A man convicted along with his cousin of sexually assaulting, torturing and murdering a South Carolina woman 20 years ago was executed Friday by lethal injection at the state prison in Columbia.
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John Arnold, 43, and his cousin, John Plath, were sentenced to die for the April 1978 murder of Betty Gardner, 33, who was sexually abused, stabbed and strangled to death near Beaufort, S.C., in the southern tip of the state.The first inmate put to death in South Carolina this year, Arnold admitted to his role in the assault but repeated a long-standing claim that he did not kill Gardner.