53 year old death row inmate sobs hours before his execution

A death row inmate convicted of committing two 'racially motivated' murders sobbed his way through his final interview hours before he is due to be killed .

Mark Asay, gunned down a black man and a second victim in Jacksonville 1987, and will be executed for the crimes later this evening.Asay was 23 years old when he was convicted. He is now 53.



Authorities will use a lethal cocktail containing a drug never used before for the execution, which will make him the first white man in Florida to be put to death for killing a black person.

In his first and only interview since he was sentenced for first-degree murder, Asay admitted to Wills that he killed McDowell, a white or Hispanic Jacksonville man known on the street as "Rene," a transvestite, but insisted that he did not kill Booker, who was black.

He becomes emotional, telling the interviewer he is not a racist .

He says he got his racist tattoos when he was 19 in prison because he wanted to "fit in" and "keep safe" - but has since had most of them covered up or "burnt off".

 "Never have been, I've had African American friends all my life."

The interviewer asks him if there's anything he wants to say and the criminal can be seen to noticeably sob as he tells him:

"Well, really, just that I'm sorry and things just got out of control."

I'm a Christian, and I'm born again. I'm loved by the Lord. I'm 100 percent confident that if I'm going to get relief here, it's because of the truth. And if I'm not going to get relief here, it's because the Lord knows that my life here on earth will not be productive. Because I pray, and I say, 'I've had all of the prison I want. So I want out of prison -- through the front door or the back.'

When he is put to death, it will be the first time a state has used an anesthetic called etomidate.

Critics have argued that the sedative is "unproven", while the manufacturer is angry that it is being used to kill a prisoner.