Members of Saint Louis University’s Students For Life held a prayer vigil and peacefully protested Missouri’s first death-penalty execution this year.

James Henry Hampton, a two-time killer who served four years on death row, was pronounced dead at 12:05 a.m. on Wednesday. Hampton, 62, died of lethal injection at the state prison in Potosi, Mo.

Before the execution, approximately 30 students attended a candlelight prayer vigil held Tuesday evening from 8 to 9 p.m. at the courthouse in downtown St. Louis. The students joined other members of the St. Louis community peacefully protesting Hampton’s execution.

Following the vigil and rosary, several of the students in attendance drove to the Potosi prison.

A group of death penalty opponents, led by the Missouri Catholic Conference, had sought clemency for Hampton, but the request was denied by Governor Mel Carnahan earlier that evening. Opponents to Hampton’s execution argued that Hampton was incapable of sound judgment, as he had suffered a self-inflicted gun shot wound to the brain.

Hampton was sentenced for the murders of Frances Keaton in Warrenton, Mo., and Christine Schurman in New Jersey in September 1992. He was captured on Dec. 19, 1992, after being featured on the television show “America’s Most Wanted.