Controversial Virginia execution planned for 9pm

But the high court declined to grant his requests to stay the execution on Thursday shortly before Hudson’s ruling was issued.

Prieto was sentenced to death in Virginia in 2010 for the rape and murder of 22-year-old Rachael Raver and the slaying of her boyfriend Warren Fulton III more than two decades earlier.

“I would like to say thanks to all my lawyers, all my supporters and all my family members”, he said, before mumbling, “Get this over with”. Virginia officials said in court filings he had been convicted of killing or suspected of killing at least nine people.

Alfredo Prieto was scheduled to be executed at 9 p.m. The state has carried out 110 executions since the U.S. Supreme Court reinstated the death penalty in 1976.

Virginia obtained pentobarbital from Texas to replace its supply of another sedative, midazolam, which expired Wednesday.

Virginia Attorney General Mark Herring’s office say a convicted serial killer has no valid legal arguments to delay his execution.

They argue that Prieto has an IQ of 66 and is constitutionally exempt from execution.

A convicted Virginia serial killer’s legal efforts to avoid execution on Thursday were rejected by the U.S. Supreme Court and a federal appeals court.

A different federal judge granted the temporary restraining order Wednesday after Prieto’s attorneys raised concerns about a drug set to be used.

One inmate executed using pentobarbital said he could feel his body burning, which would be consistent with the drug being exposed to contaminants, according to Prieto’s lawyers. Prieto’s execution has been scheduled for 9 p.m.

Prieto was on death row in California at the time for raping and murdering a 15-year-old girl and was linked to the Virginia slayings through DNA evidence.

As of Wednesday evening, no judge had been assigned in Richmond and no hearings had been scheduled.

After running out of supplies of pentobarbital, a few USA states have obtained the lethal injection drug from compound pharmacies or are experimenting with untested drug combos.

Hudson said Prieto’s lawyers had not adequately shown that the drugs are unsafe.

Prieto had also asked the U.S. Supreme Court to intervene, saying he’s intellectually disabled, and therefore ineligible for the death penalty.

Prieto’s lawyers want to know the name of the supplier, tests confirming its sterility and potency and documents showing that the drugs were properly handled.

A Mylan spokeswoman said Wednesday that Virginia purchased the drugs from a wholesaler.

However, with the clock ticking, it remained to be seen if the execution would proceed as planned at 9 p.m. after lawyers for the El Salvador native said they had filed an appeal.

The case was moved to Richmond, the capital of Virginia, where U.S. District Judge Henry Hudson lifted the hold after convening a hearing in the early afternoon.

Prieto’s attorneys argued the state should reconsider whether he is intellectually disabled because the measure used during his 2008 trial was unconstitutional.

In 1988, George Washington University graduate Rachel Raver, 22, was going to go to law school at the University of Virginia.

The state has been planning to execute Alfredo Prieto at 9 p.m. on Thursday but it’s unclear whether that will take place. It’s one of three drugs the state plans to use in the 49-year-old’s execution.