Photo: The Canadian Press

Montgomery police officer Anderson Gordon

The convicted killer of a police officer used his final moments before being put to death to curse at the state of Alabama, raising his middle fingers in defiance at the start of a lethal injection his lawyers described as inhumanely painful.

Torrey Twane McNabb, 40, was executed Thursday for the 1997 slaying of Montgomery police officer Anderson Gordon. McNabb shot Gordon five times as the officer sat in his patrol car after arriving at a traffic accident McNabb caused while fleeing a bail bondsman.

McNabb's attorney said Friday that his movements during the middle of the execution, that included moving his arm and rolling his head back and forth after a consciousness check, showed problems with the sedative used by the state. Alabama Department of Corrections Commissioner Jeff Dunn said he was confident that McNabb was unconscious and the movements were involuntary.

While strapped to the gurney in the death chamber at a southwest Alabama prison, McNabb used his final words to lash out with an obscenity at the state executing him.

"Mom, Sis, look at my eyes. I got no tears in my eyes. I'm unafraid. ... To the state of Alabama, I hate you ... I hate you. I hate you," McNabb said as the warden held a microphone for him to speak.