North Carolina has executed a man for killing a woman during a convenience store robbery in 1983.

Willie Brown Jr., 61, was put to death by injection. He was pronounced dead at 2:11 a.m., Eastern Time.

He appealed his death sentence on grounds that the death penalty is unnecessarily cruel because he might remain conscious and suffer pain while being put to death. But his appeals were turned down by various courts and the governor.

Brown earned a death sentence for the 1983 slaying of convenience store clerk Vallerie Ann Roberson Dixon. He received an additional 40-year sentence for armed robbery.