Cult leader executed

Ohio has executed Jeffrey Lundgren, a cult leader who was convicted of shooting and killing a family of five outside Cleveland in 1989.

The 56-year-old died at 10.26am (2.26pm Irish Time), just hours after the US Supreme Court rejected a last-minute appeal for a delay so Lundgren could join a lawsuit challenging Ohio’s use of lethal injection.

The execution at the Southern Ohio Correctional Facility in Lucasville comes 16 years after Lundgren failed to convince a jury that he was a prophet of God who should be spared the death penalty.

His victims were a couple and their three children, who had all moved to north-eastern Ohio from Missouri to follow Lundgren’s teachings.