In brief: Georgia execution is first since bungled one in Oklahoma

JACKSON, Ga. – A Georgia inmate convicted of rape and murder became the first person to be executed in the U.S. since the botched lethal injection of a prisoner in Oklahoma in April.

Marcus Wellons, 59, was executed by injection Tuesday night after last-minute appeals were denied.

Shortly after, Missouri executed a convicted killer.

A corrections spokesman said Wellons was pronounced dead at 11:56 p.m. The execution seemed to go smoothly with no noticeable complications.

He was declared dead about 35 minutes after he was brought into the room and had the tubes with the drugs administered.

Wellons was convicted and sentenced to death in 1993 for the 1989 slaying of his 15-year-old neighbor, India Roberts, a high school sophomore from the Atlanta suburbs.

In Missouri, John Winfield was put to death for killing two St. Louis County women in 1996, marking the state’s fifth execution this year.

Winfield was executed today by lethal injection at 12:01 a.m. and was pronounced dead at 12:10 a.m., a spokesman for the Department of Public Safety said.

Winfield shot his ex-girlfriend, who was the mother of two of his children, in the head, leaving her blind. He shot and killed two of her friends.

Dog-poop-tossing mayor quits post

LOS ANGELES – The mayor of San Marino, California, resigned Tuesday after a town uproar over his being caught on surveillance video tossing a small bag of dog poop into a neighbor’s yard.

Dennis Kneier announced his resignation in a letter addressed to fellow City Council members, saying that the June 7 incident was “a lapse in judgment” and has caused embarrassment.

Kneier will, however, remain on the council.

The controversy began after Kneier’s neighbor Philip Lao discovered the small bag outside his home. Surveillance cameras showed Kneier tossing the bag.

Lao believed the mayor tossed the bag in retribution for putting a “No Poop Zone” sign outside his home and publicly opposing a proposed dog park.