WASHINGTON - A convicted murderer was executed in the electric chair Tuesday in Virginia, one of a handful of US states that give inmates the rare choice of how to die.

Larry Elliott, 60, was the first person put to death by electrocution since June of last year when a man was executed in the state of South Carolina, which along with Virginia allows death row inmates to choose between electrocution and lethal injection.

The electric chair is considered cruel and unusual punishment by a majority of US states.

Elliott was sentenced to death for the 2001 murder of a 25-year-old woman and to life in prison for killing her 30-year-old former husband. Elliot knew his victims through a woman he met on the Internet.

The murder weapon was never found, and until the end Elliott insisted he was innocent of the crimes.

"Death was pronounced at 9:08 pm. There were no complications," Virginia Department of Corrections spokesman Larry Traylor said.

After Texas, Virginia has executed the most inmates since the US Supreme Court reinstated the death penalty in 1976. Elliott was the third convict put to death in the state since the start of the year and number 105 since 1976.

One week ago Virginia executed by lethal injection John Muhammad, known as the Washington sniper for leading a reign of terror in 2002 that claimed 10 lives and left the US capital paralyzed in fear for three weeks.