“It is very sad and profoundly unjust that the State of South Dakota today executed Charles Rhines, a gay man, without any court ever hearing the evidence of gay bias that infected the jury’s decision to sentence him to death,” his lawyer Shawn Nolan said.

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According to a court filing on Rhines’ behalf, a juror who voted for the death penalty said that “we also knew that (Rhines) was a homosexual and thought that he shouldn’t be able to spend his life with men in prison”.

Another said that “there was lots of discussion of homosexuality” and “a lot of disgust,” according to the document.

“Anti-gay prejudice should never have any role in sentencing a man to death,” said Nolan.

Rhines’ case gained the backing of the powerful American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU), whose senior lawyer Ria Tabacco Mar cited Supreme Court Chief Justice John Roberts as saying “our law punishes people for what they do, not who they are”.

Last year, Rhines’ defence team appealed to the Supreme Court to take up the case and expand on a 2017 ruling that allowed it to examine secret jury deliberations in cases where there were strong grounds to suspect racial prejudice.

But the Supreme Court declined to do so, without giving a reason for the decision.

“Both racial prejudice and anti-gay prejudice have no place in the criminal justice system. Both undermine public confidence in the fairness of the system, particularly when jurors must decide between life imprisonment and death,” said Nolan.

The South Dakota attorney general’s office, however, said that the jury decided to impose the death penalty after hearing a recording of Rhines’ confession, and not because of his sexual orientation.

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“The jurors have stated they were moved to a death sentence by the calloused and gruesome nature of the murder and, most of all, by Rhines’ blood-curdling confession, in which he cackles while comparing (his victim’s) death spasms to a beheaded chicken running around a barnyard.”

Rhines used his last words Monday to speak directly to the parents of his victim, saying he forgave them “for your anger and hatred towards me”.

“Ed and Peggy Schaeffer, I forgive you for your anger and hatred toward me,” Rhines said, before thanking his defence team.

“I pray to God that he forgives you for your anger and hatred toward me. Thanks to my team. I love you all, goodbye. Let’s go. That’s all I have to say. Goodbye.”

Media witnesses to the execution said Rhines appeared calm, and it took only about a minute for the pentobarbital used by the state to take effected. They said when he finished speaking, he closed his eyes, then blinked, breathed heavily and died.

The Schaeffers made clear they didn’t want to talk about Rhines. Patty Schaeffer appeared before reporters holding a photo of her two sons, including Donnivan, as children and then displayed a graduation photo of him.

“We were so blessed to have this young man in our family and in our life,” she said.

“Today is the day that we talk about Donnivan, the guy who loved his family, his fiancé, and his friends.”

Rhines became only the fifth South Dakota inmate put to death since the US Supreme Court upheld the constitutionally of the capital punishment in 1976. He was one of only three inmates on the state’s death row.

Additional reporting by Reuters and Associated Press