(CN) — A man convicted of killing an Atlanta police officer and wounding another with an AR-15 rifle was executed Wednesday, becoming the seventh inmate put to death in Georgia this year.
Gregory Paul Lawler, 63, was pronounced dead at 11:49 p.m. at the state prison in Jackson after he was injected with the barbiturate pentobarbital.
He was convicted of murder in the October 1997 slaying of Officer John Sowa and for critically wounding Officer Patricia Cocciolone.
The Georgia Supreme Court said Wednesday evening that it had unanimously denied defense requests to halt execution plans originally set for 7 p.m.
Defense attorneys later appealed to the U.S. Supreme Court, which also declined to stop the execution late Wednesday night.
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