Pallade Veneta - Oklahoma carries out the 25th and final US execution this year

Kevin Ray Underwood, who turned 45 on Thursday, was executed by lethal injection at the Oklahoma State Penitentiary in McAlester, prison officials said.

The execution process began at 10:04 am Central Time (1604 GMT) and Underwood was pronounced dead at 10:14 am (1614 GMT), the statement said.

Underwood, a former grocery store clerk, was convicted of the 2006 sexual assault and murder of Jamie Rose Bolin, the daughter of his neighbors in the town of Purcell, 40 miles (64 kilometers) south of Oklahoma City.

Bolin was beaten with a wooden kitchen cutting board and then suffocated.

Underwood confessed to the murder and expressed regret during a clemency hearing on Friday before the Oklahoma Pardon and Parole Board.

"I recognize that although I do not want to die, I recognize that I deserve to for what I did," he said. "I would like to apologize to the victim's family and to my own family."

The board denied clemency by a 3-0 vote.

There have been 25 executions of convicted murderers in the United States this year. Three used the controversial method of nitrogen gas while the rest relied on lethal injection.

On Wednesday, the midwestern state of Indiana carried out its first execution in 15 years.

Joseph Corcoran, 49, who was convicted of murdering his brother and three other men, was put to death by lethal injection at the Indiana State Prison in Michigan City.

Indiana paused executions in 2009 because it was unable to obtain the necessary drugs from pharmaceutical companies reluctant to be associated with capital punishment.

According to an October Gallup poll, 53 percent of Americans are in favor of the death penalty for a person convicted of murder. Forty-three percent are opposed while four percent have no opinion.

The death penalty has been abolished in 23 of the 50 US states, while six others -- Arizona, California, Ohio, Oregon, Pennsylvania and Tennessee -- have moratoriums in place.

J.Lubrano--PV