Alabama Executes Man Convicted in Killing of 3 Police Officers

Nathaniel Woods, who was convicted in the 2004 killings of three Birmingham, Ala., police officers, was put to death using a lethal cocktail of drugs late Thursday after the U.S. Supreme Court denied him reprieve.

Woods, 43, reportedly had no last words as the drugs flowed into his body. He was pronounced dead at 9:01 p.m. CST, NPR reports.

The three officers, Harley A. Chisholm III, Carlos "Curly" Owen and Charles R. Bennett, were killed in a hail of bullets as they sought to arrest Woods and another man, Kerry Spencer, at a suspected drug house in Birmingham.

Although prosecutors said Spencer was the gunman, Woods was convicted as an accomplice on capital murder charges.

The case garnered national attention, and advocates for Woods, including Martin Luther King III , the son of the late civil rights leader, fought to block the execution, arguing that Spencer was solely responsible for the slayings.