A man convicted of murdering his wife and daughter in 2010 has been executed in the United States. The 51-year-old was given a lethal injection in the city of Huntsville, Texas on Tuesday. According to the competent authority, he was pronounced dead at 7:07 p.m. local time.
Fourteen years ago, the man stabbed his wife and drowned their six-year-old daughter in a bathtub. According to media reports, on the morning of the crime he found his wife’s letter of separation and then announced that “five lives would be wiped out”. However, he did not kill his wife’s two sons, aged nine and twelve. Instead, he tried to take his own life.
The man’s lawyers fought to the last to have the death sentence overturned. They argued, among other things, with the alleged psychological impairments of their client.
It is the seventh death sentence carried out in the United States this year. Most recently, in early February in Texas, an African American convicted of triple murder was executed – although his lawyer had complained about racial prejudice in the trial against the 54-year-old. A number of US states are sticking to the death penalty despite massive criticism.
Another man is scheduled to be executed in Texas on Thursday. The death row inmate is convicted of four counts of murder. He denies the crime.
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