Missouri Carries Out Second Execution in Three Weeks

Missouri has executed a Kansas City man convicted in the 1994 death of a good Samaritan.

Allen Nicklasson was pronounced dead at 10:52 p.m. Wednesday, nearly 23 hours after his execution was originally scheduled. The U.S. Supreme Court lifted a stay of execution late Wednesday night.

The execution was the state's second in three weeks and the second since Missouri began using a single execution drug, pentobarbital. Racist serial killer Joseph Paul Franklin was executed Nov. 20.

Nicklasson and two other men were returning to Kansas City after buying drugs in St. Louis in August 1994 when their car broke down. Excelsior Springs businessman Richard Drummond stopped to help them.

The men forced him to drive to a secluded area, where Nicklasson shot him twice in the head.