Texas is scheduled to carry out its 12th execution of the year, tonight in Huntsville. It would be the state's 459th execution since 1982. Texas has far and away the most active death chamber in America, accounting for more than 37% of the nation's post-Furman executions.
To date, there have been 24 executions in the nation in 2010, and 1,212 executions since 1977.
The AP reports, "About to be executed for 1993 slaying, man sticks to story," via the Dallas Morning News.
Authorities linked George Jones to numerous crimes in the Dallas area, mostly carjackings, and Jones admits he dealt drugs around the city.
But the 36-year-old Dallas man says he "accidentally" shot Forest Hall once in self-defense and isn't responsible for the fatal shooting and carjacking that put Jones on death row. He's scheduled to be executed this evening in Huntsville.
"I wasn't there when the dude got shot," Jones said of the April 13, 1993, slaying of the 22-year-old Hall, whose body was found beside a rural road near Lancaster . The Parkland Memorial Hospital worker had been shot twice in the head.
"I wasn't involved. I didn't do it – period," Jones said from a small visiting cage outside death row at the Texas Department of Criminal Justice Polunsky Unit.
Greg Davis, who prosecuted him for capital murder, called Jones' innocence claims "absolute falsity."
Jones' appeals were exhausted and no last-minute attempts to stop the punishment were planned, his lawyer said.
Houston's KPFT-FM will host Execution Watch on the web and it's HD radio broadcast signal beginning at 6:00 p.m. (CDT), tonight.
According to TDCJ, six more executions are scheduled in Texas during 2010, including two more this month. More execution dates will likely be set by state district courts this year.
Karl Keys at Capital Defense Weekly notes execution dates in Texas and other states.
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