WASHINGTON Double murderer Andrew Lavern Smith was executed by lethal injection Friday, becoming the 500th person to be put to death since the U.S. Supreme Court restored capital punishment in 1976. Smith, 38, was declared dead at the Broad River Correctional Institution in Columbia, South Carolina, at 6:21 p.m. (2321 GMT). He had no last words, and had a last meal of bacon and eggs, lemonade and ice cream, prison spokesman John Barkley said.

Demonstrators gathered outside the prison and lit 500 candles one for each person put to death since 1976 at the hour of the execution. A dozen people were arrested after they tried to block the entrance to the institution. They were fined $129 each and later released, Barkley said. The number 500 milestone, along with a number of recent executions in South Carolina, has drawn attention to the death penalty, according to Bruce Pearson of the South Carolina Coalition to Abolish the Death Penalty. In a seven-week period, from early December ending in January, South Carolina is executing six people, pearson told AFP. Andy Smith was number four in our series.

Death penalty opponents planned demonstrations in more than 26 us states to protest Smith's execution, which will probably be the last this year as far as we know, said Richard Dieter of the Death Penalty Information Center in Washington. His execution was the 68th this year in the United States, down after last year's record high of 74. On Thursday convicted murderer John Wayne Duvall, 47, became the 499th person to be executed since capital punishment was restored 22 years ago.

After the Supreme Court reinstated the death penalty in 1976 following a four-year moratorium, the first person to die was Gary Gilmore, executed by a firing squad on January 17, 1977 in Utah. Currently 38 U.S. states have the death penalty on the books. There are 3,517 people on death row throughout the country, according to the Death Penalty Information Center. (AFP)