Indiana inmate executed Wednesday in Michigan City

MICHIGAN CITY, Ind. -- Kevin A. Conner got his wish.\nConner, who was sent to Indiana's death row for his conviction in a 1988 triple-killing, didn't want any last-minute appeals or clemency from Gov. Mitch Daniels. There were none.\nIn his final statement, he said he didn't want any "hoopla." When his death by lethal injection was announced at the Indiana State Prison at 12:31 a.m. Wednesday, only six reporters were on hand and the only TV crew to show up to report on the execution was long gone.\nConner, 40, died with little fanfare, just as he wanted.\n"He was resolved to this," said one of his attorneys, Kathy Stinton-Glen.\nConner was executed for killing three men in Indianapolis in 1988. He beat and stabbed 19-year-old Steven Wentland and fatally shot Anthony Moore, 24, and Bruce Voge, 23.\nIn a letter to Daniels, Conner said he never denied taking part in the deaths, saying he "only challenged the degree of that complicity."\nHis final statement was, "Everybody has to die sometime." It also included an expletive and ended with, "let's get on with the killing."\nStinton-Glen said after the execution that Conner wanted the statement read with the expletive included, which she did.\nLinda Wagoner, another of Conner's attorneys, said the last time they spoke, Conner seemed calm.\n"He waved at us and pretty much went to sleep," she said after the execution. "I think he's been at peace with what's going on for some time."\nConner had six witnesses for the execution, two of whom were his lawyers.\nConner didn't want a lot of people outside the prison Tuesday night protesting his death. Only about a dozen people -- the smallest number in recent memory for an execution in Indiana -- showed up to protest in a steady rain.\nConner spent Tuesday evening talking on the phone, calling family and friends, said Java Ahmed, an Indiana Department of Correction spokeswoman.\nPrison officials gave him special permission to smoke two cigars. Tobacco use is banned at all of Indiana's prisons.\nConner was the fourth person executed by the state so far this year and the 15th since state executions resumed in 1981 after a 20-year gap.\nArthur P. Baird II of Darlington, about 20 miles south of Lafayette, is scheduled to be executed Aug. 31 for the 1985 murders of his seven-months pregnant wife and his parents. Indiana is on pace to have the most executions since there were eight in 1938.