A man described by a prosecutor as "a serial killer in training" was executed Thursday in Texas for a woman's slaying during a break-in at her home a decade ago.
When asked by a warden if he had a final statement before his punishment, the condemned prisoner shook his head, closed his eyes and took several barely audible breaths.
Glancing briefly at relatives of his victim, Ramon Hernandez said: “I’m very sorry for all the pain.” Then he urged other prisoners on death row to “keep fighting; don’t give up.”
"You know I'm innocent and I love you both," Hughes, 46, said as his mother cried loudly. "Please continue to fight for my innocence even though I'm gone.
"Give everybody my love."
To give you an idea on how this killer thought, he also said:
"I didn't stab anybody," he said. "Stabbing and stuck is two different things."
"I didn't know she was 13 at the time," he told the AP of the victim in that case. "I was led to believe she was 17."
"I don't want to put anyone through that, especially since I'm convinced that ... it's pointless," he wrote. "I reckon I know how to die, and if it's my time, I'll go without fanfare."
Prison officials said his final words were, "Airborne forever. I love you, Michi baby," referring to his daughter.
Pardo also wrote a final statement that was distributed to the media, in which he claimed that he never killed any women, but "accepted full responsibility for killing six men.
Robert Charles Gleason, who admitted to strangling two fellow prison inmates and threatened to continue killing until he received the death penalty was executed in Virginia on Wednesday.
"In his last statement, Gleason uttered the Irish Gaelic phrase 'Pog mo thoin,' or 'Kiss my ass,' Traylor said."
February 21, 2013, 19:50
JB
Texas
"Hang on," he told them. "Cowboy up. I'm fixin' to ride and Jesus is my vehicle."
Details.This message has been edited. Last edited by: JB,
February 22, 2013, 08:41
JB
Georgia
"I'm sorry," Cook said as he was strapped to a gurney. "I'm not going to ask you to forgive me. I can't even do it myself."
"I just want to thank God for such an exuberant send-off," he said as other death row inmates banged their cell doors in a tribute to the condemned man.
"I thank the Lord for the man I am today. I have done all I can to better myself, to learn to read and write," he said, appearing to choke back tears. "Take me to my king."
Mann's final written statement, released by the state Department of Corrections about an hour after his death, was a Bible verse, Romans 6:23: “For the wages of sin is death, but the gift of God is eternal life in Christ Jesus our Lord.”
“To my loved ones and my dear friends, I love y’all and appreciate y’all for being there,” Threadgill said. “I am going to a better place. To all the guys back on the row, keep your heads up, keep fighting. I’m ready. Let’s go.”
