Florida inmate executed for college student's 1994 murder

A man convicted of murdering a college student and raping his sister while the siblings were on a camping trip was executed in the southern US state of Florida on Thursday, prison officials said.

Loran Cole, 57, was put to death by lethal injection at 6:15 pm (2215 GMT) at the Florida State Prison in Raiford, the Florida Department of Corrections said in a statement.

Cole was sentenced to death in December 1995 for the February 1994 murder of an 18-year-old Florida State University student, who was on a camping trip with his sister in the Ocala National Forest.

Cole was also convicted of sexually assaulting the murder victim's elder sister, who was tied to a tree but managed to escape the next day.

An accomplice, William Paul, was sentenced to life in prison.

The US Supreme Court denied Thursday afternoon -- without comment -- Cole's appeal to stay his execution on the grounds he had Parkinson's disease and the lethal injection would "very likely cause him needless pain and suffering."

There have been 13 executions in the United States this year.

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