America executes oldest death row inmate with part of his brain missing

USA: Outrage erupted across America last night after the country executed its oldest death row inmate – a man who was mentally impaired from a work accident that removed a large portion of his brain.

After a final appeals failed at the US supreme court Cecil Clayton, 74, was executed by lethal injection.

His death has led to calls for the death sentence to be abolished in America gaining widespread support.

Clayton lost about a fifth of his frontal lobe in 1972 when a splinter from a log he was working on in a sawmill in Purdy, Missouri, dislodged and slammed into his skull.

The damage has had a long-term impact on his character and behaviour, with a succession of medical experts chronicling problems ranging from uncontrolled rage to hallucinations and depression.

In 1996 Clayton murdered police officer, Christopher Castetter, who was called to a house where Clayton had broken in.

There was no dispute about his guilt, though there was intense debate over whether he should have been executed/ It took. X rays showed a "huge hole in head". It took eight minutes for him to die.