'It was the devil's work': Georgia executes 'mentally ill' man who killed two college students in 1995
- Inmate Andrew Allen Cook, 38, was injected with the sedative pentobarbital
- He said he would not ask for forgiveness because he cannot forgive himself
- Lawyers won stay of execution, but it was overturned by supreme court
- He killed Grant Patrick Hendrickson, 22, and Michele Lee Cartagena, 19
- The Mercer University students were shot several times as they sat in a car
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'Devil's work': Killer Andrew Allen Cook, 38, was executed by lethal injection in Georgia last night despite claims that he was mentally ill
A 'senseless' killer who shot dead two university students in 1995 was executed in the United States last night despite claims he was mentally ill.
Andrew Allen Cook, an inmate in the U.S. state of Georgia, apologised to his victims' families as he was injected with the sedative pentobarbital.
He shot Mercer University students Grant Patrick Hendrickson, 22, and Michele Lee Cartagena, 19, several times as they sat in a car in Lake Juliette, around 75 miles from Atalanta.
Cook's lawyers had appealed the death sentence, arguing that the 38-year-old inmate, who was being treated for depression at the time of his death, was mentally ill.
He was pronounced dead at Georgia Diagnostic and Classification Prison at 11.22pm, around 14 minutes after he was injected.
Mary Hendrickson, mother of one of the victims, told television station WMAZ-TV that she had been waiting 18 years for justice.
She added: 'I think that's what it was: the devil's work. When all that is going on, I was just thinking to myself, 'Well, the devil is not going to win. He's not going to win over my heart. He is not going to win.''
Cook, who has described what he did as senseless, is the first inmate to be executed since the state changed it procedure in July from a three-drug combination to a single dose.
As he was strapped to a gurney in the death chamber he used his last words to say: 'I'm sorry. I'm not going to ask you to forgive me. I can't even do it myself.'
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ShareHe thanked his family for 'their support' and for being with him, and added: 'I'm sorry I took so much from you all.'
The Georgia Appeals Court stayed Cook's execution on Wednesday to consider a challenge to the state's lethal injection procedure.
Lethal injection: A gurney used in the execution of inmates at the state prison in Jackson, Georgia
But the Georgia Supreme Court lifted the stay yesterday, with all other appeals being exhausted.
The injection was given at 11:08pm, with Cook blinking a few times before his eyes became heavy. His chest was heaving for about two or three minutes as his eyes closed.
Soon after, doctors examined him and nodded for Carl Humphrey, warden of the state prison in Jackson, to announce the time of death.
Corrections officials said family visited Cook earlier in the day and that he had eaten his requested last meal of steak, a baked potato, potato wedges, fried shrimp, lemon meringue pie and soda.
Cook, who had been sentenced to death by a jury, was not charged until two years after the murders.
He had confessed to his father, John, an FBI agent who ended up testifying at his son's trial.
The Georgia Bureau of Investigation (GBI) had earlier reached out to Mr Cook in December 1995 because they were interested in speaking to his son.
Death row: Cook was pronounced dead at Georgia Diagnostic and Classification Prison at 11.22pm
He called Cook, then 22, to tell him the GBI wanted to talk to him. Mr Cook told the court in 1998: 'I said, 'Andy, the GBI is looking for you concerning the Lake Juilette homicide. Do you know anything about it?' He said, 'Daddy, I can't tell you. You're one of them ... You're a cop.''
Eventually, Cook told his father that he knew about the slayings, that he was there and that he knew who shot the couple, the court was told.
Mr Cook recalled: 'I just felt like the world was crashing in on me. But I felt maybe he was there and just saw what happened,' he said. 'I then asked, 'Did you shoot them?' 'After a pause on the phone, he said, 'Yes.''
The father called his supervisor who contacted the Monroe County sheriff and Cook was arrested.
During the trial, a distraught Mr Cook mouthed 'I'm sorry' to the victims' families as he walked away from the witness stand. Several of the relatives acknowledged his apology.
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