of Justice and a last-minute appeal from UN Secretary General Ban Ki-Moon.

Jose Ernesto Medellin, aged 33, was put to death by lethal injection in the Huntsville death chamber at 9:57 p.m. (0257 GMT Wednesday), Texas Department of Criminal Justice official Jason Clark informed AFP. “I’m sorry my actions caused you pain,” he said to the witnesses present, according to the New York Times. “I hope this brings you the closure that you seek. Never harbor hate.”

The execution came soon after the United States Supreme Court rejected a last request for a reprieve on a 5 to 4 vote.

Jose Medellin was convicted in 1993 for raping and murdering two teenage girls in Houston, Texas. Medellin, aged 19 when the incident took place, and five other boys belonging to the same street gang were involved the rape and murder of the girls, Elizabeth Pena, 16, and Jennifer Ertman, 14. They raped the girls for an hour and then strangled them. Their bodies were found two days later.

The International Criminal Court of Justice told U.S. authorities four years ago that Medellin’s case and that of other Mexicans who had been sentenced to die violated the Vienna Convention because authorities did not inform the convicts of their right to consular access and assistance during trial, as reported by AFP. However, Medellin’s execution was carried out in spite of the fact that UN Secretary General Ban Ki-Moon’s urged U.S. authorities to obey the ICJ’s order.

Texas claimed it would only bow to the U.S. Supreme Court, and, what’s more, the state’s Governor Rick Perry explained that he had no intention of postponing the execution.