S.C. executes killer of 3 social workers

updated 7:25 p.m. ET June 6, 2008

COLUMBIA, S.C. - A South Carolina man convicted of killing three social workers more than a decade ago has been executed after he asked to drop his appeals.

David Mark Hill was pronounced dead at 6:17 p.m. Friday in the state's death chamber in Columbia.

Defense witnesses testified that Hill went on the shooting spree after his wife asked for a divorce and a social worker accused him of molesting his quadriplegic daughter. Hill was convicted for the 1996 deaths of Jimmy Riddle, Josie Curry and Michael Gregory.

The South Carolina Supreme Court ruled this year the 48-year-old could drop his appeals and be executed.

Hill is the first person put to death in South Carolina since the U.S. Supreme Court affirmed the constitutionality of the most widely used injection method.

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