TERRE HAUTE, IND. ? A Gulf War veteran who raped and killed a female soldier was put to death by injection Tuesday after failing to win clemency with his claim that exposure to Iraqi nerve gas led to his crime.

In a statement read by his lawyer, Louis Jones Jr. said he accepted full responsibility for the “pain, anguish and the suffering” he caused the private’s family.

Jones was executed at the U.S. Penitentiary near Terre Haute after President Bush and the U.S. Supreme Court refused his two final requests that they intervene.

Jones, who had no previous criminal record, admitted he kidnapped 19-year-old Pvt. Tracie Joy McBride from an Air Force base in Texas, raped her and beat her to death with a tire iron.

His attorneys said exposure to the gas caused severe brain damage that led him to kill. The issue was not raised at Jones’ trial because he became aware of the exposure only afterward.

Jones was the third person — after Oklahoma City bomber Timothy McVeigh and drug kingpin Juan Garza — put to death by the federal government since it resumed executions in 2001 after a 38-year suspension.

“Today was a day of justice for Tracie,” said Irene McBride, the victim’s mother.

“The healing is not over; it’s just beginning,” she said.

Assistant U.S. Atty. Tanya Pierce, who prosecuted Jones and witnessed the execution, said she expects other veterans will copy Jones’ claims of Gulf War syndrome.

“Although I am not trying to minimize any illnesses people may have had, it is an insult to thousands and thousands of people who went over there, who did their patriotic duty and came back as law-abiding citizens,” Pierce said.

“For anybody to take this situation that we’re in right now and to use that to try to help a murderer and a rapist, it is pretty despicable in my mind,” Pierce said.