WASHINGTON — The Supreme Court has refused to block the execution of a prisoner in Georgia, clearing the last obstacle to the resumption of capital punishment in the U.S. after a 7-month pause.

William Earl Lynd was scheduled to die Tuesday evening. He would be the first person to be executed since the court ruled last month that lethal injection is constitutional.

No one has been put to death since September, when the justices agreed to rule on a challenge to lethal injection procedures in Kentucky, similar to practices in roughly three dozen states.

The justices did not comment on their action Tuesday.

Lynd was convicted of kidnapping and killing his live-in girlfriend nearly 20 years ago.

For more information see Wednesday's Arkansas Democrat-Gazette.

This article was published May 6, 2008 at 6:08 p.m.

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