STARKE - A convicted killer who did not try to block his execution with a last-minute appeal said in his final statement that he was receiving his just penalty.

"This is the punishment that I deserve. I am taking responsibility for my actions," Glen Ocha, 47, said speaking calmly while strapped to a gurney moments before a lethal mix of chemicals began to flow.

Ocha closed his eyes and breathed deeply before he was pronounced dead by lethal injection at 6:10 p.m. Tuesday at Florida State Prison in Bradford County. He was put to death after entering a guilty plea to first-degree murder in the 1999 death of Carol Skjerva, 28, in Osceola County.

Ocha's death brought protests from capital punishment opponents who called the execution another in a series of "state-assisted suicides." Gov. Jeb Bush also said he had considered postponing the death sentence out of respect for Pope John Paul II but decided against it due to Skjerva's family.

"I have a duty to carry out the law, and in this case I actually was prepared to delay the execution out of courtesy for and respect for the pope's passing," Bush said. "But I also have a duty to have sympathy for the victims."

Bush is a Roman Catholic, and the pope, who died Saturday, had long opposed the death penalty.

"I think he's mocking the pope by going forward with this," said Abe Bonowitz, director of Floridians for Alternatives to the Death Penalty, about Bush's comments.

Bonowitz, who was among about 40 death penalty protesters who stood outside the prison Tuesday night, also noted that seven of the 16 inmates previously executed under death warrants signed by Bush had dropped appeals instead of fighting execution.

"You and me and everybody in this state are being asked to help this guy commit suicide," Bonowitz said. "A real punishment would be having to wake up every day and realizing that your liberty has been severely limited until you die naturally."

But, in a statement from Ocha read after the execution by his standby counsel Gregory Hill of Tampa, Ocha said his death was not a suicide.

"Some have suggested that my decisions are nothing more than a suicide assisted by the state. They are wrong. I have made my peace with my God and go now to face his judgment," Hill read from Ocha's statement.

Ocha, who had changed his name to Raven Raven while in Kentucky, also apologized both in the written statement and in the execution chamber to Skjerva, her family and friends for her death.

Ocha choked Skjerva, a convenience store employee, then hanged her from a kitchen door when his arms became tired. He had become angry after they had sex after meeting at a Kissimmee bar and she called him names, telling him she would have her boyfriend beat him up, court records state. Before attacking the woman, Ocha had been drinking and had taken Ecstasy.

Previously convicted in Kentucky of attempted premeditated murder and robbery with a firearm, Ocha had a past of alcohol and drug use, according to court records. The same records also document a history of "suicidal thinking," including a 1978 incident with police where he told officers "shoot me, I want to die" and then later tried to hang himself in jail using a jacket.

Before the execution, Bonowitz also called Bush's stance on the death penalty and the Terri Schiavo case "hypocritical."

"He's willing to impose his beliefs into the politics and try to change the law on those situations like Terri Schiavo and abortion. But on the death penalty, he claims to be upholding the law and doing his job."

The governor intervened in the Schiavo case when, in 2003, he pushed through a state law that authorized him to order that the brain-damaged woman's feeding tube be reinserted.

Schiavo's parents, Bob and Mary Schindler, had disputed claims by her husband, Michael Schiavo, that she did not want to be kept alive artificially and that her feeding tube should be removed. Ultimately, her husband prevailed in an ensuing court case over what should happen regarding Terri Schiavo.

The 41-year-old died last week, 13 days after her feeding tube was removed on March 18.

Lise Fisher can be reached at 374-5092 or fisherl@ gvillesun.com. The Associated Press contributed to this report.