1,000 government murders will have occured since 1977 when the state of north carolina murders this man today. Original Article N.C. man set to be No. 1,000 executed U.S. reinstated penalty in 1977 Estes Thompson Associated Press Dec. 2, 2005 12:00 AM RALEIGH, N.C. - A man who killed his wife and father-in-law awaited lethal injection early today in the nation's 1,000th execution since capital punishment resumed in 1977. Kenneth Lee Boyd, set to die at 2 a.m., spent the day receiving visitors. Among those expected to visit were two sons who watched Boyd gun down their mother and grandfather in 1988. Late Thursday, Gov. Mike Easley denied Boyd's clemency request. Earlier in the day, the U.S. Supreme Court and the 4th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals rejected final appeals by Boyd's lawyers. Larger-than-normal crowds of protesters were expected at the prison in Raleigh, and vigils were planned across the state. Prison officials planned to tighten security. The defense unsuccesfully sought clemency from Easley, a Democrat. The governor granted condemned inmates clemency only twice in nearly five years in office, during which time 22 inmates have been put to death. Boyd, 57, did not deny that he shot and killed Julie Curry Boyd, 36, and her father, 57-year-old Thomas Dillard Curry. Family members said Boyd stalked his estranged wife after they separated following 13 stormy years of marriage and once sent a son to her house with a bullet and a threatening note. During the slayings, Boyd's son Christopher was pinned under his mother's body as Boyd unloaded a .357-Magnum into her. The boy pushed his way under a bed to escape the barrage. Another son grabbed the pistol while Boyd tried to reload. The U.S. Supreme Court in 1976 ruled that capital punishment could resume after a 10-year moratorium. The first execution took place the following year, when Gary Gilmore went before a firing squad in Utah. In Arizona, 22 people have been executed since the U.S. Supreme Court reinstituted the death penalty. Since 1910, Arizona has executed 86 prisoners, according to the state Department of Corrections. The last inmate executed in Arizona was Donald Jay Miller, who was put to death by lethal injection on Nov. 8, 2000, for shooting a woman to death in Tucson in 1992. There currently are 107 inmates, including two women, on Arizona's death row. Boyd spent his likely last hours Thursday visiting family and eating his final meal, a strip steak, baked potato with sour cream, green salad with ranch dressing, a roll with butter and a Pepsi. Boyd told the Associated Press in a prison interview that he wants no part of the infamous distinction of being No. 1,000. "I'd hate to be remembered as that," Boyd said. "I don't like the idea of being picked as a number." The 1,001st could come tonight , when South Carolina plans to put Shawn Humphries to death for the 1994 murder of a store clerk. In Boyd's plea for clemency, his attorneys argued his experiences in Vietnam - where as a bulldozer operator he was shot at by snipers daily - contributed to his crimes. As the execution neared, Boyd was visited by a son from a previous marriage, who did not witness the slayings. Smith's wife planned to witness the execution, as did two other family members of the victims. Republic reporter Judi Villa contributed to this article.