Convicted Killer in S.C. Executed by Injection

COLUMBIA, S.C. — A man who said he was just taking care of business in 1987 when he killed three people, including one he choked with a dog chain, was executed by injection early Friday.

Michael Torrence, 35, who had waived his appeals, expressed no remorse for killing two men during a 1987 robbery and a prostitute a month later. “When I take care of business, I don’t cut anybody any slack,” he had told the (Columbia) State on Wednesday.

Torrence killed Dennis Lollis and Charles Bush in Midlands in February 1987. He stabbed Lollis as many as 19 times and choked Bush with a dog chain. He later shot Cynthia Williams, a Charleston, S.C., prostitute who he said was his girlfriend.