His last words were "I love you, everybody," after winking to his spiritual adviser, the Rev. Fred Ruse of St. Matthew Catholic Church in Winter Haven.

The family of victim Katixa "Kathy" Ecenarro witnessed the execution.

"They were nine long minutes, but justice was done," said Celia Ecenarro, stepmother of the child. "And that is the truth. Justice was done. I don't think he realized the amount of pain he caused."

Although the 14-year Death Row veteran confessed to slaying Ecenarro in December 1986, he denied it in a statement issued by his lawyer, Craig DeThomasis, after the execution.

"For those who are concerned, I didn't commit the crime for which I will die," Sanchez-Velasco wrote. "I cannot call myself totally innocent because I have committed all kinds of sin including murder."

While on Death Row, Sanchez-Velasco and fellow Cuban refugee Mario Lara killed two inmates in the exercise yard at the Starke prison. Charles Street, a Boynton Beach man condemned for killing two Metro-Dade police officers, and Hernando County serial killer Edward "Mike" Kaprat fell under the blades of the duo's makeshift shanks.

"I hate people. I don't like them," Sanchez-Velasco told a judge earlier this year. "I want to kill people. You understand?"

DeThomasis, who handled Sanchez-Velasco's case and witnessed the execution, said, "He was at peace with his decision. He has wanted to bring about his own death."

Since Florida reinstated the death penalty in 1976, 52 inmates have been executed, eight by lethal injection.

Also Wednesday, serial-killer Aileen Wuornos was found mentally competent by psychiatrists to be executed next week as originally planned, Gov. Jeb Bush said.

Bush lifted the temporary stay of execution he issued Monday for Wuornos because of questions raised about her mental condition. Three psychiatrists who interviewed her Tuesday reported she understood she would die and why she was being executed.

Wuornos, 46, was convicted of fatally shooting six middle-aged men along the highways of North and Central Florida in 1989 and 1990. Her story has been portrayed in two movies, three books and an opera. She is set to be executed at 9:30 a.m. Wednesday.

Bush had issued -- and lifted -- a similar stay for Sanchez-Velasco.

Sanchez-Velasco's execution came as the Florida Supreme Court is considering whether the state's death penalty is unconstitutional in light of a U.S. Supreme Court ruling in an Arizona case.

The federal court threw out Arizona's death penalty law because it gave a judge, rather than a jury, the power to impose the death penalty.

Florida law allows a jury to hear the facts and recommend a sentence to a judge, who makes the final decision.

Five states' death penalty laws were tossed out by the ruling. Florida is one of four states whose laws were thrown into question.

Susan Cary, a Gainesville attorney who works with Death Row inmates, said the execution of Sanchez-Velasco and the scheduled death of Wuornos were political moves by the governor.

"These are the only two people he could have hoped to kill by November," she said. Bush faces a reelection vote Nov. 5.

The Associated Press contributed to this story.