The state of Virginia the carried out its first execution since November 9, 2006 on Tuesday when it put to death by lethal injection a man convicted for murder. This was the third U.S. execution since the Supreme Court upheld the constitutionality of lethal injections last month.

The man executed Tuesday was Kevin Green. The 31-year-old was sentenced for shooting to death a convenience store owner during a robbery in 1998. The execution was carried out shortly after 10 p.m. EDT at the Greensville Correctional Center in Jarratt, Virginia.

The execution was delayed by about one hour while a federal judge court considered a final motion by Green's lawyers that their client was mentally retarded. The U.S. Supreme Court, a federal judge and Gov. Timothy M. Kaine each refused Tuesday to halt the execution.

"Having carefully reviewed the Petition for Clemency and judicial opinions regarding this case, I find no compelling reason to set aside the sentence that was recommended by the jury, and then imposed and affirmed by the courts," Kaine said.


The family of Patricia Vaughan, the woman killed by Green in the shooting which happened at the robbery of the store owned by the Vaughan family in rural Brunswick County, watched as the murderer took his last breaths.

The inmate was pronounced dead at 10:05 p.m. at Greensville Correctional Center.

Green was the subject of the third execution carried out since the Supreme Court on April 16 upheld the three-drug cocktail used for lethal injections

After the Supreme Court ruled to uphold the constitutionality of lethal injections, Georgia was the first to execute an inmate; Mississippi was second on May 21 and then Virginia. Texas may become the fourth. An execution was scheduled there on June 3.