GEORGIA - Volunteer, execution

William Putman was executed Wednesday for the deaths of a couple sleeping at a south Georgia rest stop 22 years ago.

 Putman, 59, was pronounced dead at 7:24 p.m. at the state prison in Jackson, south of Atlanta. It was the state's 8th execution by injection.

 Putman declined to make a final statement.When asked, he said, "No, thank you." Asked if he wanted a prayer, he said, "No, No."

 Putman had instructed his attorney on Tuesday to drop his final appeals, and spent his last 2 days meeting with 29 family members and friends.

 Department of Corrections spokeswoman Peggy Chapman described Putman as having been "resigned to his fate," calm and ready to die.

 The Pardons and Paroles Board considered and then denied clemency for Putman on Tuesday, even though he didn't seek it, said spokeswoman Heather Hedrick.

 Witnesses in Putman's trial said he approached a family sleeping at a rest area off Interstate 75 near Lenox on July 10, 1980. The family was traveling home to Kentucky from a vacation at Daytona Beach, Fla. Putman was found guilty on accounts that he fatally shot the car's driver, David Hardin. Then Putman demanded that his wife, Katie Hardin, leave with him. She refused and screamed for David as he lay dying. Then she was shot in the head.

 Police pulled Putman over at another rest area on I-75. He had a blood alcohol level of 0.13, and they found a wallet and a .38-caliber revolver under the driver's seat.

 Putman did not close his eyes as the chemicals used for execution went through his system. He looked straight ahead and muttered something unintelligible.

 He appeared to be having trouble breathing before the chemicals shut down his lungs.

 Putman also was serving a life sentence for killing a school teacher, William Hodges, at a truck stop in Valdosta day before, July 9, 1980.

 The execution was witnessed by Shannon Blincoe, daughter of the slain couple, who was in the front seat of the car when her parents were shot. She was 8 months old at the time. 3 older children also were in the car when the shootings took place.

 No members of Putman's family attended the execution.

 Bob Ellis, a district attorney who worked on the case, said the daughter had told him "My mamma and daddy can finally rest in peace." He said he had stayed in touch with the daughter since the trial.

 There were about a dozen anti-death penalty demonstrators outside the prison during the execution.

 "Every time we execute somebody it's repeating the violence we're supposed to be against," said Laura Moye, one of the protesters. "The state shouldn't have the power to take human life because it can't give life back when it makes mistakes."

 Putman becomes the 4th condemned inmate to be put to death this year in Georgia and the 31st overall since the state resumed capital punishment in 1983. Georgia ranks 6th overall in the number of state executions since the death penalty was re-legalized in America on July 2, 1976, trailing only Texas (285), Virginia (86), Missouri (58), Florida (53) and Oklahoma (52). Virginia has an execution set for Thursday night.

 Putman becomes the 57th condemned inmate to be put to death this year in the USA and the 806th overall since America resumed executions on January 17, 1977.