SOMERS, Conn. (AP) – A serial killer who struggled to hasten his own death was executed by lethal injection early this morning.

It was New England’s first execution in 45 years.

Michael Ross, 45, was put to death after fighting off attempts by public defenders, death penalty foes and his own family to save his life.

The U.S. Supreme Court rejected two last-minute appeals from Ross’ relatives late Thursday, a court spokesman said, leaving Ross as the only person able to stop his execution.

The high court refused to overturn two decisions by the 2nd U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals, which rejected a lawsuit brought by an attorney for Ross’ father that claimed the execution would lead to a wave of suicide attempts among Connecticut inmates.

Ross was sent to death row for the murders of four young women and girls in Connecticut in the 1980s. He confessed to four more slayings in Connecticut and New York.

The last execution in New England was in 1960, when Joseph “Mad Dog” Taborsky went to the electric chair in Connecticut.

Of the six New England states, only Connecticut and New Hampshire have the death penalty. New Hampshire has no one on death row and has not executed anyone since 1939.

“The whole thing is just disheartening to me and I think we’re going to live to regret this day,” said attorney Antonio Ponvert III, who represented Ross’ father and has filed a number of appeals trying to block the execution.

Ponvert said he would not file any other appeals.

The Supreme Court also rejected an appeal from Ross’ sister, who asked to intervene because she claims Ross is mentally incompetent to forgo his appeals.

While lawyers were maneuvering Thursday, Ross made no special request for his last meal, prison officials said. Ross chose to eat the same dinner served to all 18,000 inmates throughout the state prison system: turkey a la king, rice, white bread, mixed vegetables and fruit.

His family, friends and attorneys visited with him through the day and late into the night after he was moved in the morning to a holding cell near the death chamber at Osborn Correctional Institution in Somers. He had with him a Bible, a book of Bible verses, a coffee cup and some candy.

“He seemed fine. He’s still resolute. I didn’t detect any change in him at all,” T.R. Paulding, Ross’ lawyer, said Thursday night.

About 20 satellite trucks were parked in rows outside the media staging area down the road from the prison, as reporters waited for news from the courts and death row.

Correction Commissioner Theresa Lantz said the six volunteers serving on the execution team have rehearsed over 30 times, going over every conceivable scenario. She would not provide details of their medical training.

“They are qualified by a Connecticut state licensed physician, and that’s as far as I’ll go with that,” she said.

Ross was sent to death row for the murders of four young women and girls in Connecticut in the 1980s, and confessed to four more slayings in Connecticut and New York. He also raped most of the women.

Last fall, he announced he was abandoning all remaining appeals – which could have kept him alive for many years – because his victims’ families had suffered enough.

“I owe these people. I killed their daughters. If I could stop the pain, I have to do that. This is my right,” the former insurance agent and Cornell University graduate said last year. “I don’t think there’s anything crazy or incompetent about that.”

Desperate to save his life, public defenders and Ross’ family argued that Ross suffered from “death row syndrome” – that is, he had become deranged from living most of the past 18 years under a death sentence.

Ross was hours from death in January when a federal judge scolded Ross’ attorney and threatened to lift his law license for trying to hasten Ross’ execution. The lawyer agreed to a new hearing on whether Ross was mentally competent.

At the hearing, two psychiatrists testified that he was mentally incompetent. They said he has a personality disorder that compels him to choose death to avoid looking cowardly. Two other experts disputed the finding of incompetence and said he was genuinely remorseful.

Last month, a judge again found Ross competent to decide his fate.

The last execution in New England was in 1960, when Joseph “Mad Dog” Taborsky went to the electric chair in Connecticut for a series of murders and robberies. Of the six New England states, only Connecticut and New Hampshire have the death penalty. New Hampshire has no one on death row and has not executed anyone since 1939.

Death penalty opponents warned that Ross’ execution could break down a political and psychological barrier against capital punishment in New England and start a domino effect in the region.

Some opponents have spent the week walking the 25 miles from Hartford to the prison. Bob Nave, the executive director of the Connecticut Network to Abolish the Death Penalty, said they are resigned to the fact that the execution will happen.

“I have had no doubt about that for some time,” he said. “This has become all about Michael Ross. Capital punishment will be wrong long after Michael Ross and it was wrong long before him.”

Edwin Shelley, whose 14-year-old daughter Leslie was Ross’ seventh victim, said he planned to watch Ross die.

“It’s going to be nice to come home and realize that the case is finished and that he has received his just rewards,” Shelley said. “I think I will be very relaxed and at ease with myself.”