A death row inmate who shot his ex-girlfriend in front of her son has been executed in the US.

Scotty Morrow, 52, was sentenced to death for killing his former partner and her friend in front of a five-year-old boy.

The murderer died by lethal injection at 9:38pm local time on Thursday after a last-minute plea for mercy was rejected by the state of Georgia.

He refused to have a sedative, stating that he did not want it, according to a local reporter.

According to local media, 32 people witnessed the execution at the Georgia Department of Corrections in Jackson, Georgia.

The father-of-two fatally shot his ex-girlfriend Barbara Ann Young and her friend Tonya Woods just after Christmas on December 29, 1994.

Morrow's former partner had refused to take him back, prompting him to shoot her in front of her son at her home in Gainesville, Georgia.

The criminal also shot a third woman in the face and arm, although she survived.

Morrow's execution was the first in Georgia this year – and the fifth in the US.

For his last meal, the inmate ordered a hamburger with mayonnaise, two lots of chicken waffles, a bag of buttered popcorn, two all-beef franks, a pint of butter pecan ice cream and a large lemonade.

The day before, a reporter talked to the convicted murderer over the phone to hear his final thoughts.

"Are you prepared to die?" Morrow was asked.

"I don’t want to die, but I'm at peace, you know, if God so wills it that it's gonna be done," Morrow said. "I don’t want to, but if that’s what happens, I can't change anything."

"Do you bear any ill will against anyone?" the reporter asked.

"No, I hold no ill will in my heart against anyone," Morrow said.

When asked why he killed the two women, he said: "It was a crime of passion. I lost control of my emotions.

"I would like to give my sincerest and deepest apology to the Young family and to the Woods family and I would also extend a very deep apologies to Ms Latoya Horne.

"If this gives you some type of peace, then so be it but I would hope that you would find it in your hearts to forgive.

"My faith in God is strong. I ask God to give me peace and comfort in my time of stress, my time of need and he will do that."

She tweeted: "This is yet another case where the jury did not have the whole story before recommending a death sentence.

"The jury at Scotty's trial didn't know much about his horrifying history of childhood abuse and trauma.

"After learning the truth, a majority of the jurors are now comfortable with a life sentence instead of an execution."

Morrow's backers claimed he was genuinely remorseful and argued that he was still reeling from his upbringing.

His attorneys said he saw his father stamp on his pregnant mum's stomach, causing a miscarriage, and was raped by two of his relatives.

The jury in Morrow's original trial did not hear evidence of his childhood, according to the Journal-Constitution.

The death sentence was overturned in 2011 by a state court judge, however it was later reinstated by Georgia's Supreme Court.

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