Despite numerous last-minute pleas for clemency for Alan J. Bannister, the Missouri prisoner on death row, he was due to be executed early today, Irish time. The spokesman for Gov Mel Carnahan said last night the execution would proceed as planned.
One of the last pleas for clemency had come from the actor Ed Asner, who starred in the television series Lou Grant. Mr Asner made his plea to Gov Carnahan hours before Bannister was due to be executed by lethal injection.
Mr Asner, who went to high school with Bannister's father, said later he was disappointed he could not meet the governor personally, but he had met his aides, who "were very kind, gave us their ear and hopefully they will carry our words to the governor".
The actor said: "Alan Bannister's case is a clear example of a man who was given an overworked public defender who does not do his job of defending him."
Bannister (38) has been on death row for 14 years. In December 1994 he came within two hours of being executed.
He was arrested in August 1982 for the murder of Mr Darrell Ruestman in Joplin, Missouri. He has never denied he shot the victim but always maintained the shooting occurred accidentally during a struggle.
He had travelled from Peoria, Illinois, to meet Mr Ruestman, whom he believed to be a drug dealer who was trying to kill him. Bannister had been stabbed a few weeks before the killing.
When he met Mr Ruestman they argued and then, in a struggle, Bannister's gun went off. The victim went back to his mobile home, where he died.
Within hours of the shooting, Bannister was arrested. He co-operated with the police and led them to the murder weapon.
Bannister claimed he was inadequately represented by his lawyer and persuaded to plead guilty in exchange for a prison sentence. Instead he was sentenced to death.
He was featured in a documentary film, Execution Protocol, made by Stephan Trombley, who later made a second film on Bannister's case, called Raising Hell. Bannister married a British woman, Ms Lindsay Graham, who saw films and became interested in his case.
The case has attracted widespread international attention and led to protests in Europe and Australia. A 1996 report by the United Nations Commission on Human Rights named Bannister as someone who had been sentenced to death after a trial in which his rights to adequate defence had not been respected.
In November 1996, a three-judge panel from the 8th Circuit Court of St Louis rejected Bannister's final appeal, but the dissenting judge said the death sentence was disproportionate and "an arbitrary and irrational outcome".