Dale Leo Bishop has been executed at the Mississippi State Penitentiary for his role in the claw hammer killing of Marcus James Gentry.

Corrections spokeswoman Tara Booth says Bishop died by lethal injection at 6:14 p.m. Wednesday with members of Gentry’s family in attendance.

Bishop had hoped the U.S. Supreme Court or Mississippi’s governor might spare him but both denied his requests as the hours of his execution approached.

Bishop’s attorneys said his life should have been spared because he did not swing the hammer that killed Gentry in 1998.

Bishop acknowledged participating in the attack, but another man, Jessie Johnson, admitted striking the lethal blows. Johnson was tried separately and sentenced to life without parole.

Corrections Commissioner Chris Epps said he discussed Johnson’s role in the crime with Bishop.

“He indicated to us he thinks Johnson should be where he is on death row,” Epps said.

At the end of his 2000 trial, Bishop waived his right to a jury sentencing and asked the presiding judge to give him the death penalty. He has since changed his mind, which he attributes to medication for a bipolar disorder that was diagnosed in prison.

Several last-minute efforts to keep him alive failed, however. Gov. Haley Barbour denied a clemency request Wednesday afternoon. That left Bishop’s life in the hands of the U.S. Supreme Court, which denied three pending appeals filed by the inmate’s attorneys.

Barbour’s policy adviser Daryl Neely said Bishop expressed regret about the crime, saying “it was supposed to be a fight that went too far.”

Epps said Bishop spent some of the day “doing a lot of political talk” and discussing the intelligence levels of other death row inmates. Bishop’s parents, ex-wife, oldest brother and nephew visited him during the afternoon. A younger brother is also incarcerated in Mississippi and is serving time following a manslaughter conviction.

Bishop ate a last meal of pineapple supreme pizza, cherries and cream ice cream and four root beers. Epps said in his final hours Bishop was “very talkative, very active.”

Sixteen protesters rallied outside the Mississippi Delta prison, calling for the execution to be halted. The Rev. Greg Plata, of Greenwood, said it’s unfair that Bishop is being put to death when Johnson is not.

“They both should be given a life sentence,” Plata said.