ARNOLD SCHWARZENEGGER - SCHWARZENEGGER ALLOWS KILLER'S EXECUTION

California governor ARNOLD SCHWARZENEGGER has refused to spare the life of a triple murderer, who today (19JAN05) became the first person in the state to be executed in three years.

DONALD BEARDSLEE, 61, has been on death row since 1984, when he admitted killing two women in a dispute over drugs in 1981.

At the time of the murders, Beardslee - who was killed by lethal injection - was on parole after serving seven years for a 1969 murder of another woman.

But THE TERMINATOR star Schwarzenegger upheld the sentence.

He said, "The state and federal courts have affirmed his conviction and death sentence, and nothing in his petition or the record of his case convinces me that he did not understand the gravity of his actions."

Two hundred people gathered outside San Quentin prison to protest against the execution.