Bermuda-born murderer Tracy Lee Housel was executed last night by Georgia prison authorities, ending 16 years on death row.

In a final statement, Housel, 43, said he was "sorry from the very centre of my heart."

To his friends and family he said: "Take care of yourselves. May God be with you all."

After the final statement, a chaplain read the 23rd Psalm, then fatal injections were administered at a state prison in Jackson, Georgia, and he was certified dead at 8.28 p.m. Bermuda time.

He had confessed to the 1985 murder of Jean Drew, 46, who he robbed and raped at a truck stop before strangling her and bashing her head in.

During his sentencing hearing it was alleged Housel had beaten a Texas truck driver to death with a hammer and stabbed and slashed the throat of an Iowa man and sexually assaulted a woman in New Jersey in a two-week crime spree.

Watching last night's execution was former Bermuda lawyer and accountant Gary Proctor who has known Housel since 1999 and has campaigned for clemency.

Mr. Proctor told The Royal Gazette: "It was clinical. We were taken in - there were three cars - one for Walt and me, one for the Press and one for the state witnesses.

"Tracy was already strapped in. He mouthed 'I love you.'

"They read out a formulaic death warrant and press a button. It's state sponsored murder.

"Tracy was whispering 'My Lord is my shepherd' and then he stopped.

"I was with Walt, his first lawyer. We were both in the same boat. He said 'It's not right'. We would be OK for a moment and then we would both start crying. I was just thankful to have Walt there.

"Tracy's eyes stayed open and he passed out. As the second drug started working his lungs started collapsing and he started thrashing in the harness.

"It took them about seven or eight minutes to pronounce him dead.

"I guest they didn't want to have to do it twice. It was a long time staring at a lifeless body.

"Then it's 'Thanks, and off you go - bring pop corn next time' and we are all driving out in a convoy at 55 mph.

"Some of the guards were crying - he's been there for 15 or 16 years. It's a long time he was around. I asked one he knew Tracy but he could talk about it.

"I suppose if he was quoted his job would be in jeopardy. It's inhumane."

Mr. Proctor spent time with Housel just before he died. He said: "Nothing prepares you for days like these. When I had to say goodbye words fail you.

"You visit for six hours, he doesn't have any other friends so I spent many sessions of six hours one on one with him.

"I told him he was a wonderful person to know."

Asked about Housel's terrible crimes Mr. Proctor said: "If you judge everyone by their worst moments no one would amount to much."

Supporters say Housel was represented by was an inexperienced lawyer Walt Britt, just out of law school, who should have urged an insanity plea rather than a guilty one.

The jury was not told that Housel was brain-damaged as a result of childhood abuse by his father. Supporters believe at the time of the murder Housel was temporarily psychotic due to a severe, untreated medical condition, known as hypoglycemia, made worse by drugs and alcohol.

Under Britt's advice, Housel pleaded guilty and his defence at the sentencing trial lasted less than 30 minutes.

The Georgia parole board turned down Housel's plea for mercy on Monday despite British MP Vera Baird reading excerpts from a letter written by British Prime Minister Tony Blair asking for Housel's sentence to be commuted to life in prison.

Yesterday, a Blair spokesman reiterated his opposition to the death penalty.

The spokesman said: "We have been in regular contact at consular level with the relevant authorities in the US. But there are limits to what we can do ultimately."

Britt had also attended the clemency hearing to plea for his former client's life.

"I just wasn't experienced," Britt said. "It's something I've thought about for the last 16 years."

Housel was born at the King Edward VII Memorial Hospital in 1958 while his father was working at the US base at Kindley Field. The family returned to the US when he was a year old.

Housel's execution drew little interest in Georgia, but media attention from Britain was intense with reporters from respected British newspapers the Guardian, the Independent and The Times attending as well as a BBC TV crew. Housel's mother, son and ex-wife also attended the prison to see Housel before he died.

Micheal Light of the Georgia Department of Corrections Centre said Housel had the prison chaplain with him in the holding cell and was "very nervous, very edgy" as the time of death approached.

After a last meal of steak, baked potato, corn, salad, a milk shake and ice cream, which he ate most of, he was offered a sedative but refused.

Bermuda Amnesty International Chairperson Lucy Attride-Stirling said more than 18,000 signatures had been collected urging Housel be spared, including some from Bermuda.

She said: "We had hoped at the eleventh hour a reprieve would have been granted. It's very sad."She explained that Amnesty International, which campaigns for human rights across the globe, always opposed the death penalty, in any circumstances.

She said: "It's cruel and inhumane. Many people get confused and think Amnesty International defend murderers - we don't, we say it should be life imprisonment."

Gwinnett County District Attorney Danny Porter called Housel a "dangerous man who does not deserve to have his sentence commuted to life in prison."