Strapped to a gurney and with a needle in his outstretched, tattooed arm, Jason Byram, in the last seconds of his life, looked at Peggy Ferrell and mouthed some words to her.

Ferrell, mother of slain schoolteacher Julie Johnson, had a front row seat Friday to Byram’s execution. She surmised what Byram said was an apology, an expression of regret for stabbing her daughter with a butcher knife nearly 11 years ago.

“I just nodded my head and thanked him,” Ferrell said.

Prison officials pronounced Byram dead at 6:15 p.m. He was executed for fatally stabbing the Harbison West Elementary teacher at her Rosewood home in May 1993.

Johnson, 36, was married and the mother of three.

Inside the death chamber, Byram’s attorney Jay Elliott read a statement attributed to Byram:

“While I maintain my innocence, I do want to express my condolences to the family of Mrs. Johnson, and I fully understand they only seek justice for their daughter.”

In the statement, Byram also expressed his appreciation to the S.C. Department of Corrections concerning his treatment. It concluded with a reading of John 3:16 and the words, “I believe.”

Byram then turned his head to the left and mouthed a few words to the witnesses. He then looked up, blinked sleepily, and began to breathe through his slightly closed mouth.

Within 30 seconds, about five minutes after 6 p.m., he stopped blinking and stared at the ceiling.

“Justice was done for the citizens of South Carolina, not for me, not for my family,” said Johnson’s husband, Jeff Johnson. “Due process was done here, and everybody should be proud that 11 years of due process was done.”

About a dozen death penalty protesters gathered outside the department’s administrative offices on Broad River Road before the execution.

Byram’s friend, Cindy Macias, described Byram as a “very gentle, loving person.”

“He admits to being there, having been at the house,” she said. “He’s convinced somebody else did the crime.”

Prosecutors said Johnson was dozing on her couch early one morning when Byram broke her kitchen window, took her purse and stole her van.

Hours later, Byram came back to steal a TV and VCR. When Johnson awoke, Byram stabbed her with a butcher knife.

Nearly two years later, it took just over an hour for a jury to recommend a death sentence for the Beaufort native. Just before the jury made its decision, his attorneys said Byram bounced from home to home as a baby and later developed emotional problems.

Friday’s execution came one day after the state Supreme Court denied Byram’s request to stay his execution and review his death sentence.

Byram was the third S.C. inmate put to death this year and the 31st since the state resumed executions in 1985. Of the more than 65 inmates on death row, none were convicted in Richland County.

Reach Gonzales at (803) 771-8405 or jgonzales@thestate.com