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Tennessee Executes Convicted Killer

Tennessee`s execution of Sedley Alley on Wednesday is only its second one in 45 years. The 50-year-old was put to death by lethal injection and pronounced dead at 3:12 a.m. EDT. Alley was convicted of murdering Marine Suzanne Collins, 19, while she jogged north of Memphis in 1985. He admitted sexually assaulting and killing Collins. Alley said he had multiple personalities and was therefore not responsible for the attack.

However, the planned execution of Paul Dennis Reid shortly after Alley did not take place, after Reid received a stay. Reid, 48, was convicted of killing seven people at three Tennessee restaurants in 1997. The state appealed the stay to the 6th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals. If the decision to stay the execution was not issued by midnight on Thursday, the state Supreme Court would have to schedule a new execution date.

Two hours before Alley`s original execution date, a stay was issued by Judge Gilbert S. Merritt on the 6th Circuit Court of Appeals. His colleagues reversed the decision, saying in an appeal of Merritt`s ruling that his decision was "highly irregular and in brazen violation of every rule that applies to this situation." In 2004, he recanted his confession, claiming that DNA testing could prove his innocence. Many Europeans take issue with the U.S. death penalty.