On Tuesday, December 4, executed another member of the «Texas seven» — a group of prisoners who in 2000 escaped from prison and later shot a police officer in a sporting goods store.
47-year-old Joseph Garcia was declared dead at 18.43 local time. He was injected with a lethal injection in the death chamber in Huntsville (TX).
As representatives of the correctional institution, the last words of the convicted were the words of Christ: «Forgive them Lord, for they know not what they do».
Previously, the U.S. Supreme court rejected several applications for replacing Garcia penalty to life imprisonment. Not pardoned him and the Governor of Texas.
13 Dec 2000, Joseph Garcia, already serving a 50 year sentence for murder, along with 6 other prisoners escaped from prison. 11 days later, on Christmas eve, escaped convicts robbed a sporting goods store in Irving. On the scene arrived the first 31-year-old police officer Aubrey Hawkins was shot.
A month later, the «Texas seven» was arrested in Colorado, one of the caught committed suicide.
Death Garcia sentenced only in 2013, after years of litigation. Three other participants in Texas had executed Seven, two more are in death row in Texas. Joseph Garcia became the 12th inmate executed since the beginning of 2018 in Texas, and 22nd in the USA.
See also: Sentenced joked before his execution: «Sorry for the delay, I got stuck in traffic».
