Missouri executes convicted killer

POTOSI, Mo. - A man was executed by injection early Wednesday for suffocating a woman and her son during a 1988 robbery because he feared the pair would identify him.

Bert Hunter, 53, was apparently the first inmate in Missouri history put to death without a jury trial. When his case came to trial in 1989, Hunter was clinically depressed and suicidal. He pleaded guilty and asked the judge for the death sentence.

He later reconsidered his plea and unsuccessfully sought a trial. He said he took part in the robbery but another man, whom he wouldn't identify, committed the killings.

Hours before his death, Hunter said he didn't expect a last-minute reprieve. ''There is no justice,'' he said. ''It's time for this nightmare to be over, as far as I'm concerned.''

The U.S. Supreme Court and Gov. Mel Carnahan had refused Tuesday to block the execution.

Hunter was convicted of killing Mildred Hodges, 75, and her son, Richard, 49, at their Jefferson City home during a robbery. Tomas Ervin also was convicted and is awaiting execution.

In his confession, Hunter said the victims were killed because he and his accomplices feared they had been recognized.

Hunter later denied that Ervin was involved, saying he had lied when he implicated Ervin because Ervin had turned him in for the slayings.

And he said it was his unidentified accomplice who killed Mildred Hodges in a scuffle and then killed her son.

Both victims were found with plastic bags over their heads. A medical examiner said they suffocated. Hunter said the bags were put on the victims after they died, as part of the effort to dispose of the bodies.

Hunter was earlier convicted of killing a blind bar owner in 1968, but was released on parole in 1980. Prosecutor Richard Callahan said Hunter was an intelligent man - he learned computer programming in prison - but his cocaine habit made him unable to keep a job.

Last week, the leader of Missouri's 200,000 United Methodists, Bishop Ann B. Sherer, had urged Carnahan to halt executions, including Hunter's, and appoint a commission to study the issue. But Carnahan spokesman Jerry Nachtigal said the governor ''has to make a decision based on the facts of this case and Missouri law. Capital punishment is the law in Missouri and he supports the death penalty.''