Florida executes serial killer Gary Ray Bowles

Aug. 22 (UPI) -- The state of Florida executed a man who killed at least six people along the East Coast 25 years ago on Thursday night.

Gary Ray Bowles, 57, was executed by lethal injection at 10:58 p.m. after the U.S. Supreme Court denied his final appeal.

The execution was originally scheduled for 6 p.m. but was delayed as the court weighed the decision.

Bowles had appealed his sentence on a claim he is intellectually disabled.

He was convicted in 1996 for the deaths that spanned from Florida to Washington, D.C. He killed one of his victims with a concrete block.

"I believe he is a classic serial killer who comes into contact with innocent victims," Assistant State Attorney Bernie de la Rionda said. "He had the classic serial killer MO and they continue to kill until they are stopped."

The execution was the second in the United States in two days. Texas executed Larry Ray Swearingen Wednesday for the 1998 death of a Houston college student.

The execution of Bowles was Florida's second this year after Bobby Joe Long was put to death in May.