White Supremacist Executed for 1977 Synagogue Killing

A white supremacist was executed in Missouri for killing a man at a St. Louis-area synagogue 25 years ago. The execution had been stayed Tuesday evening by two district court judges due to concerns over the drug used for the execution.

The U.S. Supreme Court early Wednesday morning upheld the death sentence and the use of the drug, leading to the execution.

Joseph Paul Franklin, 63, was executed early Wednesday morning for the sniper shooting of Gerald Gordon, who was killed outside of the Brith Sholom Kneseth Israel synagogue in October 1977 as he left a bar mitzvah. Franklin also was convicted of seven other murders throughout the United States and claimed credit for 20 deaths between the years of 1977 and 1980.

The Missouri conviction is the only one that carried a death sentence, according to The Associated Press.

Franklin also bombed a synagogue in Chattanooga, Tenn., in July 1977.