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Serial rapist, killer David Alan Gore executed in Florida Apr 13th 2012, 01:18 By Kari Huus, msnbc.com Serial killer David Alan Gore, who admitted killing four women and two teenage girls in the 1980s to satisfy his sexual urges, was put to death by lethal injection in Florida on Thursday, Reuters reported. He was convicted and sentenced to death for the 1983 murder of Lynn Elliott, 17, who he kidnapped when she was hitchhiking to the beach. Elliott was Gore's final victim. The others were Hsiang Huang Ling, 48, and her daughter Ying Hua Ling, 17; Judy Kay Daley, 35; Angelica LaVellee, 14; and Barbara Ann Byer, 14. Follow @msnbc_us After a series of delays, the execution went forward before two dozen relatives and law enforcement personnel, the Tampa Bay Times reported. In his final statement on Thursday, Gore apologized to Elliott's parents and said he prayed they would find peace. "I wish above all else my death could bring her back,'' Gore said, according to a record of the statement provided by corrections officials. Gore, 58, was pronounced dead at the Florida State Prison near Starke at 6:19 p.m., governor's spokeswoman Amy Graham said. He spent 28 years on death row. Gore shot Elliott, 17, as she ran outside naked and screaming in an attempt to escape after being repeatedly raped, according to court documents cited by the news agency. The teen's murder, witnessed by a passing boy, led to Gore's arrest. The case led to discovery of a series of earlier rapes and murders committed by Gore and his older cousin, Fred Waterfield. Phil Sandlin / AP Zot Lynn Szurgot from Gainesville, Fla., prays during a demonstration against the death penalty in front of the Florida state prison near Starke, Fla., where David Alan Gore was put to death Thursday. Criminal psychologists testified that the pair formed a morbid alliance, hunting young women at beaches and along stretches of roadways in and around Indian River County, a rural citrus-growing area about 150 miles north of Miami, Reuters reported. Gore received life sentences for the deaths of the other five women and in 1984 was sentenced to death for Elliott's murder. After the initial sentence was overturned, he was again sentenced to death in 1992. He was the fourth inmate put to death since Florida Governor Rick Scott took office in January 2011, and the 13th executed in the United States this year, Reuters reported. "This was an individual whose crimes were heinous," Scott said earlier Thursday, according to the Times. "He was convicted and sentenced to death." Waterfield is serving two life sentences at a Florida prison. Reuters contributed to this report. More content from msnbc.com and NBC News: Experts: Zimmerman likely to testify in Trayvon Martin case Zimmerman's new attorney: Who is Mark O'Mara? 4 feet of hail in Texas? Photos, reports cause quite a storm 2 Coast Guard members shot to death in Alaska Follow US News on msnbc.com on Twitter and Facebook Media files: 120412-alangore-552p.photoblog400.jpg (image/jpeg) Arizona governor signs law banning most late-term abortions Apr 13th 2012, 00:02 By Reuters PHOENIX -- Arizona Republican Governor Jan Brewer signed into law on Thursday a controversial bill that bans most abortions after 20 weeks of pregnancy, giving Republicans a win in ongoing national efforts to impose greater restrictions on abortion. Follow @msnbc_us The measure, which state lawmakers gave a final nod to on Tuesday, would bar healthcare professionals from performing abortions after 20 weeks of pregnancy, except in the case of a medical emergency. Only a small number of these abortions are performed in the state. With Brewer's signature, Arizona joins six other states that have put similar late-term abortion bans in place in the past two years based on hotly debated medical research suggesting that a fetus feels pain starting at 20 weeks of gestation. Georgia lawmakers approved a similar bill in March that now awaits the signature of Republican Governor Nathan Deal. Late-term abortions will still be allowed in Arizona in situations where continuing a pregnancy risks death or would "create serious risk of substantial and irreversible impairment of a major bodily function." This is to be determined by a physician's "good faith clinical judgment." The law also requires a woman to have an ultrasound at least 24 hours prior to having an abortion, instead of the one hour previously mandated under state law. State officials are required to create a website that details such items as the risks of the procedure and shows pictures of the fetus in various stages. The U.S. Supreme Court legalized abortions nationwide in 1973 but allowed states to ban the procedure after the time when the fetus could potentially survive outside the womb, except where a woman's health was at risk. More content from msnbc.com and NBC News: Experts: Zimmerman likely to testify in Trayvon Martin case Zimmerman's new attorney: Who is Mark O'Mara? 4 feet of hail in Texas? Photos, reports cause quite a storm 2 Coast Guard members shot to death in Alaska Follow US News on msnbc.com on Twitter and Facebook Copyright 2011 Thomson Reuters. Click for restrictions.

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