A man who killed a state trooper after escaping from prison asked the lawman's family for forgiveness before he was put to death by injection.
Steven Douglas Hill, 25, was executed Thursday night after he was denied clemency by Gov. Bill Clinton, frontrunner for the Democratic presidential nomination."I ask for my family's forgiveness, for the pain I caused, and Officer Klein's family," Hill said as he lay in the execution chamber. "The children shouldn't have to be raised without a father. I'm ready to go."
Hill was pronounced dead eight minutes after he was injected with lethal drugs. The execution was conducted at the prison in Varner, about 70 miles southeast of Little Rock.
Clinton returned to Little Rock on Wednesday night to review Hill's case but denied the clemency request Thursday afternoon. The U.S. Supreme Court denied an appeal filed Thursday.
As governor, Clinton has never granted clemency for a death row inmate and has said he supports the death penalty for multiple murderers, drug kingpins and those who kill police officers.
A death penalty opponent said Clinton's stance is dictated by politics.
"He's not dying to be president, but he is killing to be president," said Carrie Rengers of the local chapter of Amnesty International.
Hill was 18 when he and a fellow prisoner, Michael Anthony Cox, escaped while on a work detail in 1984. They stole weapons and a truck before police cornered them in a central Arkansas home. State Police investigator Robert Klein was killed by a shotgun blast.
Hill's family and sympathizers said he was a victim of a tormented and lonely childhood.