Tweet
Texas Executes 300th Inmate
Texas Executes 300th Convict in 20 Years
By MICHAEL GRACZYK, Associated Press Writer
HUNTSVILLE, Texas - Condemned murderer Keith Clay became a footnote in the history of capital punishment as the 300th prisoner executed since the state resumed the death penalty 20 years ago.
Clay's execution Thursday, the 11th this year in Texas, came a week after another inmate, Delma Banks, got within 10 minutes of lethal injection before he was spared by a U.S. Supreme Court reprieve.
Clay, however, had no similar good fortune.
The high court refused to review his case a week ago, there were no last-ditch appeals filed on his behalf and the Texas parole board wouldn't even consider his clemency request because it was filed 15 days too late.
While strapped to the death chamber gurney, Clay asked God to "forgive me of every single solitary sin I have committed."
He also asked for forgiveness from three members of his victim's family, who watched through a nearby window.
"I am truly sorry, and there is not a day that I have not prayed for you," he said.
Turning to his mother, he said, "Let everyone know that I love them."
She flashed him two thumbs up just before the drugs took effect. Eight minutes later, at 6:23 p.m., he was pronounced dead.
Clay's injection keeps Texas, which resumed the death penalty 20 years ago, on a pace to surpass the record 40 lethal injections carried out in 2000. Another is scheduled for next week and three more in April.
Texas accounts for more than one-third of the 839 executions in the United States since 1976 when the death penalty resumed under a Supreme Court ruling. Virginia is second with 87.
It took nearly 13 years for Texas to reach 100 executions, four years to get to No. 200 and now, as the appeals process has become more streamlined, just over three years to reach the 300th.
Clay's execution failed to generate the kind of attention Banks' case received last week. Banks contended he was wrongly convicted of a 1980 slaying near Texarkana. His appeals were bolstered by the backing of three former federal judges, including former FBI director William Sessions.
On Thursday evening outside the Huntsville Unit, the prison where executions are carried out, eight death penalty protesters gathered quietly, then dispersed quickly after witnesses emerged, a signal that Clay had died.
Clay was convicted of the 1994 killing of store clerk Melathethil Tom Varughese during a $2,000 robbery of a convenience store in Baytown, just east of Houston.
Clay acknowledged being a drug dealer but he denied participating in the killing. Prosecutors also linked Clay to the fatal shootings of three people, including two children, on Christmas Eve in 1993. He denied any role in the killings and was not tried, but a companion was sent to death row for the crime.
Clay said he was outside the Baytown store where Varughese worked and in a car when the clerk was gunned down on Jan. 4, 1994. A witness, however, identified Clay as the gunman. Evidence showed his gun was one of the two used in the shooting.
Note
Eight more executions are currently scheduled through July.
By MICHAEL GRACZYK, Associated Press Writer
HUNTSVILLE, Texas - Condemned murderer Keith Clay became a footnote in the history of capital punishment as the 300th prisoner executed since the state resumed the death penalty 20 years ago.
Clay's execution Thursday, the 11th this year in Texas, came a week after another inmate, Delma Banks, got within 10 minutes of lethal injection before he was spared by a U.S. Supreme Court reprieve.
Clay, however, had no similar good fortune.
The high court refused to review his case a week ago, there were no last-ditch appeals filed on his behalf and the Texas parole board wouldn't even consider his clemency request because it was filed 15 days too late.
While strapped to the death chamber gurney, Clay asked God to "forgive me of every single solitary sin I have committed."
He also asked for forgiveness from three members of his victim's family, who watched through a nearby window.
"I am truly sorry, and there is not a day that I have not prayed for you," he said.
Turning to his mother, he said, "Let everyone know that I love them."
She flashed him two thumbs up just before the drugs took effect. Eight minutes later, at 6:23 p.m., he was pronounced dead.
Clay's injection keeps Texas, which resumed the death penalty 20 years ago, on a pace to surpass the record 40 lethal injections carried out in 2000. Another is scheduled for next week and three more in April.
Texas accounts for more than one-third of the 839 executions in the United States since 1976 when the death penalty resumed under a Supreme Court ruling. Virginia is second with 87.
It took nearly 13 years for Texas to reach 100 executions, four years to get to No. 200 and now, as the appeals process has become more streamlined, just over three years to reach the 300th.
Clay's execution failed to generate the kind of attention Banks' case received last week. Banks contended he was wrongly convicted of a 1980 slaying near Texarkana. His appeals were bolstered by the backing of three former federal judges, including former FBI director William Sessions.
On Thursday evening outside the Huntsville Unit, the prison where executions are carried out, eight death penalty protesters gathered quietly, then dispersed quickly after witnesses emerged, a signal that Clay had died.
Clay was convicted of the 1994 killing of store clerk Melathethil Tom Varughese during a $2,000 robbery of a convenience store in Baytown, just east of Houston.
Clay acknowledged being a drug dealer but he denied participating in the killing. Prosecutors also linked Clay to the fatal shootings of three people, including two children, on Christmas Eve in 1993. He denied any role in the killings and was not tried, but a companion was sent to death row for the crime.
Clay said he was outside the Baytown store where Varughese worked and in a car when the clerk was gunned down on Jan. 4, 1994. A witness, however, identified Clay as the gunman. Evidence showed his gun was one of the two used in the shooting.
Note
Eight more executions are currently scheduled through July.
Comment