An American inmate who wanted to be executed for the kidnapping, rape and killing of a young girl has been put to death in South Dakota, prison officials said Wednesday.
It was the second execution in 15 days in that state, which had not executed anyone in five years.
It was also only the fourth execution in 65 years in South Dakota, where a moratorium on capital punishment was in effect from 1947 to 2007.
Donald Moeller, 60, died of a lethal injection Tuesday night, a state prison official said.
The parents of the slain girl were present.
A crowd of people who oppose the death penalty rallied outside the prison in Sioux Falls.
In 1992, Moeller was convicted of and sentenced to death for the abduction, rape and kidnapping of a 9-year-old girl two years earlier.
Moeller had consistently said he was innocent. But in early October he confessed to raping the child and stabbing her to death after kidnapping her from a grocery story where she had gone to buy candy.
He declined to appeal and said he deserved to die.
His was the 34th execution this year in the United States, according to the Death Penalty Information Center.
American executed for murder after renouncing appeal
