Convicted Killer Kenneth Lee Boyd Executed

Raleigh, NC -- Convicted killer Kenneth Lee Boyd was executed early Friday in Raleigh, becoming the 1,000th inmate put to death in the United States since capital punishment resumed in 1976. Boyd, 57, was executed for the 1988 murders of his wife and father-in-law in Rockingham County, near the Virginia line.

Boyd was pronounced dead at 2:15am after Governor Mike Easley and the United States Supreme Court refused to stop the execution. Boyd didn't deny that he shot and killed his victims. Family members said Boyd stalked his estranged wife after they separated after 13 stormy years of marriage. They say Boyd once sent a son to his wife's house with a bullet and a note saying the ammunition was intended for her.