BONNE TERRE

With a sheet covering him to his neck, Marlin Gray was executed by Missouri state employees early this morning for his role in the 1991 murders of two young women on the old Chain of Rocks Bridge.

Gray died by injection at 12:07 a.m. Before the drugs were applied, he smiled and appeared to mouth the words, "I love you" at witnesses. As the first drug took effect, he either smiled or grimaced, then he gasped and lay still.

Prosecutors said Gray was the mastermind of the robbery and murder that claimed the lives of Julie and Robin Kerry, who were thrown off the bridge. Robin's body has never been found.

Their cousin, Tom Cummins, was ordered to jump off the bridge, but he survived and testified at the trial of the three men and one teenager who were also on the bridge that night.

Daniel Winfrey, who was 15 at the time of the murders, is serving a 30-year sentence after pleading guilty to nine charges, including two counts each of second-degree murder and forcible rape, and agreeing to testify against the other men.

Reginald Clemens is on death row. The Missouri Supreme Court reduced Antonio Richardson's death sentence to life in prison because he was sentenced to death by a judge, not a jury.

After the U.S. Supreme Court turned down Gray's final appeals Tuesday night and Missouri Gov. Matt Blunt denied clemency, one of Gray's lawyers issued a statement just before 6:30 p.m.

"I continue to believe that he is innocent and that the imposition of the death penalty in his case is completely unjust and inappropriate," Joanne Martin Descher wrote. "I am deeply saddened over the outcome."

Blunt had released a statement about an hour earlier.

"Missouri's highest courts and a jury of Marlin Gray's peers determined unequivocally that he should be held accountable for Julie and Robin Kerry's deaths," Blunt said. "I support the sentence issued and affirmed by both Missouri and U.S. Courts and believe justice has been served. My thoughts and prayers are with family and friends who mourn the loss of Julie and Robin."

In the days prior to the execution, Blunt received letters, e-mails, faxes and phone calls opposing the execution from campaigns run by Amnesty International and Missourians to Abolish the Death Penalty. A busload of Gray's supporters drove to Blunt's office Tuesday, and U.S. Rep. William Lacy Clay Jr., D-St. Louis, sent Blunt a letter Monday echoing those concerns.

Blunt said in a statement following the execution, "Marlin Gray was found responsible for these deaths. The events of that night were heard before a jury and judges at every level, all of whom affirmed this just punishment...I carefully reviewed applications for clemency, and the legal proceedings' history and found no cause to justify pre-empting previous judicial proceedings."

Gray's advocates and opponents of the death penalty have argued that the 38-year-old was not on the bridge when Julie, 20, and Robin, 19, were pushed to their deaths.

There were 67 opponents and 4 in favor of the death penalty outside the prison.

At his 1992 trial, Gray told jurors that he left the bridge to smoke pot, and that Reginald Clemens told him, "Man, I just robbed that guy and threw the girls into the river," when he returned.

In an interview Thursday, Gray said that when he returned to the bridge, Antonio Richardson said there had been an accident and the girls had fallen in the river.

Gray's supporters have also argued that Nels Moss, who prosecuted Gray, withheld potentially exculpatory evidence and unfairly swayed the jury by comparing Gray to Charles Manson.

In an e-mail message to the Post-Dispatch on Tuesday, Moss took issue with Gray's version of events that night and the statements of his supporters.

"What Gray fails to say is he told his co-defendants that he 'felt like hurting someone that night,' and passed out condoms, according to Winfrey," Moss wrote. Moss said Gray also shared the money taken from the Kerrys and Cummins, congratulated Richardson on his bravery, and threatened to shoot Cummins if he resisted.

Moss said an internal affairs investigation did not substantiate Gray's allegation of a police beating, and that appellate courts have consistently failed to find misconduct in Gray's trial. "The Missouri Supreme Court in its opinion found that the jury had ample evidence to believe that Marlin Gray aided, encouraged and assisted in these rapes, robberies, assault and murders," Moss wrote.

Gray is the 66th man to be executed by injection in Missouri since the state resumed carrying out the death penalty in 1989.

Missouri Department of Corrections spokesman John Fougere said Gray declined a last meal and a sedative. He had told officials that no one would be present as a witness on his behalf, but it appeared that he had witnesses. The witnesses on behalf of Gray were a female cousin and her minister. Fougere declined to name either one.

The only victims' witness was Kevin Cummins, who is the girls' uncle according to Fougere.

In an interview Thursday, Gray said: "This is murder to me. I will not participate or let my family participate."

Fougere said Gray, " was extremely calm and relaxed the whole day."

In his final statement, Gray said, "I go forward now on wings built by the love and support of my family and friends. I go with a peace of mind that comes from never having taken a human life. I forgive those who have hardened their hearts to the truth and I pray they ask forgiveness for they know not what they do. This is not a death, it is a lynching."