Alabama Executes Man for Fast-Food Chain Killings

Alabama has executed a man convicted of fatally shooting three fast-food workers more than two decades ago. Robert Melson, found guilty of opening fire on employees at a Popeye’s restaurant during a robbery attempt in 2014, was pronounced dead at 10:27 p.m. local time Thursday after a lethal injection. Melson was executed despite several last-minute appeals by lawyers who questioned whether Alabama’s lethal-injection procedure was humane. His lawyers claimed one of the drugs used, a sedative, would not be reliable in rendering him unconscious before the other drugs shut down his lungs and heart. The U.S. Supreme Court had initially delayed the execution, which was scheduled for 6 p.m., before allowing it to go ahead.