John Washington Hightower
John Hightower, 63, thanked his family and friends for their support over the years and recorded a statement for prison officials saying he loved his wife. The State of Georgia executed him by lethal injection at the Georgia Diagnostic and Classification Prison in Jackson, Butts County, according to the Georgia Department of Corrections. The Coastal Courier reported that the procedure began about an hour late while staff searched for a vein, and that he was pronounced dead at 7:59 p.m. on Tuesday, June 26, 2007, while state records list the date as June 27. His pastor, a friend and a paralegal attended the execution with him, and his final appeals and a clemency request were denied.
Cause of death, as reported: Executed by the state
Reported by: Georgia Department of Corrections (the agency that held him); news reports.