US:A US man convicted of shooting dead a convenience store clerk became the 400th person to be executed in Texas since the state resumed capital punishment in 1982.
Johnny Ray Conner (32) asked for forgiveness repeatedly and expressed love to his family and his victim's family, who watched him through windows in the death chamber on Wednesday evening. "This is destiny. This is life. This is something Allah wants me to do," he said. "I'm not mad at you. When I get to the gates of heaven I'm going to be waiting for you. Please forgive me.
"What is happening to me is unjust and the system is broken," said Conner who spoke until the drugs took effect. He was pronounced dead at 6.20pm local time, eight minutes after the lethal drugs began to flow.
Conner was convicted in 1999 of fatally shooting Houston convenience store clerk Kathyanna Nguyen (49) during an attempted robbery. Julian Gutierrez, a customer, who walked into the store to pay for petrol, interrupted the hold-up, tried to run back outside and was shot in the shoulder. Ms Nguyen was shot in the head.
Conner's lawyers earlier lost an appeal to the US supreme court to stop the execution. In arguments rejected by the justices, Conner contended his trial lawyers were deficient for not investigating an old leg injury that left him with a limp. The disability would have prevented him from running from the scene quickly. Mr Gutierrez survived and was among at least three people to identify Conner, whose fingerprint was found on a bottle at the shooting scene.
The prospect of Conner becoming Texas's 400th executed prisoner prompted an outcry from death penalty opponents.
The European Union, which opposes capital punishment and bans it in its 27 nations, urged the governor, Rick Perry, to stop Conner's execution and impose a death penalty moratorium. Mr Perry's spokesman, Robert Black, brushed aside the criticism.
"Texans long ago decided that the death penalty is a just and appropriate punishment for the most horrible crimes committed against our citizens."