BALTIMORE (AP) – Triple murderer Steven Oken was executed by lethal injection at 9:18 p.m. Thursday, a Maryland prison spokeswoman said.

Oken, 42, was sentenced to death for the 1987 rape and murder of Dawn Marie Garvin, a 20-year-old newlywed. He also was convicted of killing Patricia Hirt, his wife’s sister, and Lori Ward, of Portsmouth, N.H., a motel clerk in Maine, during a 15-day spree.

“Steven Howard Oken was executed tonight at 9:18 p.m.,” said Rosa Cruz, a state prison spokeswoman.

The execution followed a series of efforts during the week by Oken’s attorneys to save him. The U.S. Supreme Court denied Thursday two requests to delay his execution and Gov. Robert Ehrlich declined to grant clemency.

The 4th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals in Richmond, Va., voted unanimously Thursday to reject Oken’s request for a reprieve as he argued that executioners might have to cut deeply into his flesh to administer the lethal drugs, a procedure his attorneys said could be unconstitutionally cruel.

Later Thursday, the Supreme Court refused to reconsider Oken’s request.

Ehrlich issued a statement saying that his sympathies “lie with the families of all those involved in these heinous crimes.”

He said that after a thorough review of Oken’s request, “the facts pertinent to the petition, and the judicial opinions regarding this case, I decline to intervene.”

“The death sentence imposed on Mr. Oken has been reviewed and affirmed by several courts, including the Supreme Court of the United States,” Ehrlich noted.

Supporters and opponents of capital punishment demonstrated outside the state prison complex in Baltimore before the execution, waving signs, holding candles and chanting. By 8:30 p.m., there were about 40 demonstrators for each side of the issue. Garvin’s brother, Fred A. Romano, carried a stuffed bear found tucked under her arm when her body was discovered.

Laura Davis, a teacher at the College of Notre Dame in Baltimore, said she came to the prison complex to “witness the murder of a person by the state and our country.” Several drivers passing the group heckled the capital punishment opponents, with one man shouting, “He killed three people. How can you be against his execution?”

The Supreme Court also rejected a request Thursday to halt the execution to consider whether the attorneys who represented Oken at his trial and in his first appeal didn’t do all they could to spare him the death penalty.

The latest appeals came a day after the Supreme Court reversed an indefinite stay of execution ordered by a federal judge and upheld by the 4th Circuit. In that appeal, Oken’s attorneys argued the state had turned over the details of the execution procedures too late and they deserved time to examine the “execution protocol” document.

Bennett has said the state botched the 1998 execution of Tyrone Gilliam, the last person it put to death. An IV line used to administer a barbiturate to Gilliam leaked, raising doubts that he got a sufficient dose to put him to sleep before he received two other drugs – one that paralyzes muscles and another that stops the heart, Bennett said.

The state has acknowledged the line leaked, but maintains Gilliam was executed in a humane way and without pain.

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Associated Press writers Foster Klug and Brett Zongker contributed to this story.

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