USA-EXECUTION-GEORGIA  Georgia man executed for killing wife, father-in-law 

 JACKSON, Georgia, Nov 15 - A man convicted of  killing his wife and father-in-law during a 1979 domestic dispute was put to  death in Georgia on Thursday, the third execution in the state in the past  three weeks.

 Fred Gilreath, 63, was injected with lethal chemicals in the death  chamber at the state prison in Jackson, Georgia, after federal courts  rejected pleas to stop the execution, Georgia Department of Corrections  spokesman Scott Stallings said.

 Stallings said Gilreath issued a final statement in which he thanked his  attorneys, family and prison staff. "God bless everybody," were his final  words. Gilreath died at 3:53 p.m.

 EST (2053 GMT).

 Gilreath had originally been scheduled to die on Wednesday night, but  the inmate won a temporary reprieve after the 11th Circuit Court of Appeals  agreed to review a lawsuit filed by his lawyers against the Georgia Board of  Pardons and Paroles.

 The lawsuit claimed that board members acted improperly on Tuesday  during a clemency hearing when they voted to reject his request to have the  death sentence commuted to life in prison.

 The lawsuit noted that one of the five members of the board was not present  for the hearing.

 But on Thursday the 11 Circuit Court turned down arguments from  Gilreath's lawyers that there was a legal basis for halting the execution.  The U.S. Supreme Court also refused to intervene.

 Gilreath was sentenced to death for shooting his wife Linda, 28, and her  father Gerritt Van Leeuwen, 57, on May 11, 1979. Linda Gilreath had been  planning to file for divorce to get away from her husband, later described  in court as an abusive alcoholic.

 Gilreath's wife was shot five times with a rifle and once in the face  with a shotgun. Her father was shot several times with a rifle, shotgun and  handgun. Police found gasoline on both bodies and in the kitchen of the  Gilreath house.

 Defense lawyers as well as Gilreath's children had urged state officials  to show leniency on the grounds that the killings were a crime of passion  fueled by alcohol and intense emotions.

 Gilreath became the third inmate to be put to death in Georgia since the  state Supreme Court ruled last month that the use of the electric chair to  execute inmates was unconstitutional because it inflicted needless suffering.

 Georgia switched to lethal injection after the ruling.

 Alabama and Nebraska are the only states that still rely solely on  electrocution to execute inmates. The other 35 states with the death penalty  use lethal injection or give the inmate a choice in deciding the method of  execution.

 There are now 125 prisoners on Georgia's death row.