Marlin Gray, considered the ringleader in the murders of two young women in St.Louis in 1991, was executed early this morning at the state prison in Bonne Terre. In his last statement, Gray called his execution a “lynching.”

Gray and three others were convicted of throwing Jule and Robin Kerry off the Chain of Rocks Bridge after raping them. A male cousin who was with the girls survived a plunge into the river and testified at the trials of the four men.

One of the other three, Reginald Clemens, remains under a death sentence. The state supreme court has commuted the death sentence for Antonio Richardson because he was sentenced by a judge not a jury. The fourth person, Daniel Winfrey, was 15 at the time, agreed to testify against the other three and is serving a 30-year sentence.

More at MissouriDeathRow.com