A repentant South Carolina drifter was executed Wednesday evening for strangling, robbing and raping an Amarillo woman a few months after he had been paroled from prison.
Tony Roach spoke for several minutes, his voice cracking at times and a tear at the corner of his eye. He repeatedly sought forgiveness from the fiance and the daughter of his victim, who stood a few feet away looking through a window.
Saying that he was to blame for the killing, Roach said he knew the victim was "in a good place."
"I can't agree with this justice the state is carrying out but I accept it and I'm sorry," he said. "I have no ill will toward anyone carrying out this so-called justice. I leave y'all in God's care."
He was pronounced dead at 6:22 p.m., nine minutes after the lethal flow of drugs began.
Roach, 30, was the 24th condemned inmate put to death this year in the nation's most active capital punishment state. The total equals the number of executions carried out in Texas all of last year. Four other inmates are set to die this month.
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