A death row inmate convicted of masterminding the murders of three police officers nearly 16 years ago has been executed by lethal injection.

Nathaniel Woods was convicted for his part in what became known as the 'deadliest day' in the history of Alabama's Birmingham Police Department in 2004.

Campaigners pleaded with the US Supreme Court to call off the execution at William C. Holman Correctional Facility in Atmore last night, with some tweeting President Donald Trump to step in. 

However, their calls met deaf ears and the 44-year-old was executed for the murders of officers Carlos Owen, Harley A. Chisholm III and Charles R Bennett despite never pulling the trigger.

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Prosecutors said Woods had lured the three law enforcers into a home in Birmingham where they were killed – but supporters claim the evidence against him was flimsy.

During his trial – in a practice abandoned by every other US state except Alabama – the jury could not even come to a unanimous decision on his sentencing, with two opposed to the death penalty.

Activists, civil rights groups and Wood's own family succeeded temporarily in delaying the execution – initially scheduled for 6pm local time on Thursday – but their appeal was ultimately quashed.

Campaigners had rallied for the courts and Governor Kay Ivey to step in as the days ticked down before the Supreme Court issued a stay just minutes before the execution was set to take place.

But three hours later at 9.01pm Woods was pronounced dead, with the court having thrown out any hope of changing the sentence.

The murders took place on June 17, 2004, at an apartment in Ensley, Birmingham, with the three officers attempting to serve a warrant for Woods' arrest on suspicion of a misdemeanor assault.

Kerry Spencer confessed to being the lone shooter but Woods, who was also in the property at the time, was charged as an accomplice with prosecutors claiming they both lured the men to their deaths.

A jury convicted Woods in December 2005 but there was a 10-2 split on whether he should be executed.

Kim Kardashian West was one celebrity who campaigned for Woods to be granted a stay of execution in a tweet last night in which the socialite and influencer said he would otherwise be executed for a crime he "did not commit".

She later said: "Nate will die for a crime another man confessed to and says Nate had nothing to do with.

"My heart and prayers are with Nate and his family and all the advocates who worked tirelessly to save his life."

Martin Luther King Jr's son Martin III wrote a letter to the courts claiming that the execution was an injustice.

"Killing this African American man, whose case appears to have been strongly mishandled by the courts, could produce an irreversible injustice," he wrote in the letter, posted to Twitter on Wednesday.

Video footage showed Woods' family in tears outside the Supreme Court after they heard he had initially been granted a stay of execution before it was lifted hours later.

Spencer, meanwhile, remains on death row.

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