Tennessee executed death row inmate Stephen Michael West Thursday night, marking the third time the state has used the electric chair in less than a year.
He was pronounced dead at 7:27 p.m. CDT, according to the Tennessee Department of Correction. He was 56.
West was sentenced to death for the 1986 stabbing deaths of Wanda Romines and Sheila Romines , in their East Tennessee home.
Eddie Campbell, a relative of the victims, said their family's grief stretched across decades.
"Our family has suffered very deeply over the past 33 years through all the appeals that we think is very unfair for anyone to have to go through," Campbell said in a statement released after the execution. "I hope that (West) has made peace with God and has truly asked God for forgiveness for such a heinous crime."
West was the 137th person put to death in Tennessee since 1916, and the fifth inmate executed since August 2018.
West gave his final words 7:15 p.m. He was already strapped into the electric chair, with sponges around his legs.
"In the beginning, God created man," he said before stopping, overcome by sobs. "And Jesus wept. That's all."
Then prison staff removed his black glasses, doused him with salt water and covered his face with a black shroud. At 7:19, West's body stiffened as an electric current coursed through his body. His hands curled into fists, with his right pinky extended out.
Then he went limp.
Another round of electricity caused his body to tense up again before slumping back.
After that, he didn't move.
West's legal team had pleaded to spare his life in the weeks before the execution. They said his son had been in mental anguish co-defendant Ronnie Martin had committed the murders while West stood by, hobbled by a history of childhood abuse and untreated mental illnesses.
Martin was 17 when the murders took place. He remains in an East Tennessee prison and will be eligible for parole in 2030. Because he was a minor at the time of the crime, Martin was not eligible for the death penalty.
In a clemency application sent to Gov. Bill Lee, West's lawyers said he had reformed himself after receiving mental health treatment in prison. They stressed his Christian faith and his work with other inmates behind bars.
Days before the execution, Lee said he would not intervene. Within hours, West asked to die by electrocution instead of lethal injection, the state's default execution method.
He was the third inmate to make that choice since Tennessee resumed executions a year ago. Each inmate who chose the electric chair had participated in lawsuits challenging Tennessee's lethal injection protocol.
In a statement released after the execution, West's lawyers said they were "deeply disappointed that the state of Tennessee has gone forward with the execution of a man whom the state has diagnosed with severe mental illness; a man of deep faith who has made a positive impact on those around him for decades; and a man who by overwhelming evidence did not commit these murders but has nevertheless taken personal responsibility for his involvement in these murders.
More than 30 people gathered outside Riverbend Maximum Security Institute in Nashville to protest West's execution.
Kevin Riggs, senior pastor at Franklin Community Church, said executing people doesn't change anything. When he talked to West last week, Riggs said he was hopeful the governor would grant clemency.
"You're not executing the same person who did the crime," he said. "We all change. Stephen was remorseful."
Dan Mann and his wife have visited death row inmates weekly for years. About 7 p.m., as the execution was set to begin, he said this was "one of the most somber vigils I've attended."
"To go and meet with these guys is life changing," he said. "I'm not the same man I was 10 years ago."
The vigil ended with the Lord's Prayer at 7:12 p.m. Then the group sang "Amazing Grace."
Rick Laude, 67, was the sole demonstrator in favor of the death penalty. He said he was there for Wanda and Sheila Romines.
Laude said there are times to show mercy to inmates on death row, but he said the death penalty has been "the law of the land since Tennessee boundary lines were drawn."
It was a slaughterhouse a relative said.
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