After multiple delays, an Orlando man convicted in the four fatal stabbings of his family members was executed Thursday night.

Jerry Correll was scheduled to be executed at 6 p.m., but the state waited on a last appeal to the U.S. Supreme Court.

The court denied Correll's stay of execution around 6:40 p.m. without comment. He was pronounced dead by lethal injection at 7:36 p.m.

Justices Stephen Breyer and Sonia Sotomayor dissented, saying Correll's execution should be delayed while the court decides whether Florida's capital punishment system is constitutional. The system says the jury's vote on whether to impose a death sentence is only advisory with the judge making the final decision.

Breyer also said keeping a prisoner on death row for 30 years constitutes cruel and unusual punishment.
 
Correll was executed for fatally stabbing his 5-year-old daughter, his ex-wife, her mother and her sister 30 years ago at a home along Tampico Drive in Orlando.

The family of the victims issued this statement Thursday night:

"We, the family of Mary Lou Hines, Marybeth Jones, Susan Correll and Tuesday Correll, are at peace knowing justice has finally been served.  We say this without vengeance in our hearts, but with the belief that there should be proper consequences for the actions of each and every individual. Jerry Correll chose to take the lives of four beautiful, innocent people on June 30th, 1985. People who are still loved and missed by their family and friends 30 years later.  The consequences of those actions should be no less than death itself. It has taken a long time for punishment to be fulfilled but we have chose to use that time to heal and move forward.

"New families have formed. Grandchildren have been born that will, unfortunately, never know their Great Grandmother, Grandmother, Great Aunt and Cousin. Though this is a sad reality, we are blessed by God to catch glimpses of those lost while watching the new generation grow. The lives and memories created while Mary Lou, Marybeth, Susan and Tuesday were with us will never be lost.  We carry them with us in our hearts forever.

"Our prayer is that all those affected by the actions of Jerry, including his family, can continue to heal and find peace."

"He heals the brokenhearted and binds up their wounds. He counts the number of the stars; He calls them all by name. Great is our Lord, and mighty in power; His understanding is infinite. The LORD lifts up the humble; He cats the wicked down to the ground."   Psalms 147:3-6

The Florida Dept. of Corrections said Correll had his last meal around 10 a.m. -- a cheeseburger, fires and a Coca-cola. He had no visitors today, though he did speak to his daughter on the phone and met with a Catholic spiritual advisor.

Correll is the first death row inmate in Florida to be executed since January.

Correll's execution was scheduled for February, but it was delayed as attorneys litigated whether a sedative used in the executions was constitutional. He has been on death row since 1986 after he was found guilty on four counts of first-degree murder. 

Earlier this year, Gov. Rick Scott signed Correll's death warrant.

The sedative, midazolam, had been used in executions in Oklahoma and other states where inmates gasped and made noises before dying. It has been tied to several botched executions that made national headlines, including one in Arizona that took about two hours.

In June, the Supreme Court of the United States upheld the use of midazolam with a 5-4 decision that the sedative can be used in executions.  

Correll became the 22nd inmate to be executed under Gov. Rick Scott — the most executions under a single governor since the death penalty was reinstated in Florida in 1979.

Twenty-one inmates were executed during two full terms of former Florida Gov. Jeb Bush.

Information from The Associated Press was used in this report.