"Texas executes man who killed ex-wife, her brother," is the AP report filed by Michael Graczyk.
A man convicted of gunning down his former common-law wife and her brother more than two decades ago in Houston was put to death by lethal injection Wednesday evening.
Willie Trottie's execution was carried out about 90 minutes after the U.S. Supreme Court rejected his last-day appeals. He had contended he had poor legal help at his trial and questioned the potency of the execution drug.
Trottie repeatedly expressed love to witnesses - both people he selected and relatives of his victims, Barbara and Titus Canada - and several times asked for forgiveness as he was about to be executed.
"I love you all," he said. "I'm going home, going to be with the Lord. ... Find it in your hearts to forgive me. I'm sorry."
As the lethal dose of the powerful sedative pentobarbital took effect, he closed his eyes and breathed quietly. After about eight breaths, he opened his mouth to exhale, then closed it. There was no further movement.
Trottie, 45, was pronounced dead at 6:35 p.m. CDT - 22 minutes after the injection began.
His was the eighth lethal injection this year in Texas, and the first in the nation's most active death penalty state since recent executions went awry in Oklahoma and Arizona.
There have been 29 executions in American death penalty states this year; a total of 1,388 post-Furman executions since 1977.
Earlier coverage from Texas begins at the link.
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