Man at execution: 'I ain't never took a life'

Marion Wilson Jr. (Courtesy: Georgia Department of Corrections)

An inmate executed by the state of Georgia for a slaying decades ago said in his last moments that he never killed anyone.

From the execution chamber, 42-year-old inmate Marion Wilson Jr. told witnesses gathered for his lethal injection that "I ain't never took a life in my life." He also told family, friends and supporters "I love y'all forever" before a powerful sedative began flowing.

Wilson took about 10 deep breaths, paused and then took a few more breaths before falling still. Authorities say the inmate was pronounced dead at 9:52 p.m. Thursday.

Wilson and Robert Earl Butts Jr. were convicted of murder and sentenced to death in the March 1996 slaying of 24-year-old Donovan Corey Parks. Prosecutors said Parks was killed after agreeing to give the two men a ride after a chance encounter outside a Walmart store in Milledgeville, rural Georgia.

Butts was executed last year at the age of 40.