Larry Kenneth Jackson, 40 anni, � stato messo a morte.

WASHINGTON, 18 APR - Un uomo di 40 anni che nel 1994 aveva ucciso con oltre trenta coltellate la sua fidanzata di 29 anni e' stato messo a morte, giovedi' sera, in un carcere di Oklahoma City.

Larry Kenneth Jackson e' morto poco dopo le 18.00 locali, le due del mattino in Italia.

Prima di subire l'iniezione letale, ha chiesto scusa alla madre della vittima, Wendy Cake, da lui assassinata in un motel di Oklahoma City , dopo essere fuggito da un programma di lavoro della prigione dove stava scontando una pena a trent'anni di carcere per un precedente omicidio.

Oklahoma executes killer

The state of Oklahoma on Thursday executed a man who killed his girlfriend while he was out on a prison work detail.

Larry Kenneth Jackson was pronounced dead at 6:08 p.m. at the Oklahoma State Penitentiary.

Jackson, 40, was put to death for the Sept. 6, 1994, slaying of Wendy Cade.

Cade was found dead in a north Oklahoma City motel room with more than 30 stab and slash wounds, authorities said.

Jackson, 40, was serving a 30-year prison term for 2nd-degree murder when he walked away from a prison work program at the state Capitol complex and left with Cade, authorities said.

Cade drove Jackson around the metro area, including a stop at her mother's home to drop off her young daughter, before going to the motel, according to prosecutors.

Cade, 29, was killed because she was ending her relationship with Jackson and was not going to help his effort to win parole, authorities said.

Cade was stabbed and slashed with a box cutter knife that prison officials had given Jackson to open boxes of furniture he was helping install in the Jim Thorpe Building, authorities said.

Cade's sister, Anita Taylor, said before the execution that she and her family had waited nearly 10 years for justice to be served.

"If we can get this (the execution) out of the way, then we can get on with our lives."

Still, Taylor said she can forgive Jackson.

"He took something very precious from us, but if my mother can forgive him, I have to."

Jackson's escape and the escape a week earlier of convicted killer Randolph Franklin Dial caused then-Gov. David Walters to order the state corrections department to transfer all murderers from minimum security.

Jackson becomes the 7th condemned inmate to be put to death this year in Oklahoma and the 62nd overall since the state resumed capital punishment in 1990. Oklahoma trails only Texas (301) and Virginia (88) in the number of executions carried out since the death penalty was re-legalized in America on July 2, 1976.

Jackson becomes the 26th condemned inmate to be put to death this year in the USA and the 846th overall since America resumed executions on January 17, 1977.