White supremacist serial killer Joseph Paul Franklin was executed Wednesday morning after the U.S. Supreme Court rejected his final requests for a stay, the Missouri Department of Public Safety said. The execution, which had been scheduled for shortly after midnight Wednesday, was delayed for hours because of court appeals. Franklin was administered a lethal injection at 6:07 a.m. CT (7:07 a.m. ET). He died ten minutes later. Franklin refused his final meal and gave no final statement. He was on death row for the 1977 murder of Gerald Gordon outside a synagogue in St. Louis. He was blamed for 22 killings between 1977 and 1980 in a bid to start a race war.
@highlight
Joseph Paul Franklin is executed after the Supreme Court declines to step in
@highlight
Two judges granted stays Tuesday
@highlight
He shot Hustler magazine publisher Larry Flynt
@highlight
He was executed for a 1977 killing outside a St. Louis synagogue
Flynt, who was paralyzed by @placeholder's bullet, has called for clemency for Franklin, saying "the government has no business at all being in the business of killing people."