RELATED: Missouri inmate executed for killing man over child support payments. Asked to make a final statement, Garza said he was sorry for causing pain to his family, friends and "especially police officers.".
Texas carries out the death penalty more than any other state. Garza was the first inmate executed with a new supply of pentobarbital recently obtained by Texas Department of Criminal Justice officials that would allow his and two other lethal injections scheduled for this month to be carried out.
The Texas Attorney General admitted that the inmate “seemed to have a somewhat stronger reaction,” than other executed prisoners, adding “The drugs might have been administered in a heavier dose and more rapidly.” 220. Charles Walker, executed in Illinois on September 12, 1990.
The state later attributed the difficulty in finding a suitable vein to Rector’s heavy weight and to his use of an antipsychotic medication. 222. John Wayne Gacy, executed in Illinois on May 10, 1994.
Emmit Foster, executedin Missouri on May 3, 1995. Seven minutes after the lethal chemicals began to flow into Foster’s arm, the chemicals stopped flowing through the tube. With Foster gasping and convulsing, the execution was halted, and the blinds covering the window between the witnesses and Foster were drawn. The execution proceeded behind the blinds. Thirty minutes later, Foster was pronounced dead. Three minutes later the curtains were opened so the witnesses could view the corpse. The coroner who pronounced Foster dead explained that Foster had been too tightly strapped to the gurney, restricting the flow of the chemicals into his veins. A corrections staff member, upon the coroner’s recommendation, finally loosened the straps, and Foster died several minutes after that. 224
Stephen McCoy, executed in Texas on May 24, 1989. McCoy had a violent physical reaction to the lethal injection drugs. During the execution, his chest heaved up and down as he gasped for breath, choked, and arched his back up and off the gurney.
Witnesses reported hearing at least one “groan” from Landry from behind the curtain. Twenty-four minutes after the intravenous drugs were injected, and forty minutes after being strapped to the execution gurney, Landry was pronounced dead.
Charles Walker, executed in Illinois on September 12, 1990. According to Gary Sutterfield, an engineer from Missouri State Prison retained by the State of Illinois to assist in Walker’s execution, a kink in the plastic tubing going into the inmate’s arm stopped the chemicals from reaching Walker. In addition, the intravenous needle was incorrectly inserted pointing at Walker’s fingers instead of his heart. The incorrect insertion delayed the flow of drugs to Walker’s heart, prolonging the execution. 221
Raymond Landry, executed in Texas on December 13, 1988. Two minutes after the injection of the drugs into Landry began, the catheter dislodged out of his vein and flew through the air. Officials pulled the curtain separating the witnesses from the inmate.
In their federal civil rights suit, Young's lawyers argued a white Texas inmate, Thomas Whitaker, received a rare commutation earlier this year as his execution was imminent for the slaying of his mother and brother. Young is black and race improperly "appears to be the driving force in this case," attorney David Dow said in the appeal that sought to delay the punishment.
Young's attorneys sued the Texas Board of Pardons and Paroles after the panel last week rejected a clemency plea where they argued Young was "no longer the young man he was when he arrived" on death row, that he was "truly remorseful" and that Patel's son did not wish the execution to take place.
Mitesh Patel, whose father was killed by Young, said he supported Young's clemency bid because "nothing positive comes from his execution" and carrying out the punishment would leave Young's three teenage daughters without a father.
Stephen Hoffman, an assistant Texas attorney general, said the lawsuit was a delay tactic, improper, speculative and "legally and factually deficient."
Circuit Court of Appeals turned down an appeal of that ruling. Young's attorneys did not take the case to the U.S. Supreme Court.
From prison, he denied the sexual assault, although court records said DNA tests confirmed the attack. He said he shot Patel in the hand and the bullet careened into Patel's chest, killing him. The surveillance camera recorded both video and audio of the shooting and two customers in the parking lot identified Young as the shooter.
RELATED: Missouri inmate executed for killing man over child support payments. Asked to make a final statement, Garza said he was sorry for causing pain to his family, friends and "especially police officers.".
Texas carries out the death penalty more than any other state. Garza was the first inmate executed with a new supply of pentobarbital recently obtained by Texas Department of Criminal Justice officials that would allow his and two other lethal injections scheduled for this month to be carried out.