A man who confessed to robbing and killing four men, then later recanted, was executed by injection early Wednesday morning after telling prison officials: "I love everybody."
Donald E. Reese, 54, was pronounced dead at 12:05 a.m., 10 hours after the U.S. Supreme Court refused to consider a final appeal and 90 minutes after Gov. Mel Carnahan rejected a request for clemency."I just never thought it would come this far," Reese told the Associated Press from his isolation cell Tuesday afternoon.
But Reese, who spent his time in prison writing more than 475 songs and studying the Bible, said he had accepted his fate.
A former truck driver from Marshall, Reese confessed to fatally shooting the four men in September 1986 at a secluded rifle range in Saline County.