Disabled death row inmate's bizarre request, final words before being executed

Child killer Frank Atwood.

A disabled death row inmate made a bizarre final request just hours before he was executed for killing an 8-year-old girl.

Frank Atwood, 66, was convicted for murdering Vicki Lynne Hoskinson who disappeared while cycling to post a birthday card to her aunty in Arizona.

For months her disappearance was a mystery until her body was discovered in the Arizona desert seven months later.

After initially refusing a final meal because he was "fasting", Atwood then did a dramatic u-turn and requested a bizarre array of foods before being executed.

Atwood's last meal included peanut butter and jelly, salami, mustard, wheat bread and chips, washed down with water and juice.

Witnesses said he tried to speak to God during his final moments.

Before being executed by lethal injection, Atwood thanked the priest "for coming today and shepherding me into the faith", adding "I pray the Lord will have mercy on all of us and that the Lord will have mercy on me."

Prison officials claim he "did not apologise in his last words" and believe he "seemed to accept his fate".

IVs were put in both his arms, taking 12 minutes before he was pronounced dead.

Atwood maintained his innocence and his lawyers made multiple failed attempts to halt his execution.

US District Judge Michael Liburdi decided to go ahead with the execution despite Atwood insisting that the state's death penalty procedures would violate his constitutional rights.

Atwood was left in a wheelchair due to a degenerative spinal condition.

His lawyers argued he would undergo excruciating suffering if he was strapped to a gurney during the execution.

His victim's family and friends showed their support outside the prison to pay tribute to Vicki Lynne.

"I feel like it will be a part of a closure for my childhood," Stacy Davis, a childhood friend of Vicki Lynne, told AZ Central.