Alabama executes man who spent more than 30 years on death row

ATMORE, Ala. - Alabama's longest-serving death-row inmate has been executed by injection for the 1976 kidnapping, rape and murder of a young convenience-store clerk.

Thomas Whisenhant died yesterday at 6:20 p.m. at Holman Prison near Atmore. The 63-year-old inmate filed no stay requests as the 6 p.m. execution drew near.

Court records show that Whisenhant, then 29, confessed to killing Sheryl Lynn Payton and two other convenience-store clerks in a similar fashion. The crimes terrorized the Mobile area.

He had avoided execution for more than three decades because of prosecutorial error and successful appeals.