A religious cult leader was executed Tuesday in Ohio for murdering five of his followers, including a seven-year-old girl.

Jeffrey Lundgren, 56, died after receiving a lethal injection at the Southern Ohio Correctional Facility in Lucasville, about 100 kilometres west of Cincinnati.

"I profess my love for God, my family, for my children, for Kathy [his wife]. I am because you are," Lundgren said in his final statement.

He was convicted in 1990 of murdering the Avery family, 49-year-old Dennis Avery; his wife, Cheryl, 46; and their daughters, Trina, 15, Rebecca, 13, and Karen, seven.

He admitted at his trial that he had been angered by what he thought was the Avery family's lack of faith. He said he had arranged a dinner hosted by cult members. Afterward, he and his followers led the Averys one by one — the father first, young Karen last — to their deaths while the others unknowingly cleaned up after dinner

Lundgren argued in court that he was a prophet of God and therefore not eligible for the death penalty.

"It's not a figment of my imagination that I can in fact talk to God, that I can hear his voice," he had told the jurors. "I am a prophet of God. I am even more than a prophet."

Lundgren formed the cult with about 20 members in the northeast Ohio town of Kirtland after he was dismissed in 1987 as a lay minister of the Reorganized Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints, an offshoot of the Mormon church.

Lundgren's attorneys had tried to put off the execution, arguing that he should be allowed to join a lawsuit challenging Ohio's use of lethal injection as cruel and unusual punishment. They said his execution had more of a chance of being painful because he was diabetic and overweight at 125 kilograms.

Late Monday, the Sixth U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals in Cincinnati issued an order allowing the execution to go forward. The U.S. Supreme Court refused a last-minute request to stop his execution Tuesday, and Gov. Bob Taft denied clemency.