BONNE TERRE (AP) - To the end, Marlin Gray maintained his innocence in the deaths of two sisters said to have been pushed from an abandoned Mississippi River bridge 14 years ago.

Gray, 38, was executed early today at the Eastern Reception Diagnostic and Correctional Center for the deaths in April 1991 of Julie Kerry, 21, and her 19-year-old sister, Robin. A male cousin of the two young women, initially a key suspect, became the state’s chief witness in prosecuting Gray and three others.

In an interview yesterday, Gray said there was enough reasonable doubt in his case "to choke a horse."

"I’m just so disappointed," he said.

"I go with the peace of mind that comes from never having taken a human life," Gray said in a final statement read by a prison official. "I forgive those who have hardened their heart to the truth. I pray they ask forgiveness, for they know not what they do. This is not a death. It is a lynching."

Gray, who was black, was pronounced dead at 12:07 a.m. He became the fifth person put to death by Missouri this year and the 66th since the state reinstated the death penalty in 1989.
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