LUCASVILLE, Ohio - A man whose 1992 Christmas holiday killing spree left six people dead was executed yesterday. The execution was Ohio's second in two weeks and the 1,000th lethal injection in the United States since the death penalty was reinstated in 1976.

Marvallous Keene, 36, who was convicted in five of the murders, chose not to file a late appeal of his death sentence.

He died at the Southern Ohio Correctional Facility in Lucasville seven days after Ohio's last execution. The time lapse was the shortest since the state executed two inmates in six days in 2004.

The Ohio Supreme Court, in denying a request last month to delay Keene's ex-

ecution, said that it would schedule executions at least three weeks apart so public de-

fenders will have more time to prepare clemency cases for inmates who wish to pursue them.

Ohio has one execution a month scheduled through February.

Keene, 36, died at 10:36 a.m. "No, I have no words," he said when asked whether he had anything to say before the lethal chemicals were administered. Within a couple of minutes, he appeared to be unconscious.

Seven witnesses for the victims silently watched the execution from a room near the death chamber. None spoke afterward.

Outside, about 25 protestors sang "Amazing Grace" as the hearse carrying Keene's body drove away.

Keene and three accomplices went on a three-day murder and robbery rampage in Dayton that began on Christmas Eve, 1992.

Victims included Sarah Abraham, 38, a convenience store clerk shot in the head after handing over $30 from a cash register, and Marvin Washington and Wendy Cottrill, two teenage acquaintances whom Keene feared would tell police about his crimes.

According to the nonprofit Death Penalty Information Center in Washington, Keene's was the 1,171st execution - and the 1,000th by injection - since the United States reinstated the death penalty.

Ohio has executed 31 men since it reinstated the death penalty in 1999.

Defense attorneys have said Keene, who was 19 at the time of the slayings, was despondent over the shooting death of his brother a year earlier. At his trial, Keene also told a three-judge panel that a falling out with his father contributed to his troubled emotional state.

Keene's accomplices are serving life sentences.

First Published July 22, 2009, 9:18 a.m.