�To the family of Alyssa Vasquez, I hope you will find peace in your heart. My sympathy goes out to you,� he said with his eyes closed and head straight, strapped to the gurney. �I hope you find it in your heart to forgive me. I don't know why all of this happened.�

Guadalupe Esparza was executed Wednesday for raping and strangling a 7-year-old girl, then leaving her body in tall grass next to her mother's apartment on San Antonio's West Side, where he snatched her on a June night in 1999.

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I don't know why all of this happened.?

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How about because he was a sick #$@#%$@#%!

As the lethal injection took its course, reporters heard him say, "This stuff stinks, man. Almighty," although a state transcript released minutes later quoted it as, "This stuff stings, man."

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"You are about to witness the execution of a wrongly convicted and innocent man," Waterhouse said. He blamed his conviction on corrupt prosecutors, a prejudiced judge and a "rubber-stamp" appellate system. "The state broke its own law in destroying DNA evidence in my case so I could not prove my innocence.

"To my wife and family, I want to say I love you all and that's it," he said."

Waterhouse was convicted in 1980 of murdering Deborah Kammerer of St. Petersburg, whose body was found in the tidal flats of Tampa Bay. She'd been beaten, raped and dragged into the bay, where she drowned.

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Oh, and one more thing...

He had previously pleaded guilty to second-degree murder for killing a 77-year-old Long Island woman during a 1966 burglary. He was sentenced to life but was paroled after eight years.

Edwin Hart Turner, 38, died at 7:21 p.m. EST after receiving a chemical injection at the Mississippi State Penitentiary at Parchman, authorities said.

Wearing a red prison jumpsuit as he lay strapped on a gurney, Turner said, "No" when asked if he had a last statement. When the lethal chemicals began flowing, he closed his eyes, took a deep breath and appeared to fall asleep.

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There was little dispute that Turner killed the two men while robbing gas stations, then went home and had a meal of shrimp and cinnamon rolls before going to sleep. He had been released from a mental hospital just weeks before killing the two men.

George Rivas already was saddled with 17 life prison terms when he told a Dallas County jury he deserved death for organizing the largest-ever jailbreak from a Texas prison and then killing a suburban Dallas police officer.

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"I do apologize for everything that happened. Not because I'm here, but for closure in your hearts," George Rivas said Wednesday in a statement intended for the family of officer Aubrey Hawkins.

"I really do believe you deserve that."

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"I'm relieved. I'm elated. I feel vindicated," the widow said after the man who shot Houston motorcycle officer James Irby in the head during a traffic stop in 1990 was sentenced, again, to die for his crime.

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The execution began at 11:17. Towery looked to his family and attorneys. In his last words, he apologized to his family and to the victim's. He talked about bad choices he had made. Then he said, as he appeared to be crying, "I love my family. Potato, potato, potato."

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Wednesday, Thurmond was almost chatty as witnesses took positions in the barred rooms flanking the death chamber. "It makes me sick for you to look at me like that," he said, looking into the chamber occupied by his victims' relatives.

Thurmond concluded his final statement by telling authorities, "Go ahead and finish it off." Then, as the drugs were administered, "You can taste it."

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An Oklahoma man convicted of killing his wife with help from a relative of his mistress to collect insurance money was put to death by injection Thursday.

Stemple's accomplice, Terry Hunt, told The Associated Press during a prison interview Sunday that he was disappointed Stemple didn't confess when given the opportunity at the clemency hearing. "I'm not innocent and Shaun is not innocent," said Hunt, who's in prison in Hominy serving a life sentence.

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Puckett was not so talkative Tuesday.

"No," was the final word to leave his mouth, spoken into a microphone suspended from the ceiling above the gurney he was secured to when asked if he had any last words.

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"God bless everybody. Continue to walk with God," the 47-year-old Hernandez said. Moments later, he shouted "Go Cowboys!" in honor of his favorite football team.

As the drugs took effect, the condemned man repeated his appreciation for those he knew who had gathered to witness the execution. "Love y'all, man," Hernandez said. "... Thank you. I can feel it, taste it. It's not bad."

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"I just performed my duty as a justice minister. The right to punish criminals rests on Japanese nationals, and a government poll shows the majority of Japanese support the death sentence," Ogawa said at a news conference. "Also, lay judge trials maintain the death sentence as a punishment, and lay judges are from the general public."

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David Alan Gore, 58, was pronounced dead at 6:19 p.m. Thursday after receiving an injection at the Florida State Prison, officials said. Authorities said he made a final statement in which he apologized to the family and said he hoped they would find peace, adding he was not the same man he was then. In all, Gore killed four teenage girls and two women, authorities say.

http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/47035289#.T4irSFo03mk

Wiles, looking haggard with a sparse, cropped gray beard and shaven head, stared at witnesses for a few moments when he entered the death chamber. A few minutes later, strapped to the gurney and IV lines inserted into his arms, he raised his head and looked at witnesses again.

"Since this needs to be happening, truly I pray that my dying brings some solace and closure to the Klima family and their loved ones," he said.

He also thanked his family for their love and support.

"Finally, the state of Ohio should not be in the business of killing its citizens," Wiles concluded, reading a statement that the warden held over his head. "May God bless us all that fall short."

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"I'm very sorry. Everything that happened that night was wrong," Adams said. "If I could take it back, I would. Not a day goes by I wish I could take it back."

He asked those gathered to not let any hate they had for him "eat you up."



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"I regret nothing," he said as his last words.



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“There are problems with the death penalty,” Gabe Daniels, from Oklahoma City, said. “It takes too long and it isn’t used enough. I can’t help but think about how many kids could have gotten a better education or how our roads would be better if Oklahoma hadn’t kept [Michael Selsor] alive for all those years.”

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"I'll be waiting at the gates of heaven for you. I hope the rest of you make it there as well. I'm ready," Selsor was quoted by the spokesman as saying.

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