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| Steven Woods |
Former drifter and drug dealer Steven Michael Woods was executed Tuesday evening for a double murder more than a decade ago north of Dallas.
Woods, 31, acknowledged he was present in May 2001 when Ronald Whitehead, 21, and Bethena Brosz, 19, were fatally shot and had their throats slashed near a golf course in Denton County but insisted he was not involved and blamed murders on another man, his friend Marcus Rhodes.
Woods was tried first for the slayings, was convicted and sentenced to die. Rhodes then pleaded guilty and accepted a life prison term, avoiding a possible death sentence.
In his last words, Woods told his mother he loved her, accused the state of committing a murder, and named his co-defendant, Marcus Rhodes, who pleaded guilty to murdering the couple and is serving a life sentence.
"You're not about to witness an execution. You are about to witness a murder. I am strapped down for something Marcus Rhodes did. I never killed nobody, ever," he said. "Justice has let me down. Somebody completely screwed this up. Well, Warden, if you're going to murder someone, go ahead and do it. Pull that trigger."
For his last meal, Woods requested bacon; a large pizza with bacon, sausage, pepperoni and hamburger; fried chicken breasts; chicken fried steak; hamburgers with bacon on French toast; garlic bread sticks; Mountain Dew, Pepsi, root beer and sweet tea; and ice cream.
Woods was pronounced dead at 6:22 p.m., 10 minutes after the lethal drugs began flowing into his arms.
About eight hours earlier, the U.S. Supreme Court rejected an appeal from his attorneys, clearing the way for the 10th execution in Texas this year. Another lethal injection is scheduled for Thursday and two more were set for next week.
Woods had argued before the high court his legal help early in the appeals process was deficient and kept him from raising a claim of jury bias from his trial. The justices, without comment, turned him down.
In an interview last week outside death row, Woods told The Associated Press he was terrified of execution, was optimistic it wouldn't happen but was "fairly realistic as well."
"I've seen a lot of my friends walk to the gurney," he said.
Woods becomes the 10th condemned inmate to be put to death this year in Texas and the 474th overall since the state resumed capital punishment on December 7, 1982. He is the 235th condemned inmate to be put to death since Rick Perry became Governor in 2001.
Woods becomes the 33rd condemned inmate to be put to death this year in the USA and the 1267th overall since the nation resumed executions on january 17, 1977.
Source: MICHAEL GRACZYK, Associated Press, Rick Halperin, Sept. 13, 2011
Lundbeck‘s Pentobarbital kills its 26th patient in Texas on September 13, 2011.
Once again Texas, under the cover of the law of parties, killed someone who did not kill, thanks to its best partner: Lundbeck’s Pentobarbital.
Lundbeck is now responsible for 26 of the 34 executions carried out so far in the United States since December 2010.
Eight more patients await Lundbeck’s treatment in September 2011:
Duan Buck, Texas, September 15, 2011
Cleve Foster, Texas, September 20, 2011
Troy Davis, Georgia, September 21, 2011
Lawrence Brewer, Texas, September 21, 2011
Derrick Mason, Alabama, September 22, 2011
David Jordan, Tennessee, September 27, 2011
Manuel Valle, Florida, September 28, 2011
Robert Flor, Pennsylvania, September 29, 2011
Source:
The Pentobarbital Experiment, Sept. 14, 2011
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