A man who murdered two people in 1980 has been executed in Arizona.
Murray Hooper was executed by lethal injection at the state prison in Florence on Wednesday.
The 76-year-old was the third execution since officials resumed executions in May after a hiatus of nearly eight years.
Hooper was convicted of killing William “Pat” Redmond and his mother-in-law Helen Phelps at Mr Redmond’s Phoenix home.
Mr Redmond’s wife, Marilyn, was also shot in the head in the attack but survived and testified against Hooper at trial.
Authorities said the killing was carried out at the request of a man who wanted to take over Mr. Redmond’s printing business.
Hooper’s death was announced by Frank Strada, deputy director of the Arizona Department of Corrections, Rehabilitation and Reintegration.
The condemned inmate giggled several times as he interacted with the firing squad. After the executive order was read aloud, Hooper said: “It’s all said and done. Let it be done.”
It took about 20 minutes from the time the firing squad entered the room to the injection of a lethal dose of pentobarbital intravenously into his right leg and forearm.
Arizona There have been no executions for nearly eight years after criticism of a failed execution in 2014 and difficulties in obtaining capital punishment drugs.
There are currently no other executions planned in the state, which currently has 110 people on death row.
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Hooper was executed hours after the U.S. Supreme Court rejected a last-minute appeal over his claim that authorities had until recently refused to recognize Marilyn Redmond for failing to identify him in a row of photographs .
Authorities said that claim was based on errors made by prosecutors in a letter to the state’s clemency board and now insist that Marilyn Redmond was not shown such a lineup. She later recognized Hooper in a face-to-face lineup.
The court also rejected Hooper’s attorney’s attempt to order fingerprinting and DNA testing of evidence of the killing.
Hooper and two other men forced their way into the Redmond home on New Year’s Eve in 1980, authorities said. The three victims were bound, gagged, robbed and then shot in the head.
Two other men, William Bracy and Edward McCall, were convicted in the homicide but died before the execution.