Ozark killer maintained innocence up until his execution

'I, Walter 'Arkie' Barton, am innocent & they are executing an innocent man'

Ozark killer Walter Barton maintained his innocence as he became the first US execution in 10 weeks since coronavirus lockdowns began in March.

Barton, 64, died by lethal injection of pentobarbital and was pronounced dead at 6:10 pm central time on Tuesday at the Eastern Reception, Diagnostic & Correctional Centre in Bonne Terre, Missouri.

In his last statement released shortly before the execution, offender #990108 said: "I, Walter 'Arkie' Barton, am innocent & they are executing an innocent man!!"

The lethal injection went ahead after the US Supreme Court denied a request from Barton's defence team for a stay of execution.

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Barton, 64, was sentenced to the death penalty for the murder of an elderly woman in a Missouri trailer park almost 30 years ago.

Trailer park operator Gladys Kuehler, 81, was found beaten, sexually assaulted and stabbed 52 times in the town of Ozark, near Springfield, in 1991.

Barton, a former tenant of the trailer park, was living out of his car and visited Ms Kuehler's granddaughter and neighbour on the night she was killed.

While blood was found on his clothing, the Innocence Project had tried to stop the execution over the unreliability of blood spatter evidence.

Barton's case went through five trials including multiple appeals, mistrials, and overturned convictions until the Supreme Court denied the stay of execution and Missouri Governor Mike Parson declined to grant clemency.

He was the first person executed in the country since Nathaniel Woods was put to death in Alabama on 5 March.

The nationwide lockdown measures to slow the spread of coronavirus saw the delay of executions over the past two and a half months as states implemented social distancing measures throughout prisons.

Ohio, Tennessee and Texas postponed executions after defence lawyers claimed the coronavirus lockdowns kept them from the access needed to effectively petition for appeals or clemency.

Missouri Department of Corrections spokeswoman Karen Pojmann told The Independent that everyone entering the prison were to have temperatures checked and be offered face masks, with witnesses socially distanced into three separate rooms at the state prison, which is about 60 miles south of St Louis.

There were seven witnesses for the offender, no witnesses for the victim, and two witnesses for the state in attendance.

"No staff or offenders at the facility have tested positive for Covid-19," she said.

"No staff or offenders at the facility have tested positive for Covid-19," Ms Pojmann said.